Brief History of Attempt At Flying Cars

Article # 108
Dated: 23rd February 2022

I have seen many old sci-fi movies in which the future was predicted. But my center of attraction in those movies was flying cars. I mean how fascinating it would be if I can fly aerial to my home. It would be just amazing to take the aerial route straight from my office to my home.

My driving route is 123 Km while the aerial route is just 81 km so it would have definitely a lot of my time. 🤣

Anyways, I always get fascinated by the idea of flying cars. It definitely would save a lot of our time and it will also save us from a lot of anxiety which we feel on the road due to heavy traffic on the road which always wastes a lot of our time.

So I was surfing through youtube and watching a lot of unnecessary videos and killing my time but I suddenly saw a thumbnail of a video about the invention of the flying car. I didn't waste a second and clicked on it. The video was informative a lot as the Youtuber explained about the previous inventions of flying cars and I was quite stunned because I thought flying cars is something futuristic but I didn't know some genius people tried to invent flying cars even 100 years ago.

First Attempt of building the Flying car by the name Autoplane

So the first attempt was made in 1917 by Glenn Curtiss. It was made like an airplane made for navigating on the road and it was named Autoplane. It was even named Limousine of the year. They did try to fly it and it lifted off the ground but unfortunately, it couldn't fly properly and it turned out to be a failure.

2nd Attempt by the name of "The Aerobile"

The 2nd attempt was made in 1933 by Waldo Waterman. It was an aeroplane that looked like a car and it did successfully take the flight but unfortunately, it never went to production because it was the time of the great depression. So there was not enough fund to produce it.

3rd Succesful Attempt by the name "Airphibian"

This successful attempt was made in the year 1945 by American inventor Robert Edison Fulton. It looked like a proper aeroplane but the only difference is the front part could be detached. Only 5 minutes were needed to covert the aeroplane into a car and which exactly looked like the frontal part of an aeroplane. It was quite an innovation in that era and it even received a flight certificate from the civil aviation authority but the only problem is it was not an efficient car or plane because of compromise in the design. And also the company didn't get any investors because it was the time of financial crisis due to world war II.

4th Failed attempt by the name "Convaircar"

It was a failed attempt made in the year 1947 by Henry Dreyfuss. This looked like a car stuck with an aeroplane on it. It also needed 5 minutes to convert aeroplane into a car. It did successfully with the flight test but unfortunately, it crashed on the third try. The reason was pilot thought the fuel was enough in the car after checking the meter reader but the fuel was enough in the car part and it was not in the aeroplane tank which resulted in the crash.

5th Attempt by the name Taylor's Aerocar

The main problem was all these inventors tried to combine a car and an aeroplane and tried to make a flying car. They needed to detach the plane part when we needed the car and attach it when we needed a flying car. A true flying car would be one that can be transformed from an aeroplane to a car and which are not combined and we don't need to detach the plane part if we want to use it as a car.

So Moulton Taylor made an attempt in 1949 by building a flying car with foldable wings so that if it has to be used as a car the wings can be folded and do not need any detachment. It was not as Taylor's Aerocar. They got the certification and also the approval for mass production but they needed at least 500 orders before mass production could begin. But they could not get even 500 orders because not many people were interested in flying cars at that time so the deal got canceled.

Jetson Airplane 1

All the previous attempts were made in a time when technology was not advanced enough and the lack of technology advancement was the reason why previous attempts got failed. Also, lack of money was the reason behind the failures. But now the technology is highly advanced right and we also don't see any lack in the funds as compared to 1950.

A Swedish company by the name of Jetson Aero presented their Jetson 1 Airplane in October 2021. It does not look like a car and it rather looks like a drone as it flies like a drone and a single person can sit under it and pilot it. It didn't need any space from taking off and it's very lightweight because only aluminum is used in it. The drawback is that it cannot be used during the night and it can not be flown over city traffic. But their cofounder has said that they are not trying to solve a problem in the world and he claims it is only fun to fly it. SO Jetson 1 cannot be termed as a flying car as it cant run on the roads.

Slovakian Company made an attempt of Flying car

Slovakian Company by the name Klien Vision presented a flying car by the name Aircar last month. It is a successful car invention that made a successful flight between intercity in June last year in Slovakia. It received the certificate from the aviation authorities. This is the first flying car that looks like a flying car. BMW car is used as a base and wings are attached to it. No special fuel is needed for flying it and the petrol provided at the petrol pump is enough to fly it.

Closing thoughts

Technology is touching the new skies and we will see so many new innovations in the near future. I will publish an article about the advantages and disadvantages in the next article because my article is taking long enough time to read so it would be better to write another article about the pros and cons.

Thank you for reading it.