Streamliners

The 1933 Silver Arrow was a magnificent exercise in art deco and streamlining, created by Phil Wright, an independent designer. Wright approached several auto makers with his very advanced design and Studebaker/Pierce-Arrow decided to put it into production. In 1933, Pierce-Arrow, no longer linked to Studebaker, built five of the Silver Arrows, which sold for $10,000 then. Only four still exist. Powered by a V-12, the Silver Arrow was a hit of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Running boards were concealed, as were the spare tires. Its tapered back and split rear window and smooth front fenders facing into the body side was in harmony with art deco trends of the day. And it retained the signature Pierce-Arrow headlamps tapering into the swooping front fenders. The Silver-Arrow is credited with influencing many of the post-war designs which appeared on the market in 1948 and 1949.

This 1934 Chrysler Imperial Airflow CW was a limited-production upscale version of Chrysler Corp.'s radical new Airflow design. It was the largest and heaviest car ever made by Chrysler. The car had the first single-piece curved windshield on any production car. The Airflow concept began in a wind tunnel with Chrysler's engineering triumverate of Fred Zeder, Owen Skelton and Carl Breer, all formerly of Studebaker. The Airflow was an engineering success, but a marketing flop.

This 1935 DeSoto Airflow shows what the design concept looked like in Chrysler's more moderately priced DeSoto line. In 1934, all DeSotos were Airflow, but because of its lack of acceptance in the market, Chrysler brought in a more conventional Airstream series in 1935. The Airflows didn't sell well new, but they are eagerly sought after by collectors now.

One of the most unusual and radical of the '30s streamliners was this 1936 Stout Scarab. It was designed and built by William B. Stout, once an editor at Motor Age magazine, later chief engineer for Scripps-Booth and then an engineer in Packard's aircraft division, which clearly influenced his design of the Scarab. After World War I, he designed the first internally braced cantilever-winged airplane in America. The Scarab was aerodynamic and rear-engined, powered by a Ford engine. The Scarab was decades ahead of its time and undeniably ugly. Only five models were built in 1936. This one is owned by the Detroit Historical Museum.