tonight on a second look, we celebrate the uncommon automobile from the flying car old and new to the electric car to the steam car. and we take you to cuba a variable rolling museum of american cars from the 1940s and 50s. all straight ahead on a second look. good evening i'm julie haener. and this is a second look. more than a century ago the automobile revolutionized the world and ever since it seems as if someone has been trying

to revolutionize the able. an idea that takes off every so often is the flying car. just last year the federal aviation add mg oaked this vehicle the -- aviation administration o.k.ed this vehicle. five mit graduates discovered this version of the flying car. right now it's priced at $104,000. the transition is not the first flying car. in the 1960s owned a narrow car. >> reporter: since the early days of the 20s wright

brothers. people had been trying to put the two technologies together and develop a flying car. one of the first efforts came as early as 1917 when glen curtis built his auto plane. there's no record it ever proved. 27 years later it would come the aero beal. this is per happen it is most successful auto airport high braids the air flight. mot taylor started developing

it. the aero car has a detempable wind. >> when being use ed as an airplane it drives the propeller on the tail. taylor's idea is to have a plane that you could drive when you're not flying. >> the wings fold and became a trailer. you drive towing the trailer when you get to the airport you can attack the wings and ply away. >> reporter: comings bought an aero car. only 262 orders came in, the era die. some think the idea of flying without the benefit of an airplane even further. they engined a por hrar marine.

here again is bryan band miller, polar marine. here again with brian and miller popular marine. it's always been an appeal. many have tried to build such a fantastic device. few have succeeded and so far no one has successed well. >> i think it's a god -- bond, james bond was the first to publicly demonstrate a

public flying machine. in thunder ball, sean conery will dress up. although bonds is different, not so his product. when he had problems it ran on highly explosive hydrogen per rock side fuel. education extremely second. bell air space -- rock side fuel. >> they did work however. they found new interest of the population as sorts. the cross, the limitation with the american rocket built system built a new hydrogen production belt. it was flown publicly only once

at the 1999's celebration. but the built has become missing ár sun. one of the development is still a business. heller elevation used a propeller mounted beneath if engine. because the pilot steered he had proved to pool. they also it was good for only flight, it was still -- being designed by two aero space

engineers in this airport. designers have yet to fly it. even so they say the solo trek will soar up to $900,000. it would fly 250 and in a car. >> your right hand is controlling the tilt of the ducks when you pull it, they tilt back and forth. that gives you forward motion and back ward motion. the left hand is your throttle. you twist that that will give you vertical control. >> i feel like robby the warehouse in here. >> first just a few feed off the ground. some in full or will personal

fliers always remain just high in the sky. >> you did have lots of these things, the commuting from your home to your office. you probably redust in 2009, they made a successful test craft. in 2003 the company moved to lodite and began work on a new personal flying craft under a contract with the defense advanced research agency or darpa. truck aero space continues to work. still to come, when we come back the provocative question who killed the electric car and

the biographer who tried to answer it. this beautiful steam powered car was made here in the bay area so what ever happened to the company that produced it?

with the chevy volt hitting the road, electric cars are getting a lot of attention these days, in 1994, general motors introduced an earlier version of the electric car. when gm brought it to san francisco, vern hawkins was there. >> reporter: gm introduced its electric car calls it the impact. it's not a modified gas guzzler but it's the first electric car built. >> 2.5 hours to fully charge the battery. so 2.5 hours to apply. the car is quiet and quick. it can hit 80 degrees.

gm says running across the family. the batteries will only take you some 70 miles in city drives on the highway. >> there's only a certain amount of trade. getting the range up as high as we probably can get it. >> reporter: fge will set up oáfrg fazer. and need to charge up for a longer drive, we need to locate changes the ár stationing and business and those things. state officials are watching closely. so far only electric powered cars meet the standard. every auto maker will have to come up with one.

>> all of them will be exited to offer their sale in kra kra. two person of the sales in the state at that time. no one is estimating car prices. some say they're potential buyers. >> yeah i think so. it seems to have really good acceleration. it seems to control a little like a miata. the first group of test drivers are already on the road logging their experiences and gm expects electric cars and showrooms in three years. who killed the e lek tricycle car. that question is the toot title of a sequence. >> it's in the way of getting a cheaper way of getting around, i would think so. ao lot of people would get it. >> i would look to see him for

al -- if we could save some money i would like to see that. >> in 1986, electric cars began to appear on roads all over arizona. they ran without gasoline. gasoline 10 years later. he's futuristic cars were nearly gone. this documentary debuts in select bay area theuateers tomorrow. the film's kreupl strange. he attended sanford university. for consumers who are fed up with the soaring cost of fuel the documentary couldn't be better. >> i think people are opening up to what are the potentials, what can we do next. the electric car and plug in hybrid is rely what's next.

some interpreneuroers were able to introduce backing up. >> consumers have got to ask for what they want. when we come back on a second look, the seam powered car made right here in the bay area. and how one man in destroeut forced it to run off into the sunset. >> the spweur yap island where you --

the automobile traumatically changed life in the 20th century. these days most cars are pretty much alike. but in the time when autos were young there were all kinds of cars including some that ran on steam. bob mackenzie brought us the story of one of them in 2000. when the 20th century was

young, automobiles were still a novelty. they were just about what they sounded like, carriages without horses. other wise they resembled other carriages at one. if one broke out, you could hook it up to your horse and go home. the automobile was king of the road not only in the big city but even out on the form where a trip into town no longer involved hooking old betty up to the buck board. but outside if city limits roads were still horse trails that turned to pud in the winter and an automobile driver had to be resourceful. not everyone could afford an automobile at first, driving one was a definite sign of suck says. to own a dobol you had to be rich. it was not only a sumptuous carriage but it ran quietly and elegantly on steam.

it was in the late 10s that off doble. after building a few sample cars in the east, abner in 1922 opened steam motors. then 100 plane. abne's father owned a successful water wheel company. making a great car was not a fast process then. double made one car at a time. with the steam engine heated by carosene. even a road that could easily reach speeds up to 10 miles per hour. a young man got there in a hole. where is the doble today? two of the finest examples can

be a at jim ovre. frank probably knows more about doble than anyone. he is currently fixing both cars. >> i'll give you an example. the dodge viper that's one vicious sports car. that has 465 pine speed of course. this car that's reasonable full pressure is 2,200. frank opened up the hood and russ us look at the house. it also has a con decemberer that put. ford who grew up on a farm and liked to garden and go camping with his friends had an idea that cars could be made simple and cheap by a system called

mass production. at his plant in deer born michigan frank started passings out gift cards. they choke the same thing.when the plant refused to mauve the. ford bragged that it's model 2- rbgs could go any where and proved it. super bowl 06 homicide canes -- somebody ought to really take the task at hand and really use the technology that we have had developed since world war ii. and do it. >> make the new steam car.

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if you would like to see some american cars from the past half century or more including some that are no longer manufactured, the place to go is cuba. the streets of that island nation are a variable rolling museum of american cars from the 1940s and 50s. as craig heaps found out when he traveled to cuba in 1997. >> reporter: in cuba just getting around can be a challenge. few people can afford automobiles here, particularly new ones. gasoline is expensive about $3.60 a gallons and rashed too

$5 a month. bicycles abound. o do chinese motorcycles can side cars. -- abound so do chinese motorcycles and side cars. but it could -- this woman is waiting for a bus on the road 50 miles east of havana. watch her reaction after it showed up. so it's not surprising when the back of a truck remains a bus. you rely on old fashioned horsepower. and it's not surprising that if you have a car, evenn a gus.

built to last they have survived sun, salt, sun and socialist revolution. we came here at a time when he and sugar. estimates run in the 30s. some names still seen in the united nations, fort, chevrolet, cat lack. >> the most wonderful old cars. >> cubans have not legally imported american cars here since. and getting parts for these

beauties is a problem. castillo owns this chevy volt. cantillo says every part is stock from the factory. there is still a lot of factory parts here that still exist, what we can't find we send for from the white from relatives or friends. but not every cue bar car owner has connections in the united states to supply origin gnat factory giants. so people do watt that request to keep their cars running. perhaps they monitor a caribou ray tor. or turn a jar into a football stadium. his has many parts that are not original factory equipment. he says sometimes you just have to though. the machine and me cans keep

thing things happen. the majority of the parks are made by the machinist. the cue bar government tried to capitalize on the market for classic american automobiles, it offered to give any cuban an a new -- the when the soviet union collapsed in 1991, the lot's east teus appeared. the government gets involved if i want to sell it to an american but between us taou bars. if a cue bar wants to buy it from me i just sell it to him. no prop. but what happens if and when the unite drops its el embargo and the two countries? that's it for this week's second look.

i'm julie haener, thank you for watching. uch anywhere you want. and that stand... anywhere? like, we can put it over there? and that coffee... or we could t it on the patio for watching the game with the guys. or in the kitchen? but, these curtains are... i can't believe you moved the tv. it's like a whole new living room. it actually is a whole new living room. [ male announcer ] the new wireless receiver, only from at&t. now get u-verse with dvr at the lowest price ever. at&t.