A BRIEF HISTORY ~ o f t h e ~ Flying Car
The dream and promise of the flying car is more than a century old. This brief history of some of the more audacious attempts demonstrates how long and arduous the journey has been.
1917 Renowned aviator Glenn Curtiss, rival of the Wright Brothers and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry, could also be called the father of the flying car. In 1917, he unveiled the Curtiss Autoplane at New York’s Pan-American Aeronautic Exposition. It featured an aluminum Model T Ford-like body, four wheels, a 40-feet wingspan, and a giant 4-blade propeller mounted in the back, which unfortunately was unable to generate adequate lift to propel the aircraft beyond just a few hops down the runway.
1935 Frank Skroback, a retired industrial technician and electrician from Syracuse,
studied the concepts of French furniture-maker- turned-aircraft designer Henri Mignet, and modified his tandem wing monoplane design into a multi-purpose, 6-wing, 21 foot long Flying Car.
1953 Leland Bryan of Buick flew his Autoplane, which used a rear propeller for forward propulsion. Bryan died in 1974 when he crashed an Autoplane at an air show.
1947 Henry Dreyfuss combined a lightweight fiberglass automobile body with a wing-and-propeller module to create the ConvAirCar. Unfortunately, it crashed during a test flight, killing its operator, and ending enterprise.
1973 Aerospace engineer Henry Smolinski unveiled the AVE Mizar “Flying Pinto,” in which the back half of a Cessna Skymaster was mated with a stripped-down Ford Pinto body. The car engine was used for surface travel and runway boost on takeoff. In flight, the craft depended
on Skymaster wings, a twin-boom tail and pusher propeller. All flight equipment was detachable to convert
the vehicle for street travel. Sadly, Smolinski and pilot Harold Blake died when a wing folded in a test-flight crash.
QwikConnect • July 2021
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