Moulton B. "Molt" Taylor (September 29, 1912 – November 16, 1995) was an American

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

famed for his work designing, developing, and manufacturing on a small scale one of the first practical

flying car A flying car or roadable aircraft is a type of vehicle which can function both as a road vehicle and as an aircraft. As used here, this includes vehicles which drive as motorcycles when on the road. The term "flying car" is also sometimes u ...

s, the

Aerocar Aerocar International's Aerocar (often called the Taylor Aerocar) was an American roadable aircraft designed and built by Moulton Taylor in Longview, Washington in 1949. Although six examples were made, it never entered large-scale production. I ...

Life and career

Taylor was born in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

and studied engineering at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. After graduation, he was accepted into the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

as a pilot during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and spent much of the war working on the Navy's Gorgon missile program, for which he was awarded the

Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight ...

medal. Shortly after the war, he designed his first flying car, the

, and founded

Aerocar International Aerocar International was a roadable aircraft manufacturer, founded by Moulton Taylor in Longview, Washington. Work continued until the late 1960s, when changing legislation made Taylor's designs impractical. Aircraft * Aerocar I (1949) – S ...

Longview, Washington Longview is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, United States. It is the principal city of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cowlitz County. Longview's population was 37,818 at the time of the 2 ...

, to develop, manufacture and market the aircraft. Taylor came up with the idea for the Aerocar in 1946, after meeting inventor Robert Edison Fulton Jr. and noticing the flaws in his Airphibian

roadable aircraft A flying car or roadable aircraft is a type of vehicle which can function both as a road vehicle and as an aircraft. As used here, this includes vehicles which drive as motorcycles when on the road. The term "flying car" is also sometimes u ...

design. To date, Taylor's Aerocar remains the closest that any such design came to actual mass production, but eventually only six models were built. Although Taylor continued to push for the viability of the flying car throughout the rest of his life, he also designed a number of only slightly more conventional designs for the

homebuilt aircraft Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...

market, including the

Taylor Coot __NOTOC__ The Taylor Coot is a two-seat homebuilt amphibious aircraft designed by Moulton Taylor, famous for his flying car designs. When a market for the Aerocar did not emerge, Taylor turned to more conventional designs. The Coot was nonethele ...

amphibian and the

Aerocar IMP __NOTOC__ The Aerocar IMP (for Independently Made Plane) was an unconventional light aircraft designed by Moulton Taylor and marketed for homebuilding. The IMP and its various derivatives were developed by Taylor's Aerocar business after he ha ...

family of light sport planes (which consists of the

Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

Micro Micro may refer to: Measurement * micro- (μ), a metric prefix denoting a factor of 10−6 Places * Micro, North Carolina, town in U.S. People * DJ Micro, (born Michael Marsicano) an American trance DJ and producer *Chii Tomiya (都宮ちい ...

and

Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. '' ...

IMP). In a 1979 article about the future of flight past the year 2000, Taylor somewhat inaccurately predicted widespread use of flying autos and

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

s, however he did accurately predict the mainstream use of carbon materials for lightweight spars and wing ribs. He also gave frequent help and advice to the

Klapmeier brothers The Klapmeier brothers, Alan Lee Klapmeier (born October 6, 1958) and Dale Edward Klapmeier (born July 2, 1961), are retired American aircraft designers and aviation entrepreneurs who together founded the Cirrus Aircraft, Cirrus Design Corporati ...

throughout the 1980s on their first design, the pusher-propeller homebuilt Cirrus VK-30.

Awards and honors

He was awarded the

Edward Longstreth Medal The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

from the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

in 1960. In 1975, he received the

Experimental Aircraft Association The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States. Since its inception, it has grown internationally with over 200,000 members and nearly 1,000 chapt ...

(EAA) Dr. August Raspet Memorial Award for "significant advancements in the field of light aircraft design". Six days before his death in 1995, Taylor was inducted into the EAA Hall of Fame. The

Kelso-Longview Regional Airport Southwest Washington Regional Airport is a city-owned public-use airport located two nautical miles (3.7 km) southeast of the central business district of Kelso, in Cowlitz County, Washington, United States. The airport was renamed in 2009, ...

is also known as the "Molt Taylor Field".

References

External links

Patent Nr. 2.767.939 at Google patents, granted 23 October 1956

1990 article about Moulton Taylor in ''The Seattle Times''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Moulton 1912 births 1995 deaths Military personnel from Portland, Oregon American aerospace engineers University of Washington College of Engineering alumni People from Longview, Washington 20th-century American engineers Engineers from Oregon Engineers from Washington (state) Aircraft designers United States Navy personnel of World War II