American inventor Robert Edison Fulton, built an aeroplane called the Airphibian. It looked like a proper aeroplane, the only difference was that the front of it could be detached. It took about 5 minutes to convert this aeroplane into a car. And the resulting car looked like the front of the aeroplane. For its era, this Airphibian was quite innovative and it got a flight certification from the Civil Aviation Authority.
But the problem was that, because of the compromises in the design, it was neither a good aeroplane, that could compete with the other aeroplanes. Nor was it a good car, that could compete with the other cars. When it turned into a car, it looked really weird. To add to it, in 1945, there were financial problems due to World War II. This company could not find investors for this flying car. And then came the Convaircar.
Industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss attempted this in 1947. This looked like a car stuck with an aeroplane on it. Airphibian looked like an aeroplane completely. But this looked as if the car got stuck to the aeroplane by mistake and is now flying with it. It too took 5 minutes to convert from an aeroplane to a car. And by converting, it meant detaching the aeroplane part and keeping it aside. And then it could be used as a car. It was a great idea for its time. And in its third test flight, this Convaircar crashed.
The pilot checked the reading on the meter, and thought that there was enough fuel and that he could continue flying, and though the car did have enough fuel, there was very little in the aeroplane’s tank. It led to this unfortunate crash. After this crash, people lost confidence in it. And the investors backed out. The problem with these attempts was that they took a car, and they took an aeroplane, and they tried to combine them as they were.
