The tailfin was first introduced on the 1948 CadillacThe tailfin at its apex on the 1959 Cadillac EldoradoAnother view of the 1959 Cadillac tailfinTailfins (Peilstege) on a Mercedes-Benz W110 sedanA finned British Vauxhall Cresta PA
The tailfin era of automobile styling encompassed the 1950s and 1960s, peaking between 1955 and 1961. It was a style that spread worldwide, as car designers picked up styling trends from the US automobile industry, where it was regarded as the "golden age" of American auto design and American exceptionalism.[1]
General Motors design chief Harley Earl is often credited for the automobile tailfin, introducing small fins on the 1948 Cadillac, but according to many sources the actual inventor/designer of the tailfin for the 1948 Cadillac was Franklin Quick Hershey,[2] who at the time the 1948 Cadillac was being designed was chief of the GM Special Car Design Studio.[3] It was Hershey who, after seeing an early production model of a P-38 at Selfridge Air Base, thought the twin rudders of the airplane would make a sleek design addition to the rear of future modern automobiles.[4] Tailfins took particular hold on the automotive buying public's imagination as a result of Chrysler designer Virgil Exner’s Forward Look, which subsequently resulted in manufacturers scrambling to install larger and larger tailfins onto new models. As jet-powered aircraft, rockets, and space flight gained public recognition through the Space Race, the automotive tailfin assemblies (including tail lights) were designed to resemble more and more the tailfin and engine sections of contemporary jet fighters and space rockets.
Plymouth claimed that the tailfins were not fins, but "stabilizers" to place the "center of pressure" as far to the rear as possible and thus "reduce by 20% the needs for steering correction in a cross wind",[5] while Mercedes-Benz called its own tailfins Peilstege, sight lines that ostensibly aided in backing up.
^pbs.org
^Gantz, Carroll. "Hershey, Franklin (Frank) Q." industrialdesignhistory.
^Knoedelseder, William (2018). Fins (First ed.). New York NY: Harper Collins. pp. 176–177. ISBN 9780062289070.
^"Cadillac history 1948". Archived from the original on 2001-06-22.
The tailfin era of automobile styling encompassed the 1950s and 1960s, peaking between 1955 and 1961. It was a style that spread worldwide, as car designers...
Look up tailfin in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Tail fin or tailfin may refer to: Cartailfin of an automobile Caudal fin of a fish Vertical stabilizer...
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first television outing, spurring CBS to make it an annual tradition. Cartailfin design reaches its apex with such as the Cadillac Eldorado, Chevrolet...
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tires, the exterior was fitted with minimal chrome trim on the body sides; tailfins were left off of the body completely. In place of the bumper-mounted spare...
the Pixar Cars franchise. His appearances include the feature films Cars, Cars 2, and Cars 3, as well as in the TV series Cars Toons and Cars on the Road...
by closely resembling the famous 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, complete with tailfins, prominent 'flutes' on the bonnet (a modern evocation of a familiar Vauxhall...
car exported around the world 1953–1971 Chevrolet Bel Air and 1953–2002 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham—first generations were representative of tailfin design...
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evolution of Pobeda's fastback contour with panoramic windows and large tailfins, and the Volga with its conventional styling, which was more realistically...
her. She leads him to the Wheel Well Motel, an abandoned motor court in Tailfin Pass that was once the most popular stop on Route 66. It is at the Wheel...
very large, outward-canted tailfins. The Futura had a complete powertrain and was fully operable, in contrast to many show cars. Its original color was a...
prices as low as possible. Although the 1958 Champion received added-on tailfins in the back and fender-mounted pods up front to accept four headlamps (two...
between prominent "eye" headlamps. The car also sported a backward-slanted rear window and tailfins. This dated the car over its nine-year production life...
halo car, Eldorados accounted for just 4% of all Cadillacs sold. 1954 Cadillac Eldorado 1955 Cadillac Eldorado with view of sharp "sharkfin" tailfins 1956...
for the 1960 model year had been formulated in 1957 during the height of tailfin era, but the design fell from fashion. While Chevrolet and Ford sales increased...
wind tunnel testing to justify incorporating tailfins, thus moving the company away from boxy-looking cars into more aerodynamic and futuristic designs...
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