Things people say about the Dymaxion
Fuller was a brilliant storyteller, and some of his stories stuck. Gently checked.
MythFord built the Dymaxion, or put it into production.
FactFuller hired Starling Burgess, a famed yacht and aircraft designer, as the first employee of what became the 4D Dymaxion Corporation. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022 For parts, they spent $450 on a Ford Tudor and took its engine, running gear, chassis frame and gearbox. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022 Only two more cars were built before the company folded. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022
MythBuckminster Fuller was driving when it crashed.
FactFrancis T. Turner was at the wheel when it crashed. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst) The car was driven to Chicago by a Gulf employee, Francis T. Turner. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022 Fuller was not there. He heard the news in Bridgeport, where work on the second car was just starting. Stanford archive
MythA park commissioner rammed it, so the crash had nothing to do with the car.
FactIn his account, traffic was moving at about 40 mph when Turner turned sharply left in front of a car driven by Meyer Roth. The Dymaxion rolled, and Roth hit it on its second roll. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022 Witnesses said the other car hit the Dymaxion only after it had begun to roll. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022 Roth evidently worked as a shoe salesman. Fuller later turned him into a powerful park commissioner. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022 The inquest, held on 16 November 1933, returned a verdict of accidental death. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022
MythIt could do 120 mph.
FactHemmings calls the 120 mph unproven, and unlikely given the lift at speed. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst) Nevala-Lee says it evidently peaked at around 90 mph, the fastest it ever went in public. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022
MythNone of the cars survive.
FactOnly one original survives: car No. 2, in the permanent collection of the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst) The Lane Motor Museum in Nashville finished its replica of car No. 1 in 2015, after eight years, and put it on display from 26 February. Lane Motor Museum, 2015
MythThe Dymaxion car and the Dymaxion House are the same project.
FactDymaxion was the brand name Fuller used for most of his inventions. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022 The Dymaxion House is a different Fuller design, an aluminium dwelling. The only remaining prototype is at The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The Henry Ford
MythIt was the first streamlined car.
FactWhatever Fuller later implied, it was not the first streamlined car: Chrysler had been testing in wind tunnels for years. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022
MythFuller paid for it all himself.
FactEarly in 1933 Anna “Nannie” Biddle, a Philadelphia socialite, offered to fund a working prototype, and advanced $1,000 in February. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022 Fuller later claimed, falsely, that he had paid back his investors, and his official biographies left Biddle out. Slate (Alec Nevala-Lee), 2022
The Dymaxion used Ford parts, but it was built by Fuller’s own small company. For how Ford really did mass-produce a car, see the Model T page on history.motoring.im.