The Curtiss Autoplane
Last year the Terrafugia Transition, a flying car project developed by a small group of MIT graduates, passed an important regulatory hurdle when the FAA agreed it could be certified in the Light-Sport Aircraft category. The concept of a flying car has captivated the imaginations of aviation dreamers for decades.
Many visionaries have dreamed of mating the car with the airplane and producing a practical personal transportation vehicle. Only a few made it into the air and fewer into production. The first serious attempt was probably the Curtiss Autoplane of 1917.
Introduced at the Pan-American Aeronautic Exposition held in New York City in February 1917, the Curtiss Model 11 Autoplane had an aluminum automobile body with celluloid windows. The pilot/chauffeur sat alone in the front of the cabin with two passengers behind. It was powered by a front-mounted 100-hp Curtiss OXX engine. The engine drove the rear-mounted pusher propeller by a shaft running through the cabin and then through a system of belts up to the propeller shaft. The triplane wings were from a Curtiss Model L. Two booms carried the stabilizer, elevators, fin and rudder. A unique feature was that the wings and tail could be removed as a unit, allowing the car part to operate as a road vehicle. There was also a canard surface at the front of the coach/fuselage.
So unusual in design and so epoch making was this new Curtiss craft that stories and photographs of it were printed in hundreds of newspapers and magazines all over the world.
From Aerial Age Weekly, Feb. 19, 1917: “One of the greatest attractions of the Pan-American Aeronautic Exposition last week was the ‘autoplane’ exhibited by the Curtiss Company. Great secrecy surrounded the exhibit prior to the opening of the show, when it was formally unveiled before Governor Whitman and a party of distinguished visitors at 8:10 p.m. Feb. 8.
“The machine is really a ‘limousine of the air’ and compares favorably with the appearance and furnishing of the modern sedan or limousine. Upholstery and tapestries have been given much thought and, except perhaps for slight reduction in size, the car leaves nothing to be desired in appointment.
“In performance there is every reason to believe the machine to be quite practical, in spite of its bulkiness and the consequent rather high headwind resistance which it possesses. The body has been partially streamlined to reduce resistance, an advance over ordinary limousine design.”
In Glenn Curtiss’s patent application, he discussed some of the design rationale for the Autoplane. He recounted that in only very rare instances had there been built a practical machine in which accommodation for more than two was provided. Another serious objection he had to the type of machines then existing was that no provision was made for the housing of the occupants; that the usual fuselage was characterized by an absence of conveniences and equipment necessary for comfort and pleasure during ?ight in cold or inclement weather.
In airplanes back then, both the pilot and passengers were partly — if not entirely — exposed, and body movements were restricted. Curtiss felt that speed — and not comfort — seemed to have been the prime consideration in the design of aircraft before the Autoplane. As a commercial and pleasure craft, the airplane had been undeveloped, as the demand for military machines overwhelmingly directed development at that line.
He felt his invention, aimed at overcoming these defects and objectionable features, sought to introduce into the aeronautical realm the many comforts and conveniences present in automobiles. The interior did resemble a contemporary car as it was upholstered in tapestry and enhanced with electric lighting.
There is no record of the Curtiss Autoplane having been flown and, with the United States entering into World War II shortly after the aeronautical exposition in New York, development was halted on the flying car.
First flight of the Terrafugia Transition
Over the years, other attempts at flying cars made it into the air, but none reached real production levels and commercial success. The first to actually fly was created by Waldo Waterman, a former associate of Glenn Curtiss. The Waterman Arrowbile flew in 1937. Just five were built.
After World War II, some major U.S. aircraft firms looked into developing new markets, including aerial automobiles. Convair progressed further than others and actually developed a flying prototype of its ConVairCar. After its crash in 1947, the project was abandoned.
Curtiss Autoplane (Model 11) in 1916. On exhibit at the Pan-American Aeronautic Exposition held in the Grand Palace in New York February 1917.
More successful was the Fulton Airphibian developed by Robert Fulton. After two prototypes were finished, Fulton received the first Type Certificate for a flying automobile in 1953. After three were built, rights were sold to Taylorcraft, which didn’t undertake any further development.
The most successful of the flying cars was the Aerocar developed by Molt Taylor of Longview, Wash. The first flight was in 1949 and over the years seven were built. The design won FAA certification as a standard-licensed airplane in 1956.
Like the Curtiss Autoplane, the Taylor Aerocar received much publicity and was even shown in a TV series. One of the Taylor Aerocars can be seen on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Not much has been accomplished on the flying automobile since the Aerocar, so congratulations go to the Terrafugia developers on keeping the flying car dream alive!
Dennis Parks is Curator Emeritus of Seattle’s Museum of Flight. He can be reached at dennis@generalaviationnews.com.
Pingback: The Curtiss Autoplane | Private Jet Charter Service