If I recall correctly, Beech built an auto prototype shortly after WWII.
If I recall correctly, Beech built an auto prototype shortly after WWII.
About twenty-five years ago, a co-worker and I were visiting a space contractor at Edwards Air Force base. We had some time to kill, so we drove to Mojave airport to see what was there.
This was back in the good 'ol days when you could just wander the ramp. We walked slowly past the Scaled Composites hangar, seeing planes like the Ares. Later we drove past on the non-ramp side of the hangars, and I spotted an unfamiliar aircraft parked next to Scaled. We were both pilots, but had utterly no idea what it was. I had a cheap plastic point-and-shoot (film) camera along, and shot as many pix as I could.
I was working pretty often for KITPLANES magazine, and they'd given me appropriate business cards. We went into the Scaled offices, where I presented a card and requested information on the aircraft. I was politely refused.
I told my editor about it, and he had no idea, either. I sent him some of the pictures, and he printed them as the "Mojave Mystery Ship."
Ten or fifteen years later, I found out it was the Lima-2, a test bed for a Toyota Lexus aircraft engine. Scaled, apparently, had acknowledged the program, but didn't officially release a photo for years after. My one and only scoop.....
Ron "All the news that's fit to print" Wanttaja
Ford quit making the Tri-Motor due to the depression. Right plane, wrong time.
Don't forget the Porsche-Mooney variant in the late '70's.
And in the late '70's, General Dynamics was working with Chrysler on the "lean burn" system for their autos. Microprocessors were just becoming available, and the "knowns" we assume are present today just weren't mature enough for it to be feasible.
No such thing as mass production in airplanes by today’s standards ... 600/year today or 17,000/year in the the late 70s. One doesn’t make money building each one by hand. Don’t get me wrong; we can make a profitable airplane today. We just need to manufacture it in a way that makes sense today ... not like it was in the 1940s.