Air travel has been revolutionized over the last century by the development of faster, more efficient aircraft. However, that innovation hasn’t just come from big aerospace companies or government funding—it’s also come from car manufacturers. To help you understand just how far automakers have gone in their quest to build planes, here are five examples of cars that were once built into airplanes:
Piaggio P180 Avanti
The Piaggio P180 Avanti is an Italian twin-engine turboprop executive aircraft built by Piaggio Aeronautica. It was first flown in 1986 and delivered to its first customer in 1988.
The second-generation model (designated as the P180B) first flew in 2002 and was certified for sale later that year; it was followed by a third-generation variant (designated as the P180C) which made its maiden flight on 30 September 2013, was certified in late 2014, and entered service with BizJet International.
Bugatti 100p
The Bugatti 100p was an aircraft built by the French car manufacturer Bugatti during World War II. It was their first and only attempt at building an aircraft, which they did to promote their brand. They started work on it in 1940, but progress was slow due to the war. Finally, they were able to start testing it in 1943 after designing a propeller that could withstand high speeds.
The 100p first flew on 25 October 1944 with test pilot Jean Daninos at its controls. During this flight it reached 302 mph (486 km/h), making it the fastest aircraft ever flown at that time. However, this record was broken when Chuck Yeager broke Mach 1 (the sound barrier) on 14 October 1947 while flying a Bell X-1 rocket plane with Air Force Captain Joe Walker as his co-pilot. The next year Georges Pelletan flew the 100p faster than Mach 1 for 5 minutes before returning safely home.
The 100p held several other speed records: On 27 April 1946 Georges Pelletan took off from Paris in order to break them all when he reached 2,205 km/h (1,379 mph) over Paris; also on 27 April 1946 he set another record by reaching a 10-kilometer altitude above ground level which was then beaten three weeks later by Jules Verne who used another one of these aircraft called “Oiseau de Feu” (“Bird Of Fire”).
Fiat G.80
Fiat for the Italian aircraft manufacturer and G.80 was the designation of a twin-engine, twin-boom, light tactical transport aircraft built by Aeritalia (since merged into Alenia). The aircraft was originally designed to replace both the Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Lockheed P-3 Orion in service with the Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare), as well as other NATO countries; however, after its first flight on 19 October 1974, it failed to win any orders due to high operating costs. It remained in service until July 2002 when replaced by the Alenia C-27J Spartan.
Mitsubishi MU-2
A small aircraft that was designed to be a low-cost transport vehicle, the Mitsubishi MU-2 was first introduced in 1967. The aircraft was specifically built to be affordable, reliable, and easy to fly.
The new design incorporated several features that had been proven over time on other aircraft types – such as the wing flaps and slats that allowed for steep descents or slow landings on short runways. However, one major difference from previous designs was its engine placement; unlike most other airplanes which placed their engines between two wings (and thus were called twin-engine) this one had its engines mounted directly under each wing instead of being positioned between them (making it a single-engine). This configuration made for improved maneuverability at high speeds while also reducing drag caused by having extra structures sticking out from underneath your plane!
Rolls-Royce Eagle
The Rolls-Royce Eagle is a twin-engine turbojet STOL utility aircraft designed and built in the UK. It was developed from the Avro 730 VSTOL research aircraft, which first flew in 1964. The Rolls-Royce Eagle is a two-seat aircraft with a low wing, fixed tricycle landing gear, and powered by two Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca Adour Mk 101 turbofans mounted side by side on pylons above the wings. It was designed for use as an executive transport but could also be used for emergency medical evacuation or search and rescue missions (SAR).
Built at Woodford Aerodrome near Manchester during 1966–67 to meet a requirement of the British Ministry of Defence (MOD), the prototype first flew on 25 July 1967 with Geoffrey Pike at the controls. The second prototype flew on 9 February 1968 with Bill Bedford at the controls; trials continued through to 1970 when it became clear that no production orders would be forthcoming from either Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) or Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA).
Never underestimate the power of car manufacturers to diversify into the aircraft industry! Car manufacturers are capable of building aircraft and they have more money, time, and experience than you do. Car manufacturers also have a lot of engineers, which makes them great at building planes. They even have all sorts of resources at their disposal—from factories to offices and all kinds of other facilities—that make it easy for them to build airplanes on top of cars or vice versa.
The bottom line is that if you plan on competing with an established car manufacturer in terms of creating your own airplane design then odds are pretty good that you’re going to get crushed by their high-end models which will likely outperform yours by miles per hour or kilometers per hour depending on how fast each individual model can go (some may even be able to break through barriers).
Car manufacturers have proven themselves to be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to building airplanes, especially in the post-war era. With such diverse and impressive designs as the Piaggio P180 Avanti or Bugatti 100p, we can only wonder what will happen next!
In the early days of aviation, most manufacturers got into some sort of aeronautics business naturally following the advent of their respective mainstay products. The overwhelming majority of aircraft in WWI were made by civilians, often in their spare time, so there was no need for contracts or government regulation. This meant that most manufacturers were involved with some kind of aeronautics business one way or another.
One might think that there’s little connection between the car manufacturing business and the aircraft manufacturing business, but there’s actually a great deal of similarity. Aircraft are designed to be fast, sleek, and attractive to customers. And that makes sense—whether you’re dealing with planes or with cars, you want your product to look good. It suggests high quality, which is a good thing for both buyers and sellers.
