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  Image Credit: Stanford

Perhaps everyone born in the last century has grown up fantasizing about the possibility of driving a flying car. At the age of ten, Norman Bel Geddes would have heard the news of the Wright brothers' first flight. And by the time he was twenty one, Henry Ford's advances in mass-production were able to produce cheap automobiles at a rapid pace. It was perhaps only natural that he would attempt to combine these innovations into a single machine. After all, as I discuss below, his vision for the ground automobile was powerfully shaped by innovations in industrial design that came from developments in the realm of aviation.

Image Credit: Harry Ransom Center

During the 1930's and 40's, Bel Geddes came up with several innovative car designs that seem very futuristic--even by today's standards. They were also rather sizeable: most of his designs were meant to accomodate eight passenters. In keeping with his desire for liveable technology, however, they had gigantic windows that would allow for a very wide field of vision. Covered in chrome, and curved at every surface, they look a bit like a jet. And this was precisely what Bel Geddes was going for.

        Image Credit: The Industrial Design Reader

In The November 1934 issue of Atlantic Monthly, Bel Geddes authored "Streamlining," a four-page survey of the principles and applications of "streamlining" a term for increased aerodynamics that one can find reflected in many "futuristic" devices of the early 1930's. As he exlpains in the article, the concept of steamlining began in the field of hydrodynamics but was quickly applied to the field of aviation. The sciences of streamlining, Bel Geddes argues, "have been highly effective, but not understood....both in theory and practice, it is still in embryo." On a practical level, this meant the eiimination of elements of the car that could create drag: "headlights, fenders, door hinges, spare tires." Additionally, "clean, continuous lines from front to rear would aid in reaching all objectives." In the article, he mentions that streamlining has made little progress in the domain of the automobile--and the designs we see here reflect his attempt to move this progress forward.

           Image Credit: Harry Ransom Center

These designs may have appeared downright strange to some people--a resistance that Bel Geddes sought to overcome: "The weaning of public taste from its illogical prejudices in the matter of appearance is paving the way for whatever form will best meet the automobile's requirements." We might notice that some elements of Bel Geddes's streamlined design were even assimilated by later generations of cars. In this concept design, for example, we see how the verticle wing gives the car a fish-like appearance. Indeed, some of us may recall the explosion of "fishtails" that appeared on American cars throughout the mid-century--a metonymic nod to the hydrodynamic origins of streamlining. Bel Geddes gave special admiration to the Chrysler De Soto--an image of the 1957 model can be seen below.

       Image Credit: NFSCars

So while Bel Geddes's vision of a flying car never came into practical fruition, his concept designs did help American automakers consider the. For now, we will have to take solace in the ways in which he, like Buckminster Fuller, created designs that continue to set the imagination racing.