Airplane and Automobile in One (Dec, 1930)
Airplane and Automobile in One
THERE is no telling what aviation may come to. In the future we may see such contraptions as shown above flying about.
September 9, 2010
14 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
I’ed think getting a decent shot going at speed would be impossible...
Still waiting…
(Yes, I know we’re darn close to having these. Doesn’t count until we see them “romping up and down the highways and airways.”)
Comment by Chris Radcliff — September 9, 2010 @ 9:53 am
Yeah, and they never *did* integrate them woth the Amphicar.
Comment by Toronto — September 9, 2010 @ 10:06 am
Chris Radcliff — we’ve only had them for around sixty years. See the Taylor Aerocar, which is fairly similar to the model shown in the article:
http://www.airventuremuseum.or.....erocar.asp
Unlike some of the more recent attempts at flying cars, this design actually flew–and flew well enough to be FAA certified as a production aircraft, no mean feat–and actually drove itself down the road.
Comment by DrewE — September 9, 2010 @ 10:47 am
I’m no engineer (except the “software” type), but that thing doesn’t look aerodynamic at all to me.
Comment by GaryM — September 9, 2010 @ 10:48 am
In the late ’20s and early ’30s aerodynamics was not as developed as it would be later. (Compare the DC-3 to the Ford Trimotor.)
Comment by Kosher Ham — September 9, 2010 @ 11:00 am
DrewE: A prototype is nice, and FAA certification is nice (Terrafugia met both of those milestones, if I recall correctly), but that’s still nowhere close to “romping up and down”.
Until someone with a “duo license” (say, a driver’s license and a light sport pilot license) can buy one and drive it home, I’m still waiting.
Comment by Chris Radcliff — September 9, 2010 @ 11:04 am
When they come up with the plane/car/boat combo then I will consider everything complete.
Comment by Mike — September 9, 2010 @ 1:10 pm
The device exists if it can get off the ground; that has been achieved. If it is also decided that it is unwise of unsafe to have such things in common use, whether due to terrorism concerns or fuel conservation concerns, that doesn’t mean we lack the technology.
Anyways, to have a real science-fiction flying car, we need antigravity.
Comment by John Savard — September 9, 2010 @ 2:42 pm
Also, it seems like aerodynamics for cars and planes are sort of in opposition. Car designers want the airflow to push the car into the ground so they don’t take off when they are going really fast.
Yes, this really happens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Comment by Charlie — September 9, 2010 @ 4:46 pm
The problem with these “aerocars” is they don’t make very good airplanes or cars. Too much has to be be sacrificed to make the other work so what you end up with is a crappy car and a crappy airplane that have been combined into a single vehicle.
Comment by Timmay — September 9, 2010 @ 6:07 pm
Probably the closest thing so far: http://www.terrafugia.com/
They’ll be available in maybe a year… if you have a quarter million to shell out for it, and a pilot’s license.
Comment by Jabberwocky — September 9, 2010 @ 8:08 pm
It’s probably significant that the ConvAirCar, the best financed attempt to build a convertible car/aircraft, appears in both “The World’s Worst Cars” and “The World’s Worst Aircraft”.
Comment by Stephen — September 10, 2010 @ 4:21 am
Is the guy in picture two scolding the autoplane?
“Bad autoplane! Bad! You know not to go on the carpet!”
Comment by John M. Hanna — September 11, 2010 @ 10:48 pm
Check this out!
http://www.moller.com/index.ph.....;Itemid=57
Comment by All — September 15, 2010 @ 10:29 pm