Flying Cars & Airborne Oddities

Up and Away

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration recently gave the go-ahead to pilots wishing to both drive and fly the 1,400-pound Terrafugia Transition -- a "flying car" designed and built by a Massachusetts-based aeronautics company, Terrafugia, Inc. Basically, the Transition is a dual-purpose vehicle, albeit one that can be either driven or flown, rather than one that can be driven on- or off-road, or one that can be used for both recreation and work. Pictured: The Terrafugia Transition flying above Lake Champlain.

 

Filling

The "roadable plane," as Terrafugia rather awkwardly labels the Transition, can fit in a home garage, runs on high-octane gas or aviation fuel, and cruises at 115 miles an hour -- in the air. Deliveries to dealerships are expected to begin sometime in 2011. In the meantime, a fond look back at earlier, creatively designed aircraft seems in order. Pictured: Terrafugia CEO/CTO Carl Dietrich fills 'er up.

 

Airborne

A ConVairCar, Model 118, flies during a test-flight above California, November, 1947. The hybrid vehicle was designed by Theodore P. Hall for the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Company of San Diego, but never went into production.

Uniquely Shaped Monoplane

 

 

Flying Cycle

 

Look! Up in the Sky!

French aviation pioneer Hubert Latham attempts to cross the English Channel in his Antoinette IV monoplane in 1909. He didn't make it -- but he did become the first person to successfully land a powered aircraft on water!

Roshon Multiplane

 

 

This Is Not a Toy

An experimental biplane, designed by Louis Paulhan.

Flying Man

German aviator Otto Lilienthal (1849 - 1896) demonstrating the first glider he invented.

Aerodynamic What?

 

 

Circular Multiplane

 

Whuh?

A Wyllie-Otters helicopter at an air show, Olympia exhibition space, London.

 

 

Venetian

Horatio Phillips' "Venetian Blind" multiplane, possibly the first aircraft ever to fly in Britain.

Flapping Machine

 

 

The Marquis' Multiplane

The Marquis d'Ecquevilley with his multiplane (designed after Chinese lanterns) at Arles.

Flying Doughnut

Early prototype of the "Flying Doughnut."

 

Pedal Pusher

A young girl sits atop an aviation machine invented by Francois Baudot (standing, left), in France. The machine was intended to fly after the bicycle reached a speed of thirty-five miles per hour. But it never did.

 

Aerial Jeep

Frank Piasecki tests his "aerial jeep" designed for the military.

Beautiful, and Futile

 

Three-In-One

A combined car, boat, and airplane. Two out of three ain't bad.

 

 

Flying Flea

 

A flying bicycle, nicknamed the "Flying Flea," taxis through the grass.

Cycloplane

The Schmutz cycloplane, a cycle-powered attempt at a flying machine.

Self-Raising Air Car

In a scene from the 1923 film, Skylarking, a character (played by actor Harry Gribbon) explains the workings of his new invention, the Self-Raising Air Car. 

Fly-Cycle

Paul Didier with his flying bicycle, on which he covered a distance of 16 feet 6 inches at the Paris Cycleplane event in 1912. 

Flying Jalopy

A U.S. Air Force jet checks on an unidentified flying object: a jalopy treated with an anti-gravity chemical in a fanciful scene from the 1961 Disney movie, The Absent-Minded Professor, starring none other than Fred MacMurray.