Dymaxion Car - Design

Design

The Dymaxion car was a three-wheeler, steered by a single rear wheel, and could do a U-turn in its own length. However, the rear-wheel steering made the car somewhat counterintuitive to operate, especially in crosswind situations. The body was teardrop-shaped, and naturally aerodynamically efficient. The car was twice as long as a conventional automobile, at 20 feet (6.1 m) long. Drive power was provided by a rear-mounted Ford V8 engine, (See: RF →) which produced 85 brake horsepower (63 kW; 86 PS) through the front wheels. The front axle was also a Ford component, being the rear axle of a contemporary Ford roadster turned upside-down.

The 1929 automobile of German inventor and helicopter pioneer Engelbert Zaschka exhibited features that were important to Buckminster Fuller. Zaschka's three-wheeled car could also easily be folded, disassembled and re-assembled, as could Fuller’s Dymaxion House and many geodesic domes.

Read more about this topic:  Dymaxion Car

Famous quotes containing the word design:

    To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.
    Marilyn French (20th century)

    I begin with a design for a hearse.
    For Christ’s sake not black—
    nor white either—and not polished!
    Let it be weathered—like a farm wagon—
    William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)

    Joe ... you remember I said you wouldn’t be cheated?... Nobody is really. Eventually all things work out. There’s a design in everything.
    Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)