A three wheeled car built like an airplane promised to change transportation forever.

Teardrop on Wheels

On July 12, 1933, laborers in a factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut, that previously produced Locomobiles finished the first Dymaxion car - this vehicle has three wheels & Buckminster Fuller designed it with assistance from Starling Burgess. It is shaped like a drop of liquid and it has a frame made of wood that aluminum panels cover. The car is steered by the rear wheels and the front wheels drive it.

A Vision Beyond the Car

Fuller did not intend to only create an improved automobile - he wanted to change how people move entirely. He envisioned the Dymaxion as an element of a broader "4D Transport" concept. In his plan the vehicle would move across land, through water and across the sky. The name exists because Fuller wanted to use the smallest amount of resources to achieve the greatest results. By combining the words dynamic, maximum and ion, he created the title.

As a Ford V8 engine provides power, promoters described the Dymaxion as a fast vehicle that uses fuel efficiently to carry people. Fuller stated that it is able to transport 11 individuals, that it is able to move at 120 miles per hour and that it travels 28 miles for every gallon of fuel. Due to the steering system, the car has a small turning radius and can move into parking spaces in a noticeable way.

A Fatal Setback

The car attracted the interest of the public in every location where it appeared - but the project failed after a collision occurred near the Chicago World's Fair in October 1933. A person died during this event and the enterprise did not succeed as a business after that. There is disagreement among records regarding whether the individual who died was the person driving or a passenger.

Only one original Dymaxion exists to this day - and it is located at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada, for preservation. Not just a defective car, it persists as a symbol of Fuller's faith that design can redefine the future.