Javillac
Almost since the invention of the automobile, which came long before the Wright brothers' first flight, Humanity has dreamed of flying cars as a sign of progress and modernity. Reality has determined that more than a century later this dream has yet to be fulfilled, although it has not been for lack of trying.
In fact, the man who revolutionized the way cars were made, Henry Ford, was a great fan of the new and exciting world of aviation. During the million-dollar sales of Ford Model T This businessman planned to develop an aircraft within the reach of all budgets.
A prototype of this Ford T of the air would be produced that shared some mechanical component with the brand's most popular car. The resulting small single-seat plane was called the Ford Flivver, and the plan was to produce it in series, but a fatal accident in the Atlantic during a test flight canceled the project. Neither the Flivver nor the pilot was ever found.
During the twenties and part of the thirties, Ford would manufacture the Ford Trimotor, also called "Tin Goose”, or Tin Goose, which went down in history for being one of the first airplanes used by airlines for commercial flights.
AVE MIZAR: THE FORD PINTO THAT WANTED TO FLY
Also since the 1920s, various automobile companies and individuals decided to try their own flying car, with little success in general and without much progress in the field. One of the most notable examples was the Convaircar of 1947.
This hybrid of road and sky featured an extremely light body, developed entirely in fiberglass, something unusual and very advanced for the time. Its engine was theCOBRA”used by crosley, a lightweight block made of copper. But despite the effort, the Convaircar would end up crashing, killing its pilot.
Until then it was known that developing a flying car was very dangerous, but this did not stop Henry Smolinski and Harold Blake, two aeronautical engineers, to make their own attempt for his company called AVE (Advanced Vehicle Engineering). The resulting vehicle would be very similar to the aforementioned Convaircar in terms of its design, but very different in practice.
The AVE Mivar, which is what Smolinski and Blake's invention was named, was built between 1971 and 1973. The vehicle would be the union between the economical Ford Pinto utility vehicle and the rear section of a Cessna Skymaster small plane, an aircraft with a very advanced design for that time.
MANDATORY CHANGES
The problem came when you take into account that The back of the Cessna was designed to carry the light cabin of the small plane and not the weight of a Ford Pinto. Curiously, this car went down in history for being one of the most dangerous models in history, as they tended to catch fire if they suffered the slightest rear impact, so perhaps it was safer flying than rolling.
Regarding the fuselage section The rear engine had to be replaced with a more powerful one to cope with the weight of the car., since the original Cessna had another propeller in its front part. It would also combine this power in some way with the Pinto's engine during takeoff, which was the same one used by the Ford Escort in Europe.
One of the main reasons why a Ford Pinto was used was for its shapes, since Its hatchback configuration allowed the rear part of the plane to be attached easily.. The idea was that when you finished flying you could put away the tail of the aircraft and then drive the car, which obviously had some modifications for this coupling.
The car was going to be sold for a price that ranged between 18.300 and 29.000 dollars, a price within the reach of very few in the seventies. In addition, Smolinski and Blake managed to convince the producers of the James Bond saga to have the Miraz appear in their next film, but none of these plans would materialize.
A FATAL ENDING
The AVE Miraz would only fly a couple of times. In the first of them, a secret test flight, The propeller would fail a few seconds after takeoff and the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing., and then the Pinto taxied to the airfield.
A few days later, on September 11, 1973, Smolinski and Blake decided to take the controls of the Miraz, as their usual test pilot was not available that day. The flight was brief since The right wing broke due to poor welding and the owners of the AVE company died after crashing into a tree.
The main reason for this disaster was that The load that the car represented was well above the maximum weight allowed by Cessna to fly the Skymaster, a fact that two aeronautical engineers inexplicably overlooked.
For its part, the Ford Pinto has been the culprit of countless tragic accidents over the years, but during the only one that flew through the air it turned out to be totally innocent, although the outcome also ended up being fatal.
