The Flying Pinto

mooneyguy

been around forever
This is crazy. No way I would have flown something like this.
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Unfortunately, The car did separate from the wings and it killed the test pilot and the guy who designed it.
 
I went to a place just around the corner from Galpin Ford once called "Dr. Hogly Wogly's Tyler Texas BBQ."

Terrible barbeque. :(

(As soon as I get my first billion, I'm going to set up a bunch of Bell 609s for HEMS, but always keep one around for personal use
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This is just like scaramanga's flying car in The Man with the Golden Gun. Only one of the best James Bond movies ever.
 
From the Wikipedia:
The Mizar was intended to use both the aircraft engine and the car engine for takeoff. This would considerably shorten the takeoff roll. Once in the air the car engine would be turned off. Upon landing the four-wheel braking would stop the craft in 525 feet (160 m) or less. On the ground, telescoping wing supports would be extended and the airframe would be tied down like any other aircraft. The Pinto could be quickly unbolted from the airframe and driven away.

Production was scheduled to begin in 1974. AVE stated that you could drive/fly your own Mizar off the lot for between US$18,300 and US$29,000 [$81,000 to $128,000 in 2010 dollars].

On September 11, 1973, during a test flight at Oxnard, California, the right wing strut detached from the Pinto. Some reports say the wings folded and others say the Pinto separated from the airframe. An air traffic controller, watching through binoculars, said the right wing folded. Smolinski [engineer & company founder] and the pilot, Harold Blake, were killed in the resulting fiery crash. Even though the Pinto was a light car, the total aircraft was already slightly over gross weight without passengers or fuel. One observer reported that the wing struts were attached to the car with sheet-metal screws and that "...everything was really bad." However, in addition to poor design and loose parts, the National Transportation Safety Board reported that bad welds were partly responsible for the crash.

General characteristics
  • Crew: one, pilot
  • Capacity: three passengers
  • Wingspan: 38 ft 0 in (11.58 m) [the prototype used a disembodied Skymaster]
  • Height: 8½ ft
  • Wing area: 201 ft² (18.7 m²)
  • Powerplant: 1× Continental IO-360-C, 210 hp (157 kW)

I haven't been able to find out how much it weighed. A basic Ford Pinto has a curb weight of about 2,100 lbs, plus 560 lbs fuel, plus 300 lbs for the IO-360, plus 540 lbs for three occupants... leaves about -750 lbs for aerostructure :))) when compared to other applications of a single IO-360 (~2,750 lb MTOW).

Just guessing at the weight of the wings, engine mount, and attachment hardware ... maybe 1,300 lbs? That would make a takeoff weight around 4,800 lbs; about 400 lbs more than a two-engine Skymaster (so the wing is probably OK).

They must have shaved some weight off the Pinto and, hopefully, installed some baffling in it's engine bay so it's normal cooling design wouldn't be so draggy at flying speeds. :dunno:
 
http://www.cookieboystoys.com/mizar.htm

It's a long read, but worth the time. The designers were from my home town. I could see something like this working much better now. It used 210hp, which by todays standards is low for horsepower, but with the wing of a Skymaster (38ft/200 sq feet), and a max projected gross weight of 4700 lbs, a wing loading of only about 23lbs a sq foot is feasible(high, but not extreamly so), especially when you figure in that production versions were going to have a 0-540 in them.

I wish someone would try this instead of the horrible thing they are. You could use a Civic, a Sentra, a Neon, a Cobalt,, so many come to mind, and they are all lighter than what was availible back then. You'd just have to design a better system to attach the car to the airframe. It was actually a really good idea. Leave the airframe at the airfield and drive the car off. Re-attach the airframe and fly home. Not like the "raod-able airplane." A real car that would have a chance at saving you in a crash.
 
Alright, peep this for a modern-day incarnation.

The layout is similar to the Mizar configuration: a road car with a aero propulsion and wings attached.

  • Start with a Toyota Yaris or Honda Fit (~2,400 lbs).
  • Scaled Composites whips-up a reinforced polymer version of the Skymaster's wing and rear engine mount, saving 25% in weight (+750 lbs)
  • Replace the road car's gas motor with a hybrid getup where a gas/diesel engine runs an electric generator. (-300 lbs, +500 lbs)
  • Instead of a Lycoming or Continental avgas motor, the propeller is driven by an electric motor that gets it's power from the hybrid (~200kW (270hp); +250 lbs).
  • Now you have one gas/diesel engine driving both the road wheels and aero-propulsion. You're going to need a bigger fuel tank. (+300 lbs)

So add it all together with three occupants and you get a weight of something like 4,400 lbs. Well just what has technology gotten us in the interval?! :)

On the upside, you'd have a 270 hp subcompact.
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