Walliams Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
David Walliams
England, United Kingdom
www.imdb.com

David Walliams is an English comedian, actor, writer and television personality decided (sometime in 2019) to make the fantasy flying car named, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," really fly. As a child, Walliams said when he saw the movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and he thought that cars could actually fly. To celebrate the 50th anniversary (in 2018) of the movie, he wanted to make an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car fly. Walliams made a movie named Chitty Flies Again with David Walliams (on IMBD) and is about his flying car adventure.

The movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 British-American musical-fantasy film produced by Albert R. Broccoli directed and directed by Ken Hughes and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car (1964). Albert R. Broccoli (his last name pronounced like the vegetable) was also the movie producer who made many of the James Bond movies. Ian Fleming was the writer who created the James Bond spy novels. A Naval Intelligence Officer during World War II, Fleming's wartime service and his career as a journalist provided the inspiration and detail for the James Bond novels.

Broccoli had just finished the James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice (in Japan) and his next film was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Broccoli used the James Bond movie crew, from the prop crew, to the lighting crew to cameraman and more, who worked very well together and helped make Chitty Chitty Bang Bang a success.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has all the elements of a James Bond movie because of the original writer and producer. The movie has a villain who wants to destroy the world and there's a good guy who saves everyone. There are pirates, castles, a love affair, children, an inventor (the good guy), a flying car (which can travel on roads, air and water) and more, which makes Chitty Chitty Bang Bang an exciting film for children and people of all ages. It's also one of the longest children's movies for its time, about two hours and 20 minutes.

For the movie, seven different Chitties were built: a worn-out one, a restored one, one for the flying scenes, one for the water scenes, and three partial models for various other scenes. Chitty's license plate is "GEN II" which can be read as "Genie", hinting that the car is magical. The name of the car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, was inspired by a series of actual 1920s race cars informally named Chitty Bang Bang, due to race car owners using large aircraft engines to help win the car race.

For the movie's 50th anniversary, Walliams hired some aircraft engineers and made an eVTOL prototype that looks like movie car. The specifications for the car is unknown but the technology demonstrator does have four electric propellers, four electric motors, is powered by batteries and flies. He also wanted to demonstrate this to some school children to see if they believed that cars could fly or not, and how he was going to attempt this.

After Walliams successfully made the car fly with an audience of school children, he stated, "When I first saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a kid, I believed in magic. I believed that this car really did fly. Because when you grow up, you stop believing in magic and it's such a shame. I feel like I've believed in magic all over again. We really did make Chitty Chitty Bang Bang fly."

The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang eVTOL aircraft has seating for four, has wheels, is a multicopter and is flown remotely by a drone-type controller. While one can see from the video that the flying car is not drivable, we know there are multiple flying cars being designed currently and some will make it into commercial production which are both eVTOL aircraft and roadable vehicles. With multiple sets of co-rotating propellers, a drone controller and battery technology we have today, and if enough time, money and energy was used, a drivable and flyable Chitty Chitty Bang Bang could be built and possibly put into production.

Specifications:

• Aircraft type: Prototype fantasy eVTOL passenger and ground vehicle; however, it is not road worthy but could be
• Piloting: Remote control
• Capacity: At least one person
• Cruise speed: Unknown
• Range: Unknown
• Flight Time: Unknown
• Propellers: 4 propellers
• Electric Motors: 4 electric motors
• Power source: Batteries
• Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
• Windows: Open cockpit
• Landing gear: 4 road wheels

Resources:

• Chitty Flies Again with David Walliams movie
• David Walliams website
• David Walliams Wikipedia
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968 movie) Wikipedia
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968 movie) IMDB
• Video: The One Show - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Tozzywozzy01, Aug 27, 2013
• Video: The Making of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (2004 documentary), Steve Oliver, Mar. 20, 2017
• Video: One Show Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Steve Fisher, Dec. 19, 2018
• Article: C4 commissions “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” anniversary doc, Real Screen, Nov. 5, 2019
• Article: David Walliams fronts Chitty Chitty Bang Bang special for Channel 4, TellyMix, Feb. 11, 2021
• Video: Chitty Flies Again with David Walliams | Can David Walliams make a car fly?, Channel 4 News, Jan. 2, 2021