FLYING MOTOR CARS

Evening Star, Issue 26041, 4 March 1947, Page 8

FLYING MOTOR CARS

SUCCESSFUL TESTS IN AMERICA

ROAD TO AIR IN SEVEN MINUTES

A flying motor car—the “ Airphibian ” —has recently undergone test flights at Connecticut (U.S.A.); Designed and built by R. E. Fulton, president of the Continental Motor Company', the machine in its capacity as a motor car can do a steady 45 m.p.h. on the road. Only seven minutes are needed to convert it fori flight at a cruising speed of 125 m.p.h. Tests with the “ Airphibian ” are ■ stated to have been so successful that the Continental Company is planning to commercialise the flying motor car. The fuselage and wings of the outfit are constructed in one piece, and merely by the disconnection of three locks the car section is detached. It only remains to remove the threebladed propeller from the propeller boss in front of the car radiator, and the machine is ready for the road. The dashboard has a double set of instruments on its panel for ground and air work.

Apart from the* unusual appearance of the streamlined coverings of the four wheels of the car, the machine, when oomplete with wings and tail, has all the aspects of a well-designed monoplane.^ During one of its test flights, the machine climbed easily to 5,000 ft. In the opinion of its designer, the dual purpose outfit will appeal strongly to the week-end flyer.