eventually turned into a business by provid-
ing a “new” jump plane.
In the mid-2000s, Trey drifted into sport
aviation, selling his skydiving business inter-
ests and building an RV- 7. “Here’s where my
problem-solving addiction kicked into high
gear, because I wanted to increase the air-
plane’s utility,” he says. “In the Northwest,
‘utility’ means floats. I didn’t remember ever
seeing an RV- 7 on floats before, so I set mine
up on amphibs and flew it to Oshkosh 2007,
where it won grand champion seaplane.”
In August 2009, Trey reluctantly sold the
RV- 7 to make way for new projects. “I really
enjoy how experimental aviation gives us
the opportunity to fly the kind of airplane
that we dream of flying, even if no one
before us has created it yet. If we can build
it, we can fly it.”
Throughout his aviation career, the
concept of a roadable airplane has never left
Trey’s mind. “Not for a second. I was 11 years
old when my dad took me to the
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, and
there was an exhibit, possibly even just a
photo history, about flying cars. I wasn’t
smart enough at the time to recognize what
make it was, but it was probably one of Molt
Taylor’s airplanes. I can’t begin to tell you
how much that airplane fired my
imagination.”
Living in the Northwest, within easy
striking distance of both Van’s and Glasair
Aviation and surrounded by aeronautical
types, Trey discussed his dreams and
concepts with just about anyone and met
plenty of enthusiasm—but not unbridled
enthusiasm.
“The concept of the roadable airplane is
supported by just about everyone,” he says.
“Unfortunately, their comments always have
a ‘but’ at the end of them: ‘But what about
power?’ ‘But how do you handle this or
that?’ Everyone knows there are technical
challenges, which, of course, is one of the
things that drew me to the project in the first
place. It seems as if there ought to be a way
to skin this cat; I just have to figure out what
that is.”
Further complicating the idea of a road-
able aircraft, many new hurdles have arisen
since the days of Molt Taylor and Robert
Fulton: The ground vehicle must meet much
more stringent licensing regulations to be
considered a car than the roadable pioneers
FLYING CARS OF THE PAST
BY MEGHAN PLUMMER
CURTISS AUTOPLANE
Glenn Curtiss designed the Curtiss
Autoplane in 1917. With three wings
and a canard, the Autoplane used
the car’s motor to drive a four-bladed propeller positioned at the
rear of the vehicle. The flying car
achieved a few short hops, but
never actually flew.
ARROWBILE
In 1937, Waldo Waterman created a hybrid
Studebaker-aircraft, which had three wheels
and a pusher propeller. The Arrowbile,
which evolved from Waterman’s Arrowplane
prototype, had a one-piece removable wing.
Five Arrowbiles (later renamed the Aerobile)
were produced, but lacking financial support,
the project ended.
AIRPHIBIAN
Robert Fulton designed the Airphibian, adapting
a plane for the road instead of a car for flying, in
1946. The Airphibian had detachable wings and a
removable tail, and the propeller could be stored
in the fuselage. The roadable aircraft, the first to
be certified by the Civil Aeronautics Administration
(which became the Federal Aviation Administration),
took only five minutes to convert from plane to car.
Unfortunately, Fulton was unable to find reliable
financial support.
CONVAIRCAR
In 1947, Consolidated-Vultee revealed the
ConvAirCar, a two-door sedan with an
airplane assembly that attached to the roof.
The flying car could manage one hour of
flight, but crashed in the desert on its third
voyage, terminating the project.
Inspired by Fulton and his Airphibian, Moulton “Molt”
Taylor designed and built the Aerocar in 1949. The
Aerocar, which could be converted into flight mode by
one person in five minutes, was designed to switch
between flying and driving without interruption. By
folding the wings back along the sides of the detached
fuselage, the airplane parts could be towed behind
the automobile like a trailer. Six examples were built,
but due to financial difficulties, the roadable aircraft
never went into production. The Taylor Aerocar is on
display at the EAA AirVenture Museum.
