Why did WWII aircraft have such a heavy influence on traditional hot rod styling? Probably for numerous reasons, starting with the fact that plenty of servicemen returned home from the war and turned to building hot rods. Aluminum components, airplan... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Nothing like a war for technology to make quantum leaps forward. Clever hot rodders were a natural group to take advantage of lightweight aluminum and the aerodymamic lessons learned from the aircraft designers. Plus tons of components were available from surplus outlets for peanuts.
Returning men did not look at coupes, sedans and roadsters in the same way when they entered WWII...... The roar of tanks,planes,ships in wartime remained in their blood and catapulted the birth of rodding... The roar of the aircraft engines, open cockpits, speeding off the decks and runways.....brought home their fighting spirits
Wartime produces things that are made for a purpose. They may have a certain "look" to them, but they were constructed to be functional. Hope this makes sense, to me it's a pretty basic principle. Just my 2 cents,Cat
Not hot rodding, but 50s styling. I saw this and just thought the aircraft (1947)could have influenced the car. The engines - the bumper pods.
We should also remember that it wasn't only returning service men and women that brought back these perceptions. The whole of the world was immersed in the shapes of the new war machine for years, perhaps few more than those that stayed behind manufacturing all those technologies that a service man would take into combat. Oh, ...that desk rocks!
Also, gas shock absorber technology. It came from the aviation industry and was incorporated into post-war auto production.
not wwii - but definitely a hot rod - deadly as hell. ...and a paint scheme that still screams speed (and found -at least in part- on one of the racers above).
catdad49 I know exactly what you mean about design for purpose and not necessarily just for style's sake. Sometimes something designed just for function takes on a style all it's own. Take for example fenderless cars. My knowledge is that removing a car's fenders was done just for more speed and not for a style statement but it certainly became a style statement eventually. I think the same thing applies to the WWII aircraft. They had the ultimate in functional style and perhaps more than a few rodders appreciated that and wanted to emulate that in their cars.
The holes weren't there to lighten anything. The flaps were dive brakes punched with three inch holes that helped achieve a high degree of accuracy in steep dive attacks.
The Machine Age totally influenced design(and still does influence GOOD design)and it's only natural that cars would be among the recipients of these wonderful elements.
Second on the req. for info on the desk. That's gorgeous. Prob out of my price range, but I'd still like to know where it came from.
The Jalopy Journal
