Curtis is a hero of mine. The Wright Brothers, not understanding how patents work or what they're for, basically wouldn't let anyone else aviate. Curtis, at first wanting to collaborate with the Wrights, was snubbed. So he got a good look at the Wright patent and found that the wing warping for roll control was a central idea of the patent. And so to circumvent the patent and commercialize his own flying machines, he invented the aileron.
"Roadable airplane" is a good description. It's fundamentally an airplane that can more less function on roads. If you consider it from the perspective of going cross country in a normal plane, and then renting a car when you land, a "roadable airplane" starts to make some sense.
you actually do not need a license to fly an ultralight aircraft, as long as you only fly during the day and only under VFR rules, meaning your craft cannot fly via instrumental means, everything is visual..
James May as Scaramanga :D "as you see now Mr. Bond, I'm completely unarmed. cigarette?" ..... and then he proceeds explaining in detail every nook and cranny that his lighter is actually a functional gun, how to assemble it and then proceeds the clever engineering behind it
I remember seeing Molt Taylor driving His Aerocar going by my house many times either pulling the wings or just cruising to the neighbor hood store! the first on had just plain aluminum skin before He painted it! Molt Taylor gave me a model promo of His Aerocar, many years ago, the wings folded all in one as the full sized Car/Plane did! I still have it to this day mint in the box along with several others I have collected over many years, it was made by Gladden Toys. Ford Company wanted to build Areocar but the U.S. Government made it to hard to get through the permitting process, Molt Taylor told me personally before He passed away. I remember Bob Cummings bought one that was on His TV show around the early 60s, also a Portland Or. news station used one for traffic news! I often wonder with today's electronics and better air cooled engine choices, shepherd with Taylor's imagination and talent if we could of had one in our garage/hanger today? By the way I do think I remember the Aerocar Sweeny has was the traffic spotter for the news station! By the way the Areocar was designed and built here in Longview Washington!
Thank you for your informative post. I get so tired of all the RUclips posts of new designs being touted as “the world’s first flying car” when the Taylor model has been around since the 1940’s.
Saw one of these when I was a kid (early 60's). It took off from the small airport just outside Sactramento where my uncle kept his plane. 1.5 million? Wow, wonder what they cost new.
$1.5 million is the insurance value because there's only 5 in existence. They cost just under $10,000 new which in that time period might as well been a million bucks.
hello my friend, greetings from Indonesia. very entertaining video, thank you.. oh yes, am I allowed to re-upload this cool video? please reply, good luck always for you 😀🙏
I grew up in Kelso, Washington and met Molt Taylor once. My dad was a private pilot and was pretty good friends with him. We'd see him flying occasionally. I begged, but never got to go up in it.
@@fisherking7798 not sure. Seen a couple of videos of people testing aviation fuel in road cars, both warned not to do it on public roads because it is illegal for road use
@@fisherking7798 I don't exactly know, but it's something along the lines of this: There are 2 exactly the same fuel types. One for cars and one for something else. The one for cars, they just give a red color. If law enforcements suspect something and give you a test, and your fuel doesn't come out red, you're in trouble. I'm not sure why, presumably because there are different taxes on car fuel?
I was "Promised" at the 1964-65 Worlds Fair in New York we would all have flying cars, jet packs, trips to Mars and beyond, underwater cities, and robot laborers. Nice things to promise a 5 year old kid. I am now 60 and I don't have any of these things. Can I file a law suit for them lying to me back then?
James May, flying in the Aerocar, you have just one-upped Jeremy Clarkson by so much, that unless he drops his kids off at school in the space shuttle, he has no way of catching up to you👍
I was driving from Boca Raton to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and I saw what was unmistakably the Aerocar flying overhead. I was jealous because there was a lot of traffic.
I grew up a 15-minute bicycle ride from where the Aerocar was built. The old airport and building are gone. I met Molt when I was about ~10 years old. There are a few of his "Coot" amphibious airplanes still flying around the Portland area.
"It might be a good idea to combine them." But once you start thinking about it, it's really not. First off, what you need for a car to be safe will make it too heavy to fly, and what you need for an airplane would make it unable to protect the people inside in a road accident. On top of that, a large percentage of people driving cars should not be trusted with something that goes on the ground, let alone something that can go high enough to to kill you if it falls.
Not to mention, anything big enough to fly probably won't fit on a road, and the hassle of having to deliver and attach all those extra parts makes it really less of a flying car and more of a car that can be upgraded to a plane
I saw one back in 1968 when I was in Springfield, Il at a drive through restaurant on rt 66. We were behind it in line and I saw a hole through the rear engine cover with dirty grease around it, it was red. I had previously seen a model of one about 1963.
I did not expect him to say Glenn Curtis. I live just 25 minutes from the Curtis museum in New York state. I don't remember seeing any pictures or models of this though.
ive been talking bout this thing since it appeared on beyond 2000 back in 1990 you need 8 licences to own it....but it is my dream to own one....but not that one a remodeled version it could be built lighter and better 1950's cmon 60 years and we still cant build anything better...the powers that be..keep us trapped in 1980
There are modern alternatives. www.pal-v.com/en/explore-pal-v They still dont make much sense. You can buy a (MUCH) better car and a better plane for less money than those flying contraptions, and you can even use them both simultaneously. Its like a washing machine that can make toast, but is worse and more expensive for both functions than normal devices. Its pointless.
You are right, he owned and flew this exact Aerocar, and it appeared on the beginning of his television show. This Aerocar was in the hanger of my flight school in Auburn, California for quite some time. It flew on many occasions and always drew a number of people to check it out. It was owned by a man from Colorado, his son was a mechanic in our flight school hanger.
JAMES WTF !!! YOU ARE WAY TOO PRECIOUS AND VALUABLE TO US MERE HUMANS TO BE RISKING LIFE AND LIMB IN SUCH BIZZARE CONTRAPTIONS , I HOPE YOU HAD A PARACHUTE
Hi James - you should get over to Slovakia (once they allow travel outside the UK) and see if the folks at Klein-Vision will allow you to fly their AirCar - check it out I believe you are going to love is and I suspect you’ll probably want to buy one...
That looks like Kissimmee airport where a lot of real old warplanes call home. A co-worker vacations there and has taken flights in a P-51 and a Texas trainer. The pilot ducks down out of sight and a camera mounted on the wing tip takes a photo of you piloting the aircraft! I doubt if we'll ever see flying cars, can you imagine the lousy drivers we have on the roads now flying over you?
In the big nation, west of the Atlantic Ocean you need 8 licenses or certificate to drive and fly the aero car but you need absolutely nothing except money to become the president in the same country. Explains a lot!
Imagine millions of flying cars around. Now imagine a fender-bender a thousand feet up. Three-dimensional traffic would be much too dangerous, and also a hazard to real aircraft. Imagine a jumbo jet coming in to land with flying cars all around it.
the logistics of transporting a plane from one airport to another are normaly quite high. but with this, just put the wings onto a trailer attach it to the plane/car/whatever you wanna call it and drive it to where ever its needed.
ERROR 404, you made an ERROR 404... trailer not found. The really neat thing about the Aerocar is that there is no trailer. The wings have little wheels and they become the trailer for the tail section. Super neat design.
0:36 Thank you James for that. We here pronounce it UHH-LOOOM-IN-UHHM. Like the uncivilized colonials that we are. I shall try it your way James. *ahem* AL-YOU-MINN-E-UM. Whew, that was tough but I'm still a dirty treasonous colonial and proud of it.
Its very different. Im in the same boat as May. No problems in a plane (light aircraft, glider, hang glider or commercial airliner), but quickly terrified when Im "attached" to the ground, like on a ladder.
@@P44man That's exactly it, the connection with the ground, you know how high you are. Early balloonists did report they would get the feeling they could just step out of the basket on to the ground, they would lose any appreciation of their height.
It might use the drive wheels to get itself going and then switch to the propeller. I don’t know anything about the car, but if I had to guess, then that would be how.
Curtis is a hero of mine. The Wright Brothers, not understanding how patents work or what they're for, basically wouldn't let anyone else aviate. Curtis, at first wanting to collaborate with the Wrights, was snubbed. So he got a good look at the Wright patent and found that the wing warping for roll control was a central idea of the patent. And so to circumvent the patent and commercialize his own flying machines, he invented the aileron.
You'd have the unique opportunity to flash the headlights and make the indicator blink to overtake an aircraft with this one.
Not that you'd be overtaking very many of them at that speed ;)
Probably none, except maybe a ULM.
@Troy Gordon oh god. You guys are fucking everywhere. Probably robots.
It's a scam people
you aren't overtaking anyone in this thing
You could honk at some flying geese. They'd honk back, annoyed.
Imagine police stopping you.
Police: Hello! you have paperwork to drive this?
Owner: How much time have you got?
They're at home. I'll fly back and get them
Most likely the police don't even know about half the paperwork you'd need
What are the police doing in the air?
@@timorouw5555 Police Helicopters: Are we a joke to you?
To be fair. Calling the Aerocar a “car that flies” is probably a reach. It’s a light aircraft that comes apart to vaguely resemble a road car.
i almost wanna bet this is Clarkson's fake account
It actually solves the problem of needing a car at your destination quite well as it is quite hard to fit even a motorbike in a small aircraft.
Nobody asked for your opinion.
"Roadable airplane" is a good description. It's fundamentally an airplane that can more less function on roads. If you consider it from the perspective of going cross country in a normal plane, and then renting a car when you land, a "roadable airplane" starts to make some sense.
you actually do not need a license to fly an ultralight aircraft, as long as you only fly during the day and only under VFR rules, meaning your craft cannot fly via instrumental means, everything is visual..
I saw the same Molt Taylor Aerocar at my local airport (KSSI) years ago. I asked the owner how it flies. He wryly replied, "Like a car."
lmao
it flies like a car and drives like a plane
James May. Thank you for living out so many of my childhood dreams for me. this being one as well..
Cheers!
I remember when Richard Hammond flew a Rimac... didn’t end so well
The "car" with the jet engine didn't really go very well either
Lol
Lol
James May as Scaramanga :D
"as you see now Mr. Bond, I'm completely unarmed. cigarette?" ..... and then he proceeds explaining in detail every nook and cranny that his lighter is actually a functional gun, how to assemble it and then proceeds the clever engineering behind it
I'm low-key kinda disappointed he didn't actually BUILD a flying car Top Gear challenge-style, but it was nice seeing him so giddy in the AeroCar...
I don't think that would have ended well...
@@LordSandwichII Probably would have ended similarly to the Caravan Airship or Reliant Robin Shuttle.
I'm sure James was really in his element with this one. Good to see him in something other than Grand Tour or Top Gear. Thanks.
I remember seeing Molt Taylor driving His Aerocar going by my house many times either pulling the wings or just cruising to the neighbor hood store! the first on had just plain aluminum skin before He painted it! Molt Taylor gave me a model promo of His Aerocar, many years ago, the wings folded all in one as the full sized Car/Plane did! I still have it to this day mint in the box along with several others I have collected over many years, it was made by Gladden Toys. Ford Company wanted to build Areocar but the U.S. Government made it to hard to get through the permitting process, Molt Taylor told me personally before He passed away. I remember Bob Cummings bought one that was on His TV show around the early 60s, also a Portland Or. news station used one for traffic news! I often wonder with today's electronics and better air cooled engine choices, shepherd with Taylor's imagination and talent if we could of had one in our garage/hanger today? By the way I do think I remember the Aerocar Sweeny has was the traffic spotter for the news station! By the way the Areocar was designed and built here in Longview Washington!
Leonce LaRouche If you have any pictures of that could you share them with me? I’m trying to document history on this machine.
Thank you for your informative post. I get so tired of all the RUclips posts of new designs being touted as “the world’s first flying car” when the Taylor model has been around since the 1940’s.
0:36 Aluminum 🤣. Only die-hard top gear fans will understand.
1950: "In 2012 we will have flying cars!"
James May:
Saw one of these when I was a kid (early 60's). It took off from the small airport just outside Sactramento where my uncle kept his plane. 1.5 million? Wow, wonder what they cost new.
Grandpa the Grey ii
$9500
It's a bit of a priceless thing though. Who the hell can maintain one?
$1.5 million is the insurance value because there's only 5 in existence. They cost just under $10,000 new which in that time period might as well been a million bucks.
Try about $80000...
hello my friend, greetings from Indonesia. very entertaining video, thank you.. oh yes, am I allowed to re-upload this cool video? please reply, good luck always for you 😀🙏
Take a good look at the landing gear of this plane! It's almost the same arangement as on a B-52! Or a Mini Cooper!
I grew up in Kelso, Washington and met Molt Taylor once. My dad was a private pilot and was pretty good friends with him. We'd see him flying occasionally. I begged, but never got to go up in it.
Missed opportunity for a "the idea never took off" pun at the start there.
Soooo.....what kind of fuel does it take? Automotive fuel or AVGAS?
That's the first good question in these comments, there's a big price difference too
Aviation fuel is illegal to use on public roads in America at least
@@andrewward7168 why?
@@fisherking7798 not sure. Seen a couple of videos of people testing aviation fuel in road cars, both warned not to do it on public roads because it is illegal for road use
@@fisherking7798 I don't exactly know, but it's something along the lines of this: There are 2 exactly the same fuel types. One for cars and one for something else. The one for cars, they just give a red color. If law enforcements suspect something and give you a test, and your fuel doesn't come out red, you're in trouble. I'm not sure why, presumably because there are different taxes on car fuel?
I was "Promised" at the 1964-65 Worlds Fair in New York we would all have flying cars, jet packs, trips to Mars and beyond, underwater cities, and robot laborers. Nice things to promise a 5 year old kid. I am now 60 and I don't have any of these things. Can I file a law suit for them lying to me back then?
quite a few of those aren't far off now.
James = excellent in what he does.
James May, flying in the Aerocar, you have just one-upped Jeremy Clarkson by so much, that unless he drops his kids off at school in the space shuttle, he has no way of catching up to you👍
Just noticed how small the interior is, The pilot is leaning to sit infront of james haha not the most comfortable XD
That's every airplane ever built. They're all tiny on the inside.
I was driving from Boca Raton to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and I saw what was unmistakably the Aerocar flying overhead.
I was jealous because there was a lot of traffic.
Very brave to get in the air in that death trap :D
I grew up a 15-minute bicycle ride from where the Aerocar was built. The old airport and building are gone. I met Molt when I was about ~10 years old. There are a few of his "Coot" amphibious airplanes still flying around the Portland area.
Still one of the coolest inventions in history
and it even held together. I'd be nervous flying in a 60 yo transformer.
"It might be a good idea to combine them."
But once you start thinking about it, it's really not. First off, what you need for a car to be safe will make it too heavy to fly, and what you need for an airplane would make it unable to protect the people inside in a road accident.
On top of that, a large percentage of people driving cars should not be trusted with something that goes on the ground, let alone something that can go high enough to to kill you if it falls.
Not to mention, anything big enough to fly probably won't fit on a road, and the hassle of having to deliver and attach all those extra parts makes it really less of a flying car and more of a car that can be upgraded to a plane
@@coryman125 And the cost of insurance would be breath taking.
He buttered that landing
Awesome aerocar!🛩️🚗
I think it's fair to say, the Aerocar makes more sense as a plane than a car
I was at a private collection of airplanes in Minnesota, and the collection had one of these
I saw one back in 1968 when I was in Springfield, Il at a drive through restaurant on rt 66. We were behind it in line and I saw a hole through the rear engine cover with dirty grease around it, it was red. I had previously seen a model of one about 1963.
Just watching this scared me. I'd have to be heavily sedated before I'd go up it that.
The clip on engine and wings from James Bond was good. You have the nicest hair out of those other passengers James lol.
That P 51 at 3:02 XD
That's Mad Max! I actually had the great fortune of getting to work on that plane
For $3.5Million, I think I'd settle for a P-40.
This was shot at Fantasy of Flight between Orlando and Lakeland. Awesome museum!
It's a miracle Mr May hasn't been knighted.
he disapproves of the Monarchy
James May has just done the coolest thing ever. I'm nice and jealous.
I did not expect him to say Glenn Curtis. I live just 25 minutes from the Curtis museum in New York state. I don't remember seeing any pictures or models of this though.
that p51 tho passing by lmao
@alan wilson We love you Brits too! Spitfires and Hurricanes ftw!
ive been talking bout this thing since it appeared on beyond 2000 back in 1990 you need 8 licences to own it....but it is my dream to own one....but not that one a remodeled version it could be built lighter and better 1950's cmon 60 years and we still cant build anything better...the powers that be..keep us trapped in 1980
There are modern alternatives. www.pal-v.com/en/explore-pal-v They still dont make much sense. You can buy a (MUCH) better car and a better plane for less money than those flying contraptions, and you can even use them both simultaneously. Its like a washing machine that can make toast, but is worse and more expensive for both functions than normal devices. Its pointless.
Molt Taylor appeared on the TV program I've Got A Secret on 28 October 1959 with his Aerocar.
Does watching this 2023july is awesome
Why old stuff always seemed more advanced? It doesn't even need a computer!
I remember seeing this vehicle on the Robert (Bob) Cummings TV show in the early 1960's
You are right, he owned and flew this exact Aerocar, and it appeared on the beginning of his television show. This Aerocar was in the hanger of my flight school in Auburn, California for quite some time. It flew on many occasions and always drew a number of people to check it out. It was owned by a man from Colorado, his son was a mechanic in our flight school hanger.
As a car, it,s terrible. As a plane it's perfect.
Nick Wilmans as a plane it’s terrible too.
Seems May's fear of heights is selective.
Where is the propeller/jet, how is it powered
JAMES WTF !!! YOU ARE WAY TOO PRECIOUS AND VALUABLE TO US MERE HUMANS TO BE RISKING LIFE AND LIMB IN SUCH BIZZARE CONTRAPTIONS , I HOPE YOU HAD A PARACHUTE
If it’s so dangerous how do you think it got so old?
This Aerocar was sold by Barrett-Jackson on 18 January 2020 for $250 000.
Brand new it cost $9 500.
It’s a funky looking car but a gorgeous airplane
I am absolutely dumbfounded that you were permitted to do this.
This is the coolest car ever.
Hi James - you should get over to Slovakia (once they allow travel outside the UK) and see if the folks at Klein-Vision will allow you to fly their AirCar - check it out I believe you are going to love is and I suspect you’ll probably want to buy one...
Should said that it never “took off”
@ 3:03 there is a P 51 Mustang! Should have filmed with that a little
If this was top gear, the trio would be driving aerocars and the mustang will be chasing them, flown by the Stig pilot cousin off course!
However if they caught on how many tests would you like me to pass
I feel like I've cheated death just from watching the video.
If this was Top Gear episode there will be Stig Powerboard Lap on test track on flying car 👍
Love the shirt. Very colourfull.🙃
What happens if you pull the handbrake after take-off 😂
Building a flying car is easy.
Piloting a flying car in the air is beyond the ability of many many motorists and probably not possible in volume.
can you still fly with pixie dust or have you evolved to a point where you don't need that anymore? lol
Agreed. Most people are a menace in two dimensions.
5:13 there is one for sale on the internet... from previous sentence, it seems lije he is talking about the girl
James May you lucky bastard…
I would assume that if we really wanted to make this a thing, we could.
That looks like Kissimmee airport where a lot of real old warplanes call home. A co-worker vacations there and has taken flights in a P-51 and a Texas trainer. The pilot ducks down out of sight and a camera mounted on the wing tip takes a photo of you piloting the aircraft! I doubt if we'll ever see flying cars, can you imagine the lousy drivers we have on the roads now flying over you?
In the big nation, west of the Atlantic Ocean you need 8 licenses or certificate to drive and fly the aero car but you need absolutely nothing except money to become the president in the same country. Explains a lot!
Sounds like we need to get rid of all that red tape for flying.
0:50 missed a trick not saying "never took off"
Wheres the prop? I cant find the damn thing
Its in the end of the tail.
It’s off the end of the tailcone, it’s driven by a long shaft and some fancy French device mated to a Lycoming
I can fly too, if you put me inside an aeroplane. Probably faster than attaching the wings and tail to this monstrosity.
I wonder what is its fuel range when flying ??
Imagine millions of flying cars around. Now imagine a fender-bender a thousand feet up. Three-dimensional traffic would be much too dangerous, and also a hazard to real aircraft. Imagine a jumbo jet coming in to land with flying cars all around it.
This Is why we need floating cars.
You mean hovercraft? We already have those, but they are expensive and impractical.
the logistics of transporting a plane from one airport to another are normaly quite high. but with this, just put the wings onto a trailer attach it to the plane/car/whatever you wanna call it and drive it to where ever its needed.
ERROR 404, you made an ERROR 404... trailer not found.
The really neat thing about the Aerocar is that there is no trailer. The wings have little wheels and they become the trailer for the tail section. Super neat design.
This multi license issue will be the same for the modern air cars.
Nooooo......one small dent on the road......and it’s death from above.
Was that the same one that was owned by "Bob Cummings" ?
Hughie Green (Opportunity Knocks) had one...."I wanna tell ya' friends"
I won't even get in a light aircraft.
Detachable stearing wheel, detachable gear shift
Would look very James Bond in white ...
Honestly, it would be easier to buy a Piper Cub and land in your street.
0:36 Thank you James for that. We here pronounce it UHH-LOOOM-IN-UHHM. Like the uncivilized colonials that we are.
I shall try it your way James. *ahem* AL-YOU-MINN-E-UM.
Whew, that was tough but I'm still a dirty treasonous colonial and proud of it.
He totally betrayed the brits
The pilot's not much of a talker, eh?
No pilot is. You have to monitor the radio and VFR's
So basically a plane (planes have wheels, they shuttle to the runway, like a *car*)
Probably would never want the check engine light in the air.
was he at oshkosh?
5:03 Wait, I could BUY a date?!?
oh. you mean the car.
It’s bad that I know all of the Interstate 4 Corridor he was driving on. Had to chuckle when I recognized everything on it.
But does it have autopilot
How does he have no problem flying but getting up a ladder?
Its very different. Im in the same boat as May. No problems in a plane (light aircraft, glider, hang glider or commercial airliner), but quickly terrified when Im "attached" to the ground, like on a ladder.
In planes, you have at least 30 seconds to correct any mistakes you make, on a ladder, one twitch and you can break your neck
I fly all the time, but jumping off the 10 meter into a pool? That scares me.
@@P44man
That's exactly it, the connection with the ground, you know how high you are.
Early balloonists did report they would get the feeling they could just step out of the basket on to the ground, they would lose any appreciation of their height.
...May cracks me up...Put your hands in the air so everyone knows I'm flying it...LOL...A.C.Feuerhelm
0:38 *Aluminium, not aluminum.
pingpongpung nope. Aluminum
I would refuse to use the radio, instead just honk the horn at ATC and the other planes.
How in the hell does it pick that much speed! HOW?
Master Matt I was thinking the same thing as they were taxiing and James was saying the speed, how?
It might use the drive wheels to get itself going and then switch to the propeller. I don’t know anything about the car, but if I had to guess, then that would be how.
I came here after seeing scene of aerocar part of disney planes movie
This was designed with 70 year old car and plane tech. Rebuilt now with modern engines and materials, this would be amazing!
That's the Terrafugia's goal.
Could be amazing could be rubbish too