1934 Airflow
from MOPAR News Web Site
Throughout this time, the Chrysler/DeSoto engineers (sometime called the Three Musketeers. . . Carl Breer, Fred Zeder and Owen Skelton, brought over from Maxwell by Walter P himself!) were convinced that there was something wrong with the contemporary car designs. The high grills, squared-off lines, and long fenders and hoods were limiting economy and top speeds. The Chrysler engineers even pioneered wind tunnel testing of automobiles, with none other than Orville Wright (of the Wright Brother's fame) manning the controls. Their conclusion was that cars of the time were 'backwards'!
In 1933 the engineers modified a DeSoto sedan to drive backwards. Aimed with back to the wind, this oddball experimental DeSoto provided better gas mileage and higher cruising speeds! Armed with the results of this testing, the styling department went to work.
The ongoing experimentation indicated that a teardrop shape would be the most aerodynamic. It was applied to the 1934 DeSoto, Chrysler and Chrysler Imperial Airflow automobiles. The resulting vehicles were an aerodynamic success, but the motoring press was less than enthusiastic, with many writers extolling the virtues of the engineering, but panning the 'odd' appearance.
Walter P. Chrysler bred a feeling of 'engineering as king' into the company right from its inception. The Airflow Models for Chrysler, DeSoto and Imperial were certainly not a designer's car. They were engineer's cars. According to Mr. Chrysler himself, a vehicle with this many improvements needed to be on the street. . . right away! Disregarding his styling heads, he ordered the cars to be rushed into production. The look was simply far too advanced for regular production models. Add to that the poor production quality, the delays brought about by the rushed introduction, and General Motors underhanded advertising and rumor-mongering, and the cars were doomed to failure.
Most of the potential buyers shunned the radical new looks, and never got to experience the improvements. . . many of which we take for granted today. The new cars had great weight distribution, making them extremely stable, the passenger compartment was located in front of the rear wheels, which offered more room and superior comfort, and these were also the first cars with unibody construction, simplifying production and increasing body strength tremendously. The recessed headlights, triple-bar bumpers, rear fender skirts and sloping V-type windshield were just too much for the motoring public of the 30's to accept.
These cars truly were thirty years ahead of their time. The DeSoto Airflow sedan could safely have been considered the world's first mini-van, fifty years before the first Dodge Caravan rolled off the line! Airflow cars even came equipped with automatic overdrive transmissions!
Unfortunately, the Airflow signaled the end for Walter P. Chrysler himself. After two dismal years of sales, he turned the corporate reins over to K.T. Keller, himself an engineer and long-time protégé of Chrysler. Keller immediately began work on bringing styling up front, but including as many of Chrysler's improvements as could be. The Airflow's commercial failure forced Chrysler into a conservative styling direction that it wouldn't break out of until the Virgil Exner era of the late 50's and 60's.
The DeSoto Airflow was dropped after the 1936 model year; the Chrysler version held out until 1937.
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