Straight from the Pinto's mouth:
Last week while Pintony and Cookieboy were out here, they made quite the discovery. I was glad to be a small part of that and am very happy to post a great story if intrigue, confusion, amazement and finally redemption... gee, I make it sound good don't I....the story of the MIZAR, or at least the one that never flew and thus never crashed. We also have permission to post the Mizar video from Galpin Ford on youtube!
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From Cookieboy:
Hey Alberto, I have my Cookieboystoys.com website updated with info on the Mizar Flying Pinto Pintony and I found and purchased plus a couple pictures for you.
see my home page here ~~> www.cookieboystoys.com <~~for the rest of the story
Along with the video Bert Boeckmann of Galpin Ford gave me on the Mizar Flying Pinto, I have a page setup with the story of the Pinto to date. This is only the beginning of our little adventure. I will be adding more and updated info in the future but this will get it started for now.
Tony did talk to Jack (the person responsible for the video) and did confirm the interior of the 2nd Pinto (the hatchback) was brown. They covered it up for the video so it would be similar to the Flying car and like you saw in the one scene the bottom of the door was brown and the top was white. Galpin Ford and more importantly Jack (the person from Galpin Ford most involved with the 2nd Pinto) is convinced we do have the second car and the one used in the video. What a great day for the Pinto community to have this little piece of history found and still in one piece.
feel free to share this with everyone.
Pintony and The Cookieboy
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I hope you guys like it! So now, all we need to do next is get more info and the Pangra and the Ford Pinto's mysteries will all be laid to rest!
wow. nice find.
I love finds like this. Congratulations to C.B. and P. on their efforts. Thanks for sharing this.
For the younger "Pintoites" out there the glass box the guy goes into after the plane lands..., It's a "telephone booth." It's from back in the day when phone conversations were "private." ;D
Tom
Wittsend,
HA!
Wow, simply amazing!
The Mizar has been somewhat of a dream car that i have always wanted to see up close and personal, ever since I first saw the video of it about 4 years ago. I would go nuts if I had could have the chance to see this car up close and personal during a meet some day.
All I can say is, I sure as hell hope that it will be making an appearance to the 40th anniversary meet, because I will be!
Well, the car is rough right now. I mean I have never started a resto off with a car this nice but still, it needs a lot. As of now the exterior of the car will remain untouched. The car will be at Fabulous Fords but then I think Pintony is taking it home with him. Knowing him, it will most likely be at the 40th!
Nice to see it was found and saved! It's an interesting part of history, both automotive and aviation! I'm still waiting for my flying Pinto! :D
In a word: WOW :surprised:! Am I correct in assuming that they found the Pinto only... not the Mizar wing assembly? WAS there even a second wing assembly for the second car, or was it the "one and only" that was destroyed when the other car crashed? Either way, it's an amazing find and I can't imagine it being in better hands than Pintony's and Cookieboy's for restoration!
Dwayne :smile:
Quote from: dga57 on February 13, 2009, 01:31:36 AM
Either way, it's an amazing find and I can't imagine it being in better hands than Pintony's and Cookieboy's for restoration!
Dwayne :smile:
Dga i couldn't Agree more on those statements. One its an irreplaceable part of the Pinto and Fords History, Two: in those two's hands It would be a complete Show peice again. (who knows maybe pintony can find the wings lol)
The one that was found is the one seen being driven by the family in the video. If you look close, you will see that it's a hatchback while the actual flying car is a trunk model. Cookieboy talked to me for at least an hour about the car and was VERY excited about it.
dga57,
As 78squirewagon said, the car they found was the car that was driven to the airport in the video. It never had wings, just that thing on the roof that tony is looking for. I thought it was funny when I noticed the flying car was a sedan where as the other was a hatchback.
I wrote my last post before checking out Cookieboystoys.com. Brian posted lots of photos there and it would have answered my question if I had checked it out first. I do understand that this particular Pinto is not the one seen flying in the video, but does anyone at Galpin Ford know whether or not this one was ever in the air? After all, there were surely flights made other than the one for the video. I have read that two prototypes were built and three more were under construction prior to the 9/11/73 crash. Just wondering.
Dwayne :smile:
No this one was not in flight. I just as cookie boy about the posability of others wating to see if he knows any more.
Was the Pinto in the air in the video the real item or a model?
REAL The car actuly flew but structrl problems and it broke up in flight. after several test flights. but i have not seen any confermed number of tests.
Quote from: phils toys on February 14, 2009, 02:21:03 AM
No this one was not in flight. I just as cookie boy about the posability of others wating to see if he knows any more.
Fromwhat he has gathered so far there were just the 2 one to drive for the video regular pinto painted to look like the flying one and the air plain. tie flying one the wings were mounted perminatly for testing and to get sponsors to fund the actual product. sound very much like a famous auto maker "Tucker" sell the idea and then build it.
When the Flying one crashed, the guy backing the project and the designer were in the Mizar. They were both killed. The Mizar went down when the engine was upgraded and over powered the airframe. They (designer and backer) did not conduct proper tests on the airframe and it went down. The engineers and builders begged them not to do fly it but they did not listen.
Hello all,
I haven't written Cookieboy or Pintony to ask a simple question: Did this car actually have the Aircraft Steering controls in the column and Rudder pedals installed? There would also have to be roof reinforcements for those "tracks" to attach the airframe. Look carefully at the video, you never actually see the car backing up and attaching the wings. It's also likely that given the ride height, that these cars had serious spring setups. And where do the control linkages pass through the body?
Nonetheless, it's a rare find even if it's the "promo" street car. Wings and powertrain from a Skymaster aren't cheap even if we had the engineers blueprints, I'm not sure it's doable, Unless Jay Leno is involved ;D.
Pintosopher
Hey Joe- Matt Smolinski (the designers son) told me about a year ago that there were no flight controls in the 2nd Pinto. Pintony was the first to notice from the video Matt supplied that the 'flyable' pinto was a sedan and the other was a hatchback. He (Tony) asked me to confirm with Matt. That was the first time we knew there were 2 cars. Tony and Brian took it full circle by actually finding the car and meeting the 'players' at Galpin Ford in CA- INCREDIABLE! ....
I have emailed Matt to see if he is intrested in speaking with Tony or Brian since they have done such a bang up job closing this out for all of us.
I'm flat beside myself,
here are cookieboys replys
"Hey Phil, based on what we have been able to find out so far and according to what Bert Boeckmann owner of Galpin Motors has told me personally there was only the 1 Flying Pinto with wings. With the crash of the AVE Mizar Flying Pinto the project was halted. The one Pintony has was put together by Galpin Motors for the video because the wings didn't detach from the Flying Pinto and they needed one for the video to be used to show potential investors in the AVE Mizar project. The Flying Pinto 2 (as dubbed by Beau Boeckmann) never had flight instrumentation installed or wings attached.
I will try doing more research into the "others" that were mentioned on the Wikipedia page but unsure where to start at this point. I do have a direction to go there but am waiting for a reply on an email I sent requesting more information from someone who knows more of the story and people I could talk to.
As far as the "Flying Pinto 2" Pintony has... It is confirmend by the people at Galpin Motors we have talked to and shown "The Flying Pinto 2" to as the one used in the video. Tony plans at this time to leave it in as close to "as found condition" as possible but is on the hunt for an early Pinto with brown interior matching the Pinto he has. The seats, carpet, visors, dome light and other misc items inside are in rough condition and he would like to "transplant" a correct interior into the car that is in better condition than what is there. Doesn't need to be "perfect" but good useable condition would be helpful. Even parts and pieces might be considered if anyone has anything that could help.
and before you ask... it is confirmed by the video production manager that the interior on the "Flying Pinto 2" did have brown interior and was "doctored up" to appear white in the video. There is one scene in the video as the woman gets out of the "Flying Pinto 2" at the airport where the bottom of the door is brown and the top is white
Hehehe... the pinto with the wings was right behind as they backed up the non-flying pinto... trick video ;-)
if you watch close you will see it doesn't back up all the way :-)
this from the production manager."
Phil
I will be, ( like most of the forum) watching this thread closely. I want to know more and to see what pintony does with this magnificent car. =)
I think it's safe to say that this one will be preserved quiet nicely. Brian will not let Tony cut it up or destroy it ;D They want to take it on tour as soon as they both feel it's ready (running better, cleaned up, ect)
Greetings all..
I too will watch for more input on this thread. I wonder, does anyone have the original design prints for AVE and the car that crashed? This would be of interest even if we couldn't get someone with deep pockets ( Hey Jay, wanta underwrite a one of a kind project? ;D) to recreate the wing sections and powerplant, with controls)
Given the amount of money people in Aviation spend on historical aircraft reconstruction, this one would be cheap. Even if it never flew :rolleye:
Maybe Popular Mechanics/ Popular Science could get in the act, given the content of the last 60 years of publications and the fact we now have $100k Tesla roadsters.
Think outside the box, Pintony has a real piece of history, it should be a real coup to get this one completed!
Pintosopher
How can you not love the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang of Pintos? ;D :-* ;D
Maybe somebody could go down to the local Army Surplus and start picking up aviation gauges until they have enough to recreate that control panel.
It would be cool to have a 'replica' of the Flying Pinto, even for display and 'novelty' use only, but it brings up the thought of the Edmund Fitzgerald, so a project of that undertaking should be persued with thoughts of the originators' families in mind. Respectful to all :)
Chuck
:happy_bday: Awesome, Pintony congratulations, you and Cookieboy found the holy grail of Pintos. I do hope to see it one day and take a picture with it. Do not put wings on it, in my opinion, I would restore it to the backup Pinto it was. Maybe you could rebuild one of your other Ponies to resemble the flying one, that is of course if you were planning on the traveling road show. But do not change the history of this the greatest of Pinto barn Finds. I can only say I am extremely jealous.
Well, I talked to Pintony a few days ago. His plans are to leave the exterior alone and just clean up the interior. Right now, it is a piece of history. He is going to take many slow and small steps on this car. I just bought a battery for it last week and installed a battery tray in it. So at least now, it can start (with out the stolen battery from my Fiat) and will have a few of the parts that were missing.
Talked to the maint. guys at the FSDO in Van Nuys, the 1 that deals with older aircraft actually called me, they must have run out of donuts. I use to go in that office often fighting with the maint. guys over military aircraft. I just contacted flight inst. that use to work for my aircraft maint. FBO he is on east coast he is good with FAA and computers. He also told me I could ski behind his boat I said sounds great, he has a J-3 on floats, cant wait. Fred :)
"Fire after impact".... ;D ;D ::)
Yea that is hard to read unless you can go full screen. Yes there was fire. Fred
Nice find Fred. One up for you ;D
Wouldn't there be two accidents? First you would have the Pinto part falling out of the sky. Then wouldn't you have the Sky Master half flopping around uncontrolled and unstable before it augured in?
Doug if there was separation of any 337 parts from vehicle it is still considered a single accident. The right wing strut broke loose from forward wheel well attach fitting. I was in a hurry yesterday lot of broken cars over here. FSDO = Flight Standards District Office. FBO = Fixed Base Operator. J3 on floats = Piper aircraft J3 Cub. While I am on aircraft stuff somebody needs to tell the news people that the flight recorders are bright orange not black. Also from what I hear so far N68X did not have T.C. = type certificate. Fred :)
Quote from: Fred Morgan on February 26, 2009, 10:08:22 AM
While I am on aircraft stuff somebody needs to tell the news people that the flight recorders are bright orange not black. Also from what I hear so far N68X did not have T.C. = type certificate. Fred :)
Ah, but if they say Orange Box, people will assume they're talking about hacking phone systems.
/obscure_hacker_reference
Finally thanks to my flight buddy on east coast with the recommendation on who to call. at FAA MIDO = Manufacture inspection District Office. The aircraft originally had the Continental IO-360 stock 6 cyl. that was on the 337. This was certified experimental 6-14-73 serial #P001. Carl was looking at film and said production model had cowl off and there was an IO-540 Lycoming installed. The 540 at that time went up to 300HP as compared to the cont. eng. with 210HP. He talked how Galipin Ford was involved and he had flight video. So he is mailling me the info. that with right address to Scott Hamilton I will mail to because he would know how to put up on here and Scott lets me sell so much junk on this site ;D
Fred :)
Oh yea and he also talked about the 1 Tony bought. Fred :) You know I was just reading what I put up a 540 on 1 does that mean there could be a third car ? ??? ??? Wow cant wait for the FAA paper work !
Fred,
Having talked with some people there was only 1 that flew the reason the it crashed was they modified the engine to a larger one and were told it was not safe. to much HP for the designe.But they tried it against the warrnings.
Phil
On NTSB report showed it still listing as a 210. Brian's probably right. But the report was not listed as that being cause of accident. The plot thickens. The FAA guy was looking at the airframe while I was talking to him, he described picture over phone. There is 3 items on the report that got me flamming. Fred :evil: December 99 thanks to Mark didnt get last name
Fred, looking forward to getting this out on the site...
Let me know how I can help... You know where the address & phone number is as a Charter Member right?
Always remember when the FAN QUITS the pilot gets hot. I know I have been there. Fred :)
Los Angeles Times May 9 1973 "if a Pinto passes flying low, you'll know idea works" Fred :)
Hey look another flying Pinto ;D Fred
AND another!!! Grandson of Flubber ??? :read:
(http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj72/71hanto/DSC06057.jpg)
Wait a minute you cant land that it doesnt have the gear down. Then the little man in the grey box says PULL UP PULL UP PULL UP. ;D Fred
Quote from: Fred Morgan on March 04, 2009, 07:40:33 PM
Wait a minute you cant land that it doesn't have the gear down. Then the little man in the grey box says PULL UP PULL UP PULL UP. ;D Fred
Don't worry Fred, I converted it into a flying saucer so it can hover :lol:
Turns out, this whole time, everybody's been looking for the little green men when they should have been looking for little green Pintos!!! :amazed: RIGHT UNDER THEIR NOSES :hypno: While everyone was looking at tin foil in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico, (a clever decoy) they didn't notice a little green Pinto slowly putt, putting away from the scene!!! :fastcar:
The UFO mystry has been SOLVED!!!! :drunk: It's very easy to park :lol: :lol: :lol:
(http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj72/71hanto/DSC06057-1.jpg)
FAA documents arrived. Mizar 210 ser. # P-001 was assigned to Oxnard airport departures to west only on runway 25, all flights over ocean. Craft reg. app.applied for 11-10-72. There were 5 Ns applied for and N68X was last on list. Fred :)
In Memory and Honor Of...
Henry A. Smolinski President and Harold "Hal" Blake Vice President
AVE - Advanced Vehicle Engineers
Designers of the AVE Mizar Flying Pinto
Did anyone notice the date in the document that Fred posted regarding the crash? It was:
9-11 - 1973
I did Tom about a month ago. Kinda like NY. Fred :o