Donald Reid was developing a flying sub using his own money. The “flub” would use one jet engine for both flying and underwater propulsion.

The last five models have been man-size, and his son, Bruce, has been his chief test pilot. Bruce has had the flub, in the air on short, straight-ahead flights, and underwater for short periods. In 1965 they hoped to put the two together and take off from water, land and submerge.

The 1965 model is scrounged mostly from parts of crashed airplanes. It has a 65-hp Lycoming engine with propeller mounted above the fuselage/hull for flying and an electric-powered screw for underwater propulsion.

Reid says he was laughed out of Washington when he proposed such a vehicle to the Navy 10 years ago. “Now,” he says, “I’ll just finish it and give it to the Air Force.”

The RFS-1 sort of worked. The airplane was incredibly heavy, so it could only do slight hops in the air, but it could dive, at least a little bit. Before diving, the pilot had to remove the propeller, and cover the engine in rubber. Since the airplane had an open cockpit, the pilot used an aqualung while under water. The RFS-1 dived down to 12 feet during a test.