Missionary Steve Saint Goes "Beyond Roads" with His New Flying Car

Aimee Herd : Aug 25, 2010
Beyond Roads – Maverick Sport LSA

"Down where we live you either fly or die. [The Maverick Sport was developed] so that people in South America or Africa can take their people to their own clinics, their own doctors and do it themselves."

It's not hard to imagine just how proud the late missionary Nate Saint would be of his son, Steve, as he finalizes all the legal details with the FAA on his new flying car—the Maverick Sport.

Watching a video of the vehicle—first tearing through unkempt off-road fields, and then lifting into flight with its colorful powered parachute spread against an azure sky—brought me to tears.

Its value to missionaries planted in various undeveloped outposts around the world will be immeasurable.

The Maverick Sport was birthed from the original Maverick prototype; the brainchild of Steve Saint and Troy Townsend, along with other employees and student interns, which eventually had to be reworked and redesigned.

This summer, the Maverick Sport was demonstrated at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin. The flying/road vehicle was driven 1,366 miles, all the way from Florida to Wisconsin to prove that it was not just a flying machine, but also completely road worthy.

Pending the FAA's approval, the Maverick Sport will be available for production, providing an effective and convenient way to reach remote areas.

According to CBN News, Steve Saint (who had picked up with missionary work in South America where his father left off) developed the flying car "to take missionaries into regions that can't be reached by other modes of transportation." The story of Steve Saint's father, Nate—who was killed by the Huaorani people he had been attempting to befriend as a missionary in Ecuador—was told in a documentary, and the movie, End of the Spear, that followed it.

Steve Saint told CBN News, "Down where we live you either fly or die. When I was an adult they told me it was time for me to come back and teach them things that I had learned in the outside world. This is one of the things they wanted to learn—how to fly. It's so that people in South America or Africa can take their people to their own clinics, their own doctors and do it themselves."

Watch the amazing video of the Maverick Sport and read all about it from the website at the source link provided.