Federal Aviation Administration | road-ready car | Robert Fulton | Airphibian

1946

Robert Fulton invented many things, but one of his clever failures was a flying car called the Airphibian. It could fl y at 113 mph, and the wings and tail could be removed so that it could also be driven on the road. The weird transformer was the first flying car to be certified by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). No funding was available for it, though, and the project was abandoned.

1949

Building on Fulton’s near miss, Moulton Taylor designed the flying Aerocar, which could be converted into a road-ready car by detaching the fiberglass fuselage and folding the wings, all of which could be towed like a trailer. A 10-foot driveshaft connected the car’s engine with a propeller, a design that earned FAA approval but did not have commercial success.

1957

The Army Transportation Research Command funded the Piasecki Aircraft Corporation to develop a flying Jeep. The three-wheeled craft stayed aloft with two tandem ducted rotors; later versions replaced the piston engine with a turbine. A few models flew during the course of several years, but the Pentagon ended up choosing conventional helicopters to ferry soldiers and supplies.