In 1917, Glenn Curtiss,made the first attempt to make a flying car. An aluminum Autoplane fitted with three wings that spanned about 40 feet (12.2 meters). The vehicle's motor drove a four-bladed propeller at the back of the car. The Curtiss Autoplane never truly flew, but it did manage a few short hops.
An Autoplane had woth its official unveiling at the Pan-American Aeronautical Exposition held in New York City's Grand Central Palace in February of 1917.Named at the time as an "aerial limousine," the strange little vehicle looked like the front half of a Model T Ford outfitted with Red Baron wings and pushed by a huge 9-foot four-blade pusher propeller mounted where the back seat should have been. The gigantic and clumsy triplane wings were fashioned into a single unit coupled with the empennage, and were meant to be removed as a single unit for road travel.
This lone Autoplane, the one and only version ever made by Glenn Curtiss, was rushed to completion specifically for the New York exposition by using tri-wings identical to those on the Curtiss Model L triplane, as well as a standard Curtiss OXX 100 hp engine. The Autoplane skipped and jumped and hopped low off the ground a few times in 1917, but never actually took to the air. Still, the invention was sufficient to earn for Glenn Curtiss the unofficial title of the "Father of the Flying Car."
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