Flying Car

Maverick, the Flying Car

This is not an April Fool’s joke. A genuine flying car has been developed and tested and is ready for production in 2011.

Steve Saint is the son of Nate Saint, the missionary pilot who was killed by the Auca Indians along with 4 companion missionaries in Ecuador in January 1956. (For the story, see Jim Elliot and the Auca Indians.)

Growing up and serving in Ecuador, Steve recognized the need for reliable, versatile transportation in rugged frontier areas.

He helped design and develop the Maverick, a flying car or drivable airplane. It’s a car and drivable on normal roads. It’s an off-road buggy for transport over rugged terrain. It transforms quickly in about 5 minutes into a flying machine.

The Maverick “flies like a car.” Fly-by-wire aerial controls are integrated with ground controls so that flying the craft is like driving in the air. An innovative wing deployment system facilitates quick conversion from driving to flying. A “magic button” will soon trigger an automatic telescoping system to deploy the flight apparatus automatically.

Here are two videos demonstrating its off-road, road, and air use.

 

 
In July 2010, to prove the Maverick’s viability as a car, Steve Saint drove the Maverick 1500 miles from Dunnellon, FL to Oshkosh, WI to attend AirVenture 2010. The “car” got 25 mpg on the highway driving 65-85 mph with the propeller installed. It went as fast as 93 mph.

Here is Saint’s fascinating blog, pictures, and videos of the journey: Oshkosh Journey.

 
Click here for the AirVenture 2010 Maverick video.

I-TEC (Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Center) and Maverick LSA hope to start producing the Maverick commercially in 2011 to subsidize missionary use of the vehicle.

Soli Deo Gloria.

©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith” (Jude 1:3)
Friday April 1, 2011 A.D.

Read my March 2011 Bible-Science newspaper column
The Genesis Code.

Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow. (James 1:17)