Flying, nuclear, female-friendly: concept cars the stars in V&A show

A 1950s concept car inspired by fighter jets and a contemporary prototype that could fly have gone on display in an exhibition that the V&A acknowledges may alarm some people.

The show, opening to the public on Saturday, brings together 15 cars and 250 objects for what is the museum’s first exploration of the car as a piece of design.

Related: Highway to hell: the rise and fall of the car

“We are delighted … to the horror of purists and the confusion of petrol heads, to welcome the car into the museum of Raphael, Julia Margaret Cameron and Turner,” said the V&A director, Tristram Hunt.

Among the objects going on display for the first time in the UK is the jet-like Firebird 1 concept car designed by General Motors in 1953, promising a driving future that could be fast and flight-like.

Also from the 1950s is a model of a concept car promising little need for refuelling. The Ford Nucleon was to be powered by a small rear-mounted nuclear reactor.

There is more hope of the show’s final concept car becoming a reality. The V&A is displaying for the first time in the UK an electric “flying car” prototype co-designed by Italdesign, Airbus and Audi.

The Pop.Up Next combines an electric chassis, a pod and a drone. The manufacturers claim the pod could click on to the chassis or the drone, so in the event of congestion it could simply fly its passenger away.

The exhibition explores the car’s place, historically and now, in the climate crisis. A double-page advert from a 1962 Life magazine proclaims “Each day Humble Oil supplies enough energy to melt 7 million tons of glacier!”

Brendan Cormier, a co-curator of the show, said it was not celebrating the car but examining it with both “amazement and slight horror”.

The exhibition reveals that debates about cars are nothing new. “The electric car was around at the end of the 19th century,” said Cormier. “Ideas about autonomous driving have been around since the 1950s. Flying cars have been around since Jules Verne.”

The exhibition also explores car safety. In a section that shows Steve McQueen’s spectacular San Francisco car chase in the 1968 film Bullitt, there is a grotesque sculpture by Patricia Piccinini, commissioned by Australia’s Transport Accident Commission.

It imagines a human who has evolved to naturally withstand car crashes. The sculpture has a flat face to absorb impact, an enlarged skull to contain more brain-protecting fluid, no neck to avoid whiplash, and numerous nipples that can expand into an airbag.

Related: Aston Martin unveils £158,000 SUV aimed at wealthy women

Elsewhere, the show shines light on misguided and patronising attempts in the 1950s and 1960s to get more women interested in cars. Chrysler’s solution in 1955 was the Dodge La Femme. Designed by men, it was a pale pink car with simplified dashboard controls and accessories including a rain hat, coat, umbrella and pink leather handbag stocked with makeup and a cigarette case.

The V&A show is sponsored by Bosch, which was fined €90m for its part in the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal.

Hunt defended the sponsorship and said Bosch was a company “pursuing a vision of mobility that was accident-free and sustainable, and we are delighted to have them as our sponsor.”

• Cars: Accelerating the Modern World runs at the V&A from 23 November to 19 April.