People have been obsessed with the idea of a flying car for a long, long time. We found this old newsreel video that was shot in Italy (with English narration) back in the late 1940s and frankly we're kind of impressed with the whole rig. The claimed top speed of the car on land it 150mph while the claimed top speed in the air is 200mph with a single propellor pushing the whole thing along. We're not sure how people behind you on motorcycles, people on sidewalks, anyone with hearing, or animals would react to this vehicle in traffic but the idea is pretty cool. The car is shown running at a good clip down some streets around Rome and then the car is pulled onto an airfield, the wings are folded out and voila! It becomes a plane and flies off into the proverbial sunset.
Today there are companies investing LOTS of money into the development of a flying car that is actually feasible for daily use although we cannot figure out where they would be enough market for one of these contraptions to make the scads of money being spend on R&D worth it. The company that has gotten the furthest with its development is Terrafugia, which is actually located about an hour from our eastern world HQ so we should send an inquiry and perhaps check the place out. You can see their stuff here.
We're pretty sure that everyone knows the story of the flying Pinto which survived a couple of crash landings and then ultimately killed the designer in a third and final crash. We cannot find any more information on this craft than what you'll see in the video, which probably means that it didn't kill anyone for as long as it was operations. Yay for that! There are a million and one reasons why this "flying car" and all others to this point have not made it into any large scale production but that doesn't mean the efforts were all for naught. Someone built this thing from their own concept and proved it out, that's a win in anyone's book.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE THIS ITALIAN FLYING CAR FROM 1949 CRUISE THE STREETS AND TAKE TO THE SKIES ABOVE ROME!
Source: This Flying Car From Italy In 1949 Killed Less People Than The Flying Pinto And Looked Cooler (Video)
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