Glacial Errata, No. 85

One

I remain obsessed with the story of the Mizar company, a start-up from the early 1970s that designed flying cars. The ideal was simple: retrofit an existing car (they used Ford Pintos, because they were light), onto which you could fit a wing assembly with an airplane engine. You drive your car to the airport, add your Mizar assembly, and head directly down the runway—no need to park or deal with all the extra hassle. And when you get there, unclip your wings and drive off!

Designed by Henry Smolinski, the Mizar was basically a section of a Cessna Skymaster (the wings, tail, and rear engine) that you could clip on to any number of cars, supposedly.

Two

First off: yes, this was real. And yes, this thing did fly. Sort of.

Basically, the FAA had cleared them initially only to do “taxi tests,” which were high-speed runs to test the safety of the car. Using the airport in Oxnard, California, they would go down the runway until the car took flight—usually only gaining about 10-20 feet off the ground—and then bring it back down again.

One on occasion, the Mizar achieved too much lift, and it wasn’t possible to safely land it in time. Rather than risk crashing into a fence at the end of the runway, the pilot chose to land it immediately beyond the airfield—in a bean patch.

Three

There’s a couple of promotional videos from the time floating around on Youtube; the one from Galpin Motors (who were going to be Mizar’s partner in selling the cars themselves) is pretty fascinating.

The film quality of that one is pretty degraded though. Personally, I like it! But if you want a clearer video of the Mizar in flight, here’s this German one:

Four

On September 11, 1973, Smolinski and pilot Harold Blake took the Mizar up in a test flight that ended in disaster. According to eyewitness reports, they once again overshot the runway, and then tried to circle back around to land. During the turn, the right wing strut failed, or the wing itself folded—but either way, the Mizar crashed, killing both men.

Five

I first read about this story in this piece from 2011 by Paul Niedermeyer, which is highly informative, has more of the story if you want, and has a number of images (some of which I’ve reused here). But when I went back to put this newsletter together, I was surprised to note that, in the years since Niedermeyer published it, the comment section has filled up with eyewitnesses of the Mizar’s early flights and that fatal crash. I try to keep these newsletters short, but these are some fascinating accounts, which I’ve edited for length (and fixed a few typos).

Richard: “I’ll never forget that day. I was working in the news department of an Oxnard, CA radio station. I had just sat down for dinner when the lights above the table began to flicker. With my previous experience, that usually was an indication of a car striking a electrical pole.
“I got on the phone with Oxnard PD and was told there was a plane crash on West Gonzales Road which was very close to my home. It was only a few minutes when I arrived at the scene in my Ford Pinto station wagon. The crash was just to the right side of the road. As I walked to the site I noticed, in the middle of the road, a rather mangled blue-colored Ford air filter cover. It did not cross my mind that this was from the crash until a OF Captain told me it was the flying Pinto car. Wow..only a few days before my father and I had spotted it in a hangar at the airport and got a real close look at it. It was really amazing to see!
“I still have a tape recording from an eye-witness who was working in the lemon fields.
He told me he watched the plane as it was descending out of control through the tops of nearby eucalyptus trees landing close to his pickup truck which was damaged by the ensuing fire. I’ll will never forget when he pulled out a pen from his shirt pocket and nervously stated, ‘I got the guy’s pen…I got the guy’s pen!’”

William M: “I read your account and I just wanted to say I lived in Port Hueneme and on August 26, 1973 I was driving on Pleasant Valley Rd which runs parallel to Camarillo Airport when I looked over and saw that White Ford Pinto flying about 20 ft over the runway. I was driving and looking over trying to comprehend what I was looking at. My girlfriend had a Pinto, but it didn’t fly, Anyway about three quarter of the way along the runway East Pleasant Valley Rd veers left to head into Oxnard and Port Hueneme.
I told my family about what I saw and they thought I was nuts. No internet so you just chalk it up to I saw what I saw. From the accounts I’ve read the plane on that day crashed in a bean field at the end of the runway. I never saw that accident as the road turned away from the Airport.
“Two week later the Sunday Oxnard Press Courier paper had a story about the Pinto crashing. I turned 18 on September 12 so even though those two men died, I felt vindicated showing my brothers there was actually a flying Pinto.”

Carl: “I remember that day as well. I was a young controller in the tower. I’d worked dayshift that day so it wasn’t until the next morning when I went to work that I heard all the details of it. They worked for several months doing ‘high speed taxi tests’ with it. First with the 210hp engine. It would struggle off the ground remaining in ground effect. Their Letter of Agreement did not allow them to fly it (away from the airport) at that time. They would climb about 5-10 feet then reduce power and it would “descend like a Pinto!” (AKA: aerodynamic rock) Next was to install the 300hp engine and continue tests. The day they landed in the bean field off the end of the runway they had remained airborne too long and couldn’t get it down on the runway. Not wanting to punch through the fence they flew it beyond the fence and landed it in the field.
“The fateful flight was not (according to tower records as I recall) supposed to be a ‘flight.’ The company President was up to check on things. The flight was supposed to only be a taxi test. As I recall now, they got too high and couldn’t land straight ahead. Instead they climbed to about 100 feet and made a closed right traffic pattern…. They were about mid-field downwind when the wing folded… Game Over. ‘Rumor Control’ had it the strut mounts had only been tack welded in place and a failed weld resulted in the failed wing.
“Had they landed safely, it was my understanding that Flight Standards would have violated them for not adhering to the Letter of Agreement, plus flying over populated area as they would have done when the got close to Ventura Road and right base.”

(Also in the comments are several of Smolinski’s children, one of whom mentions that a book was in the works. I can’t find any record of it actually being published though.)