This little Chrysler promotional film from 1934 explores the engineering behind the fascinating but doomed Airflow. I do believe you technical types here will enjoy it. Check out the c1934 aero techniques, etc.
Video: Engineering the Chrysler Airflow
Started by
Magoo
, Jan 02 2014 11:51
6 replies to this topic
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#2
Lee Nicolle
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Posted 03 January 2014 - 03:07
It was not a pretty car,, but if 20% of the claims were true is should have been a good one. On Lenos site there was a movie of crashing an Airflow over a cliff to prove its strength.
Would that have been the first mainsteam unibody car? I suspect so.
Would that have been the first mainsteam unibody car? I suspect so.
#3
Allan Lupton
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Posted 03 January 2014 - 11:06
It was not a pretty car,, but if 20% of the claims were true is should have been a good one. On Lenos site there was a movie of crashing an Airflow over a cliff to prove its strength.
Would that have been the first mainsteam unibody car? I suspect so.
Well, the Citroen Traction Avant, also of 1934, was unitary construction and although that system probably starts with work done by Budd in 1931 that was hardly "mainstream".
As for the film's dissertation on aerodynamics, a great deal of what they said was commonplace in aeronautical engineering by the early 1930s - amusing that they felt that Orville Wright was the only aeronautical person worth naming.
#4
Magoo
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Posted 04 January 2014 - 12:53
Both the Citroen and the Airflow unit bodies were Budd developments. A prototype for the Airflow built in 1932, the Trifon, is still in existence in excellent original condition -- and rather interesting to examine.
Orville Wright was retained by Chrysler as a consultant on its Highland Park wind tunnel. The Wrights had built one of the first practical wind tunnels back in 1901. A Chrysler engineer on what became the Airflow program, William Earnshaw, was from Dayton, Ohio and knew Orville Wright personally. Wright suggested to Earnshaw that Chrysler build a wind tunnel and he was brought in to assist.
#5
Allan Lupton
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Posted 04 January 2014 - 13:58
Thanks for the background on the reason for the use of Orville Wright, which I didn't know. As you say, the Wrights were early users of the wind tunnel but in itself that wouldn't have been enough without the personal contact.
#6
Ray Bell
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Posted 04 January 2014 - 21:44
Somewhere on You Tube there's a video of a demonstration of an Airflow somewhere...
It jumps over other cars IIRC, gets rolled over and all sorts of stuff, then they show the doors being opened again.
#7
Bob Riebe
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Posted 07 January 2014 - 17:33
Herr Magoo is bad for my health.
Not that I do not go to his site without him putting a note here but when I do some things there just make feel sad at how crappy the new generic world cars are making things.
It was bad enough when it was same crap, different piles but now it is heading towards same crap off of one gigantic pile of world car crap.
When I saw, in a different part of Mac's garage the 1982 version of a 1966 Ford full-size they had in Brazil, it just confirmed that anyone who say these are the good old days is either obtuse or naive.
If I had the money I had fifteen years ago, I would catch a plane go down there and buy one of those Fords or if I wanted to act rich ---- an Executivo.
