Flying Cars by Andrew Glass

Author:Andrew Glass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2015-11-07T16:00:00+00:00

The versatility of the Airphibian, an airplane that could leave its airplane parts behind to be driven like a car, was first demonstrated for the press in 1946.

Life magazine featured photos of Robert and his wife, Florence, on an evening trip to the theater in New York City in their Airphibian. They flew at 110 miles per hour from Connecticut to LaGuar-dia Airport in Queens. There, Fulton himself detached the fuselage and the tapered wings and stored them in the airport hangar, and unbolted the propeller with a built-in wrench, all in less than five minutes. The right and left rudder pedals converted automatically to brake pedal and clutch. Fulton drove the convertible proudly into Manhattan at a breezy 55 miles per hour. The couple cruised down Broadway on four wide-set airplane tires and parked neatly outside the theater to attend a performance of the hit musical Kiss Me, Kate.

After the show, Fulton drove to the airport and backed the car up to the airplane flight component. He leveled the tail and wings to the proper height and cranked the supporting wheels into their storage position. Then he removed the prop spinner and the propeller from a bracket on the side and screwed the propeller into place with the built-in wrench. He secured the fittings, automatically engaging the instruments and electrical connections, and locked them with three levers that held large pins in the fittings. The 150-horsepower, six-cylinder engine would not turn over for flight until every fitting was secured, but Fulton checked the warning light, just to be sure. The four-step conversion from automobile back to airplane took only five minutes, and the Fultons were soon on their way home to Connecticut through the clouds.

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