Would you go flying in a Ford Pinto?

March 4th, 2008

ave-mizar.jpg

The first in our series of the world’s worst cars is one of the worlds worst cars mated to part of a plane to become the AVE Mizar. It was a project by a former Northrop engineer in 1973 to develop a flying car, It consisted of a Cessna Skymaster rear attached to the Ford Pinto with production scheduled to start in 1974. AVE planed to sell the Mizar for between US $18,300 and US$29,000. A few prototypes were built but the project ground to a halt when the developers of the Mizar were killed when the the wings of the craft broke away from the car mid flight resulting in a fiery crash. This would have to be the first time a Ford Pinto’s explosion was not caused by someone ramming them from behind. The National Transportation Safety Board reported in addition to poor design and loose parts, that bad welds were partly responsible for the crash, a bad idea was naturally assumed.  

Entry Filed under: Aircraft, Concept, Weird Car | Tags:

2 Comments Add your own

  • 1. Al  |  March 21st, 2008 at 2:43 am

    Back in the fifties and early sixtys, a Celebrity named George Gobles regulary flew a car plane in his TV show.

    It folded into a trailer he pulled behind afteranding.

    That was the only one I ever seen. I don’t have any idea what it was or what it’s name was.

  • 2. Wattsy  |  March 22nd, 2008 at 3:11 am

    The only actor we could find out about was Bob Cummings owned a Taylor Aerocar about the same time. Was it this one http://www.transeum.com/weird-car/the-taylor-aerocar.html

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