Robert E. Fulton Jr.'s airphibian

The 20th century transformed our longing to fly into a breathtaking reality. At the same time, the automobile's practicality and popularity as a means of transportation was growing by leaps and bounds, In only a few decades of auto and air travel, what would have been epic, journeys became manageable trips, and the globe seemed to shrink. Of course, all this is familiar, but the story of the Airphibian is not.

From the beginning of the 20th century, the dream of combining air and land travel attracted inventors. Not until 1946 had anyone been able to combine the two travel modes; it was then that inventor Robert Edison Fulton Jr. designed and built the Airlphibian. It was it two-seater plane that was easy to fly, and in only five minutes it could be transformed into an automobile that cruised along at 50mph. The press celebrated the breakthrough and Fulton was hailed as all American genius.

Given its reception, the Airphibian should have been America's darling. It was convenient, eye-catching, ingenious and, at $7,500, relatively affordable. On December 31, 1950, Fulton's invention was approved by the Civil Aeronautics Agency (CAA)-now the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA.

Immediately after the Airphibian was certified to fly, conflict erupted among Fulton's fiscal backers. His dreams collided with the investor mentality: the vision of all America covered with flying cars unleashed unrestrained greed. Some investors recklessly jockeyed to take advantage of the inventor's triumph, and they tried to sell the machine to General Motors instead of fillig the CAAs order for the first 10 Airphibians. Unable to control his product destiny, Fulton withdrew from the company he had started and lost his machine.

There were other reasons for the flying car's demise: the postwar

American passion for the car was not extended to the airplane; the new superhighways; a scheduled airline system (which roughly corresponded with the mastery of instrument flying); rental cars, and most important, that flying, unlike driving, is not for everyone.

In the late '90s, Fulton and his son, aerial cinematographer Robert E . Fulton III, restored the National Air & Space Airphibian. They are presently restoring anothcr Airphibian to flying status and hope to take it to the EAA AirVenture 2002 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Robert E. Fulton III [Editor's note: if you would like to help this project become a reality. email Robert Fulton III at N1527D@aol.com.]

Copyright Air Age Publishing Feb 2002
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