A device such as this was reportedly used in the Taylor Aerocar roadable airplane of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Carson owned two planes, a conventional, twin-engine plane which he used for long trips, and the Aerocar, which, as its name implied, was a vehicle which could be alternately flown or, with its wing detached, driven on highways as an automobile, which he used for short hops near his California base.