The history of flying cars

4/19/2020

The history of flying cars

En español

This kind of cars have always been presented as the "first flying car" but the truth is that the history of the automobile is full of "ever first flying cars."Even in different story books there are discrepancies about the first flying car.

If we would try to guess when the idea of the flying car came from, we might think that it was from the previous century, from the 21st century. But although it may seem incredible, the first idea of a flying car is even earlier: from the 19th century.

History tells us that the Benz, the first internal combustion car, was invented in the year 1885. In fact, Benz wasn't really the first one, but that's another topic. If we already know that the first concept of the flying car is from that the same century, our logic dictates us to think that the first idea of a flying car will date between 1885 and 1899, but it ins't.

The first concept of a flying car appeared almost 50 years earlier. Its inventors and engineers, William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow, patented the first flying concept car, the Ariel (The Henson Aerial Steam Carriage) in 1843. It was powered by steam engines and the size was disproportionate since it had wings of more than 45 meters in length, but soon theirs inventors worked on a smaller model.

After seven weeks of continuous testing, they failed to get the car to fly. Due to its extreme lightness, each impact involved important damage to the invention, so repairs could last several days. The number of unsuccessful attempts without any favorable results, together with the lack of budget caused the inventors abandoned the project. But over time it has been shown that many of the concepts that William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow embodied in the Ariel Steam Carriage were correct and ahead of their time.

Currently this concept would not be considered as a flying car, because it couldn't circulate on the road due to its wings couldn't be removed or folded down. Still, it's interesting that these ideas were already developed in such early times. This simply gives us a perspective that the idea of the flying car is developed in unison with the development of the automobile, and it isn't a revolutionary idea at the present time

In December 1905 a flying car prototype designed by Trajan Vuia appears in Paris, called Vuia1. The first flight attempt was made on March 18, 1906 and it flew about 12 meters. The vehicle may not be considered as a car due it wasn't designed specifically as a car or as a plane, although it is steering wheel driven and it's a 4-wheel vehicle.

In 1917, Glenn Curtiss patented the Autoplane. It was actually a hybrid between automobile and airplane. It has a pair of wings, a rudder and a propeller, but this invention never flew

In 1928 the Aerocar appears, no source has confirmed that it could fly.

In 1937 a formal prototype appeared and managed to fly. This car is the Arrowbile, developed by Waldo Waterman, became the first flying car in history. The Arrowbile had removable wings and no tail was attached to it. The car could be converted into both an airplane and a car and the rear propeller kept it in any mode. It could fly at 180km / h and in car mode, it reaches 96km / h. Six units were manufactured until the production ceased in 1957.

Three years later, in 1940, a hybrid between car and helicopter was built, the Dixon Flying Car. It managed to fly as well but it had no commercial success due to the feeling of insecurity

In 1946 appears the Fulton Airphibian by Robert Fulton Jr. The concept is similar as for the 1937 Aerobile/Arrowbile but in this case, the Fulton had a removable tail. For this model only 4 vehicles were sold and the project was abandoned due to financial difficulties.

In the same year, in 1946 Hall and Tommy Thompson of the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft company designed and manufactured two prototypes called ConvAirCar. The design is visually a car with the top of an airplane attached.

In 1949 the best-known flying car appears: Taylor Aerocar. With a design similar to the previous ones, although larger and more stylized. Its wings were removable too.

Other car sometimes considered as the first flying vehicle is the Aven Mizar manufactured in 1973. It was a Ford Pinto that incorporated the wings of an airplane. Ford was interested in the project, but in a test flight it crashed killing the two engineers that designed the car