- 1 day ago
For educational purposes
In the 1920s when just about anyone could afford a car, interest grew in a safe, inexpensive airplane that anyone could fly.
Convenience went a step further in roadable aircraft – vehicles that could travel the highways, then convert to an airplane for the rest of the journey.
The airplane has never attained the practicality of the automobile for family travel, but modern aviation offers exciting opportunities for the amateur flyer.
Featured Aircraft:
- Ford Flying Flivver
- Taylor Aerocar
- kitbuilt pusher amphibian
- Bede Jet Corp BD-10 kitbuilt jet
- Rutan Model 61 LongEZ
In the 1920s when just about anyone could afford a car, interest grew in a safe, inexpensive airplane that anyone could fly.
Convenience went a step further in roadable aircraft – vehicles that could travel the highways, then convert to an airplane for the rest of the journey.
The airplane has never attained the practicality of the automobile for family travel, but modern aviation offers exciting opportunities for the amateur flyer.
Featured Aircraft:
- Ford Flying Flivver
- Taylor Aerocar
- kitbuilt pusher amphibian
- Bede Jet Corp BD-10 kitbuilt jet
- Rutan Model 61 LongEZ
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:01Hi, I'm Neil Armstrong. Join me for an adventure through time.
00:57I'm Neil Armstrong.
01:13The Model T Ford was a mass-produced success that put a motor car in every garage.
01:20In the 1920s, though, everyone's imagination had been captured by another, more exciting form of transportation, flying.
01:30So at the time when just about anyone could afford a car, interest grew in a safe, inexpensive airplane that
01:38anyone could fly.
01:41For a while, Henry Ford himself was at the forefront of those dreaming of a flying flipper that could be
01:49driven like a car on the highway in the sky.
01:53But the three dimensions of flight are not as easy to conquer or as simple to navigate as a country
01:59road.
02:06In 1926, Henry Ford announced plans to build a small single-seat airplane, the flying equivalent of his popular automobile.
02:14Two models were built. Test pilot Henry Brooks kept one in his garage and used it to commute to work.
02:21Then, during a test flight from Detroit to Miami, Brooks crashed off the Florida coast and was killed.
02:28Saddened by the death of his pilot and friend, Ford dropped the program.
02:32But there were other ways to get into the air on a limited budget.
02:36For Americans, exhilarated by flight but limited in resources, there were plenty of war surplus jennies and de Havilland fours.
02:45Surplus jenny engines, Curtis OX-5s, contributed to a boom in home building.
02:51Would-be aviators with a mechanical bent or a flair for tinkering fashioned their own flying machines in barns and
02:58attics.
02:58This device, I expect to attain flight in the air.
03:05It appears heavy and light.
03:09Test flights often ended with results similar to the Ford Flipper,
03:13though some home builders produced sporty little open cockpit craft well-suited for personal flying.
03:18And there were a good number of those lacking in foresight who ended their building efforts by demolishing a wall
03:24to get their finished airplane out of the attic or workshop where it was created.
03:29We're here with Paul Pobrezny, founder of the Experimental Aircraft Association.
03:38Paul, this industry started with home builders.
03:41Yes, it did.
03:42It started with a dream of many people long before the Wright brothers.
03:48And the Wright brothers and gentlemen of those years fought the battle of defying gravity
03:55and put us to where we are today.
03:58The original airplane builders were home builders, the Wrights and the Curtises.
04:03Then the aircraft industry started to grow.
04:06And then at some point in time, the home builders started to come back.
04:09There were plans for crude airplanes similar to the Wright brothers, airplanes and materials sold as pretty crude kits back
04:19in 1910 and 11.
04:21And with the coming of World War I, the industry changed to build airplanes for the military,
04:31not only in our own country, the Genie, but in Europe.
04:35Then during the 20s, there was an influx of a lot of cars, Genie, surplus.
04:41And being as the airplanes were readily available at low prices, there was no enthusiasm or really a need for
04:47building one or providing a kit.
04:50In the 1930s, gentlemen such as Ed Heath, Corbin, and several others began to put kits together of materials at
05:03first.
05:03And people bought material and built their airplanes just from plans.
05:08In the 30s and early days of home building, we used motorcycle engines and Model T Ford, Model A Ford
05:16engines.
05:19Motorcycle engine-powered aircraft were especially popular in England.
05:23But it was a Frenchman who raised interest in a midget airplane to a cult.
05:28Henri Meunier's flying flea kit sold for less than $500.
05:33By the mid-30s, at least 500 fleas were flying in France, with hundreds more in England and the U
05:39.S.
05:41During the 1930s, before the extensive airline network had been established,
05:48the U.S. government energetically promoted the development of inexpensive aircraft.
05:55The goal was a safe, easy-to-fly airplane that anyone could afford.
06:02Convenience went a step further with roadable aircraft, vehicles that could travel the highways,
06:08then convert to an airplane for the rest of the journey.
06:12It's an enduring idea.
06:15Visionaries still pursue the dream of a practical flying automobile.
06:28Roosevelt's Depression-era New Deal provided money to help manufacturers develop low-priced airplanes.
06:34Some interesting designs resulted, though none made it into production.
06:39One was Waldo Waterman's Aerobeel.
06:42The Aerobeel had a fuselage that could be separated from the wings to function like an automobile,
06:47providing transportation from the airport into town.
06:52Another result of the New Deal program was Harold Pitt Cairns' AC35 roadable autogyro.
06:59An aircraft that could take off and land in confined areas offered unique possibilities for personal transportation.
07:07The autogyro's slow landing speed and its ability to land almost anywhere if problems developed
07:13made it a safe alternative to fixed-wing flying machines.
07:20The AC35 was designed to travel the streets from the airport to the traveler's destination,
07:26providing door-to-door transportation.
07:28The pilot disengaged the propeller, engaged the front wheels for drive, and he was on his way.
07:35When the U.S. government's AC35 was completed,
07:39Pitt Cairns' test pilot landed on a Washington, D.C. street
07:42and delivered the craft to the Department of Commerce building.
07:46A rodible airplane or flying car was not a new idea.
07:50Aviation pioneer Glenn Curtis exhibited an autoplane in 1917.
07:55There were many more attempts over the years.
08:01The Fulton Air Fibian took to the air in 1946 and became the first flight-certified automobile.
08:08Fulton's concept was a cockpit that doubled as a car.
08:12For flight, propeller, wings, and tail would be rented at the airport and attached.
08:17Unfortunately, no one could be found to market the idea.
08:20But Fulton's Air Fibian caught the imagination of aviation engineer Moult Taylor,
08:26who made the aero car his life's worth.
08:30Moult and his staff designed a fully functioning automobile to which airplane elements could be added.
08:36The first prototype was completed in 1949.
08:40To minimize weight, Taylor used fiberglass years before the Corvette popularized its use for automobiles.
08:46When driving, the wings, rear fuselage, and tail could travel along behind as a trailer.
08:54Converting the aero car from airplane to automobile took about ten minutes.
08:58To make it foolproof, the airplane would not start unless the wings and tail were correctly attached.
09:05If the pilot encountered poor weather, he could simply land,
09:09drive through the storm, and take off again when conditions improved.
09:13The aero car was practical and widely publicized.
09:17Actor and pilot Bob Cummings bought one and used it in his 1950s TV series.
09:24Despite its popularity, Taylor's aero car fell several hundred orders short of the number needed to go into mass production.
09:33I'm here with Moult and Taylor, the inventor of the aero car, Moult.
09:39Is this a flying automobile, or is this a driving airplane?
09:45Actually, it's a flying automobile, Neil.
09:48It's the automobile that flies.
09:50And how did you come up with, originally, the concept?
09:55What was the origin of the idea of the flying car?
09:58Well, airplanes, I had flown, of course, I'm a naval aviator, and I had flown everything.
10:05You name it, I've flown it.
10:08In the old days, it was very evident that the world wanted to fly.
10:13But the trouble with an airplane is, you can't go where you want to go.
10:16You can't go to the store in an airplane.
10:20This is the only airplane that has ever been built that you can go to the store in.
10:26Actually, the aero car is a completely different breed of cats.
10:31The propeller is on the tail.
10:33And, of course, that is now becoming the way to build airplanes.
10:37An airplane flies much better if it doesn't have its own slipstream to fly in.
10:41It's much easier to take off and land if it's got four wheels instead of three.
10:47Actually, you just drive this little car with the steering wheel, which steers it.
10:52You drive it down until the speedometer says 50 miles an hour.
10:56And at 50 miles an hour, you haul back on it, and it'll take off.
10:59You can hold it all the way back and fly right on out of the field.
11:02The dual control over here, if you want your passenger to hold on to it,
11:06while you light a cigarette or something, and we got a cigarette lighter down here.
11:11We have a horn, windshield wiper, rear-view mirror, all of the things you have in an automobile.
11:16And we've got all of the things you find in an airplane,
11:19a tachometer, an altimeter, and a manifold pressure gate.
11:22We used to have a little Loran in here, but it's gone now.
11:28And an AM radio.
11:30And we even had one of these, one of them had a tape recorder.
11:36Mold Taylor is still at work.
11:38His AeroCar 4, now at the conceptual stage, is being designed as a kit.
11:43If it's successful, home builders will be able to adapt a small car,
11:48such as the Honda CR-X, into a roadable airplane.
11:55You come out of the grocery store, bread, milk, steak, yep, that's everything, and take off for home.
12:01The helicopter's vertical takeoff and landing capability
12:04seemed to offer a simpler approach to door-to-door air transportation.
12:11In the early 1940s, when Sikorsky Aircraft was busy developing wartime applications for early helicopters,
12:17the company was looking ahead to more peaceful uses for the new machines.
12:22The Mrs. Stroll's out to get the groceries out of the luggage basket.
12:26But where's the butter?
12:27Oh, shucks, he forgot it.
12:28Well, he'll just have to go back and get it, because there isn't a speck of butter in the house,
12:32and the children don't like bread without it.
12:38A decade later, Hiller had similar dreams for its Hornet,
12:42a small helicopter powered by ramjets on the rotor tips.
12:46Easy to fly with a price tag comparable to a sports car,
12:50Hiller hoped it would become the Volkswagen of the sky.
12:58Over the past three decades, prices for new private aircraft have soared
13:03due to the manufacturer's high costs for construction and liability insurance.
13:10An increasing number of amateur homebuilders are creating aircraft from purchase designs,
13:16kits, and their own aeronautical ingenuity.
13:20In the United States, homebuilds are licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration
13:25as amateur experimental aircraft.
13:28And their variety is amazing.
13:31Gyros, sportsters, even a supersonic jet.
13:36Designs as limitless as the imagination of these backyard builders.
13:43Oshkosh, Wisconsin is the home of the Experimental Aircraft Association,
13:48founded to encourage amateur aircraft builders.
13:50Its annual fly-in every August draws about one million people.
13:56Homebuilders enjoy the huge satisfaction of constructing their own craft.
14:00Some purchase plans.
14:02Some buy kits containing materials as well as instructions.
14:05And there are some kits with significant pre-construction done at the factory.
14:10They're often attracted by the lower cost,
14:12though a big investment must come in their own time.
14:16Denny Aircraft, for example, suggests that its kit box can be built without specialized tools
14:22in the equivalent of two hours per day, plus all day Saturday, for one year.
14:27Many builders take much longer.
14:29When the aircraft finally emerges after five or eight years, the owners are proud.
14:35As an added convenience, many designs have folded wings
14:39for easy and inexpensive storage in the family garage.
14:47Neal visited Mojave, California, and saw a variety of kit aircraft.
14:56Here at Mojave Airport, a lot of these hangars are filled with home-built, kit-built aircraft.
15:02Every one's a different story.
15:04Ed, you flew the first flight on this kit-built aircraft.
15:08Right. This is a kit-built airplane that's from Columbus, Ohio.
15:13And it's an amphibian, as you can see, a little pusher amphibian.
15:16It weighs about 400 pounds.
15:18And, yeah, I flew the first flights in the United States on this little airplane.
15:23Anybody that has a cottage ought to have one.
15:25That's all I can say.
15:26But if you're going to go cross-country, forget it.
15:28Takes a while, huh?
15:29About 70 miles an hour is what it cruises at.
15:31It's a clever little airplane.
15:34Flies off water or...?
15:36No, it flies off water and land.
15:38Water and land.
15:38It's an extremely wide hull, as you can see, and it handles rough water very well.
15:42I think it handles rough water better than a pontoon airplane because you've got one big pontoon.
15:47And I've been in some rough water in Canada, and it does very, very well.
15:50Lots of fun to fly, that's all I can say.
15:52But this one over here is a lot more fun to fly.
15:55It's a kit airplane.
15:56I want to emphasize that it is a kit, and it does have supersonic capability.
16:01Of course, I've only flown it seven times, and we obviously haven't gone supersonic yet.
16:06In fact, we've only gone up, at this point in our flight test program, only to 250 knots.
16:10The guy that buys it is a businessman who wants to use it as a tool.
16:14He probably is instrument rated.
16:16He's probably got a multi-engine rating, or a Bonanza, or a Baron, or maybe a King Air of this
16:22type.
16:22And he wants to get there a little faster and a little cheaper.
16:25We're hoping we'll cruise this airplane at about 45,000 feet at 0.9 knots.
16:29Cruise.
16:31And operating costs should be under $150 an hour.
16:34And, you know, that's pretty cheap transportation from here to Florida.
16:38Some of the most popular plans for home builders are those created by Burt Rutan.
16:43Neil checked out the flight characteristics of a favorite Rutan design, a long, easy, built by pilot Mike Nolbe.
16:53Morning.
16:54Mike, tell me about this machine.
16:56Okay.
16:57Well, it's got a side stick controller, not a center stick or a wheel.
17:01And it is a fairly small throw.
17:03You know, full roll control is only about three inches of stick travel.
17:07Full up and full down is only about three inches of stick travel for pitch.
17:12So it's a fairly sensitive airplane.
17:14The only thing that's different than most airplanes is the rudders.
17:17The rudders don't go left and right.
17:19They only go outboard.
17:21So the left side goes outboard to the left, creates some drag, and turns you to the left.
17:25Same with the right.
17:26The two rudder pedals are independently hooked to each rudder.
17:29So you can, in effect, push both rudders out as a mild speed brake.
17:33And when you're traveling along on the ground, you're also getting some drag from the rudders so you're relieving the
17:37brakes.
17:38The difficulty is that if you take off holding some brake, you're also going to lift off holding some rudder.
17:43So that's the thing to watch for.
17:45I'll try to remember.
17:47Okay.
17:48There you go.
17:48Perfect.
17:49Just stand on the cushion.
18:15Homebuilders number in the thousands.
18:16With approximately 30,000 amateur-built aircraft flying worldwide.
18:22That's a little smoother here, isn't it?
18:24Yeah, it is.
18:24It's a lot nicer.
18:27What I'd like to do is try a sort of a wing-over row.
18:31Sure.
18:39Perfect.
18:41Couldn't be better.
18:45Approximately 1,000 aircraft have been built from Vergroutin's published plans.
18:50Kit-built aircraft are becoming more and more popular.
18:53The average time needed to build an airplane from scratch is about 2,500 hours.
18:58From a kit, about 1,500 hours.
19:03We'll be back.
19:07We'll be back.
19:19We'll be back.
19:44Is that nice?
19:45Nice flying little machine.
19:49Super job.
19:50Thanks very much.
19:51Enjoyed it.
19:52Really enjoyed it.
19:53Great little machine.
19:54Not bad for a little homemade thing.
19:59You've flown this airplane quite a bit now.
20:02Yes, I have.
20:03I've got almost 2,000 hours in it now.
20:05And it's really been a joy to us.
20:08You know, my wife and I have been in every state except Hawaii with it.
20:11We take it all over the countryside.
20:13And it usually opens a few eyes.
20:15You know, not too many people have seen an airplane with a canard on it.
20:18It's an unusual thing to have your pitch control system and your tail, as it were, on the front of
20:24the airplane.
20:24And your entire pitch control is with this moving surface?
20:27The only elevator on the airplane, the only pitch control you have, is right here.
20:30How far will this little airplane go?
20:33This little airplane will go from here to Chicago without stopping for gas.
20:36We're here on the west coast.
20:37We're in Mojave, California.
20:38That's about 1,600 nautical miles.
20:42And how many gallons of fuel is that?
20:43It holds 52 gallons.
20:45That's a pretty efficient machine.
20:46If you and I were to take off right now and go to Chicago, we would average 31 nautical miles
20:51to the gallon.
20:52Which is up there with the best of the cars.
20:55Indeed.
20:55And we'd be going about 210 miles an hour.
20:59So I think that's pretty good.
21:00I'm pretty proud of the little girl.
21:02And, well, for something hand-built, that is impressive.
21:09And we have $12,500 my wife and I invested in the airplane.
21:14And a lot of hours.
21:16A lot of hours.
21:17The personal airplane has never attained the practicality of the automobile for family transportation.
21:25But modern aviation offers exciting opportunities for the amateur flyer.
21:30Join us again next time for First Flight.
22:03Subtitled by
Comments