The Extraordinary Dymaxion Automobile

Written by Alan Bellows on 12 August 2006

This is a classic Damn Interesting article which was originally published on 03 November 2005.

Imagine a car that seats eleven passengers, turns on a dime, has excellent fuel efficiency, and cruises happily at 120 miles per hour. A man named Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller imagined and designed such a car, and in 1933, several fully capable prototypes were built for Chrysler. This sleek, aerodynamic vehicle was called the Dymaxion.

Henry Ford had given Bucky Fuller some of his early V-8 engines to experiment with, which along with the Dymaxion’s light weight and aerodynamic design gave the car its appreciable cruising speed. It also managed about 30 miles per gallon, which was extraordinary in its time. The front-wheel-drive car was almost 20 feet long, but could make tight turns due to its unique wheel configuration; there were two fixed wheels in the front, and a single steerable wheel in the rear. This setup made the car nimble despite its size, able to corner well and parallel park like a dream. But it made driving a bit counterintuitive at times, particularly when attempting to compensate for a cross-wind. Its unusual steering system would ultimately bring about the project’s demise.

Bucky Fuller had even grander ambitions for the Dymaxion, planning to add jump-jet style flight when suitable alloys and engines became available. But this car-of-the-future never had to leave the ground to impress and astonish, it was a marvel of automotive engineering. Few who saw it had any doubt that this sleek car– which looked nothing like a typical 1930s automobile– was a true example of the Car of Tomorrow.

In 1933, one of the prototypes could be seen cruising around the Chicago world’s fair showing off its stuff. But it was there that the Dymaxion was involved in a fatal accident which was initially pinned on the backwards steering system, and the investors pulled out of the project after a flurry of bad publicity. The Dymaxion was later exonerated when an investigation showed that the other driver had likely been at fault, but the damage wreaked by the negative press had condemned the project to the scrap heap of history. Later, in a book called The Age of Heretics, author Art Kleiner asserted that the real reason for the demise of the Dymaxion was that Chrysler was forced by its bankers to abandon the project; purportedly the bankers threatened to recall their loans because they felt the car would overtake the automobile market, and destroy sales for vehicles already in the distribution channels. We’ll probably never know for sure.

This vehicle, designed and built over 70 years ago, is still impressive by today’s standards. Only one of the original three prototypes is still intact, housed at the National Automotive Museum in Reno, Nevada.

More info:
Videos of the Dymaxion in action

Alan Bellows is the founder, designer, and managing editor of DamnInteresting.com, and he is perpetually behind schedule.


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#1 jchristman 30 January 2006 at 01:37 pm

Dude, you’re getting a Dymaxion….NOT!

#2 manic depression 22 May 2006 at 05:13 pm

This topic is fascinating I even took the time to waste some of my life just to comment on this.

PS You are Gay

#3 sulkykid 23 May 2006 at 01:28 pm

I seem to remember the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry having one of the Dymaxion cars ???

#4 Sandman021 13 August 2006 at 02:06 am

Thats a Great article but I don’t know “the car would overtake the automobile market” i’m thinking that would force the other car makers to copy the Dymaxion design (which is always done)

#5 lledra 13 August 2006 at 04:51 am

I have never even heard about this vehical before.
Can you imagine how different cars could be today if that had managed to take off? They would have been remodeld and all sort of cool things could have happened. Aw well.

I think somebody should try this type of design today, make a handy equivilant that’s “up to date” with all of it’s stuff. Somebody who’s not afraid of other companies and banks.
I find it sad that Companies can control and sway things that ultimately help humans “evolve”. It’s eerie, and very “the one armed man-ish”.

#6 Mez 13 August 2006 at 06:09 am

Mr Fuller must have been quite a versatile thinker. The other context in which I’ve heard of him is as the name-sake for C60 [pretend the 60 is subscript] – an usual form of carbon where each molecule is composed of exactly 60 atoms arranged in the shape of a soccer-ball – Buckminsterfullerine, aka “Bucky” balls.

#7 another viewpoint 13 August 2006 at 06:29 am

…please make sure your seat back tables are in their locked and upright position before we pull away from the stop light. Will there be a full meal or just a snack? btw…what movie will be shown during this ride?

…oh, one more thing, is it acceptable to bring gels, lotions and other liquids inside?

#8 Johnny Wayne 13 August 2006 at 06:51 am

I remember seeing film of that car. I recall it was too light for it’s size and speed. It could be blown around by the wind a bit much. Then add a bunch of people, make it top heavy, and you’ve an overall unstable design. I think the steering and drive system is sound, but it should be put under something not quite so ballon like. If you filled that thing with helium*, it might well float away!

*note that this was a joke, and i am not saying there is a suitable volume to weight ratio that it would actually float away. why a disclaimer? because I just know someone will say something otherwise. :)

#9 aTNBoy 13 August 2006 at 07:13 am

I can’t see why the reverse steering would be a problem. Every “Good-Ole-Boy” steers his fishing boat with a motor mounted in the rear, how would this be any different?? Make a smaller 7 passenger “mini-van” size version with 30+ mpg and it would be a no brainer.

#10 Furnace 13 August 2006 at 07:30 am

The fact that there’s only one wheel in the back for the reverse steering, I think we’d have constant roll-overs. I do like the panoramic windshield, though. I hate blind spots.

#11 Johnny Wayne 13 August 2006 at 11:16 am

rear steering itself isn’t the issue. it’s the fact that it’s easier to oversteer at high speed than with front steering. it ultimately requires a little more research in to the best way to engineer it so it provides better feedback/resistance at high speed. it could probably benefit from it’s turning range being reduced the faster it’s going. with front steering, you ‘feel’ what’s happening on the steering wheel, and since you are close to where the steering is happening, it all makes sense in your brain. that feeling is different with rear steering, and since you are far from where the steering is happeing, you’re ultimately getting less feedback to your senses. rear steering would make more sense in a short vehicle. I don’t think we can move folks to the back of one of these ‘mini busses’, but with better engineering, I’m sure it would provide more feedback and be more intuitive.

oh, one key thing is probably lacked was a self correcting mechanism. (i could easily be wrong about that). Part of what makes front steering work is also the fact that it’s on two wheels, and the mechanism has a ’settling point’ that causes the wheel to wish to point straight. take your hand off the wheel, and it will want to come back to center. althought it’s much easier to do with two wheels, doing that on a single wheel is also possible. but I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that they didn’t have a very good mechanism for that, if any at all.

excellence is in the details, and it comes with a lot of prototypes.

#12 solitas 13 August 2006 at 11:25 am

Richard Fuller and Starling Burgess designed and built the Dymaxion in Bridgeport Connecticut (also the home of Igor Sikorsky & Phileas Barnum, among others). I’ve pics of my Grandfather and my Father standing next to one – something He always spoke of with pride.

http://www.buckminster.info/Biblio/By/By-Itinerary-1933.htm

http://www.designmuseum.org/design/index.php?id=105

http://shl.stanford.edu/Bucky/dymaxion/burgess.htm

#13 cornerpocket 13 August 2006 at 04:46 pm

There are many who say that Detroit is just a whore to the desires of the marketplace and that they would (and probably will) quit making SUVs about the time the public quits buying them. Likewise, they will make and or copy anything else that is selling. Aside from the World’s Fair accident, the people who rode around in it must have not sent a lot of applications to buy one or they would have been mass produced. The bankers would have likely looked favorably on the enterprise if there were long lists of committed buyers. If we wanted a fuel cell car or a hydrogen car or a hybrid car or a rear-steering car, all we would have to do is pony up some money…..and quit blaming industry and banking for our short-sighted, selfish, and conventional ways of thinking. The marketplace does the talking and the producers take it to the bank.

#14 mHagarty 13 August 2006 at 08:17 pm

Sandman021 said: “Thats a Great article but I don’t know “the car would overtake the automobile market” i’m thinking that would force the other car makers to copy the Dymaxion design (which is always done)”

Yeah, that’s probably what “overtaking the automobile market” is, douche.

#15 Drakvil 13 August 2006 at 09:12 pm

mHagarty said: “Yeah, that’s probably what “overtaking the automobile market” is, douche.”

No need to be crass, that’s a neon sign pointing to your own shortcomings.

I do think that by “overtake the automobile market” they meant that making and selling this car would “destroy sales for vehicles already in the distribution channels”, which the same investors had already plowed a bunch of money into… the shortsighted investors back then (and now) would seek to delay or deny innovations that would sour investments they had already made.

#16 mensadave 14 August 2006 at 05:22 am

Too bad there’s only one left– it would be an awesome attention-getter just driving around. And Jay Leno would be green with envy. :)

#17 qhperson 14 August 2006 at 09:03 am

Buckminster Fuller was an original thinker in many fields, a learned man–what’s called a polymath. He’s the one who pushed the geodesic dome, which is good housing design if the mechanical problems (leaks, mostly) are fixed.

The Dymaxion was the forerunner of the van. It would make a good camper conversion, I’d bet.

#18 bryane 14 August 2006 at 09:42 am

cornerpocket said: “There are many who say that Detroit is just a whore to the desires of the marketplace and that they would (and probably will) quit making SUVs about the time the public quits buying them…”

I think the cause/effect here is reversed. People started buying minivans, and SUVs, when they were made available without an alternative.

If what I recall hearing is correct, the minivan appeared shortly after CAFE regulations required better fuel economy for cars – since the minivan was built on a truck frame, it was not bound by the same requirements as a station wagon. Minivans sold well because that was the only vehicle available for a large family, since station wagons were not available.

#19 dday 14 August 2006 at 10:17 am

the question is … does the market determine what is made or does what is made create the market…
as being in product development, I can attest that both happen… but in order for companies to make new money — there is much more of the latter “stuff creates markets” happening. I think it’s always been that way – the consumer is a pawn. Don’t kid yourself otherwise.

#20 wxrodrig 14 August 2006 at 01:37 pm

Heck, Chrysler had the right idea when it dropped support for this piece of junk…”Its a Zephyr on Wheels!”

And to tell you the truth, this article is not damn interesting, its boring. Its like reporting on the Gremlin, it was a wacky design, everyone sobered up after the 70’s and that was it, it was tossed on the junk heap.

#21 just_dave 14 August 2006 at 03:24 pm

30mpg and 120mph? I wonder if these were just Fuller’s claims or if the figures were independently verified. I question that because there doesn’t seem to be any real rocket science to that machine — it’s an aluminum frame, wooden skeleton, and aluminum skin. If it were really as revolutionary as all that, the concepts behind it certainly wouldn’t have died because of one accident. And if the concepts behind the car were truly valid, giving it the ability to go that fast and use so little fuel, I would think that some of that would’ve been adopted at some point in the last 60 years.

Am I the only one having trouble with the link to the movie? This link works better, and gets you to Stanford’s site map page for the Dymaxion.

#22 Drakvil 14 August 2006 at 10:32 pm

Interesting how the Stanford page points out that after the first car, Fuller used wind tunnel testing to make the second and third cars much more able to withstand cross-winds. The shape looks like a precursor of the Airstream trailers.

I, for one, would love to get a reproduction of this car for my own use! (but with the front wheel drive that Fuller was trying to implement for the third car)

#23 Rinson Drei 15 August 2006 at 02:01 pm

It’s easy to dream of the potential success of things/people cut short before their prime. I’m still hoping to see one of Buckminster Fuller’s floating cities in my life time. ;^)

What would be damn interesting is a breakdown of similarly ambitious projects that were allowed to fail of their own weight. For example: if only General Motors had gone through with their 4,6,8 concept in the 70’s, we could be driving 400hp cars that get 100 mpg…

#24 smokefoot 15 August 2006 at 03:00 pm

Rear wheel steering was used on airplanes exclusively until the 1940’s. When front wheel steering was introduced rear wheel steering almost vanished because of the lower accident rate. The problem occurs during braking – most of the braking has to be done by the two front wheels, which means that the center of gravity is behind the main braking point. If the vehicle is not going straight then it is going to want to spin around, and will do so if the back tire loses traction.

#25 smokefoot 15 August 2006 at 03:03 pm

Another problem with the Dymaxion is that is was built very light to get 30 mpg, which means that it isn’t very safe in an accident.

#26 medalian1 16 August 2006 at 06:22 am

cool, will be a pitstop when I go to reno to see this 4 sure!

#27 JoJo 26 December 2006 at 04:09 pm

It looks like an obese VW Minibus with a big butt!

#28 jim cherry 17 November 2008 at 06:11 pm

Good summing up, but for the stated connection to Chrysler Corp. This car had nothing to do with Chrysler whatsoever. It used a Ford V8 for power. Its body was designed by famed sculptor Isamu Noguchi. There were only three or four built. One survives at a museum in Reno, Nevada, but lacks its interior.

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The Extraordinary Dymaxion Automobile