Javillac
Although the Wright Brothers didn't invent the first airplane until 1903, just take a look at some illustrations from the 2000th century in which they imagined what the future would be like to see that people thought that in the year XNUMX people would fly everywhere. The same has happened with other interpretations of the future such as the Jetsons series or Back to the Future.
But we are already approaching the first quarter of a century of this 21st century that sounded like the future and the truth is that the Flying car It's still not a reality. There have been multiple attempts almost since the dawn of aviation, but One of the proposals was the Airphibian of the 1940s, a hybrid between a small plane and a car.
ROBERT EDISON FULTON: THE INVENTOR OF THE AIRPHIBIAN
The person behind this very particular creation could be described as a renaissance man, as he was an adventurer who traveled to Egypt in 1923 when Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered, and also created a flight designer to train soldiers during World War II. World War. During the conflict he worked on a project that would take the automobile to the skies. The result was the Fulton Airphibian, a car with a body made of aluminum to which the fuselage of a small plane, with tail and wings, was easily added in less than five minutes according to the manufacturer.
The vehicle used a six-cylinder in-line engine with 165 HP of power, very respectable figures for the time, but it must be taken into account that it should have enough strength to take flight. In airplane configuration, the Airphibian had a maximum speed close to 200 kilometers per hour, while the cruising speed was 180 kilometers per hour., and could cover distances of up to 560 kilometers. It had space for two occupants and some luggage.
When the fuselage and front propeller were removed and was preparing to drive, the manufacturer recommended not exceeding 72 kilometers per hour, and apparently the Airphibian was not the most comfortable car of its time. Something that it did have in its favor was a consumption of just 9 liters per 100, a figure associated with the low weight of its body of just 680 kilos (in plane mode).
Although the aircraft was tested extensively since its first flight in 1946, it was not until 1950 that it became the first aircraft certified suitable for use on American roads. Unfortunately the lack of funds forced Fulton to sell his company to another company that did not develop the project further and only eight Airphibians were manufactured. of which only one survives today.
