Two for the Road: Rutan's BiPod Roadable

Recently I've been joking, "Burt Rutan can't retire! I don't have my flying car yet!"

Mr. Rutan made me look foolish when the Scaled Composites BiPod was announced.

I can't think of another twin-fuselage roadable airplane. Nor any with a hybrid gasoline-electric drive.

At last report, they hadn't installed the propellers yet, but the BiPod had flown short hops by accelerating on its electrically-propelled wheels.

The Timothy Pettigrew Presidential Library

You may recall that, just before Inauguration Day in 2009, I wrote about the 1964 series "Pettigrew for President" in Treasure Chest comics. (Warning: reading my linked page will SPOIL THE STAGGERING SURPISE ENDING.)

Writer Barry Reece and artist Joe Sinnott portrayed the 1976 campaign, then far in the future, to help grade-school readers in the U.S. understand the election process.

I've recently found that the Catholic University of America has improved their site with historical context and an interesting interview with Barry Reece.

Best of all, they've placed a PDF of the entire story online (download here). At last, curious scholars of comics across the Internet can read the didactic tale and thrill to the exploits of two annoying children caught up in the inner circle of Governor Pettigrew's campaign.