Fulton Airphibian FA–3-101

It could fly to an airport and then, after disengaging wings, tail, and propeller, become a car. Other roadable aircraft, such as Waldo Waterman’s Arrow/Aerobile (in the museum’s collection), had been built but none earned certification. “While a technical success as a flying car, the Airphibian did not become a marketable design because of the inherent compromises of air and car technologies and financial difficulties,” the Smithsonian says. A former company officer donated the Airphibian to the museum in 1960, and Robert Fulton III restored it in 1998. This is NC74154, a bright-red, single-engine, two-place roadable aircraft (or flying car) with a Franklin 6A4-165 B3 engine.

“I was pleased to know Robert Fulton Jr., a Renaissance man, inventor with many patents (the Fulton Skyhook aerial rescue is in our collection), architect, artist, rode a motorcycle around the world after World War I,” said Dorothy S. Cochrane, curator of general aviation/the aeronautics department. “The Airphibian was the centerpiece of the 1998 Louis Vuitton car show at Rockefeller Center Plaza and I was lucky enough to attend it. Astounding cars but Fulton was the man of the hour. His son Bob Fulton III was also a brilliant award-winning cinemaphotographer, and pilot who restored his father’s airplane.”

The National Air & Space Museum is currently creating “We All Fly,” a special section within the Smithsonian Institution featuring general aviation. Its planned opening is fall 2022.