the abbreviated reign of “neon” leon spinks

Lesson #20
OCCASIONALLY LOOK UP
FROM YOUR WORKBENCH
the quixotic quest for the fl ying car
As they have for generations, aviation wonks and Pop u lar
Mechanics subscribers continue working toward the Holy
Grail of private transportation: the flying car. Never
mind that nobody needs one anymore.
THE LAKEWOOD YACHT Club in Seabrook, Texas, thirty minutes
south of Houston, sponsors an annual “Keels & Wheels” benefi t during
which the local swells are invited to display their vintage wooden boats
and exotic antique cars for the benefit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater
Houston. Since 1995, lovingly restored classics have littered the club
grounds and the palm tree–lined inner harbor at the eastern end of Clear
Lake, just three miles from the NASA Space Center, during a weekend of
elegance, wealth, and Texas hospitality.
It says a lot about the enduring nature of an American obsession
that the biggest buzz during the 2003 event was not the collection of
wood-hulled Chris-Craft boats or stunning array of gleaming chariots
from industrial age America, but the appearance of Ed Sweeney, owner of
what he describes as the world’s only working flying automobile. Those
attending the event on Saturday looked skyward and saw Sweeney’s restored
1950s-era “Aerocar” pass overhead, marveling at what looked like
a cross between a pug- ugly Eu rope an subcompact and a green-and-yellow
dragonfly. Hundreds of them gathered around the Aerocar as it squatted