October 9, 2011 Flying Pinto

Image compliments of dirt bike dave


Image compliments of Roadable Times

In the early 1970's, Advanced Vehicle Engineers (AVE) of Oxnard, California, built a flying car called a Mizar. It was basically a Cessna Skymaster grafted to a Pinto.

In 1973, the engineers, Henry Smolinski and Hal Blake, took it for a test flight. The wings and car "ungrafted." What was seen was a Pinto flying through the air sans wings.

The Pinto crashed, ending the careers of the two engineers, as well as that of the flying car.



Originally discovered at (and image compliments of) Paleofuture.

They do tend to go up in flames, don't they, those Pintos.

There's one in the neighborhood painted blue with red, orange and yellow flames. Coming forward from the rear bumper.

Sad story though.

I drove a robin's-egg blue pinto from '79-'82.

RIP, old girl. RIP.

Right before the crash, did the passenger turn to the driver and say "I've always loved you"?

According to wikipedia:
"Even though the Pinto was a light car, the total aircraft was already slightly over gross weight without passengers or fuel. One observer reported that the wing struts were attached to the car with sheet-metal screws and that "...everything was really bad." However, in addition to poor design and loose parts, the National Transportation Safety Board reported that bad welds were partly responsible for the crash, with the right wing strut attachment failing at a body panel of the Pinto."

These gentlemen were not in any sense of the word "engineers". Unless they drove trains for a living.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crimson Ghost Right before the crash, did the passenger turn to the driver and say "I've always loved you"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Undertoad These gentlemen were not in any sense of the word "engineers". Unless they drove trains for a living.

They should have used SuperGlue. As far as I know, that fellow is still hanging from the girder by his hardhat.

BigV, engineering is nowhere near as seat of the pants as it used to be. It's all computer model this and simulator that ... nobody wants to commit money on untested shit these days.

Now, of course, they probably weren't aeronautical engineers, just a couple of good ol' boys with a Pinto who bumbled onto half of a Cessna one day down the junkyard.

They were probably friends with the JATO unit guy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolf <snip> They were probably friends with the JATO unit guy.

Did you just confuse classic man and Big V, or were you prefacing your statement with 'Classic'?

????????

Its kinda like he put the post in the wrong thread or something.

???????????? Who, Jim?

Whau?

That car would have worked if McGyver had done it.

Please pretend I posted the video of the rich English eccentric who hurls old cars with a giant Trebuchet. That's a flying car, kind of.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimhelm Did you just confuse classic man and Big V, or were you prefacing your statement with 'Classic'?

So what you are saying is "wolf eht htiw og"?

I had a Pinto for a while. I didn't trust it on the ground. There's no way I would put one in the air.

The Digrs had a Pinto waaaaaaaay back yonder. Went to Pike's Peak in it. Throttle return spring (maybe accelerator pump) broke at the top of Pike's peak at the stables, we coasted alllllllllll the way to the bottom and right into a closed service station. There was a note on the door: "In case of emergency..." Popdigr called, and the guy came down and fixed us up.

Now, a flying Pinto...What could possibly go wrong?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigV They do tend to go up in flames

Unsafe At Any Speed Or Height.

My grandma was almost killed in a Pinto. She lived in our house for a few months, in a set-up hospital bed, recovering. Luckily, we got to keep her around a lot more years, may she now RIP.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPUCK That would be down in flames..