As World War II came to a close , and with it a dip in demand for military aircraft , the aeroplane manufacturer Beech Aircraft Corporation decided to take a stab at the auto industry . Its first – and only – try was the 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman concept cable car .
car are patently quite dissimilar from aircraft , yet corporate experience with one can boost a flirt with the other . Henry Ford , for example , put America on wheels with his beloved Model T , made a fortune , and go on to produce the all - metal Tri - centrifugal rider plane .
Henry ’s speculation into flight was no simple flirt , for his " Tin Goose " gained a height equal to that of the Model T and help plunge even U.S. airline divine service in the 1920s .
overseas , BMW was celebrated for aero engines long before it built cars . So , too , was Bristol of England , which did n’t turn to automaking until the late 1940s – and with prewar BMWs at that .
Other firms like Daimler - Benz , Hispano - Suiza , and even Rolls - Royce were involve at the same time with gondola and aircraft at various time . So there was stack of precedent for the 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman , " an aircraft manufacturing business ’s musical theme of what an automobile should be . "
Development of the 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman concept car began in later 1945 , not long after V - J Day . America was still savor terminal victory over the Axis , and American consumers – deny raw cars for nearly four years – were ready to corrupt .
The result was a frenzied seller ’s market that attracted all manner of would - be machine tycoons , who reason out that all they needed to succeed were a little money and lots ofchutzpah .
The Beechcraft Plainsman surface in 1946 , looking like one of those wildly prognostic " car of the future " that were staple constituent of wartime and postwar tech magazines .
The elevator car was novel , all right , but Beech Aircraft Corporation had a more critical motif for eyeing the car business : selection . Like other aviation troupe in 1945 - 1946 , Beech face life with no fresh military contracts at hand and dim prospects for civilian airmanship sales .
Accordingly , the firm spend $ 50,000 to devise a " A-one - forward-looking " passenger motorcar that might conceivably save the bodied neck opening should aero sales ride out prime . It might even learn Detroit a thing or two .
See the next section for item on the 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman conception car .
For more on concept cars and the production models they forecast, check out:
1946 Beechcraft Plainsman Concept Car Styling
The 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman concept car styling combine plane and automotive themes , with dismal resultant role .
Dominating the form was a magniloquent aircraft - eccentric greenhouse emphasizing up visibleness via auxiliary panes above the windscreen and door windows . This was separated from the principal glass by thin bars that appear to wrap up around from one back door to the other . The windscreen itself was divide but radically arc both outboard and above .
Doors were cut into the roof to allay entry / exit , foreshadowing both the Tucker and the far more remote 1963 Corvette Sting Ray coupe . The high roofline made for tower head room despite death chair - high seats , while the gangly external dimensions hold batch of head room for the shoulders , elbows , and peg of six adults .
The bench - type driver ’s seat offered four - way electric adjustment , still a trinket in 1946 . To the right of that derriere was a disjoined two - person " dual lounge . "
Even more than spaciousness , the 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman interior stressed rubber and simplicity . Door panels , for deterrent example , were 2-dimensional and projection - innocent . ( Solenoid - trigger pushbuttons substituted for conventional door handles both inside and out . )
musical instrument and controls were reasonably grouped around the steering wheel in an otherwise superfluous - looking dash , though Beech planned to include an " economy meter " giving a continuous mpg recital , and even a two - way mobile telephone ( hence the circular roof - mount feeler ) . The speed indicator was in unmediated driver view above the steering editorial in a lowly , pitch-dark , hooded pod .
There were no seatbelts – surprising for an aircraft maker – but leather - cut across rubber " wreck pad " adorned the dash and the tops of the front tooshie . The roof structure was allegedly quite strong despite its slender A - pillars , which also aid visibleness – a safety plus .
The Plainsman arguably see dumpiest from behind . " Blind " rear roof quarters and a smallish backlight special machine driver imagination – unexpended given the emphasis on that to the sides and forward .
High roofline aside , the Beechcraft Plainsman was just another late-1940s " bathtub , " though wind - burrow examination support the aerodynamic efficiency of its rounded lines . Go to the next page to learn more about the carrying into action of this concept car .
1946 Beechcraft Plainsman Concept Car Performance
According to its God Almighty , which claimed a 160 - miles per hour top f number and 30 mpg , 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman construct cable car performance was outstanding . But no one had a chance to observe out . Just one 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman conception car was built , and it was never put to a full test .
Though the Plainsman fatigue a formal grille , it carried a rear - go up engine : an air - cooled , horizontally pit gasoline four adapted from one of Beech ’s contemporary aircraft units .
But the compact powerplant could have been up front just as well . Not only was there plenty of elbow room for it , but Beech project on using an innovative four - wheel electric campaign organisation that altogether eliminated the differential , propshaft , clutch , and contagion ( and with the last , the interior floor protuberance , thus add to rider elbow room ) .
Exact detail of this patented scheme were never disclosed – potential because it was patented – but it ’s get laid to have worked from a generator driven by the engine and domiciliate in the same soundproof compartment .
cycle ascendance was patently independent , because Beech claim two advantage for its galvanizing drive : automatic apportioning of torque to those wheels with greater grip on slippery roads – call it embryonic traction
control – and a " reverse current " feature that provided " dynamic braking " when the number one wood ill-use on the treadle - a variety of former anti - lock organization . Naturally , there were also regular hydraulic tympan brakes , touch off by a slightly toilsome pushing on the same pedal .
Only a flake less novel was the Beechcraft Plainsman ’s air travel - spring suspension . Unlike after Detroit " air ride " frame-up that relied on pliant bladders , this one employed aircraft - case air shocks that automatically adjusted damping to beseem load and weight distribution .
A manual nullification transposition was planned to allow selecting a delicate setting for a smooth ride on very gravelly road . Though not known for certain , the damping rate was in all likelihood vary by the drive system of rules ’s electric generator .
Coming from an aircraft maker , the Beechcraft Plainsman was predictably designed for low weighting and undecomposed aerodynamics in the interests of both performance and economy . Aluminum was chosen for exterior board and inner social system , and the shape was tested in the lead tunnel with telling outcome .
harmonise to Beech , the Plainsman would top 160 miles per hour despite its comparatively smallengineyet return more than 25 miles per gallon at a steady 60 mph and about 30 mpg at township pep pill . Company locomotive engineer accredit this efficiency more to the galvanising drive than to the styling , which hardly bet " wind - cheating " anyway .
Acceleration , on the other hand , was claimed to be " considerably greater than that of the secure conventional automobiles . "
So why did n’t the Beechcraft Plainsman make it to production ? Find out in our final section .
Fate of the 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman Concept Ca
The circumstances of the 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman concept car was n’t a lamentable one , not for Beech , at least .
Beech did go so far as to lay a price for a production version of the 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman : $ 4,000-$5,000 . That was soaring for 1946 , and would sure enough have mean few sale . That form of money bought a Cadillac limousine in 1946 , but the sum might have come down to more realistic level with really high - volume production , which Beech sure as shooting could have managed .
Postwar kip Kaiser - Frazer may have grabbed the man ’s largest manufacturing plant when it leased the wartime Ford bomber plant in Willow Run , Michigan , but the Beech complex in Wichita was n’t much smaller at almost a million straight feet entire , with about three - fourths of it give solely to manufacture .
at last , of course , Beech had no need to build the Plainsman or any other motorcar . By late 1947 it was flying high again on $ 22.5 million in newfangled government order remind by the onset of the Cold War and political crisis in Berlin , Palestine , India , and China .
With that , Beech abandoned its automaking ambition and apparently never looked back . It was just as well . Within three years the Tucker was a unsound dream , Kaiser - Frazer was struggling to go back from management blunders , and even established freelance were showing mark of distress .
In the remnant , Beech was golden that events turned as they did . Innovative though it was , the 1946 Beechcraft Plainsman conception auto might have developed into a major corporate cephalalgia had it gone into output . After all , the aircraft line involves war only part of the time , while the car patronage is almost always netherworld on wheels . Just call for your friendly local Edsel dealer .
