This Helicopter-Car Flies Over Traffic! (Nov, 1941)
This Helicopter-Car Flies Over Traffic!
JESS DIXON, of Andalusia.
Ala., got tired of being tied up in traffic jams, so he designed and built this novel flying vehicle. It is a combination of automobile, helicopter, autogiro, and motorcycle. It has two large lifting rotos in a single head, revolving in opposite directions. It is powered by a 40 h.p. motor which is air-cooled. He claims his machine is capable of speeds up to 100 miles an hour.
I’ed think getting a decent shot going at speed would be impossible...
Coolest rascal EVER!!
Comment by Hirudinea — May 10, 2011 @ 6:34 pm
I wonder how many times he dared to hit the 100 MPH mark in that open cockpit?
Comment by M.S.W. — May 11, 2011 @ 6:28 am
I’d love to know whatever happened to Mr. Dixon and his invention. Did he use it safely for years? Did he quit using it after a while? Did it kill or cripple him? My cursory internet investigations revealed nothing.
Comment by Scott B. — May 11, 2011 @ 6:59 am
The old joke about a flying car… seems quite a few have been invented. Looking back through the Transportation > Aviation category there have have been numerous attempts.
Comment by Mike — May 11, 2011 @ 8:58 am
Scott B.: I share your curiosity. I have found a Jessie Earvin Dixon that was either born or issued a patent June 19, 1917. Jack House wrote an article in the Birmingham News March 16, 1941 about him: “Andalusia Man has Patented Helicopter That Is Queer Apparatus”. Patent Number: 1,230,686 Class 172. I was not able to find a Social Security death record by that exact on him so I reason he either died before he or a spouse was eligible from years of paying into SS to draw from it. It is possible I guess he’s still living or listed in SS departed files without his middle name. Hope I don’t have to travel to Birmingham, Alabama to find more on Mr. Dixon.
Comment by Anton — May 11, 2011 @ 1:03 pm
Anton — Dixon doesn’t look like a young man in that photo. I’d be surprised if he’s still among the living. Funny how someone and something like that can have 15 minutes of fame, and then completely disappear! A one-off home-built contra-rotating chopper like that just amazes me! Who was this fellow that he could scratch-build and fly something that complex? And in Alabama, no less!! (I say that, as a native Georgian, with affection).
Comment by Scott B. — May 12, 2011 @ 8:21 am
Scott B.: Looked at Dixon’s Patent 1,230,686 mentioned with information listed on him at Birmingham Library online concerning the article by Jack House (1941 Helicopter). The patent number listed is his but other than on a helicopter. It is one he applied for May 12, 1915 and granted June 19, 1917 entitled “Sweep Shoe and Blade” for an “attachment to the ordinary type of shovel or plow”. Hence, I know you are correct about his age in 1941. As far as Alabama technology prior to 1941, steel mills and industry related to heavy industry like locomotives was there prior to the build up of Fort Rucker Army Aviation, Redstone Arsenal and Anniston Army Depot. Remember Dayton, Ohio industry was mostly known for cash registers and steel prior to the bike shop brothers that attached motors and themselves to strange kites. Library link http://www.bham.lib.al.us/loca.....graphy.asp
I used.
Comment by Anton — May 13, 2011 @ 5:13 pm
According to http://www.aerofiles.com/_d.html this was flown in 1936 and although a picture was taken of it in the air which Jess Dixon flew, “no test results were found” of the “Roadable helicopter” described there.
Comment by Anton — May 13, 2011 @ 6:12 pm