For Sale: One Aerocar; Half Car, Half Airplane

Speaking of strange hybrids... ever heard of the Taylor Aerocar?  We were fascinated by them during our early years.  Built by an American entrepreneur named Moult Taylor after World War II, the Aerocar was a road-ready automobile that could be converted into an airworthy airplane by attaching a set of wings. The Wikipedia sketches out the rest of the tale:

Taylor's design of a roadable aircraft dates back to 1946. During a trip to Delaware, he met inventor Robert E. Fulton, Jr., who had designed an earlier roadable airplane, the Airphibian. Taylor recognized that the detachable wings of Fulton’s design would be better replaced by folding wings. His prototype Aerocar utilized folding wings that allowed the road vehicle to be convertible into flight mode in five minutes by one person. When the rear licence plate was flipped up, the operator could connect the propeller shaft and attach a pusher propeller. The same engine drives the front wheels through a three-speed manual transmission. When operated as an aircraft, the road transmission is simply left in neutral (though backing up during taxiing is possible by using reverse gear.) On the road, the wings and tail unit were designed to be towed behind the vehicle. Aerocars can drive up to 60 miles per hour and have a top airspeed of 110 miles per hour.

Civil certification was gained in 1956, and Taylor reached a deal with Ling-Temco-Vought for serial production on the proviso that he was able to attract 500 orders. When he was able to only find half that number of buyers, plans for production ended, and only six examples were built.

As one might expect, the engineering compromises required to create a car that could fly and a plane that could drive meant that Aerocars suffered from a variation of the Mermaid Problem — that is, with a mermaid, when you want a fish you get a woman, and when you want a woman you get a fish. Awwwwkward.

Much like mermaids, Aerocars may not be practical, but they continue to fascinate. The second of the six Aerocars, tail number N103D, built in 1956, is now for sale, and via eBay, no less. Fidel Castro's brother Raúl once flew this vehicle around Cuba, and it later logged more than 1000 hours in the air doing traffic reports for KISN above Portland, Oregon. The bidding on eBay starts at $3.5 million, and the buyer is responsible for transporting the vehicle from Grand Junction, Colorado.  Fly or drive — it's your choice.

(Tip of the flight cap to Dr. MOZ)

LINKS:
Aerocar N103D Flying Plane Car Single Engine Auto Fly (eBay Auction listing, expires 16 December, 2008)

This excellent newsreel from the early 1950s shows an Aerocar taking off from San Francisco International Airport:

This contemporary video has a Spanish narration, but it shows Aerocar No. 4 on the road, transitioning for flight, and in the air:

PREVIOUSLY:

It's an Amphicar! It's an Amphicar!

An Amphicar Sighting in New Jersey

(IMAGES: Photos of N103D from aerocarforsale.com)

Comments

[Maggie Leber]

No, they weren't built by "American entrepreneur named Robert E. Fulton"

They were built by Moult Taylor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulton_Taylor

That's why they called them *Taylor* Aerocars, ne?

[Telstar Logistics]

Ooof. That's it -- no more huffing model airplane glue while writing up these blog posts. We mean it this time.

Thanks for highlighting what should have been obvious, and the text has been corrected above.

[Brian Floca]

But does it float? Does it dive? Can you use it to bore beneath the surface of the earth? And can you dock your iPod? That's when I buy!

[Jason]

If the Aerocar was pulling a boat on a trailer, with a Vespa attached, equipped with a bike rack ...I'd buy it.

[ultimus gimp]

was this the car that the actor robert cummings advertised in the 50's?

[gamescar]

holy crap!! what kinda MPG does that car get?? (like it even matters) a flying car is so badass, I would love to be able to do that. Does this mean that you can take off from the highway?

[gracy]

Hi,
This is alora.The above photos are so nice.flying car is so quite and i would like that one.Really i like this website and also propose to my friends to go through this website.

=============
annika
MLS listings

[Derek Lies]

This was featured in 2008 on a BBC program hosted by James May, called Big Ideas...

[Sue]

So one could say that this is the first flying car??? This is just unbelievable, I if they had to manufacture these for the public I know that I would get one, anything to deal with the huge amounts of traffic jams.

[Susan Trade In's]

So they were thinking and making these flying cars even back then, its amazing, and would be even better if they really manufacture red these for everyone to have the option to buy them, say goodbye to traffic jams, accidents and road rage.

[generic viagra]

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[Residential Tanning Beds]

i tried this with some 2x4s and some cardboard
didnt work to well

[Evagoblog]

Kind of ridiculous that a newer car
http://news.bostonherald.com/business/technology/general/view/20220405jetsons_car_wings_way_into_auto_show_spotlight/srvc=home&position=also
which probably is safer, and has more upgrades is less than one tenth the price what the seller of this car wants, but I guess there always will be people with too much money and rather than helping mankind, they prefer to spend it whims and wants (the millions billionaires spend on going to space or for a single painting!)

Well, I guess you can say for that that you can't say for the newer one, you know that this one lasts a long time!