Convair (Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation)
Automotive manufacturer USA From 1946 to 1948.
The Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft and rocket manufacturer that built a flying car. The merger of Vultee Aircraft and Consolidated Aircraft company existed from 1943 to 1996.
History
Consolidated Vultee was created in March 1943, when the aircraft manufacturer Vultee and Consolidated Aircraft war time production united to form a new manufacturer. Convair
In 1946 there were attempts with a flying car Unlike most designers of flying cars the design started off as the Hall Flying Car,
later as the Southern Roadable and finally the ConvAirCar. Hall and Tommy Thompson designed and manufactured two prototypes.
The Convair Model 116 ConvAirCar was the first attempt this was two-seat car body, powered by a rear-mounted 26 hp engine, with detachable wings for flying a Franklin 4A4 air-cooled flat-four was used with 90hp.
The second model the 118 crashed near San Diego California when the pilot ran out of fuel having mistaken the car fuel gauge for the aviation fuel gauge the plane was a write off. The design is visually just specially designed 4-seat saloon car with the top of an airplane attached to it the controls for flying fold into the ceiling when driving on the road.
The body was made of fiberglass weighed just 723 lbs with an Empty weight 1,524 lb Gross weight 2,550 lb the wing Span 34'5" and Height 8'4" the car had a steel aluminium roof to support the flight section with aluminium wings fitted to the top. An air-cooled engine from Crosley Motors with 25 h.p. provided the drive on the road with 60 mph top speed and a 190 h.p Lycoming 0-435C air cooled flat six engine for propulsion in the air. Cruising speed of 125 mph and top speed was 131 mph when airborne.
by 1948 The company reverted to Theodore Hall Engineering and no longer built flying cars.
