The First Flying Cars

The Germans were the first to create a flying car. A brainchild of Hitler himself, the Nazi government planned to unveil the invention at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. The prototype car still had many problems though. When, on the night before the opening ceremonies, Hitler was told that the car might not work as promised, he flew into a rage and canceled the performance. The flying car itself was already in the Olympic stadium, ready to be revealed in the morning. After hearing of the cancellation, technicians decided to try to fly the craft out, resulting in the accident pictured here. The pilot escaped uninjured, climbing down the metal framework of the tower. This photo was taken by Marizio Girolami, an Italian photographer under contract with the government to photograph the games. Girolami suspected that something was afoot when what appeared to be a Volkswagen Beetle rocketed through the air and smashed itself into one of the stadium towers. He gave the photo to an American friend, who did not believe his story. The American (who's identity is unknown at this time) turned the photo over to the American government, where it was dismissed as a hoax. This photo was being used as a book mark in a volume of American poetry when it was discovered only two years ago. The man who found it, Raymond Boyd, immediately began trying to learn more about these strange machines and vowed to share their story with the world.

Entire contents copyright ©1998 Travis Getz, all rights reserved.