Hey there, Fixers! After a couple of weeks worth of Historical Thursdays that wandered off the beaten path and chartered territories unknown, we’ll be once again returning to the golden age of WTF machinery. As we know, some of the finest and most luxurious automobiles deathtraps ever made existed when the vehicle was still relatively new to the world. The French, as they tend to do, decided to up the ante by combining the two hottest trends of the time, light aircraft and cars. Result: The Leyat Propeller cars.
Before the world completely gave up on the notion of flying cars, manufacturer Leyat decided that we can fly without ever leaving the ground; all we need is an overpowered engine and a dangerously light chassis. Sporting an 8 horsepower radial plane engine and an over-sized wooden propeller, it took a while for Leyat to come up with a relatively safe design. Originally planned as a 3-wheeler, this idea was scrapped when the prototype crashed over, and over and over.
It isn’t clear whether the plan was to make it as uncomfortable as a plane as possible, but it sure seemed that way. Passengers were seated behind each other and steering was given to the rear wheels. Plywood was the material of choice, resulting in a weight of under 600 pounds.
When taken to a racetrack south of Paris, the owners were able to hit a blazing 106mph, a speed unheard of for publicly available vehicles. But despite the insane design and speed of this mad French creation, its life was short lived. Leyat built the vehicles from 1919 to 1927 and was only able to sell 30 of them. The company continued on as a plane manufacturer until the end of World War II.
Pictures and Information courtesy of: Helica and Wikipedia.
As always, if YOU have an idea for a Historical Thursday, let me know at thereifixedit@gmail.com
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Hey, it had an acceleration which was independent on the surface it was on, may not accelerate as quickly on asphalt, but on ice would kick ass of most cars we got now!
Include more modern safety features, and it would look like an airboat with wheels. For that matter, why not just make an airboat with wheels? It would give you an amphibious car. Since the wheels aren’t driven, you don’t need complex seals. Airboats have large rudders in the exhaust of the fan, so the vehicle can turn on any surface.
Damn! Google tells me that it is US patent # 6364723
A pair of fans mounted sideways and at opposite ends of the vehicle would allow the vehicle to turn in place.
If we replace the wheels and flotation with a skirt and a big blower, then we end up with a hovercraft. Fill it with eels, and we’re done.
I think you mean “would slice the ass of most cars” – at least, that’s how I picture the inevitable rear-ender turning out.
Yes, fair accelerations regardless of the surface, but steering and breaking still dependent of it. Problem: You are not aware that you got no traction until you need it, and by then, it’s to late…
I guess they didn’t have pedestrians where this was going to drive. Looks like a tort lawyer’s dream.
Would never work today. Forget lawyers. The slick haired metrosexuals would have their hair mussed by the draft.
I bet two of these in a collision would be a horrendous sight.
I wonder if the propeller cleared the bugs out of your way, or simply accelerated them before they hit you in the face?
It would be a blend.
(Waits for the groans when the pun kicks in)
gravel roads…….ouch
horse manure on the road……….ewwwww
pedestrians……….OH MY GOD
That’s not a radial engine, it’s horizontally opposed.
look again ………it’s a 5 cyl. radial
did you see how the inner wheel lifted in the curve?
And just think… if they’d slapped some wings on the thing we might have had our Flying Cars of the Future decades ago!
So what happens when you hit some old women (at 10mph) crossing the street?
Old woman puree.
The kind you find at a secondhand store?
She just slams her with groceries overfilled bag at the propeller ant then the airbag goes off!
Nice reference!
I would think the propeller would interfere with the driver’s field of vision. I would have stuck it on the back.
Ummm, how do you back it up?
Turn the propeller in the other direction. You could use this to brake as well, but it probably wouldn’t be very stable.
why, oh why hadn’t they placed the propeller behind the passengers?
Propeller engine on a car? – fail.
But the russians actually had an operational armoured sleigh in ww2.
So this idea is kinda two sided.
I bet it cut quite a swath.
Ok, so let’s say we put this on a treadmill…
Solves the problem of the homeless guy always trying to clean my windshield at the long traffic lights.
I wonder how many bugs would get through that propeller. “Look, ma, I can fly down the road with my mouth open… GAK!”
Hey, so far you have said about what would happen if anything LIVING were to collide with it.
But, what would happen if a rock (which had been thrown up by the wheels of another vehicle) hit the propeller? Just think of how fast it would be going before it hit you in the face.
Screw the rock! How fast are the pieces of propeller that fracture off because of said rock going to be going when they hit you in the face?
The wonders of French technology…There’s actually a car museum in Nashville that has one of these, along with the amphibious car that was mentioned, and about 200 more.
How did I not know about this?? I’m putting a meat grinder attachment on my car, too!
“Jacque, you’re going to put an eye out with that.”
It looks like this car came from Akbar’s discount car store (NOT deathtraps)
I thought I was the last 8 bit theater hold out
I see potential… Put the propeller behind a cowling/ airfoil system that still pulls in air, but deposits it behind the car, so that when you hit something, you dont make meat and metal sloppy joe. Mebbe step up the horsepower about to 10-15, make the car out of fiberglass reinforced with aluminum…. *decides to think on the design* I SO see a potential for this being safe, viable, and just all out cool and gas efficient….
Swap the prop for a Jet and I’m on board.
Yeah, it’s got pretty much all the issues of a conventional gear aircraft – but at least an airplane spends more time actually flying than crawling around on the ground.
Everybody who has flown a taildragger knows how much of a pain it is to control the f**kers on the ground – they have three wheels, and you steer the rear one. It’s unbelievably easy to screw up, specially during high-speed ground maneuvers, so it’s amazing they got this car to reach over 100 mph.
Anyway, though, it’s an awesome design for a car. It could work with some planning, and it would be totally badass. I already love propellers; I would surely buy a car if it was equipped with one.
TL;DR
are you kidding? its like 3 paragraphs. kids these days scare me. the world is definitely getting dumber
They will get to the point where the word “The” will be too long. I weep for the next few generations.
Of course, your commute to work would be fairly quick. Anyone who looked in their rear-view mirror, and saw that coming up from behind, would get out of the way as quickly as possible.
Orville and Wilbur’s first attempt at the aireoplane. Later one of them got an idea to add something called a wing.
Les French t’emmerdent coco.
You would think after building one or two of these things, someone would have come to the conclusion that a pusher prop would have drastically improved this dreadful design. It still would have been awful, but magnitudes less so at least.
including a stiff breeze to the head
I’m suprised no-one’s mentioned the awesome modern design in the outer chassis. They’ve used primitive ‘vortex energy’. Basically, consider a water drop, falling at its most efficient going large rounded end first, slim tail end last. The wide front end gently pushes air to the sides, which rapidly accelerate around the tapered end and actually propel the entire vehicle with almost free energy. Using a Dyson Air Multiplier would make this design even more efficient and perfectly safe. Wait, should I have patented this idea first?