(FORTUNE Small Business) – If Robert Fulton Jr. had his way, we would be commuting in flying cars. In 1945, Fulton invented the Airphibian, a Stinson Voyager plane that converts into a car. Never mass-produced, the Airphibian will be on permanent display at the Smithsonian starting this fall.

Fulton, an adventurer who traveled from Europe to Asia on a motorcycle after finishing grad school in 1932, is also credited with inventing the unairstructor, an aerial-combat flight simulator used to train fighter pilots; Skyhook, a system for rescuing downed pilots from behind enemy lines; and a sea sled that serves the same purpose for Navy Seals.

Fulton died on May 7 at his home in Newtown, Conn. He was 95. --D.C.