A bicycle with wings and a Land Rover that turns into a hovercraft are just a couple of British inventions that failed to take off – but there are many more. An archive of weird and wacky innovations has been unearthed by an amateur historian as he trawled through a collection of images spanning the last century.
Businessman Chris Hodge, from Chislehurst, south east London, has collected more than 250,000 images and is having them all digitally scanned and archived.
The eccentric inventions of years gone by include what appears to be an early version of a videophone, an amphibious Lambretta scooter, a Land Rover hovercraft and a bicycle with wings. Other photographs include a portable hairdryer, a mini-submarine, a side-by-side tandem bicycle and a back-facing sidecar.
1. An Experimental Tandem Bicycle
2. An Experimental Motorcycle
3. Amphibious Scooter
5. An Early Version Of A Videophone
7. An Amphibious Vehicle
9. An Experimental Gyrocopter
12. An Amphibious Vehicle
