Evening star., 1942-12-27
Postwar Car 10 Go
50 Miles 10 Gallon,
With No A Cards
Influence Of AirpIone
To Be Most Striking
Change, Engineer Says
BY FRANK CAREY.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass, Dec. 90
II you're having wartime motoring
blues, just think of the car you may
be driving in the postwar world
An automobile that would 60 so
miles on a gallon of gasoline and
have such features as bounce
less" tires. sliding doors and a
heater that could be turned on by a
clock
This is not the nightmare of a
chap who lost his gasoline ration
ing book and had his tires stolen.
It's a prophecy of the car of to-
morrow made today by William B.
Stout of Dearborn, Mich, one of
the Nations foremost mechanical
engineers, who has pioneered in
many developments in the fields of
automotive, aircraft and railroad
transportation.
Mr.. Stout, who built the first
American commercial airplane. con-
structed the first internally braced
cantilever airplane in America,
started the first exclusive passen-
ger airline in the country and helped
design Henry Ford's first trimo-
tored transport plane, said post
war automobile design would be in
f1uenced by present trends in avia-
ton toward using every ounce of
weight and every cubic inch of
space for some purpose.
Sees "GIorious Revival"
In an article in the Technology
Review he predicted that the mo-
torcar will have a glorious revival
when peace comes" if the engineer
Is left alone and the manufacturer
Is allowed to build his cars as he
wishes, unhampered by legislation
that might tax a car according to
its design.
Here's what else he emissions:
Cars will be cheaper to make and
buy because of improved produc-
tion methods and better engineer
ing techniques.
Cars will be wider and stubbier
than they are now-perhaps fen
derless-with enough room inside
Tor passengers to take nap on a
couchlike back seat during long
drive. The wider bodies will come
clear out to the edge of the running
board.
Due to extensive use of plastic
materials in panels and body de-
tails, the machines will have one
half the weight of present-day au-
tomobileS. Engines, instead of being
of the liquid-cooled type. will be
Of the lighter, longer-lived air.
cooled type, like those in transport
planes and bombers.
Lighter i'm Weight.
Because of their lighter weight.
engines will for the most part be
located in the rear without affecting
the balance Of the car. Long hoods
out front will disappear and prac-
tically every bit of space length
wise and CrossWlse will be uSable.
Forward side windows and wind
sfield will he combined in a single
Piece Of glas@, or in two pieces meet
in" in "V'-to provide greater
vision.
The entire instrument panel may
be eliminated, With colcred warn
ing lights replacing dials.
There'll be indirect lighting. some
form of Venetian blinds for the
windows and eadgets to wash and
strain air free of dust before it
enters the car
Due to progress made toward the
production of tires that won't
bounce, light cars may be con-
structed that won't even need
springs.
Limits on Speed.
Declaring that present wartime
limitations on speed may we'll be
carried over into the postwar
world, Stout said that engines of
lower horsepower would be sufi-
cient-perhapS a minimum of 80
horsepower. This, he said would
mean more mileage on a gallon of
gasoline at cruising speed.
~ Cars probably will not be
made with view of longer life" he
said but rather lower first cost,
lower maintenance and quicker re-
placement.
We're going to have new pro-
duction methods as we'll as new en-
gineering techniques. We are going
to have low cost of operation and
OF building as well Cars will be
designed for minimum number of
dies and tools, yet with a minimum
number of man-hours necessary to
assemble the job. Some of the air
plane engines can now be assem-
bled in less time than an automo-
bile engine requires. These trends
will continue.
Tax Bodies to Be Factor.
But he warned that the position
Of the motorcar in the hands of
John Citizen following the war is
going to depend entirely upon the
wisdom or the asininity of our tax
making bodies"
"If they follow the European
method of permitting luxuries for
only the rich and tax car on it's
designer in any way limit design
by tax structure-the car will be de-
signed by the tax assessor and not
by the engineer"
A final cold weather thought
about those alarm clock heaters:
Heaters prophesies Mr.. Stout,
twill be so arranged that they will
work for some time after the engine
stops and thus keep the car warm
when no passenger is in it.
The heater could be turned on
by the clock an hour ahead of time
in the morning so that the car would
be warm when the owner sailed
forth to his days work"