Separable aircraft

[VictorXL188]

During one of my many trawls trough US Patents (what an exciting life i lead!!) I I came across a patent for a separable aircraft. Now having a detachable pod is not that unusual, but this aircraft takes that one step further and had the pod separate in the air. The pod would then carry on flying to its destination, then could land vertically using tilting engines. If anyone could tell me who Dastoli and his partners actually worked for, it would be a bonus! For more info see https://patents.google.com/patent/US3298633A
Attached is the three diagrams from the patent

 

[steelpillow]

The three applicants all lived in Meriden, Connecticut. Was there an established aero company there?

 

[riggerrob]

Railways briefly experimented with separable cabins to speed loading passengers.

During the late 1940s Fairchild and Miles experimented with separable cargo or passenger pods, but they never entered full production.

Sikorsky did build hundreds of Skycrane helicopters but only the U.S. Army used the separable cargo pods. Most of the time, Skycranes carried artillery or ammo suspended underneath. After they retired from military service, many Skycranes work in the logging industry. Most of the time, they sling logs, but when forests catch fire, they hastily install water pods to pelt fires with water and retardant chemicals.