What ended the Aerocar?

Short answer

A lack of orders: the deal with Ling-Temco-Vought for mass production required 500 orders, and Taylor gathered only half that number, so the production plans fell through. He never found an aircraft or car maker to mass-produce it, and Ford dropped the project.

Published: November 1, 2026 · Updated: November 1, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

Fulton Airphibian FA-3-101 - DPLA - 035aa7 efc1b581d93dd5da30050f0415 (page 11)

A deal that hinged on 500 orders

Taylor reached a deal with Ling-Temco-Vought for mass production provided he secured 500 orders; having reached only half that figure, the production plans came to an end. Despite public interest and media attention, he never got an aircraft manufacturer or a car maker to mass-produce the Aerocar. Only six examples were ever built.

Ford's rejection

New government safety and environmental regulations, together with concerns about the possibility of thousands of ordinary people taking off over large population centers, were enormous problems, and Ford decided to drop the project.

What the Aerocar had already proven

The Aerocar had earned its airworthiness certificate after nearly eight years, about $750,000, and roughly 700 hours in the air. On the road it logged about 20,000 miles of testing and met every traffic code then in existence. The folding wings allowed a switch from road vehicle to flight mode in five minutes and with just one person. Across the six examples, road mileage exceeded 200,000 miles (321,865 km) and flight time topped 5,000 hours. Taylor had begun designing a roadable aircraft in 1946, and on a trip to Delaware he met inventor Robert E. Fulton, Jr., creator of the earlier roadable Airphibian.