People have ideas for real cars that can be driven in water, flown in the air and do just great on the ground too, just like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. If you have watched the movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang you have seen at least one flying and swimming car but as fiction.

• 1901 Gustave Whitehead claimed to have flown a powered aircraft, described as able to propel itself along roads to the site of the flying experiment.
• 1917 Glenn Curtiss built 'Autoplane' with a triplane wing, propeller, and twin tails.
• 1935 Constantinos Vlachos built a 'tri-phibian' vehicle with a circular wing.
• 1936 James G. Ray successfully flew an aircraft converted to a roadable prototype.
• 1937 Waldo Waterman developed the 'Arrowbile' from his tailless aircraft, 'Whatsit'.
• 1940 Jess Dixon flying automobile.
• 1942 Hafner Rotabuggy, roadable autogyro built by the British army.
• 1946 'Fulton FA-2 Airphibian' a flying car designed by Robert Edison Fulton Jr.
• 1947 'Convair Model 118' also known as the Hall Flying Automobile.
• 1949 Moulton Taylor introduced the 'Aerocar' a roadable plane.

Some of these early flying car prototypes were able to fly and drive successfully. Some ended badly with inventors, designers, pilots, and the craft killed/ lost during testing. Often the projects became too expensive to continue, even with good results.

Many of the experimental flying car projects are not known by the public. The list above is mainly US based. Other countries certainly had ideas, designs, and experiments too. So many other projects were not given media attention and disappeared into history.