The 1959 Curtiss-Wright Model 2500 Air-Car photos and video

[Guest T-Head]

The 1959 Curtiss-Wright Model 2500 Air-Car seen (above) was an off shoot of research and development for military uses by the company. They described the Air-Car as a completely new method of transportation that successfully met the needs for a vehicle that could travel over unobstructed land, across water or over surfaces that will not support wheeled vehicles. Because or its versatility, the Air-Car opened up a new era in the trans-portation of passengers and cargo in a wide variety of industrial uses.

On The Old Motor we have many more photos along with all the specs of this neat "Car" and a period video showing it in action

[Guest]

Pretty neat, the concept goes back to the early 1700's, but the most famous are these;

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Hovercraft_leaving_Ryde.JPG/800px-Hovercraft_leaving_Ryde.JPG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/LCAC_19970620.jpg/750px-LCAC_19970620.jpg

[jscheib]

T-Head,

Thanks for posting these. In 1963-4 I saw this (two, I believe) while on a tour of the CW plant in New Jersey. I wonder if the prototypes ever survived. They would be an interesting piece of history.

I recall a story that they wanted to demonstrate to possible investors ands got to close to a water puddle in the parking lot and it made a mess. Not sure if that was true, or not, but I think the concept was just to big and others built the hovercraft. I also had a trip on the hovercrafts in use in the English Channel for ferry dservice and I am most certain that our military still uses these as landing crafts. But the autocar was different as noted elsewhere regarding the drive/steering method of fans.

John

[WQ59B]

Both cars have survived : one is in a military museum in Virginia, in at least presentable cosmetic shape:

 

the other car is located in New Jersey & was up for sale on eBay late in '15, very much unrestored :

 

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The CW 2500 is confusing to me, as there are at least 5 or 6 stylistic variants in vintage pics. Not sure why, in such a short period of marketing these, that so many very minor stylistic changes were made. I accept the consensus that there were only 2 built, but why so much twiddling :