Buckminster Fuller, ‘Bucky’, was born in Boston in 1985. He was a designer, architect, poet, educator, engineer, philosopher, environmentalist, but overall, and as he claimed it himself, a humanitarian. Buckminster Fuller and Norman Foster initiated a collaboration in the 1970s that lasted for a decade, and had a great impact in Foster’s trajectory. Following streamline premises, Buckminster Fuller designed three Dymaxion Cars, that were constructed between 1933 and 1934, pioneering in many significant automotive design innovations.

Dymaxion Car Patent #2,101,057, Buckminster Fuller, Sadao & Zung Architects

Model of Dymaxion car 1

Model of Dymaxion Car 3 frame

Model of Dymaxion car 3

Amongst his many claimed professions Buckminster Fuller was also a pilot, so he had a deep understanding of aerodynamics. Such understanding was applied to the natural flow of air within a building, aircraft design, and ultimately, car design. Applying streamline premises, and with the help of Isamu Noguchi, in 1928 Fuller created a concept of the 4D Transportation Unit, that would later develop into the Dymaxion Car. By applying streamline forms into cars, Fuller wanted to prove how airflow patterns worked significately more efficiently compared to the current designs. The 4D Transportation unit would work as a car, yet as opposed to conventional transport at the time, it would be steered by rudder rather than by wheels.

Even if this idea was left as a concept, years later, Fuller partnered with Starling Burgess,  a popular aircraft and racing yachts designer at the time, to develop and build a Dymaxion car.  
Burgess had collaborated previously with Bucky to develop the 4D house central mast, which guaranteed natural ventilation. Bucky’s passion for aircrafts and aerodynamics and Burgess knowledge resulted into a car that merged aerospacial and nautical influences. As Bucky said ‘ I wanted it to fly the way a duck flies: a duck doesn’t soar like a seagull can; it has to flap its wings very rapidly and has jets under each of its wings…it lifts and plummets’.

The first Dymaxion car was released in July 1933. The car featured highly innovative and ultimately influential, features compared with the common car of the day. It was a white tear-shaped automobile, that included, for the first time a three-wheel design with rear wheel steering and front wheel drive. The Dymaxion body functioned like a boat: it consisted on a plywood frame sheathed in aluminium. Its 20 feet long chassis was as light as a VW beetle at the time. By October of the same year, the patent for the Dymaxion car, seen on the left, was presented, and finally approved in 1937.

The Dymaxion #2 was commissioned by an English businessman seeking to market the car internationally. It was built around a Ford X-Frame following its predecessor’s scheme, but this time it widened its track by 200 mm to accommodate a bigger cabin. This second version was completed in January 1934. To give it a fresh new appearance, black colour was selected for its coating.

Dymaxion #3, also built around a Ford chassis, began its works on March 1934. It included new modifications based on prior observations from Dymaxion #2. These included, amongst others, a central tail fin which improved lateral stability. This last version, as seen in the model, was painted emerald green with cream roof.

Following Fuller’s investigations, in 2010 Norman Foster decided to prototype a fourth version of the Dymaxion car. This new Dymaxion #4 departed from Dymaxion #3, including Fuller’s amendments to this version. Dymaxion #4 was presented in the exhibition ‘Bucky Fuller and Spaceship Earth’ hosted at Ivorypress, Madrid.