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September 28, 2014
The Flying Flivver: Henry Ford's Attempt to Make Us All Pilots
(Koppen later said that Ford wanted a plane that would fit in his office.) By the summer of 1926, Koppen had come up with an aircraft that fit the bill. The Ford Flivver was a small single-seat plane that was just over 15 feet long and had a wingspan of just a hair under 23 feet. It ran on a 3-cylinder, 35-horsepower engine made by the Ford company Anzani, and it weighed just 350 pounds when empty.| Mental Floss
Posted by gerardvanderleun at September 28, 2014 9:21 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
My uncle Louie Lozko, we all called him "Letsgo Lozko", he raised bantam chickens. I asked him one time about chickens flying.
He said "If a frog had wings it wouldn't bump its ass on the rocks".
Posted by: chasmatic ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://americandigest.org/sidelines/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 29, 2014 5:22 AM
That attempt to stretch the company reach ended when the unstable ship crashed, killing the test pilot (Brooks?) and the plan to build the Flying Flivver. The crash was due to plugged gas cap vents - matchsticks put there by the pilot to prevent water from getting in the fuel.
Didn't Lozko turn down an offer to act as a wing-walker on that thing?
Posted by: Dan J Patterson at September 29, 2014 5:52 AM
so it's back and they have a car that rides on the roads and unfolds wings and takes off. Sounds good. Imagine what the air will be like when we can't get people to obey traffic laws and the sky is filled with drones.
Posted by: Vermont Woodchuck at September 29, 2014 6:01 AM
@Dan - yes, uncle Letsgo was approached but had to turn them down. Something to do with the Poultry Union. They kept talking about "double-hatching".
BTW his favorite car was the Studebaker. "Looks same thing coming and going" he explained.
Posted by: chasmatic at September 29, 2014 8:53 AM