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This Cool Promotional Video For the Mizar Air Car Otherwise Known As The Flying Pinto Is 1970s Cool – See It Take Off And Land


This Cool Promotional Video For the Mizar Air Car Otherwise Known As The Flying Pinto Is 1970s Cool – See It Take Off And Land

There isn’t a whole lot of good video showing the infamous Mizar Air Car in flight. The Mizar Air Car is probably better known as the “Flying Pinto” because the R&D unit was a Pinto. The company had plans to make their air car system modular to fit many makes and models but the Pinto was used as the first development mule. The “car” did actually fly and was a fully realized version of a machine that company executives thought could be sold in volume and make a bunch of money. The problem, as it so often is when your company founder and chief engineer are both killed on a demonstration flight, is that people lose interest and your brilliant idea then becomes some sort of sad joke. This promotion film was made during happier times and contains no crash or wreckage footage. This was the reel that the company was shipping around to education people about the vehicle and its benefits. It was also used to tout the fact that the Mizar guys had hooked up with famous Galpin Ford in California to be their lead distributor. None of it ever came to fruition.

As we understand it, the flying Pinto had actually crash landed twice before the fatal crash that all but ended the company’s hopes of developing a flying car for the common man. The major flaw in the design came back to the wing struts each time there was an incident. With a test pilot on board, the strut failures resulted in a couple of hard landings but no injuries. We’re not sure if it was the struts themselves of where they were actually fixed to the body of the car that was the problem but it was the ultimate undoing of the whole thing.

This video was a sales tool, touting all the benefits of the flying car, the number of people who owned planes, the number of airports it could be used at, etc. The most hilarious scene is one where a guy is “flying” over a packed highway and he looks down with s smirk, giving the impression that he’s way ahead of the game and the people in traffic are just some sheeple who weren’t smart enough to score themselves a flying Pinto. When you apply logic to that moment, it seems as though he’s the dumbass because unless he has a personal runway to set that thing down at with a hangar waiting to house the “airplane” portion of the program, he’s got an hour of work and THEN the traffic jam to sit in. Note to everyone, the flying car isn’t EVER going to be a volume proposition.

Had it not killed people, it would have been pretty neat to see how many of these kits sold. Undoubtedly it would have been low volume but we bet their value would be immense today.

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE THE MIZAR AIR CAR IN ACTION DURING THIS PROMOTIONAL FILM FROM THE 1970S –


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4 thoughts on “This Cool Promotional Video For the Mizar Air Car Otherwise Known As The Flying Pinto Is 1970s Cool – See It Take Off And Land

  1. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    This should have been called the Kamikaze!

    The Pinto was well known for spontaneously frying its occupants when the gas tank exploded on hitting minor bumps in the road – so would YOU land one?

    Brown trousers, anybody?

  2. Austin Grant

    “Note to everyone, the flying car isn’t EVER going to be a volume proposition.”

    So, you can predict the future huh? You are basing your opinion on the perceived fact that flying cars will ALWAYS require runways.Once the R&D perfects VTOL or SVTOL in smaller scale, your opinion will become false.

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