Flying Car

In 1989, I was in the cafeteria at Westfield State College and I overheard a couple of kids discussing the movie Back to the Future Part II. One of the lads remarked that he knew that the hover board used by Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) actually existed. I remember thinking Yeah, right; just like Deloreans can fly and travel through time.

Flying cars have been focal points in some movies and television shows for more than 50 years

• 1961 - The Absent Minded Professor
• 1962 - 1988 - The Jetsons
• 1968 - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

It’s not just fiction writers who have an affinity for aero vehicles. According to the Los Angeles Times, inventors and industrialist have attempted to devise a flying car.

• 1926 – Henry Ford produced an aircraft he named the "Model T of the Air," the Ford Flivver. The program was cancelled after test pilot Harry Brooks was killed in a Flivver crash.
• 1947 – Designer Henry Dreyfuss attached an aircraft engine onto a four-seat fiberglass car body for Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corp. The program was cancelled after a fatal crash.
• 1971 – Henry Smolinski and Hal Blake combined a Cessna and a Ford Pinto. Unfortunately, this venture also failed. In 1973, both men were killed when the contraption crashed on takeoff.

It seemed as if a safe flying car was a fantasy. But, even fantasies can come true. By the end of 2012, you could be operating a flying car. Terrafugia, Inc based in Woburn, Massachusetts, developed the Transition® Roadable Aircraft and on their website Terrafugia, Inc states, “First customer delivery of a Transition® Roadable Aircraft is expected to occur in late 2012.”

The craft received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification and on March 1, 2012, the Transition® Roadable Aircraft made its debut at the New York International Auto Show. It made its first successful test flight on March 23, 2012.

If you have a Sport Pilot license, a valid driver's license and a mere $279,000.00 you could own a base model Transition® Roadable Aircraft and be flying or driving to work by the end of 2012.

Do you think you want to plunk down almost 300K for the opportunity to purchase a flying car?

California Flying

In the mid-70s the supersonic transport (SST) was thought to be the next great thing in aviation. It travelled at twice the speed of conventional aircraft shortening a trip from New York City to London from seven hours to something under three. It was not cheap. A flight could cost upwards of $10,000.

There were a couple variations of SST; one was built by the Russians (Tupolev Tu-144) and the other through a cooperative venture between the French and the British (Concorde). Both Russian and European planes could transport about 120 passengers.

According to airlinereporter.com, in the 1960s Boeing made an attempt, with a subsidy from the US government, to develop an SST that would have double passenger capacity of either Tupolev or Concorde. In early 1971, funding got cut and Boeing’s program was scrapped.

In 1973, noise generated by the SSTs spurred the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ban supersonic flight over land in the US by civil aircraft, severely curtailing travel lanes for the SSTs. The Tupolev program was shutdown in 1978, but the Concorde continued to fly until 2003.

However, there is a development which may give resurgence to large passenger transports via supersonic aircraft. ScienceDaily reports that Qiqi Wang, Rui Hu, and Antony Jameson have shown through a computer model that a modified biplane can, in fact, produce significantly less drag than a conventional single-wing aircraft at supersonic cruise speeds. In theory, less drag equates to less fuel consumption and it would produce less of a sonic boom.

Conceptual drawing of a supersonic biplane. (Credit: Christine Daniloff/MIT News based on an original drawing courtesy of Obayashi laboratory, Tohoku University)

Honestly, it’s the design of the airplane that peaked my interest most. It reminded me of a picture of my dad in the backseat of a biplane. The picture was taken sometime in the mid-1930s during flying lessons. It seems that before they were married, my parents took flying lessons in Burbank, California.

The name on the plane is California Flyers. I Googled California Flyers and all I could find was an all star cheerleading group. How disappointing, especially since my mom doesn’t really remember much about the organization.

I’d like to know more about the California Flyers of Burbank, California circa 1938. Does anyone have any information regarding this organization?