Art deco Chrysler Airflow was "America's most talked-about car"

The next art deco icon in our Art Deco Centenary series is the streamlined Chrysler Airflow – a revolutionary car that pioneered aerodynamic automobile design.

The extremely distinctive Airflow had an instantly recognisable art deco look, though its design was led not by aesthetics, but science – it was the first production car developed in a wind tunnel.

When it launched in 1934 it immediately captured the public's imagination, with Chrysler soon branding it "America's most talked-about car".

Launched at the New York Auto Show in 1934, at a time when boxy cars with vertical front grills were the norm, the Chrysler Airflow was marketed as "fashioned by function" and "a new innovation in motoring".

According to its chief designer and Automotive Hall of Fame-inductee Carl Breer, it was unlike anything else at the show.

"These cars were an entirely new concept and came as a complete surprise to our competition," Breer later wrote in the book The Birth of Chrysler Corporation and its Engineering Legacy.

According to Breer, more orders were taken for the Airflow, which was manufactured both by Chrysler and its DeSoto sub-brand, than any other new car ever show at the auto show.

"The public who saw them wanted them," he wrote.

The Airflow was developed by Breer along with engineers Frederick Morrell Zeder and Owen Ray Skelton, after observing the forms of aircraft and becoming interested in how air flows around them.

After consulting with aviation pioneers Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, Chrysler decided to build a wind tunnel – the first at an automobile company.

The carmaker had already made itself a major part of the art deco story with its development of the Chrysler Building in New York.

"Just think how dumb we have been"

Breer experimented with the brand's existing models before deciding to run some cars through the tunnel backwards. He discovered that in reverse they had around 30 per cent less wind resistance.

"We decided to see what would happen to a car in a wind tunnel," wrote Beer in The Birth of Chrysler Corporation and its Engineering Legacy.

"I looked out of the window at all the cars below and remarked, 'just think how dumb we have been. All those cars have been running in the wrong direction!' This astonishing enlightenment was the motivating force that started our design and development of the Airflow series."

The wind-tunnel work determined an overall form that was had reduced levels of drag and improved handling. Informed by the shape of zeppelins, the car had a curved body with a "waterfall" front grille and a body that was wider at the front than the rear.

Overall the car's form resembled the famed Burlington Zephyr streamline train, which was introduced in the same year.

"The Airflow De Soto is shaped so that it bores through the air, with a minimum of disturbance," Chrysler advertised.

Along with its aerodynamic form, the Airflow utilised a lightweight steel, monocoque structure – where the external skin forms part of the structure as a pose to using a rigid frame.

This reduced the overall mass of the car by 90 kilograms, providing maximum strength for the lowest weight.

Chrysler promoted the car based on its performance, advertising its "sensational" fuel economy that came from its aerodynamic shape and lightweight design. Another boasted that it had broken 69 speed records.

In a stunt to demonstrate its structural strength, the car was pushed off a 30-metre-high cliff. A driver then got in and drove the car away.

"Our timing was wrong"

However, despite the initial interest and heavy promotion, the car was a commercial failure.

While Chrysler promoted its modernity, proudly telling buyers it was years ahead any car in America and would "stay modern for years", it seems that people weren't ready for the car's radical design.

Despite several alterations made to the form – including redesigning the grille and adding a boot – the car was taken out of production in 1937. In total, around 55,000 Airflows were sold during its four-year production run.

Breer agreed that the car "was so far ahead of its time", but does not think that it was unsuccessful because of its aesthetic. He maintained that a delay between the car being unveiled and being delivered to customers, caused by manufacturing complications, fatally damaged people's belief in the Airflow.

"Unfortunately our timing was wrong," wrote Beer in The Birth of Chrysler Corporation and its Engineering Legacy.

"Had the New York show been delayed until April when Airflow production was underway or had we been able to put some 25,000 Airflow cars in the hands of owners during the month of January immediately after the show, we felt certain that Airflow styling would have been accepted," he continued.

"It would have forestalled rumours from developing about the car's reputation."

The photography is courtesy of Stellantis Historical Services.

Art Deco Centenary

This article is part of Dezeen's Art Deco Centenary series, which explores art deco architecture and design 100 years on from the "arts décoratifs" exposition in Paris that later gave the style its name.

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