1938 Dymaxion

[demmiblue]

Link to tweet

Check out the famous passenger at 0:27.

[hunter]

1. I met Buckminster Fuller as a kid. From my perspective he was really old then.

It was a program for young science prodigies. I wasn't much of a prodigy, I was simply obsessed with computers and had built this horrible and wretchedly naive machine of my own design from old telephone relays. I was also a pyromaniac, so I knew a bit of chemistry as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller

[Uncle Joe]

6. I love this

(snip)

The words "down" and "up", according to Fuller, are awkward in that they refer to a planar concept of direction inconsistent with human experience. The words "in" and "out" should be used instead, he argued, because they better describe an object's relation to a gravitational center, the Earth. "I suggest to audiences that they say, 'I'm going "outstairs" and "instairs."' At first that sounds strange to them; They all laugh about it. But if they try saying in and out for a few days in fun, they find themselves beginning to realize that they are indeed going inward and outward in respect to the center of Earth, which is our Spaceship Earth. And for the first time they begin to feel real 'reality.'"[85]

(snip)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller

[appalachiablue]

2. Interesting, heard him lecture in hs

[ProudLib72]

3. Pretty sure that isn't the real deal although it looks cool

Only three were ever made, and only one survives.

And did you know it was supposed to fly, not drive along the ground?

The Lane Motor Museum didn’t spend eight years building an incredibly artful replica of the Dymaxion Car just to make Buckminster Fuller look bad. At least, we don’t think they did -- museum director Jeff Lane is too nice of a guy to pick on the famed futurist, especially since Fuller, who died in 1983, isn’t around to defend himself.

We wish he were still around today, though, so we could ask him personally what he was thinking when he penned the Dymaxion car. Because we have to report, with some sadness, that it’s scariest, most poorly designed vehicle we’ve ever been behind the wheel of.

Of course, blaming Bucky for the car’s shortcomings isn't entirely fair, for the Dymaxion car as we know it was far from complete. In its final form, the 20-foot-long podlike contraption would negotiate the skies using some sort of jet-like propulsion system (never mind that jets hadn’t quite been invented when the car was developed). Yes, it was supposed to fly.
https://autoweek.com/article/classic-cars/buckminster-fullers-dymaxion-car-probably-scariest-thing-weve-ever-driven

[demmiblue]

5. You're right (that is probably why it was in parenthesis).

I did learn some interesting things, though! Thanks for adding that link.

[Harker]

4. Reminds me of the Curtiss Ascender

(Ass-Ender.)

[Lady Freedom Returns]

7. I would love to own this.