Designer says his car will soon fly

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SEATTLE, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- The science fiction dream of a flying car will soon be realized, a designer is telling potential buyers and investors.

Sam Bousfield, a California architect, came to Seattle Saturday to pitch his concept in a computer-generated video.

"When artists dream of the future, you always see that traffic moves in the air and people walk on the ground," he said.

On the screen, a little red dart takes off from an aircraft carrier and flies in the air.

Bousfield calls the vehicle Switchblade because when it's on the ground its wings fold into the chassis like the blade of a pocketknife, The Seattle Times reported.

He is asking prospective customers to make a $2,000 deposit. The "target price" of the kit is $60,000, but the owner will have to add an engine and avionics that will raise the cost to $85,000, and then assemble it himself.

As an "experimental" self-built kit airplane, it need not be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Bousfield says the Switchblade will fly this summer, but his current "ground prototype" is just a skeletal frame made from steel tubes and set on three wheels, with no skin or wings.