Two Cool Coupes Flying to Florida, together

Two topics that get more coverage than anything else here at Autopia are cars and airplanes. But rarely do we get chance to write about them simultaneously. So you can imagine how excited we were when the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association asked us to join a fly-and-drive rally from Maryland to Florida for the annual Sun ‘n Fun airshow.

Who would turn down a road trip and long-distance flight? Not us. But there was a catch: We’d be making the trip in two vehicles you probably wouldn’t think of for covering great distances — a Smart ForTwo and a Remos GX, a similarly small, light sport aircraft.

The purpose of the trip is to highlight the capabilities of the two vehicles. After some initial reservations about being crammed into two itty-bitty vehicles for hundreds of miles, we came to love the idea. We’ll be taking four days to make a trip any self-respecting road-tripper could make in a single caffeine-fueled push, giving us plenty of time for fun and to explore both in the air and on the ground.

The vehicles in question are pretty cool. They’re surprisingly roomy despite their diminutive dimensions, and they make creative use of design and engineering to deliver relatively efficient travel, even if they may be better suited for shorter trips close to home.

Sure, if we had our way we’d make the trip in a Ferrari 599 GTO and a Cessna Corvalis TT. But the Fortwo and the Remos are more in line with the budgets of mere mortals, and if our friend Paul Shippey can drive to the Arctic Circle in a ForTwo, a ride to Florida should be a breeze.

We leave Frederick, Maryland, on Saturday and plan to arrive in Lakeland, Florida in time to open the airshow at Sun ‘n Fun on Tuesday. The two teams making the trip are Ian Twombly, an editor with Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s Flight Training magazine who is traveling with Steve Chupnick of Motorweek. I’ll make the trip with Alyssa Miller, director of the association’s e-media. Each team will drive half the trip in the Fortwo and fly the other half in the Remos. We’re starting in the Fortwo and will make the switch somewhere in South Carolina.

We’ll Tweet and post updates during the trip and give you a taste of life on the road with a small car, and in the air in a small plane. And of course we’ll be reporting from the air show. Ready. Set. Go!

Follow Jason’s adventure on Twitter @jasonpaur and here at Wired.com.

Photos: Chris Rose/Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

To see what our ForTwo and Remos GX look like, check out the pics after the jump.

The Smart Fortwo Light Sport Car. With that paint job, every state trooper within 10 miles will see us coming, so we’ll have to watch our speed.

The Remos GX Light Sport Aircraft.

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