56 of the Worst Cars of All Time

10. 1957 Waterman Aerobile

Waldo Waterman once heard aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss remark how he would like to drive and airplane away from the airfield. After hearing this Waterman went to work and spent years developing the Aerobile. In 1934 he flew a prototype, the “Arrowplane”, which was a high wing monoplane with tricycle wheels. The wings folded against the fuselage when it was on the ground, like an insect’s wings. The fact that the wings folded backwards is terrifying to think about, considering a failure in the air would just fold the wings back and plunge you to your death. Decades later in 1957 Waterman perfected his design, the Aerobile. No one wanted to tempt death by buying one of these machines, so the one working prototype resides in the Smithsonian as the first flying car.