Mad scientist

last updated 8 January 2015

Neuschwanstein, Germany

It turns out that crazy King Ludwig II of Bavaria may not have been entirely insane. German aeronautical engineers studying Ludwig’s 19th-century blueprints for a flying car have concluded that the vehicle would, in fact, have flown. Ludwig, a dandy with a love of the fantastical, designed a flying machine powered by a steam engine and decorated to resemble a peacock. He hoped to build a fleet that would fly him over the Alps to visit his many castles. Political opponents declared him insane and deposed him in 1886, before he could realize his dream. Engineer Dalibor Karacic, who is re-creating Ludwig’s drawings on computer, said the king was not mad, but merely “ahead of his time.”