Dymaxion car chronology
- 1927
- late in 1927, Bucky turns his attention to the transport phase of his comprehensive plan
- he invents, at least on paper, his "4D twin, angularly-orientable, individually
throtleable, jet-stilt, controlled-plummeting transport"
- 1933
- given as main date for the car
- January 1933, a friend gives "a few thousand dollars" for Bucky to test some
of his Dymaxion ideas
- due to the Depression at the time, this money has very large buying power
- Bucky knows the Dymaxion house was not yet affordable to develop, and that jets weren't
yet feasible, so he decides to focus on a ground vehicle
- March 1933, rents a disused factory in Bridgeport, Conn.
- screens 1,000 job applicants, hires crew of 27 to work under the engineering direction
of Starling Burgess
- July 12, 1933, demonstrated to the public
- front-wheel drive, rear engine and rear-wheel steering
- aluminum body, chrome-molybdenum aircraft steel chassis
- 1/8th inch shatterproof glass
- 19.5 feet long
- about a half-ton
- a great deal of suspension: The first frame, hinge-supported by the front wheels,
carried the engine and drive shaft. Frame No. 2 was hinge-and-spring connected to
Frame No. 1, but was supported by the steerable tail wheel. The body, in turn, had
its own independent frame which was sprung directly from the front axle, with a balancing
spring connected back, abreast the engine, to Frame No. 1. The consequence [...] was
that the car could zoom across open fields with the agility of a light plane, yet provide
a ride as smooth as any cruise on a highway.
- Car #1
- color: white, with dark belly
- sold to Captain "Al" (Alford F.) Williams, then holder of the world's speed
record for seaplanes
- Col. William Francis Forbes-Sempill, an English aviation expert, commissioned to
come to the US and test the performance of car No. 1
- car is involved in fatal accident (what date?)
- both Williams and Fuller, after carefully inspecting the car's functioning parts and
reconstructing the sequence of events, were convinced that the Dymaxion car itself had no
design or structural fault which had a bearing on the accident
- car is repaired
- Williams sells it to the director of the automotive division of the U.S. Bureau of
Standards
- another source [3] says it was sold to Gulf Oil
- was very lightwight, weighing about as much as a VW beetle [3]
- October 18, 1933: US Patent application is submitted
- 1934
- Car #2
- second car built on order from a group of English automobile enthusiasts
- completed in January 1934
- flat window panels on the front, instead of the rounded glass on Car #1
- improved, lighter frame structure
- color: entirely dark, and shiny
- they no longer want it due to the bad publicity of Car #1's crash
- some time later, Fuller sells it to a group of his Bridgeport mechanics
- years later, it ended up USED AS A CHICKEN COOP [3]
- also fairly light, but a little heavier than the first one [3]
- Car #3
- Fuller spends his "entire family inheritance" to built car #3
- color: emerald green, with white top and a blue Formica interior. [3]
- according to J. Baldwin, it was really heavy, "built like a tank"
- completed in 1934, makes it to the Chicago World's Fair
- sold to Leopold Stokowski and his wife, who sold it a few months later
- during the next nine years the car is resold many times, and for a long span disappears
from sight
- 1937
- December 7 1937: US Patent Office grants
the car patent #2,101,057
- 1943
- Car #1 is destroyed in a fire in the U.S. Bureau of Standards' Washington garage
- at the request of Henry Kaiser, Bucky redesigns the car, making use of newer automotive
technology
- the new design which was never built:
- powered by three separate air-cooled "outboard" type (opposed cylinder)
engines, each coupled to its own wheel by a variable fluid drive
- each of the engine-drivewheel assemblies was detachable
- the engines themselves were run always at the same speed; the speed of the car was
controlled by varying the quantity of fluid in the coupling
- low-horsepower engines - 15 to 25 hp, cut down to one engine at cruising speed, for
40-50 mpg
- steered at cruising speeds by the front wheels
- rear-wheel steering was used only as an auxiliary for tight turns, or to move sideways
- tail mounted on extensible boom
- summarized by J. Baldwin: "Ten years later, Bucky put what he'd learned to work in
a much handier five-seater with a tiny engine at each wheel. This time, the front wheels
steered, but all three could be steered for tight city turns and crabbing sideways into
parking spaces. High speed stability was enhanced by extending the rear wheel on a boom to
lengthen the wheelbase."
- 1944
- Car#3 is discovered in Brooklyn, and repurchased for Fuller by his friend, J. Arch
Butts, Jr. of Wichita, Kansas
- 1945
- Car#3 shown at Wichita airport
- estimated to have been driven 300,000 miles
- Fuller restores it to prime condition
- 1950s
- Car#3 disappears. J. Baldwin says he finally tracked down a junkyard owner in Wichita
who says he cut it up for scrap during the Korean war. [3]
- 1960s
- Reportedly, the magazine "Car and Driver" did some articles on the
Dymaxion car in the late 60s.
- 1970s
- Reportedly, a wealthy patron from Beatrice, NE
puts up the money to build three Dymaxion cars. This results in 3
chasses and 2 fiberglass bodies, but no finished vehicle.
- 1981
- Bucky and his car pose with his 26' Fly's Eye dome during his 85th birthday party at the
Windstar Foundation in Snowmass, Colorado
- 1995
- July 1995, GENI sponsors and organizes the
Buckminster Fuller Symposium and Centennial Celebration for 600 participants. Activities
included a multi-media Opening Ceremony, several World Games, Symposia by 15 colleagues
and students of Bucky, a Film Festival, display of the only remaining Dymaxion Car,
and a Bucky for Kids Festival."
- 1998
Some resources used for this chronology:
- [1] Dymaxion Transport page by
J. Baldwin
- [2] The Dymaxion World of
Buckminster Fuller, Robert W. Marks (1960, 1973)
- [3] correspondence between Wallace Johnston and Ann
Willmott Andersson at WNET, which has some known inaccuracies in it
