Aerocar

Miloch wrote in
news
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerocar

Aerocar International's Aerocar (often called the Taylor Aerocar) was
an American roadable aircraft, designed and built by Moulton Taylor in
Longview, Washington, in 1949. Although six examples were built, the
Aerocar never entered production.

Taylor's design of a roadable aircraft dates back to 1946. During a
trip to Delaware, he met inventor Robert E. Fulton, Jr., who had
designed an earlier roadable airplane, the Airphibian. Taylor
recognized that the detachable wings of Fulton’s design would be
better replaced by folding wings. His prototype Aerocar utilized
folding wings that allowed the road vehicle to be converted into
flight mode in five minutes by one person. When the rear license plate
was flipped up, the operator could connect the propeller shaft and
attach a pusher propeller. The same engine drove the front wheels
through a three-speed manual transmission. When operated as an
aircraft, the road transmission was simply left in neutral (though
backing up during taxiing was possible by the using the reverse gear.)
On the road, the wings and tail unit were designed to be towed behind
the vehicle. Aerocars could drive up to 60 miles per hour and have a
top airspeed of 110 miles per hour.

Civil certification was gained in 1956 under the auspices of the Civil
Aeronautics Administration (CAA), and Taylor reached a deal with
Ling-Temco-Vought for serial production on the proviso that he was
able to attract 500 orders. When he was able to find only half that
number of buyers, plans for production ended, and only six examples
were built, with one still flying as of 2008 and another rebuilt by
Taylor into the only Aerocar III. In 2013, the Disney film, Planes
honored the design with a character based on the aerocar, Franz aka
Fliegenhosen.


Flying cars always suffer from the same
defect - they make lousy cars, and they make
mediocre airplanes. The compromises required
for "transition" dooms them to underwhelming
performance in each. But when transition is
needed there is nothing like them............