Lilian Verneil (Gregory) Taylor Aerocar Collection
Content Description
The Lilian Verneil (Gregory) Taylor Aerocar Collection is a collection of textual and visual materials primarily documenting Molt Taylor's Aerocar gathered by Taylor's wife, spanning the 1940s-1990s. The collection is organized into two series: Personal, with materials on Lilian Verneil Gregory Taylor and Molt Taylor, and Professional, with materials related to Molt Taylor's work on the Aerocar and other designs.
Series I Personal includes documents and photographs related to both Lilian Verneil and Molt Taylor. Lilian, who went by her nickname "Neil," is represented by her pilot's logbook which lists flights from 1938-1940, primarily in a Piper Cub. Molt Taylor is depicted in four photographic portraits, including ones in his U.S. Navy uniform and as an older man with a model of a LearFan. His report cards from grade school and high school at Kelso Public Schools, in Kelso, Washington, are also present.
The bulk of the collection, Series II, is comprised of materials that Lilian Verneil Taylor collected about her husband's career. His primary endeavor, designing and marketing the Aerocar, is documented with textual items such as clippings and articles, company letterhead, and stock certificates. Photographs depict various iterations of the Aerocar, models of it, and the company workshop. Of note are a few drawings including ones that appear to be concepts for paint schemes. A scrapbook documenting the Aerocar from 1953-1979 is also present. The scrapbook, which contains clippings and stockholder reports, was compiled by Cherry Burgeson who was an Aerocar shareholder. There are also materials related to the Aerocar III at The Museum of Flight as well as a conference paper by Ed Sweeney who tried to revive the Aerocar design in 1998.
In addition the to the Aerocar, Molt Taylor also worked on other aircraft and inventions and some of these are also represented in the collection. The Taylor Coot amphibious plane is documented with photographs as well as correspondence to Lilian Verneil after Molt's death from Richard Steeves, editor of the Coot Builder's Newsletter. Taylor's Mini-IMP airplane is documented with two items: a photograph and a company letterhead envelope. An advertisment for an airphone designed by Taylor is also in the collection. Finally, the collection also includes five photos of assorted aircraft and models.
The majority of the 24 photographs in the collection are 8x10-inch black-and-white prints, although a few are smaller format and some are in color.
Dates
- Creation: 1919-2002
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research and is accessible in the Dahlberg Research Center by appointment. For more information contact us.
Conditions Governing Use
The Museum of Flight (TMOF) Archives is the owner of the physical materials in the archives and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from TMOF archives before any publication use. TMOF does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners. Consult repository for more details.
Biographical Note: Molt Taylor
Molt Taylor was an inventor and aviation enthusiast best known for inventing the Aerocar, a widely publicized roadable aircraft.
Moulton Burnell “Molt” Taylor was born in 1912 in Portland, Oregon to William Albert Taylor and Edith Kate Moulton. At some point when he was a child, his family moved to Longview, Washington where he enjoyed watching airplanes and barnstormers. He took his first flight at age 14 and had learned to fly by the time he turned 16. He went on to study aeronautical engineering and business at the University of Washington (UW). After graduating, he joined the U.S. Navy in 1936 as a naval aviation cadet and then served as a pilot during World War II. He was awarded the Legion of Merit medal for his work on the Navy’s Gorgon missile program, an early guided missile. Around this time he also designed and marketed the Taylor Airphone, a small radio-communications device to assist with instrument flying.
After the war, Taylor worked on designing small amphibious aircraft. While researching this, he met Robert Fulton who had designed the “Airphibian,” a small roadable aircraft, and this inspired Taylor to design and build his own flying car, becoming passionate about a future where everyone had a roadable aircraft. He founded Aerocar International in Longview, Washington to realize his dream. By April 1948 he had established a small workshop and brought together a team of engineers. They built a one-quarter scale model and performed aerodynamic testing on it at UW. His father, who ran a savings-and-loan in Longview, helped him find investors and by 1949 Taylor and his team were able to build the Aerocar I, the first prototype, which took its first flight in December 8, 1949. The Aerocar was a two-seater flying car with a propeller in the back. Its wings could be folded and towed when not in use as a plane. After the first flights, the team made modifications, including using a 125 horsepower Lycoming engine to replace the original Franklin engine.
The process of certifying the design took several years. During the testing process, the Civil Aeronautics Administration found hundreds of details that needed attention, mostly centering around structural integrity of the folding wings. They also had to make compromises regarding how to record ground time and flight time since a single engine was used for both road and flight travel. The Aerocar finally achieved certification in 1956. Their patent, which had been pending since 1952, was also awarded in late 1956. The patent gave them legal right to the concept of towing the wings.
At that point Taylor wanted to make and sell Aerocars on a large scale. The team believed that the eventual market for the Aerocar would be as big as the car market and that they would produce two planes a day, selling for between $3-4,000 dollars. Taylor demonstrated the Aerocar at events across the country. Actor Bob Cummings was an owner and proponent of the Aerocar, promoting it on his eponymous television show. Althought the Aerocar received national attention, only six Aerocars were ever produced. Complying with regulations for both aircraft and automobiles proved to be too much of a hurdle and the Aerocar company could not mass-produce its product.
Throughout his life, Taylor remained committed to the viability of a roadable aircraft, but also worked on other inventions and aircraft designs. He designed the Taylor Coot, a two-seat amphibious aircraft, in the late 1960s. The Aerocar IMP was a home-built airccraft, its design derivative of the Aerocar airplane design, the "IMP" standing for "Independently Made Plane." The Mini-IMP was single-seat version of the IMP.
Taylor married Lilian Verneil "Neil" Gregory on April 16, 1956 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Taylor died November 16, 1995 in Longview, Washington.
Biographical note derived from collection information, records on Ancestry.com and the following sources:
- Cipala, Rita. "Taylor, Moulton "Molt" (1912-1995)," History Link. December 3, 2019. https://www.historylink.org/file/20929.
- “Molt Taylor.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, June 2, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molt_Taylor.
- Powell, Dennis E. "Winging It! -- Down The Road, Through The Clouds The Aerocar Idea Is Still Aloft," Seattle Times. July 15, 1990. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19900715/1082241/winging-it----down-the-road-through-the-clouds-the-aerocar-idea-is-still-aloft
Biographical Note: Lilian Verneil (Gregory) Taylor
Lilian Verneil (Gregory) Taylor was the wife of inventor and aeronatical engineer Molt Taylor.
Lilian Verneil "Neil" Gregory was born on December 20, 1914 in Saint Louis, Missouri. She married Molt Taylor on April 16, 1956 in Las Vegas, Nevada. She died October 16, 2002 in Longview, Washington.
No further information is known. Biographical note derived from records on Ancestry.com
Full Extent
.7 Cubic Feet (1 2-inch letter size document box, 1 oversize box (14x18x3"), 1 oversize folder (20x24"))
Language
English
Overview
Lilian Verneil (Gregory) Taylor was the wife of Molt Taylor, an inventor and aviation enthusiast best known for inventing the Aerocar. The Lilian Verneil (Gregory) Taylor Aerocar Collection is a collection of textual and visual materials documenting "Neil" and Molt Taylor as well as his professional endeavors, spanning the 1940s-1990s.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection donor's maternal grandfather was the brother of Lilian Verneil Gregory Taylor.
Separated Materials
The following were transferred the Museum's Library:
- Air And Space Magazine, January 1996
- Air Facts Magazine, March 1959
- The Car Magazine #7, Volume 1, Part 7, 1984
- “Coot in a Nutshell” booklet by Richard Steeves
- Mini-Imp builders newsletter, Vol. 2 Issue 1, September 1998 and Issue 6, July 1999
- Museum Of Flight, 1996
The following were transferred to the Museum's object collection: Molt Taylor's "Coot" jacket, four patches, and a painting of the Aerocar. Please contact us for more details.
Processing Information
The collection had no original order so an organization was imposed on the collection by the archivist. Photographs were sleeved and the scrapbook was interleaved with acid-free paper for preservation purposes.
Subject
- Aerocar, Inc (Organization)
- Taylor, Lilian Verneil (Gregory), 1914-2002 (Person)
- Taylor, Molt, 1912-1995 (Person)
- Title
- Guide to the Lilian Verneil (Gregory) Taylor Aerocar Collection
- Status
- Completed Level 3
- Author
- Nicole Davis
- Date
- 2025
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Edition statement
- 1st ed
Repository Details
Part of the The Museum of Flight Archives Repository
9404 East Marginal Way South
Seattle Washington 98108-4097
206-764-5874
curator@museumofflight.org