5 Flying Cars That Really Existed.
Number 5.
The Convair Model 116 Flying Car took flight for the first time in 1946, and looked like
nothing more than a small airplane welded onto a car.
And essentially, that's exactly what it was.
The wings, tail, and propeller could be detached from the (plastic) car, allowing it to be
driven like a regular vehicle on the road.
When it needed to go where no roads could take it, the plane attachment was fitted on.
The 116 model only had one prototype, which itself managed a whopping sixty-six flights.
A few years later, designer Ted Hall recreated the machine as the Convair Model 118,
bumping the engine from a 130-horsepower model to a 190-horsepower beast that gave it more
power in the air.
Convair planned to build 160,000 for their first production run, but that never panned
out, thanks to a tragedy which saw one of the prototypes crash in California.
When the pilot took the car into the air, he had assumed that the fuel tank was full.
But the ConvAirCar had two fuel gauges, one for the car's engine and one for the plane's
and while the car still had plenty of gas, the plane engine ran dry in mid-air.
Such are the dangers of multi-tasking.
Number 4.
In 1971, the Advanced Vehicle Engineers company in California decided to design a flying car
that was reminiscent of the ConvAirCar of the 1940s.
They took a Ford Pinto, welded a Cessna Skymaster to the top, and essentially called it a day.
The bizarre hybrid monster that resulted was dubbed the Ave Mizar.
The car-half of the craft was fairly similar to any normal Ford Pinto on the street.
The Pinto's engine brought the plane up to speed for take off, at which point the plane's
propeller took over.
Upon landing, the car's brakes were responsible for slowing it down.
Unfortunately, in 1973 just a year before the car was scheduled to begin mass production,
the right wing of one prototype crumpled in mid-air.
The car plummeted to the ground, taking any future it might have had with it.
Number 3.
The Curtiss-Wright VZ-7 resulted from one of the first attempts by the US military to
get involved in the flying car industry.
Ideally, the VZ-7 was meant to be a type of flying jeep.
Like a jeep, it allowed the pilot to maneuver through rough terrain on the ground but with
the not-insignificant bonus that it could also fly.
It was developed by Curtiss-Wright, which, interestingly, formed through the merger of
the Wright Company (the Wright Brothers) and Curtiss Aeroplane (Glenn Curtiss).
Curtiss and the Wright Brothers had been fierce rivals during the early days of aviation.
The VZ-7 was designed as a VTOL craft Vertical Take-Off and Landing.
It flew with the aid of four upright propellers, which were positioned behind the cockpit,
more or less just an open-air seat.
In order to maneuver, the pilot could change the speed of individual propellers, tilting
the craft forwards, backwards, or to the side.
Technical aspects aside, the entire thing was a death trap, since none of the propellers
were covered and in 1960, the army cancelled the project just two years after its commencement.
Number 2.
With the VZ-7 grounded forever, the army turned to a very different prototype: the Piasecki
VZ-8 AirGeep.
Bear in mind that helicopters had already become popular by this point;
but it turned out that the military was interested in something smaller than helicopters, which
could be successfully flown with less training.
The AirGeep went through seven different versions before it was finally deemed unfit for military
use, but they all kept the basic design: two large
vertical propellers in the front and the back of the craft,
with a seat in the middle for the pilot and either three or four wheels for ground use.
While the first model was flat, later ones curved upwards at the front and back to form
a flattened V-shape.
The navy even tried to fit one model with floats, with the hope of using it at sea but
that idea was eventually abandoned, along with the rest of the program.
Number 1.
In 2009, the Terrafugia Transition had its first successful test flight.
Since then, it's gone through a whirlwind of upgrades and remodels, resulting in several
completely new designs and a second successful test flight in 2012.
In any case, the Transition finally offers something that at least looks futuristic.
It has the aerodynamic shape of a plane, with wings that fold in and then swivel into a
vertical position while on the ground.
It can reach up to seventy miles per hour (110 km/h) on the highway, and 115 miles per
hour (185 km/h) in the air.
One problem that the company faced in designing the Transition was that it was too heavy to
comply with FAA regulations, due to all the extra parts needed to be safe
on the road such as bumpers and airbags, for instance.
In 2010, the FAA decided to let the flying car slide through the regulations, which changes
its classification and makes it easier to get the appropriate pilot's license.
Unfortunately, it still costs more than a Lamborghini.
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