Sunday
18Oct2009
Flying Family Car (1958)
Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 2:54PM ;)
The November 30, 1958 edition of This Week magazine ran this illustration of the flying family car. The image accompanied a larger piece about Army vehicles of the future. Best thing about the article? It promised that this flying car could be a reality within two years.
Previously on Paleo-Future:
- The Future of the Helicopter (1955)
- Shopper Hoppers (1959)
- "Aerocar" Hits the Road (1950)
- Automobiles Without Wheels (1958)
tagged cars, flying cars, this week magazine, transportation in 1950s
cars, flying cars, this week magazine, transportation in 1950s 
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Reader Comments (9)
Two years?!
Now 51 years later all we have is the tease of the still distant Honda Fuzo. I think somehow the rocket car is the most iconic aspect of the "future that never was." In every science fiction movie we were promised that by now we'd all be zooming around in something like Mike Mercury's Supercar. And all we have to show for it is a Toyota Prius. Alas!
I'd love to see the pic of the "already test-flown" flying Jeep attacking enemy tanks. I smell a cover up.
Terrafugia is developing a flying car - the "Transition". It looks as if to be in production in the near future. See more at their website:
http://www.terrafugia.com/
I understand that Moller is also nearing the final stages of their production of a "flying car" that has the ability for vertical take-offs and landings. See more at their website here:
http://www.moller.com/m400.htm
I agree that the Moller Skycar is in it's "final stages" - because Paul Moller is now in his mid-seventies, and the SEC will no longer allow him to take investment money.
Moller has been in this business for more than 40 years without success - his pamphlets and news articles from the 1970s, advertising flying cars "just around the corner", will probably appear in Paleo-Future soon enough.
@azinyk, if you have access to any of those I'd love to see them.
The sedan bears a resemblance to Hiller's proposals, as seen in Popular Mechanics.
The already-test-flown flying Jeep may have been the Piasecki VZ-8 or one of its relatives: Here's a photo from Life.
Flying Family Car!! It is nice concept but god knows only when it will happen.!! Thank you very much for sharing such a nice photo with us.
The one prediction I remember from the 1950's was that by the 1960's every family would have their own helicopter car. Hasn't happened. And, come to think of it, thank Glub it hasn't. Judging by the way some idiots drive on our highways, can you imagine the carnage that would be going on up in the skies if all these people got the paws on their very own 'copter car?