Bucky Fuller with Starling Burgess and Isamu Noguchi
Body and chassis
Class
Concept car
Body style
Sheet aluminum on ash frame
Layout
Rear-engine, front-wheel-drive
Platform
Varied per prototype: double or triple hinged, cromoly steel
Powertrain
Engine
Ford flathead V8
Transmission
Ford
Dimensions
Length
20 ft (6,096.0 mm)
The Omni-Media-Transport
With such a vehicle at our disposal, [Fuller] felt that human travel, like that of birds, would no longer be confined to airports, roads, and other bureaucratic boundaries, and that autonomous free-thinking human beings could live and prosper wherever they chose.
Lloyd S. Sieden, Bucky Fuller's Universe, 2000
To his young daughter Allegra
Fuller described the Dymaxion as a "zoomobile", explaining that it could hop off the road at will, fly about, then, as deftly as a bird, settle back into a place in traffic.
R. (Richard) Buckminster Fuller 1895-1983
The Dymaxion car was designed by American inventor Buckminster Fuller during the Great Depression and featured prominently at Chicago's 1933/1934 World's Fair.[1] Fuller built three experimental prototypes with naval architect Starling Burgess – using donated money as well as a family inheritance[2][3] – to explore not an automobile per se, but the 'ground-taxiing phase' of a vehicle that might one day be designed to fly, land and drive – an "Omni-Medium Transport".[4] Fuller associated the word Dymaxion with much of his work, a portmanteau of the words dynamic, maximum, and tension,[5] to summarize his goal to do more with less.[6]
The Dymaxion's aerodynamic bodywork was designed for increased fuel efficiency and top speed, and its platform featured a lightweight hinged chassis, rear-mounted V8 engine, front-wheel drive (a rare RF layout), and three wheels. With steering via its third wheel at the rear (capable of 90° steering lock), the vehicle could steer itself in a tight circle, often causing a sensation.[7][8] Fuller noted severe limitations in its handling, especially at high speed or in high wind, due to its rear-wheel steering (highly unsuitable for anything but low speeds) and the limited understanding of the effects of lift and turbulence on automobile bodies in that era – allowing only trained staff to drive the car and saying it "was an invention that could not be made available to the general public without considerable improvements."[9] Shortly after its launch, a prototype crashed and killed the Dymaxion's driver.[10][11][12]
Despite courting publicity and the interest of auto manufacturers, Fuller used his inheritance to finish the second and third prototypes,[13] selling all three, dissolving Dymaxion Corporation and reiterating that the Dymaxion was never intended as a commercial venture.[14] One of the three original prototypes survives,[15] and two semi-faithful[16] replicas have recently been constructed. The Dymaxion was included in the 2009 book Fifty Cars That Changed The World[17] and was the subject of the 2012 documentary The Last Dymaxion.
In 2008, The New York Times said Fuller "saw the Dymaxion, as he saw much of the world, as a kind of provisional prototype, a mere sketch, of the glorious, eventual future."[3]
^US 2101057
^Frank Magill (1999). The 20th Century A–GI: Dictionary of World Biography, Volume 7. Routledge. p. 1266. ISBN 1136593349.
^ abPhil Patton (June 2, 2008). "A 3-Wheel Dream That Died at Takeoff". The New York Times.
^Marks, Robert (1973). The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller. Anchor Press / Doubleday. p. 104.
^Sieden, Lloyd Steven (2000). Buckminster Fuller's Universe. Basic Books. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-7382-0379-9.[permanent dead link]
^McHale, John (1962). R. Buckminster Fuller. Prentice-Hall. p. 17.
^Cite error: The named reference Kleiner was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Marks, Robert (1973). The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller. Anchor Press / Doubleday. p. 29.
^Lloyd Steven Sieden (August 11, 2000). Buckminster Fuller's Universe. Basic Books. ISBN 9780738203799.[permanent dead link]
^Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Passenger Files: Francis T. Turner, Colonel William Francis Forbes-Sempill and Charles Dollfuss". Stanford University Archives. Archived from the original on August 21, 2012.
^Davey G. Johnson (March 18, 2015). "Maximum Dynamism! Jeff Lane's Fuller Dymaxion Replica Captures Insane Cool of the Originals". Car and Driver. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
^R. Buckminster Fuller (1983). Inventions: The Patented Works of R. Buckminster Fuller. St. Martin's Press.
^"About Fuller, Session 9, Part 15". Bucky Fuller Institute. Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2015-04-29.
^Allison C. Meier. "Dymaxion Car at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada. The only surviving prototype". AtlasObscura. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
^Cite error: The named reference loco was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Andrew Nahum (2009). Fifty Cars that Changed the World. Conran Octopus. ISBN 9781840915853.
into a place in traffic. R. (Richard) Buckminster Fuller 1895-1983 The Dymaxioncar was designed by American inventor Buckminster Fuller during the Great...
associated with much of his work—prominently his Dymaxion house and Dymaxioncar. Dymaxion, a portmanteau of the words dynamic, maximum, and tension; sums...
The Dymaxion House was developed by inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller to address several perceived shortcomings with existing homebuilding techniques...
Last Dymaxion: Buckminster Fuller’s Dream Restored is a 2012 documentary film directed by Noel Murphy. about Buckminster Fuller's 1933 Dymaxioncar as well...
York auto show and wrote an article on the DymaxionCar for the society newsletter. Contemporary production cars commonly had a separate chassis and body...
area, total surface area, or similar) and the drag coefficient. In 2003, Car and Driver magazine adopted this metric as a more intuitive way to compare...
he partnered with Buckminster Fuller to design and build the radical DymaxionCar. Between 1930 and 1937 he created three America's Cup winning J-Class...
The Dymaxion Chronofile is Buckminster Fuller's attempt to document his life as completely as possible. He created a very large scrapbook in which he documented...
inspired future iconic American car designs:[dubious – discuss] Aptera[citation needed][dubious – discuss] Dymaxioncar, designed by Buckminster Fuller[citation...
October 2010, CNN announced that Foster recreated Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxioncar. "Reliance Controls factory". Foster + Partners. Retrieved June 21, 2017...
distribution of global resources. This alternative to war games uses Fuller's Dymaxion map and requires a group of players to cooperatively solve a set of metaphorical...
collaborated on several projects, including the modeling of Fuller's Dymaxioncar. Upon his return, Noguchi's abstract sculptures made in Paris were exhibited...
the Tropfenwagen by placing the wheels inside the car body Stout Scarab (1932–35, 1946), US Dymaxioncar (1933), US Schlörwagen (1939), German prototype...
back. (Motorcycles with sidecars; another matter.) Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxioncar caused a sensation, but ignorance of the problems of rear-wheel-steering...
Contemporaneous prototypes with a more extreme focus on aerodynamics were the 1933 Dymaxioncar and Karl Schlör's Schlörwagen, developed from 1936 to 1939. The vehicle...
Persu car (1922-23), designed by Romanian engineer Aurel Persu, who improved on the Tropfenwagen by placing the wheels inside the car body Dymaxioncar, 1933...
Noguchi on a road trip through Connecticut in a car Noguchi had designed with Buckminster Fuller, the Dymaxioncar. The trio stopped to see Thornton Wilder in...
camera dollies, early pay loaders, Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxioncar, and the ThrustSSC. In cars, rear-wheel steering tends to be unstable because, in turns...
wheels inside the car body Burney car (1929-1931), working prototypes designed by Dennis Burney and manufactured by Streamline CarsDymaxion (1933–1934), U...
and manufactured by Streamline Cars Stout Scarab (1932–35, 1946), "teardrop" US carDymaxioncar, 1933 US "teardrop" car Pierce Silver Arrow (1933) Dodge...