Dymaxion TIMELINE

Fuller produces 200 copies of a mimeographed typescript of "4D", a manifesto for mass-produced housing and decentralization. Included in the plan is a proposal for an "omnidirectional transportation device", to allow people to reach their homes, delivered by Zeppelin to remote locations. Fuller suggests that the transport should be powered by means of jets (practical jets were not built for aircraft for another decade). He called it his "4D twin, angularly orientable, individually throttleable, jet-stilt controlled-plummetting transport". To his daughter Allegra, he described it as a "zoomobile", explaining that it could hop off the road at will, fly about, then, as deftly as a bird, settle back into a place in traffic

May Fuller presents the manuscript for 4D at an annual meeting of the American Institute of Architects in St. Louis. The response: the institute passes a resolution: "Be it resolved that the American Institute of Architects establish itself on record as inherently opposed to any peas-in-a-pod-like reproducible designs". Unperturbed, Fuller sends the manuscript to a large number of luminaries thoughout the globe, including Bertrand Russell, publishing their responses, in the few cases in which they did respond, along with the original manuscript in 4D Timelock.

January: A friend offers Fuller a few thousand dollars to finance the development of his Dymaxion projects. The cash is insufficient for the development of the Dymaxion house,. or for a jet-propelled device (liquid oxygen, regarded by Fuller as the most suitable fuel for the "jet-stilt" transport, generated greater heats than could be withstood by existing alloys at the time). Fuller uses the cash to investigate the extended "ground taxiing" capabilities of his 4D transport.

February: Fuller rents the Dynamometer building of the defunct Locomobile Company's factory in Bridgeport Connecticut. He engages a crew of six world-class craftsmen out of a thousand applicants to work on the project under the direction of seaplane and racing yacht designer Starling Burgess.

March 4: Bank Moratorium declared by Roosevelt. Work begins in Bridgeport Connecticut on the construction of the Dymaxion transport. Henry Ford himself gives Fuller a standard 85 bhp Ford V8 engine at 70% discount.

April: The first experimental chassis is tested by Starling Burgess, and, although it handles well, it develops uncontrollable steering oscillations at high speeds similar to the "death-wobble" known to motorcyclists. To solve the problem, the chassis is modified so that the rear-wheel remains perpendicular to the ground at all times.

Once the chassis has been corrected, Fuller engages a crew of 27 men, including Polish sheet metal experts, Italian machine tool men, Scandinavian woodcraftsmen and former Rolls-Royce coachmakers to produce a complete prototype in time for the opening of the Chicago World's Fair.Work started on a wood-framed aluminum clad body. The car still had problems driving in gusty conditions, with cross-winds blowing it off course like a small airplane. The steering cables also had a tendency to become loose, adding to the problem.

July: With a hull based on wind-tunnel models made by sculptor Isamo Noguchi, the first complete car (Dymaxion car no. 1) is completed. Driving through Manhattan, it causes gridlock. Excluded from the auto show at Madison Square Garden, Fuller parked it near the entrance, causing more traffic jams. The car could reach speeds of 120 mph.

October: The car arrives in Chicago for the World's Fair.

October 27: The first Dymaxion car is involved in a fatal accident outside the World's Fair. The press blames the design of the car.

November-December: The first car is repaired after the crash, and later used by Gulf Oil (the owners) in a publicity campaign. Fuller, Burgess and the rest of the crew work on completing the second complete car (dymaxion car no. 2) in time for the 1934 Chicago World's Fair. With the money from the investors running out, Fuller uses all of the money he has inherited from his mother to pay for the second and third cars. Oversteering with the rear-wheel at high speeds was dangerous, but Fuller did not have enough money to prototype a version of the car with front-wheel steering for normal driving and rear-wheel steering for tight situations. While work on the second car is being completed, the orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski orders a heavier, more elaborate Dymaxion car, in Emerald Green.

Stokowski's car (car no. 3) is exhibited outside the Crystal House at the World's Fair in Chicago. Instead of a rear-view mirror, it has a periscope. It also has a central fin, intended to help stabilize the car, but not very effective. Fuller cannot afford to produce a car ordered by Amelia Earhart, or the three cars ordered by the Russian embassy. Investors have been scared off by the accident and the Depression.

March 31, Christopher Morley publishes "Streamlines (Thoughts in a Dymaxion Car)" in the Saturday Review of Literature

To pay his debts, Fuller gives the second car to the mechanics who made it, sells the factory and lays off his team of workers.