Airphibian Roadable Aircraft 1947 is a photograph by Science Source which was uploaded on June 6th, 2014.
Airphibian Roadable Aircraft 1947
Successfully tested in 1947, the Airphibian was the first roadable aircraft to be certified by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. A roadable... more
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Airphibian Roadable Aircraft 1947
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Science Source
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Successfully tested in 1947, the Airphibian was the first roadable aircraft to be certified by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. A roadable aircraft (sometimes referred to as flying car) is a hybrid vehicle that combines the flying capability of an aircraft with the option of being driven as an automobile on the ground. In flight, it looked like a small airplane. For road use, its entire aft section, including the tail and wings, was detached and rested on its own small wheels. The propeller was also removed. The Airphibian was quite airworthy, and on a dare from Life magazine, inventor Robert Fulton once used it to travel from his home in Connecticut to Manhattan to attend a Broadway show. The pioneering vehicle could also fly up to 400 miles on 30 gallons of gas. Fulton blamed government regulations for making it unmarketable. Charles Lindbergh flew it 1950 and, although it was not a commercial success (financial costs of air worthiness certification forced him to relinquish control of the company, which never developed it further), it is now in the Smithsonian. Robert Edison Fulton, Jr. (April 15, 1909 - May 7, 2004) was an American inventor and adventurer. He is known for having traveled around the world on a motorcycle and for several aviation-related inventions, among his 70 patents. He was named for Thomas Edison, who was a friend of his father, Robert Fulton, Sr. a president of Mack Trucks. His maternal grandfather, Ezra Johnson Travis, ran stagecoach lines across the old west after the Civil War and his uncle, Elgin Travis, who took them over from his father, eventually converted the stagecoach routes into bus lines, which became Greyhound Bus Line.
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June 6th, 2014
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