The Bizarre History of The Flying Car

The dream of driving a flying car is something most of us associate with the Jetsons or Star Wars, but in reality their conceptions begin way way back. In fact, William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow patented the flying car design seen above in 1841.. over 60 years before human flight was possible.    

Since then, designers have worked tirelessly to come up with a mode from private air travel that the common man can utilize, and now Popular Mechanics has provided the world with a brief visual history of flying cars. 

The series was inspired by an Esquire article by Steven Kotler about his new book, Tomorrowland: Our Journey from Science Fiction to Science Fact and delves deep into the imaginative appeal and commercial reality of everyday flying machines.