If I'm feeling particularly sci-fi today, it's because of thee 1960 Evinrude Heli-Bout, a concept boat designed by Brooks Stevens. Stevens had a six-year relationship with Evinrude, for which he produced seven "shriekers," boats built to attract attention to Evinrude at the National Boat Show.

As Glenn Adamson wrote in "Industrial Strength Design: How Brooks Stevens Shaped Your World," the inspiration for the Heli-Bout, the sixth of the seven shriekers, came from overhearing an attendee at the year's prior boat show, saying the only way Evinrude would be able to top that year's boat would be to make the next one fly. So Stevens designed a way for the 75hp Starflite outboard motor to turn the rotors via flexible driveshafts and reduction gears.

None of this engineering was ever put to the test; the prototype that was built for the boat shows was not light enough to achieve liftoff, and its rotors were only for display purposes. But the basic idea, Stevens insisted, was both aerodynamically sound and eminently practical: "You can take off from your swimming pool, patio or front lawn. In a matter of an hour or two, you can set down on your favorite stream and enjoy a pleasant weekend… No more long hours of fighting traffic or looking for a place to put your boat in the water. How can you beat that?"

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