Unique Exemption

The Terrafugia Transition, a light aircraft that can convert into a road-legal automobile, is to go into production after being given a special weight exemption by the US Federal Aviation Administration. 
he Transition was designed as a "light sport" aircraft, the smallest kind of private aeroplane under FAA classification, with a maximum weight of 1,320lb. But the manufacturers found it impossible to fit the safety features - airbags, crumple zones and roll cage, for instance - that are required for road vehicles of that weight. Uniquely, however, the FAA has granted the Transition an exemption - allowing it to be classified as a light sport aircraft despite being 120lb over the limit.
Light sport aircraft licences require just 20 hours' flying time, making them much easier to obtain than full private licences.
The two-seater Transition can use its front-wheel drive on roads at ordinary highway speeds, with wings folded, at a respectable 30 miles per gallon. Once it has arrived at a suitable take-off spot - an airport, or adequately sized piece of flat private land - it can fold down the wings, engage its rear-facing propellor, and take off. The folding wings are electrically powered.
Its cruising speed in the air is 115mph, it has a range of 460 miles, and it can carry 450lb. It requires a 1,700-foot (one-third of a mile) runway to take off and can fit in a standard garage.
Terrafugia says that one of the major advantages of the Transition over ordinary light aircraft is safety - in the event of inclement weather, it can simply drive home instead of either being grounded or flying in unsafe conditions.
The company says that 70 people have ordered the car, leaving a $10,000 (£6,650) deposit each. The car is expected to retail at $194,000 (£129,000). Deposits are held in escrow, meaning that should the company go bankrupt before delivery, the money will be refunded.

Which way to the ground ?

A Russian news report says a small plane has crashed when the pilot lost his bearings and decided to ask a tractor driver for directions. No one was hurt. RIA-Novosti news agency quoted a local police spokesman as saying the accident happened Friday in southern Russia's Stavropol region.
It said the pilot lost his way, saw a tractor below and decided to land to get advice from the driver.
Oleg Ugnivenko, a spokesman for the regional branch of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, said the An-2 agricultural plane grazed the tractor while landing in the field and broke its landing gear. He said no one was hurt but gave no further details.

Asleep on the flight

A British academic who fell asleep during a flight woke up in an aircraft hangar after cabin crew mistakenly left him on the plane. Kris Lines, a lecturer in sports law at Staffordshire University, was woken up by a surprised mechanic 90 minutes after his flight landed in Vancouver, where he was due to speak at an international conference.
He had fought to stay awake during his 22 hour journey from Birmingham to Calgary via Heathrow, drinking Coca Cola to ensure he did not fall asleep and miss the connecting flight to Vancouver. Once safely on the last leg of his journey, he fell into a deep sleep.

Solar globetrotter

The Solar Impulse aircraft, a pioneering Swiss bid to fly around the world on solar energy, took off on its first test flight from an air base in western Switzerland on Wednesday. Tensions were running high in the team as the high tech prototype lifted into blue skies at a speed of just 45 km per hour after a one km run down the runway at Payerne air base shortly before 10.30 am. Propelled by four 10 horsepower electric motors, the gangling single-seater aircraft and test pilot Markus Scherdel slowly gained altitude for a scheduled flight of around two hours at an altitude of 1,000 meters. The prototype has a wingspan comparable to that of an Airbus A340 airliner, but weighs as little as a car at only 1,600 kg.

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Tax office version of 9/11

A TEXAS man, Joseph Andrew Stack, set his house on fire, then stole a small plane and crashed it into a building containing a federal tax office on Thursday, CNN reported citing federal officials. "This was apparently -- according to an official -- a deliberate act," CNN anchor Tony Harris said.

The inset shows the building after the small plane crashed into it. The plane struck the second floor of the seven-story building in Austin, Texas about 10 am and burst into flames in a massive explosion that forced people to flee out of the windows, witnesses and officials said. There was "no known link to terrorism" the Department of Homeland Security said, noting that the cause of the crash was not yet known.

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) launched two F-16 fighter aircraft from Ellington Field in Houston, Texas to conduct an air patrol in response to the crash.
Two people were taken to hospital and one person was unaccounted for, but fire officials said they believed everyone else had been evacuated.

Fate of the pilot was not immediately clear. Now it is known that he has left the world and left the people still on it an angry anti-tax agency web page.

Birth on plane, Free filghts for life

A Malaysian woman, who gave birth to a boy on board an aeroplane minutes before it landed, has been promised free flights for life, as has her child, an airline official said on Friday. Liew Siaw Hsia (31) gave birth on budget carrier AirAsia's flight from Penang to Kuching on Wednesday. Nazatul Mokhtar, a spokesman for the airline, said on Friday that the flight had been diverted to nearby Kuala Lumpur for an emergency landing when Liew had labour pains. A doctor on the flight helped the woman deliver her son, while the plane was still 2,000 feet in the air in its final approach to land