Inventor comes to Seattle with dreams of a flying machine

In a bland upstairs conference room inside a little mall just north of University Village, Sam Bousfield touted a dream Saturday: a flying car.

Standing before a sleek red model that looked more like a cute little flying Ferrari than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, he conjured up a vision of the coming of the personal air vehicle Jetson age.

"When artists dream of the future, you always see that traffic moves in the air and people walk on the ground," said Bousfield, an architect by training who was in Seattle to drum up support for his project. "This is certainly a step in that direction."

Behind him on a video screen, his little red dart took off from an aircraft carrier to a James Bond-style soundtrack and flew smoothly aloft.

Never mind that the model was made out of foam and that the video was computer-generated.

Bousfield's flying car has never actually flown. Perhaps it never will.

Still, a trickle of people filed into the conference room, reeled in by word-of- mouth and personal contacts, interested to learn more about Bousfield's flying car concept — dubbed Switchblade, because when driving on the ground its wings fold forward and disappear into the chassis like the blade of a pocketknife.

Gary and Cindy Sjoblom, Seattle real-estate agents, said they were there as potential investors. "We came to check it out," said Gary Sjoblom.

Don Davis, a Boeing mechanic, showed up thinking he might find future work helping Bousfield's customers assemble the vehicle, which will come in a do-it-yourself kit.

Brian Myers, of Renton, was there with his family, interested perhaps in buying.

Prospective customers are required now to put down a $2,000 deposit. The "target price" of the basic kit is $60,000. But the owner must add an engine and avionics that will bring the cost to about $85,000. Then it must be assembled.

Such self-built kit airplanes, officially classified as "experimental," do not need to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Steve Gerritson, a business- development manager with enterpriseSeattle, a local nonprofit economic-development organization, was there because if this thing takes off he'd like to see the kits built in Washington state.

Also attending was Sebastian Finocchiaro, of Fox Island, Pierce County, who is on Bousfield's "advisory board."

Finocchiaro said he'll provide Bousfield contract consulting on details such as how to set up a retail distributorship for his aircraft and how to create a warranty program that will work internationally for overseas customers.

But that seems to be getting a little ahead of reality.

Bousfield outlined a development and rollout schedule to make Boeing envious. He says his Switchblade will fly this summer, and he intends to deliver the first kits to customers by year's end.

The only tangible thing Bousfield has to show right now is a prototype that looks nothing like the sleek red model.

For one thing it has no wings. And no skin.

A skeletal frame made from steel tubes and set on three wheels, it looks like a dune buggy. It's done a few road tests up to 100 mph.

According to Bousfield, this "ground prototype" will within months emerge from its tests, sprout wings and fly.

One huge problem that must be overcome is that, generally speaking, a good car makes a lousy airplane, and vice versa.

Bousfield enthusiastically points out that his concept made the cover of last month's Popular Mechanics.

Yet the magazine piece quotes Austin Meyer, creator of flight-simulator software used by Bousfield, as skeptical.

"It could be flyable," Meyer said of the Switchblade. "But the flying characteristics would be poor."

As befits a marketer of dreams, Bousfield is from California. By chance, at his home airport of Auburn, Calif., a real flying car, made in Washington state, occasionally takes off.

The "aerocar" that flies out of Auburn is one of only six that were built by Moulton Taylor, of Longview, Wash., in the 1950s and '60s, and the only one that still flies. The last of the six is on display at Seattle's Museum of Flight.

Taylor's flying car looked exactly like it sounds, a little car with wings. Back in 1966 or '67, he can't be sure which, Seattle Times photographer Greg Gilbert flew over Longview in one, with Taylor at the wheel.

Gilbert, then a 19-year-old getting his start in photojournalism, recalls that it was rather cramped, smaller than a Volkswagen Beetle, and very noisy.

"It took off rather quickly. It was light," Gilbert said. "But in the air it was very solid, very smooth. It didn't feel rickety."

Yet Taylor's dream never became more than a novelty.

The Ford Motor Company explored his flying car's potential in the 1970s, but backed off because government safety regulations for both air and road made mass production impractical.

In 1982, as his business folded, Taylor told The Seattle Times: "I've lived with this thing for 30 years and I've never been able to get it across."

Still, the dream lives on.

Bill Husa, co-owner of Orion Technologies of Snohomish, develops custom airplanes and did the wing design for the Switchblade. He describes Bousfield as "very earnest" and intent on making his concept work.

"Like everybody else in this business, he's nuts," said Husa, laughing. "That goes without saying."

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com