Get ready to buy your own model of a flying car

The promise of every baby boomer's childhood is finally arriving.

The Transition, a two-seat flying car, is expected to go on sale this month. It's made by Terrafugia, which seems like a weird name until you think about the fact that Chevrolet, Hyundai and Jaguar are all car names.

The Transition, according to a report from the Chinese news agency Xinhua (company slogan: Communism dies in darkness), will start sales earlier than the previous reports, that the sales would begin in 2019.

A flying car!

Here are the important details: The Transition, according to the report, can switch between flying and driving modes in less than 60 seconds. It can go up to 100 mph. It has a hybrid motor while driving on roads (and a "high-brid" motor in the air, am I right?)

All of that seems great – you can fly and then land and drive The Transition. Unless you consider what happens if you land on Interstate 80 and then take a full minute for your vehicle to turn into a car. You would likely be told in no uncertain terms what a menace you are to the driving public as rush-hour cars swerve past you to take the North Texas Street exit.

Your presumed answer: I'm in a flying car!

Terrafugia is apparently ready to reveal a second flying car soon. This is unlikely, but what if it can go on water, too? A triple-threat!

For most of my generation, the flying car is one of two big ideas that have been around since childhood. The other, that we will see people on a screen while we talk to them on the phone, is a reality (Skype! Facetime!), but the flying car has floundered.

For a while, it seemed like Moller International in Dixon, led by flying car enthusiast Paul Moller, would deliver on the promise. But Moller's Skycar never really made it and the last I saw, a model was for sale on eBay with the condition that it not be flown, which is kind of like selling a TV with the condition that it not be watched.

A flying car that you can't fly is . . . what most of us already have.

Apparently other companies, such as Aston Martin, Airbus and Rolls Royce, are also working on flying cars.

The big question for most of us is what a flying car will cost. The announcement that The Transition is going to be sold didn't mention a price.

And while I now am much closer to my job and thus don't have the one-hour commute that I had for a few years, I'm fascinated by this option and have a significant question for Terrafugia: Can I trade my 2005 Prius with more than 200,000 miles on it for a new version of The Transition?

And would you teach me how to fly it?

This is going to be great!

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.