Sure, everyone’s familiar with planes, trains, cars, motorcycles, and boats. But that’s only because they’ve generally proven themselves to be safe and reliable forms of human transportation. Throughout the 20th century there were scores of people coming up with bizarre and unique contraptions for getting from point A to point B, and, to fully appreciate the imaginative engineering feats that led us to all our modern means of conveyance, it sometimes pays to have a look back at a few of the less successful vehicle types that have since been pulled from production lines.
6. The Hover Scooter
Perfect for the bayou-dwelling bohemian, the hover scooter combined all the advantages of riding a scooter with the ability to easily transition between land and water. It functioned by riding on a cushion of air in much the same way modern hovercrafts work today—allowing it to easily glide over pretty much any flat surface, but also limiting it to a height of only about five or six inches off the ground. Unfortunately, in addition to being quite bulky and extremely noisy, the hover scooter had a huge unprotected ducted fan mounted at the front. This meant that, in the event of a collision with a pedestrian, the hover scooter would pretty much transform into the equivalent of a human meat grinder.
http://autorevue.at/motorblog/skurrile-autos-der-geschichte-5-hover-scooter Source: Autorevue.at