Curtiss Autoplane

The Curtiss Autoplane, also called the Curtiss Model 11, was a roadable aircraft that Glenn Curtiss invented in 1917 and is widely considered the first attempt at one. It was a triplane built from Model L trainer wings with a small foreplane on the nose, an aluminium body shaped like a Model T with an enclosed three-seat cabin, a twin-boom tail and a four-blade pusher propeller driven through shafts and belts by a 100 hp Curtiss OXX engine. The wings and tail could be detached to use it as a car on its four-wheel undercarriage. Shown in New York in February 1917, it made only a few short hops, and America's entry into the First World War in April 1917 ended development.