1934 Chrysler Airflow

Chrysler Airflow, 1934
Chrysler Airflow, 1934
Chrysler Airflow, 1934 - Airflow featured a “waterfall” grille that canted back into the hood itself
Chrysler Airflow, 1934 - Airflow featured a “waterfall” grille that canted back into the hood itself
Chrysler Airflow, 1934 - With the Union Pacific Railroad's M-10000
Chrysler Airflow, 1934 - With the Union Pacific Railroad's M-10000
Chrysler Airflow, 1934 - With the Union Pacific Railroad's M-10000
Chrysler Airflow, 1934 - With the Union Pacific Railroad's M-10000
Chrysler Airflow, 1934
Chrysler Airflow, 1934
Chrysler Airflow, 1934
Chrysler Airflow, 1934
Chrysler Airflow, 1934
Chrysler Airflow, 1934
Chrysler Airflow, 1935
Chrysler Airflow, 1935
Chrysler Airflow Sedan, 1937 - Ad
Chrysler Airflow Sedan, 1937 - Ad
Chrysler Airflow Coupe, 1937 - Ad
Chrysler Airflow Coupe, 1937 - Ad
Chrysler Airflow Coupe Interior, 1937 - Ad
Chrysler Airflow Coupe Interior, 1937 - Ad
Chrysler Airflow Designer - Carl Breer
Chrysler Airflow Designer - Carl Breer
Иллюстрации: Chrysler Corporation; aldenjewell’s photostream
Рейтинг:  35    -12    +47
1934 Chrysler/Desoto Airflow
The Chrysler Airflow model was produced by Chrysler from 1934 to 1937. The Airflow was the first full-size American production car to use streamlining as a basis for building a sleeker automobile, one less susceptible to air resistance. Unfortunately, this new and radical design represented one of the most serious miscalculations in automotive history.

Carl Breer, Chief engineer for Chrysler, began a series of wind tunnel tests, with the cooperation of Orville Wright, to study which forms were the most efficient shape created by nature that could suit an automobile. Breer wind-tunnel tested at least 50 scale models by April 1930. The engineers found that then-current two-box automobile design was so aerodynamically inefficient, that it was actually more efficient turned around backwards. Applying what they had learned about shape, the engineers also began looking into ways that a car could be built using monocoque construction to strengthen the car, reduce its overall weight, and increase the power-to-weight ratio as the lighter, more streamlined body allowed air to flow around it instead of being caught through upright forms, such as radiator grilles, headlights and windshields.

For 1934, both Chrysler and its junior running mate, DeSoto, were scheduled to offer the Airflow. DeSoto was assigned to offer nothing but Airflows; Chrysler, however, hedged its bets and continued to offer a six-cylinder variant of its more mainstream 1933 model cars. The Airflow used a flathead I8 engine and was produced in both 2-door coupe and 4-door sedan variants.

Within six months following the introduction of the Airflow, the vehicle was already a sales disaster. Adding insult to injury, General Motors mounted an advertising campaign aimed at further discrediting the Airflows. Most automotive historians, though, agree that the Airflow was shunned in large part because buyers did not like its looks. The hood, waterfall grille, headlamps and fenders were all merged into one continuous form that was interpreted as an "anonymous lump". While thoroughly modern, the public was slow to embrace the Airflow. At the depth of the Great Depression, the car seemed to be too advanced, too different for many consumers. While Airflows sold in respectable numbers in its first year, Chrysler’s traditional sedans and coupes far outsold the Airflow by a ratio of 2.5 to one, with first year Airflow sales at 10,839 units.


The Airflow's "worst"-ness derives from its spectacularly bad timing. Twenty years later, the car's many design and engineering innovations — the aerodynamic singlet-style fuselage, steel-spaceframe construction, near 50-50 front-rear weight distribution and light weight — would have been celebrated. As it was, in 1934, the car's dramatic streamliner styling antagonized Americans on some deep level, almost as if it were designed by Bolsheviks. It didn't help that a few early Airflows had major, engine-falling-out-type problems that stemmed from the radical construction techniques required. Chrysler, and the even more hapless Desoto, tried to devolve the Airflow stylistically, giving it more conventional grill and raising the trunk into a kind of bustle (some later models were named Airstream), but the damage was done. Sales were abysmal. It wouldn't be the last time American car buyers looked at the future and said, "no thanks."


В 1930 г. главный стилист фирмы Сhrysler Рей Дитрих (Ray Dietrich) возглавил работу своей дизайнерской студии по созданию автомобиля с романтическим именем Airflow — «Воздушный поток». Это был тот редкий случай, когда американский стайлинг выступал как бы заодно с функциональным дизайном. Автомобиль отличали пониженная рама и смещенный вперед двигатель, который позволил разместить задних пассажиров в более комфортной зоне — перед задней осью. Оригинальным получился и силуэт двухобъемного кузова, который впервые в мировой практике получил передний свес. Кроме того, традиционный корпус радиатора был заменен вертикальными прорезями на покатом «носу». В Америке Airflow потерпел фиаско, в Европе же Fiat, Peugeot и Volvo использовали найденные Дитрихом мотивы в композиции своих предвоенных автомобилей, а японская Toyota его просто напрямую скопировала.
По материалам: www.jaylenosgarage.com; The 50 Worst Cars of All Time - www.time.com; «Планета США» - Н.Розанов, Журнал «АВТОМОБИЛИ», 3-2000
Автомобили марки Chrysler
1934 Chrysler Airflow, 1940 Chrysler Newport Phaeton, 1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt, 1951 Chrysler K-310 (Ghia), 1952 Chrysler C-200 (Ghia), 1952 Chrysler Special (Ghia), 1953 Chrysler D’Elegance (Ghia), 1953 Chrysler GS-1 Special (Ghia), 1953 Chrysler Thomas Special (Ghia), 1954 Chrysler La Comte, 1954 Chrysler La Comtesse, 1954 Chrysler ST Special (Ghia), 1955 Chrysler Falcon (Ghia), 1955 Chrysler Flight Sweep I (Ghia), 1955 Chrysler Flight Sweep II (Ghia), 1955 Chrysler ST Special (Ghia), 1955 Chrysler ST Special Convertible (Ghia), 1956 Chrysler Dart (Ghia), 1956 Chrysler Norseman (Ghia), 1956 Chrysler Special K300 (Ghia), 1957 Chrysler 375 Coupe (Ghia), 1957 Chrysler Diablo (Ghia), 1958 Chrysler Imperial D`Elegance, 1960 Chrysler Valiant (Ghia), 1961 Chrysler TurboFlite (Ghia), 1963 Chrysler Turbine Car (Ghia), 1963 Chrysler Typhoon, 1964 Chrysler V280 (Ghia), 1966 Chrysler 300X, 1969 Chrysler Concept 70X, 1970 Chrysler Cordoba de Oro, 1977 Chrysler LeBaron Turbine, 1982 Chrysler Stealth, 1987 Chrysler Lamborghini Portofino (Coggiola), 1989 Chrysler Millenium, 1991 Chrysler 300, 1992 Chrysler Cirrus, 1993 Chrysler Thunderbolt, 1994 Chrysler Aviat, 1995 Chrysler Atlantic, 1996 Chrysler LHX, 1997 Chrysler CCV (Composite Concept Vehicle), 1997 Chrysler Phaeton, 1998 Chrysler Chronos, 1998 Chrysler Pronto Cruizer, 1999 Chrysler Citadel, 1999 Chrysler Java, 2000 Chrysler 300 Hemi C, 2000 Chrysler Panel Cruiser, 2001 Chrysler Crossfire, 2002 Chrysler California Cruiser, 2002 Chrysler Pacifica, 2003 Chrysler 300c, 2003 Chrysler 300c Touring, 2003 Chrysler Airflite, 2004 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve, 2005 Chrysler Akino, 2005 Chrysler Firepower, 2006 Chrysler Imperial, 2007 Chrysler Nassau, 2008 Chrysler ecoVoyager, 2009 Chrysler 200C EV, 2017 Chrysler Portal, 2020 Chrysler Airflow Vision, 2022 Chrysler Airflow
Смотрите статьи об этом автомобиле:
Десять автомобилей, которые потрясли мир
Н. Розанов
Журнал "Автомобили" 01-2000
Планета США
Н.Розанов
Журнал «АВТОМОБИЛИ», 3-2000
05. Профессионалы и другие
Н. Розанов, кандидат искусствоведения.
Журнал "АВТОМОБИЛИ", 5-1998
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