Flier Designs Streamline “Push Button” Car (Nov, 1938)
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1938
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Flier Designs Streamline “Push Button” Car
Borrowing ideas from the transport planes he has piloted, a California airman designed and built a streamline automobile with a rudderlike tail. With its supercharged V-eight motor he asserts that the car will travel 120 miles an hour, yet it is economical in fuel use, delivering eighteen miles to the gallon at sixty miles an hour. Wind resistance is reduced to a minimum, even on the front wheels which have independent “pants” that turn with the wheel. Electric controls are built in wherever possible. A push button on the dash opens the doors. The disappearing top swings into place at the touch of another button, embodying the same mechanism applied to raising and lowering landing gear in an airplane. When the top is raised it forms a strong steel turret roof. The car has a 112-inch wheelbase. Built low, the car has no running boards. The headlights retract into the fenders.
Thanks for helping to solve the mystery of this car, who has puzzled many. It appeared in a film about the 1939 World’s Fair called “The world of Tomorrow”. The builder seems to have been a man named Dan LaLee.
I am an old french fan of Popular Mechanics (about 3 feet wide of 1940’s to 1960’s numbers on my shelf), and I’m not surprised to find they had a page on this car. But I didn’t have that 1938 number.
And, I forget to say: I just love your site (and comments). Just great !
Comment by Ray B. — August 9, 2007 @ 4:58 am
Thanks! I’m glad you like it.
Comment by Charlie — August 9, 2007 @ 6:09 am
I agree that this is a terrific site.
Here is a link to more pictures and info on the car:
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles_.....liner.html
Comment by Firebrand38 — August 9, 2007 @ 7:07 am
How often would you have to change your “wheel pants?” And I assume they are installed one wheel at a time?
And the “rudder” looks great for catching cross-winds that would result in a kind of pneumatic PIT-maneuver. Good place to mount a third brake light, though.
Comment by Village Idiot — August 13, 2007 @ 2:36 pm
I didn’t know that eighteen miles to the gallon was considered economical in fuel use in 1938. What kind of gas mileage was considered non-economical? I like the design though the turning wheel pants and rear rudder would have had the effect of sails in high winds
Comment by Tim Tracy — July 15, 2008 @ 6:47 pm