Innovation

The first flying car sketches appeared as early as the 1910s, and by the 1930s, the idea had taken off, at least on paper.

Henry Ford is said to have declared in 1940: “Mark my word: a combination airplane and motorcar is coming.” We’ve been marking those words ever since, but mostly from behind the wheel, still stuck in traffic. Every few decades, someone rolls out a shiny prototype and the headline writers dust off the same phrase: “Just like The Jetsons.”