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MI Tests The Triumph TR-2

“A hairy-chested, flame-spiffing wildcat” is how Tom describes this 104-mph import. By Tom McCahill THE fastest automobile in the world selling for under $2,500 is one way of summing up the TR-2 Triumph sports car. In its price class, the new Triumph is a hairy-chested, flame-spitting wildcat. With this uninhibited rig you can pass a flat-out MG with enough extra speed in hand to give the MG driver double pneumonia in addition to dust in his eye and a slight eardrum concussion.
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Auto Fitted With Floats to Navigate Both Land and Water

DESIGNED to ford streams and rivers on a 12,000 mile jaunt of exploration around the world, a new amphibian automobile has been constructed by Capt. Geoffrey Malin, British explorer, which floats by means of huge inflated bags attached to a special electron frame at the side.
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Hail Your Fiends with Auto SPEAKER

TO BE able to hail your friends from your auto as you drive along the street, all you have to do is to install in your car a simple microphone arrangement consisting of a hand mike, an amplifier of the common two-stage type, and a speaker. With this novel stunt, you can merely speak into the mike and your voice will sound out loud and clear from the radiator of your machine, to the amazement of your friends who hear you.
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Fit to Fly a Jet?
OUR jets are the hottest things in the air and it takes hot pilots to fly them. Even the fighters cost a few hundred thousand dollars each and Uncle Sam makes certain he doesn’t put a muttonhead behind the stick whenever there’s flying to be done. It’s easy for him to select good pilot material, however. Read the rest of this entry »

Future Dirigible Without Hangar
A GIGANTIC dirigible which would have an all metal body made of corrugated sheet steel, and which would be so durable as to eliminate the need of the customary hangar, is the novel craft recently designed by an eminent Russian inventor, Konstantin Ziolkowski. This craft will expand or contract according to the interior gas pressure.

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AIR WAR OVER THE ARCTIC

Our planes are waging a relentless battle to conquer polar cold and guard America against sneak attacks across the world’s roof.

By Major General K. P. McNaughton, U. S. Air Force

FOR nearly four centuries the Arctic defied the hardiest explorers from the temperate zones. This vast ice-locked world with its midnight sun, Aurora Borealis and paralyzing cold has been an impregnable barrier across the shortest route between the East and West.
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Coffee Pot on Truck Sings, Speaks

A HUGE coffee pot mounted on an advertising car of a Berlin coffee retailer sings and blares forth the qualities of a certain brand of coffee.

A microphone, amplier, and loudspeaker inside the pot make it possible to broadcast music or speech as the odd car moves through the streets. The lid of the pot raises when the loudspeaker is used.
The car has attracted a great deal of attention on the streets of Berlin, and has boosted coffee sales.

WORLD’S LARGEST WHIRLYBIRD

THE world’s largest transport helicopter and America’s first twin-engined tandem whirlybird transport is the Piasecki YH-16. An important feature of its tandem design is that cargo can be loaded quickly without too much regard for weight balance. The craft’s rotors are connected by a shaft to permit single engine operation and its all-metal blades, 82 feet in diameter, are the biggest shaft-driven rotors in existence at the present time.

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“Poor Man’s” Yacht

This floating dream-home will allow you to cruise the river in millionaire style.

By Rudy Arnold

HAVE YOU ever dreamed of cruising down the river in your own private yacht? If you have, now is the time to do it and enjoy the plushness of a modern dream-home complete with front and back yard.

Wesley H. Dyer’s “Dumbo” has made a low-cost family yacht a practical reality for the water-loving landlubber. Dyer, president of the Metal Products Company of Nashville, Tenn., named his original family yacht, shown on these pages, after Walt Disney’s flying elephant because his novel craft was big but surprisingly agile for its size. Read the rest of this entry »

Car Wheels Have Separate Motors

GERMAN automotive engineers have come out with a car which merits especial attention because of its unusual frontwheel drive. Each front wheel runs on its own axle and is powered by an individual motor. Far greater flexibility is thus provided especially on rough ground.

Another great advantage to this type of construction, engineers claim, is that a lower center of gravity is permitted, giving the car increased stability, speed, and an improved general appearance.

A clear idea of the construction of the bus will be gained from close inspection of the phantom view of the body below.

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Mi’s “Flying Saucer” Cruiser

This 21 “foot dream boat cruises at 50 mph with its triple 25-hp outboard motors and will carry four people comfortably on a sea-going vacation.

By David Lockhart

HAVE the biological processes of mating and multiplying forced you to give up that fast* outboard hydroplane of your palmier days for a slow family cruiser? Well, the Flying Saucer is one cruiser that can trim the pants off your old hydroplane—even loaded up to here with a wife and two youngsters—and bring back the thrills of your misspent youth.
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Hand-Powered Motor Boat Gives Real Watersport Thrills

A DIMINUTIVE motor boat powered not by a motor but by a hand crank operated by the swimmer has been devised by a clever home craftsman to provide watersport thrills at the bathing beach. The propeller of this odd craft is geared to a pulley which is in turn belted to the hand crank on the front, as illustrated in the drawing above. Buoyancy of the craft is increased by use of small pontoons fitted between the boards running lengthwise of the craft.