Wheel Stories from the Patent Files: Barely getting off the ground – the story of the RoadAir

Editor’s note: Ryan Chirnomas is a patent attorney and classic car enthusiast in Washington, D.C. In this series, he examines the intersection of those fields by looking at design patents—which protect aesthetics rather than functionality—of the forgotten and forgettable in automotive history.

Flying cars and jetpacks. That’s what the world was promised in the 1950s. Like many dreamers, Herbert Trautman did his best to make that dream a reality, and he got further than most. An aviation enthusiast, inventor and employee of Douglas Aircraft, Herb was the originator of a design patent on a “Combination Automobile and Airplane” (U.S. Design Patent No. D177445, issued 1956).

Unlike many flying car concepts over the years, Trautman’s design didn’t share much in common with a conventional airplane or with a conventional automobile. With a design that could perhaps be called a partial “flying wing,” his inspiration may have come from the XB-35 experimental flying-wing bomber, which also featured a “pusher” propeller arrangement.

XB-35. USAF public domain photo.

Of course, a full “flying wing” design would be far too wide for automotive applications, so Trautman cleverly packaged the wings such that they could be folded away for storage while driving, and folded out when it was time to fly.

His initial design was a tricycle, with two wheels up front and somewhat of a teardrop shape in side profile.

Amazingly, Trautman not only received a design patent, but by 1959, actually built a full-scale, 25-foot wingspan prototype, which he called the “RoadAir.” The RoadAir differed from the initial patent drawings in a few ways. A fourth wheel was added in front, presumably for extra stability when driving. The V-type stabilizers were replaced by a more conventional pair of uprights, joined by a horizontal stabilizer. Power came from a flat-four air-cooled Continental O-190 engine, putting out 85 horsepower, which drove both the propeller and the rear single wheel. Pedals in the cockpit controlled not only the rudders when airborne, but also the pair of wheels under the passenger compartment when driving. Herb hoped to sell the RoadAir for $10,000.

The Trautman RoadAir. Photo by Valder137.

Unfortunately, the RoadAir was a bit heavy at approximately 1,000 pounds, and perhaps the diminutive fold-away wings didn’t create quite enough lift. As the story goes, one day Trautman lifted the front-opening hatch and stepped into his creation for some tests on a California runway. After getting comfortable with the vehicle, he got it up to a speed of about 90 miles per hour and, as the poem goes, “slipped the surly bonds of earth.” Then he got wise. Apparently, Trautman had got about three feet off the ground, but felt himself losing control. He put the RoadAir down safely and immediately put it into storage, and the prototype vehicle never flew again.

Photo by Valder137.

As incredible as that story is, more amazing is that the RoadAir survives to this day. In the 1980s, the RoadAir was on display at Orange County Airport, on loan to the Tallmantz Collection, an aviation museum founded by two Hollywood stunt pilots. When the Tallmantz Collection was purchased by noted aerobatics pilot and collector Kermit Weeks in 1985, an elderly Mr. Trautman decided to sell his project for an undisclosed sum. It was later restored, and is now both roadworthy and probably about as airworthy as it ever was. Until recently, the RoadAir was displayed in the Fantasy of Flight museum in Florida, but will soon be coming home to California to be exhibited at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica.