I just saw this rare 1933 film clip of the Dymaxion with Bucky Fuller and Amelia Earhart doing a large-scale press event, presumably at the World's Fair in Chicago that year. Ryan and others ha... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
I just got to visit the Dymaxion House at the Henry Ford museum. That guy (Buckminster Fuller) was pure genius!!!!
Very Kool!!! There is a car like this or Very close at Space Age paint supply in Mesa Az. Krazy looking.... Thanx for the post
Bucky was amazing. I heard him speak once in Ames, IA on how he got to the geodesic dome idea. It was so fucking simple you'd think the ancient Indians or Persians or Romans would have thought of it. That's the genius part. While at SIU in Carbondale, IL, I got to ride my Schwinn past his domed former office building almost every day enroute the Comms building photo lab. We need more like him. Gary
Pretty sweet video! that thing was the ultimate mini van! sidenote: Amelia Earhart was a pretty haggard looking woman.
This was the clip I'd always seen of that. It would have been interesting to hear what they were saying as they held the chassis in the first clip.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlLZE23EJKs This clip has Bucky descibing the technical points of the car, sorry for the terrbile Iggy Pop music background http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhSonPwM8zE
I just Googled the Dymaxion and found some more videos of it in motion. The thing that impresses me is that it had a 90 HP Ford flathead that would go over 100 mph, seated eleven and got 30 mpg. Now with that kind of technology back then, why is it today we can't do better with the resources we have?
To me, Buckminster Fuller was the lifehacker of his time. He designed structures, homes, vehicles all with a kind of robotically detatched elan. The man was brilliantly out of step...but his stuff worked, it did what it was supposed to do, and well. The Dymaxion vehicle had a flathead for power, and as far as I know, a conventional drive system. Aerodynamics and to a very small extent rolling resistance would have been responsible for the improvement in performance and economy. The fuel economy would almost certainly have been a steady-state figure; for example a rock-steady 40 mph, or 50 mph. In a CAFE loop, or ordinary driving, the number would certainly be lower.
The next time you are in Austin - go check out the Bucky archives at the Henry Hansom Center on the University of Texas campus - they have some amazing material in the archives along with some really cool Norman Bel Geddes papers, models, etc. That place is incredible - A Gutenburg Bible? The first photograph ever taken? yeah, they have those. http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/
Good but expensive book....got it for Christmas and have really enjoyed the work of such an amazing man. http://www.artbook.com/9780956433930.html
I saw it at the Automobile Museum in Reno, pretty cool. Too bad it got the bad press from the accident plus the timing of trying to start in bad economic times made it an uphill battle.
Enjoying the Dymaxion in motion, I asked myself if the guy who had built the car which should be seen on the attached photo was inspired by it. The shown car is the second version of this type of vehicle built out of spared warplane sheetmetal around 1947 in Germany. I remember the first one being more "original" and homebuilt. If anybody is interested in such stuff, I can search my external harddrive for adittional pictures. This one was just coming in handy. Thanks for the oportunity to watch the movie. Bye
I struggled reading Fuller's Critical Path, and in between my head scratching and wondering "what did he just say?" he had some really cool concepts. One idea was that if you change the way we look at the earth, and look at it on an axis that crosses both poles, all the contents are actually connected together. He proposed that you could string an electrical grid through the north and south pole that would bring power the the entire planet at a fraction of the cost of how we do it now. Very forward thinking stuff for sure.
Norman Foster completed his version of what would have been car four, based on Fullers' original plans. Car is being exhibited till October of this year in a traveling museum show dedicated to "Bucky". Would love to see this on Power Tour!!!
I love that Center! I think that the times were tough but there were a lot of enterprising people that were thinking way out of the box... inventing the next newest and greatest thing! A couple of years later the "Stout Scarab" another Dymaxion inspired design! The 1936 Stout Scarab came about in the early 1930s when William B. Stout, head of the Stout Engineering Laboratories in Dearborn, Michigan, dreamed of rear-engine/rear-wheel drive. "When we finally 'unhitch Old Dobbin' from the automobile," he wrote in Scientific American, "the driver will have infinitely better vision from all angles. The automobile will be lighter and more efficient and yet safer, the ride will be easier, and the body will be more roomy without sacrificing maneuverability." Classic Cars Image Gallery <table width="400" align="center" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><center> William B. Stout created the 1936 Stout Scarab so that drivers would have better visibility. See more classic car pictures. </center></td></tr></tbody></table> As an aircraft pioneer -- a creator of the famed Ford Tri-Motor -- Stout also had a yen for aerodynamics. His Scarab, with its flush glass and electric door locks, bore scant resemblance to any car on Depression-era roads. Even Chrysler's futuristic Airflow looked rather tame next to the Scarab's teardrop profile, matched for uniqueness only by the likes of Buckminster Fuller's bullet-like Dymaxion.<table width="200" align="right" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><center> Seats in the 1936 Scarab could be moved for comfort . </center></td></tr></tbody></table> Although the Scarab looked long -- like an old Greyhound bus with postwar "bathtub" Nash overtones -- the dimensions weren't terribly startling. The 135-inch wheelbase was on the long side, but the overall length of just over 16 feet-about the same as a 1936 Pontiac-allowed only minimal overhang at each end. And the rear-mounted engine couldn't be more commonplace: an 85-bhp flathead Ford V-8 hooked to Ford's three-speed gearbox. On a 6000-mile trip, Stout's car got a creditable 18.8 mpg. Scarab interiors were as unique as their bodies. Only the driver's seat was fixed. All the others could be moved around the big, flat floor-even positioned around a fold-down table if desired. Ronald Schneider of Milwaukee, Wisconsin owns two of the estimated nine Scarabs built. Both were basket cases, of "junkyard quality" when he found them. Scarabs, Schneider says, were driven regularly by early owners. The one seen here has traveled 150,000-plus miles. <table width="400" align="center" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><center> A large fold down table was featured in the 1936 Stout Scarab. </center></td></tr></tbody></table> After purchasing his first Scarab in the early 1980s, Schneider spent several years researching the many missing parts before buying another. The second Scarab needed less fabrication work, but Schneider still needed a busy two years to complete its ground-up restoration. "Whatever wasn't missing was worn out," Schneider explains. "Just about anything that could be wrong, was." When finished, he entered the Scarab in the 1989 cross-country Great American Race, and again in 1990. A Stout ad in Fortune announced that 1936 production would be "limited to 100 cars," with prices starting at $5000. Scarabs actually cost a lot more to build, however, and nearly all of them went to Stout board members, including such notables as Phillip Wrigley and Harvey Firestone. <table width="400" align="center" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><center> Most 1936 Stout Scarabs were originally owned by Stout board members. </center></td></tr></tbody></table> The Scarab "creates a commotion wherever it goes," says Schneider, adding that with all-wheel independent suspension it rides quietly, "exceptionally smooth and stable." Considerably better, in fact, than his 1936 Fords, with much lighter steering. The only serious flaw is limited rearward visibility. Ahead of its time? Absolutely. Not everyone falls for the unorthodox shape, but they all take notice if a Scarab glides into view. Just a glance at that elegantly fanned rear grillework confirms that the Scarab was -- and is -- something special.