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The Science of Airflow: The World’s First Modern Car
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Jul 18, 2025
How three automotive geniuses revolutionized cars around the world—and why it was both a smashing success and a dismal failure!
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Hi, I'm Dave and I'm here to talk with
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you about the science of the airflow,
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which was in fact the first modern car
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and the first car totally based on
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science. Because before then, cars were
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mostly done as an art and as a set of
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independent systems or pieces to the
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point that the front and rear
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suspensions were designed and tuned
0:22
separately. This car would almost
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certainly never have happened if not for
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Fred Zeter, Owen Skelton, and Carl
0:27
Brrier. They had met in engineering
0:30
school and bonded over a belief that
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using science and engineering principles
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is the best way to solve problems. Now
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many companies at that point lacked
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serious research labs or testing
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facilities. Now, Zader Skelton and Breer
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did use science to create the Chrysler
0:46
six-cylinder, focusing on the engine
0:48
itself, and they built a 68 horsepower
0:51
straight 6 at a time when that was
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seriously hot stuff, especially in a
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mid-pric car, which is what the 1924
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Chrysler was. To get there, they did
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things like uh testing out single
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cylinder engines with different types of
1:06
heads and then changing the heads
1:08
slightly and retesting them to generate
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the most power with the most durability
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and the least fuel use. But they really
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didn't apply those principles to the
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rest of the car. They didn't really look
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at the car as a system. They looked at
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each individual part and each subsystem
1:24
separately. And the car body itself
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remained as it had been derived from
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horsedrawn coaches. Now once Maxwell
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Motors which was making the Chrysler
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became profitable, Zader Skelton and
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Breier said we really have to start
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making a car scientifically from the
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ground up thinking about every single
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part of the car. It was a truly
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ambitious effort and it was hampered by
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the sheer ambition coupled with not
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really thinking about how they would
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build it and that's what really killed
1:53
the air flow in the end. Now, of course,
1:55
we all know about the aerodynamics part
1:58
of the airflow. It's the most obvious
1:59
part of the car partly because it's the
2:03
visible part that you can look at it and
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immediately say now that's something
2:07
that was designed to slip through the
2:08
air. Although it was not as
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aerodynamically good as it could have
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been, the science was really at a dawn
2:15
at that point. And they did pretty well
2:17
considering. And they started out with
2:19
model cars in a wind tunnel. And at one
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point, this might be an apocryphal
2:25
story, but at one point, one of them put
2:26
in a car facing the other way, and it
2:29
was actually m more aerodynamic facing
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backwards. And they did a lot of work to
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try to make the cars more more
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aerodynamic,
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including the tapered tail, the rounded
2:40
fronts, and the sealed beam headlights
2:42
were part of that. They were the first
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company to use sealed beam headlights.
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In fact, they are the reason why sealed
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beam headlights were created because
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they wanted to have them mounted in the
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fenders themselves so that they could
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minimize wind drag. I'm not entirely
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sure that that strategy worked, but it
3:00
gave us sealed beam headlights, which
3:02
were the standard of the auto industry
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for about half a century. Now, maybe
3:06
more significant than the aerodynamic
3:08
work, was work on vibration frequencies,
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center of gravity, and cornering. The
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team measured the vibration frequencies
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of numerous cars, including their own.
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They found that European cars of the day
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had a very very high vibration rate and
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American cars had a higher vibration
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rate than was comfortable for most
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people. Their cars they could get down
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to 90 to 200 cycles per minute and that
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they considered to be very close to a
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human walk which they register which
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they registered as 90 to 100 cycles per
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minute. Now how did they do that? Partly
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they tuned the front and the rear
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suspensions together as a unit. They
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adjusted the springs properly and they
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moved the wheels around and the axles
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and mainly they moved the seats. So they
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moved the engine forward by 20 in so
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that it would ride over the front axle.
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And they moved the people forward so
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that they would ride between the axles
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instead of having the back seat
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passengers all the way at the back of
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the car over or behind the rear axle. If
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you've ever been on a bus, then you know
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that you don't want to be over or behind
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the rear axle. And that was one of two
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things that caused them to say that they
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had the first ride inside motor car and
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the first really spacious car. The
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second part was that they essentially
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drew a semicircle from the front to the
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rear and then they widened the car where
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the passengers went in the middle and
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that made the interior much wider and
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larger. Incidentally, they had a
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marketing term for the whole thing where
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they tried to make the spring movement
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slower and that was called floating ride
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and it really did work. The interior of
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the car was much more comfortable and
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people found who people who were not
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able to read a book in the car before
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now found that they could read in the
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car while somebody else drove hopefully
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while somebody else drove. They
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theorized and they proved that having a
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stiffer body helped both cornering and
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rides. So they made the airflow body
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part of its structure. So instead of the
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ladder frame that was common in that
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day, they had a sort of cross between an
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airframe and a regular frame uh which
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was a type of unit body design. So the
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frame ran up the fender line crossing
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the cowl and went all around the door
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openings and along the roof. It was much
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stiffer than the regular body-on-frame
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cars of the day, especially since most
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of them were still using metal over wood
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where wood was the main structural unit.
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Making the entire body out of steel, of
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course, was something that they got from
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Dodge Brothers and Briggs Bod's work
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because they were the first to make an
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entire car out of steel. But they had
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bought Dodge Brothers and then they took
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the steel design to a new level and made
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it more practical. And they had already
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done that by this time. Now, as Chrysler
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itself noted internally, some of the
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disadvantages of the airflow were the
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expensive body and mostly the long body.
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It was a very long body compared to a
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regular car that they that they
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themselves made. And part of that was
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the long tapered tail, which
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incidentally was the first to have an
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integrated trunk. And the 1934s at least
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didn't have an outside opening to that
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trunk. You had to get there from inside
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the car. It was behind the back seat.
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They did figure it out pretty quickly,
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but the reason that you call the rear
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compartment in a car the trunk is
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because it used to be an actual trunk
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mounted to the back of the car. And
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Chrysler made it an integrated part
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pretty much through the present day. It
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had an automatic overdrive system, which
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was quite nice, although rather
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expensive to make. So that at around 45
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mph, it could shift into overdrive on
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its own, allowing the engine to drop in
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revs, which made the interior quieter
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and increased fuel economy and might
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have increased the top speed. And that's
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one reason why current airflow owners
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say that they're very confident at
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modern highway speeds. the rigid body,
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the welltuned suspension, the hydraulic
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brakes on all four wheels, but also the
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fact that the engine isn't as stressed
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as it could be otherwise because of that
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overdrive. And as somebody who has a
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3-speed torque flight where the top gear
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ratio is 1 one, I can tell you I would
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love to have an overdrive. Now, they
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also had a Filco radio which could be
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installed in the dashboard as a $55
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option. That was also innovative with a
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super heterodine circuit designed
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specifically for car use. It had
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full-size speakers, a four-point
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equalizer, and automatic volume control.
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Believe it or not, a Chrysler had to
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work with Pittsburgh plate glass or PPG
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to create the first curved safety
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windshield. The cost of this was such
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that it was only installed on the
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top-of-the-line luxury model, the
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Chrysler CW, which was a 9 passenger
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sedan, which also had the first power
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partition window ever in a car. And
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Motel has a story on one of the CWs that
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was lent to the most popular radio
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personality of the day, guy named Major
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Bose, who basically started the whole
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onair talent show thing on the radio
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with viewers uh sorry, listeners calling
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in to vote. So now you know who's to
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blame for that. The Chrysler and Dotto
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Airflow were both revealed at the 1934
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New York Auto Show 10 years after the
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original Chrysler B70 was shown there.
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Customers were quite enthusiastic and
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they got over 20,000 orders, but mo
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around half of those would be withdrawn
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before the car was actually made. What
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was the problem? Well, really it was
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that Zader skeleton, Brier, and Chrysler
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had been so excited that they had not
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really thought about how to make the
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car. And the main problem there was its
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length. It couldn't negotiate the turns
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in the assembly plants that they had
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then. They were relatively small plants.
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The cars would make a lot of turns going
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back going around and they had a lot of
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roof supports in those plants and it
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also required new techniques for
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construction in general because it was
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the company's first unibody. So, it
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required a lot more factory preparation,
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but they did not plan ahead for that.
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And they introduced the car far too far
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in advance and GM and Ford were able to
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spread dirty, malicious rumors about it
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because they had nothing that could come
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close to it and they really had to uh
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badmouth the car or else they'd lose a
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lot of money to it. Another problem with
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the airflow, which is not often
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mentioned by auto historians, is that it
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was very expensive to make. Part of that
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was the size, part of that was the unit
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body. It was just a pricey car. And it
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was still during the depression. It was
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1934 when it was introduced. And it was
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always Chrysler's most expensive car
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while they made it. It was just much
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more costly than the body-on-frame cars.
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So what happened in 1934 was that both
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Ford and Chrysler did a crash program to
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adapt the airflow's unique attributes
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like moving the seats, moving the
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engine, getting the suspension tuned
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properly. They took all these things
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which Chrysler advertised, basically
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telling Ford how to do it. and they both
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came out with 1935 body-on-frame cars
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that were normally priced, normally
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sized, conventionally styled, sold like
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hotcakes,
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uh, and had most of the advantages of
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the of the Airflow without having all
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the advantages. A lot of critics said
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that the main problem with the Airflow
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was the funny looks. It was designed,
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styled by engineers and not by a
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stylist. So they tried making it look
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more normal in future years and that
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didn't really help all that much. It was
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really I think personally the premium
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price. Packard probably could have sold
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the cars. Chrysler couldn't. Even though
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they were really quite nicel looking
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inside. So long-term the company had
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lost market share but it's the main
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problem with the airflow for Chrysler
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was that it became overcautious. the
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company lost its confidence in its own
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engineering and they realized that
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styling was more important than they had
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thought. Another problem is that really
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the unit body design is very expensive
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if you've got a wide range of body
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styles that people expect such as at the
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time business coups, coups, sedans of
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different sizes, wagons and so on. Now
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Chrysler stopped showing interest in
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aerodynamics until they started racing
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in NASCAR. Well, actually until quite a
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few years after they started racing in
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NASCAR and then they did the 69 Dodge
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Charger 500 and then the Charger Daytona
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and Superbird. But on production cars,
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they didn't really do a whole lot of
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aerodynamic work until after the fuel
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crisis. So the airflow was the uh
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unibody car and then the Airstream was
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the body on frame. What's interesting is
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that the airflow really was the car that
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all cars of the future, which is to say
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today, would be based on. For the first
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time, passengers were riding between the
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axles instead of on them. So, the ride
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was sensational at the time. The unit
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body came back. I mean, Chrysler went
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almost completely unit in 1960. And
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today, pretty much all regular cars are
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unit body designs, other than pickup
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trucks and such. Likewise, overdrive
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became very common, not to mention car
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radios. It's a shame really because if
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they had paid more attention to how the
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the cars would be built up front, they
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really could have probably made them
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into a success. If they had been a
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little bit less ambitious about it,
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started out with the Airstream and then
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went to the airflow. That would have
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also been a really big success. But they
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they really started too big. They tried
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to change too much at once without
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thinking about manufacturing, how they
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were actually going to build it. and
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they were hit pretty hard. Still, for a
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number of years before World War II,
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Chrysler was the number two automaker.
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And part of the reason why was because
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of all the lessons they learned by
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looking at the entire car scientifically
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with the Chrysler Airflow, one of the
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most influential cars ever made in the
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history of the car. Well, I've got a
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page on motel.com which has more
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pictures, so drop by Motel. Uh, I'm also
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going to mention Motel now, which is our
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new relevant news site, or as I would
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call it, history as it's being made.
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And, uh, you might want to look up my
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book, Century of Chrysler on Amazon.
13:24
Century of Chrysler covers the full 101
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years from 1924 Chrysler to 2025. And it
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also looks at how Chrysler came to be
13:34
starting before 1904 with Maxwell. In
13:38
the meantime, I'll see you
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