General Motors Stops the Chrysler Airflow
The Chrysler Airflow was introduced in 1934 as the car of the future. It was so well built that it would even meet many of today’s safety standards. The Chrysler Airflow featured a unibody construction that was made entirely of steel. This was revolutionary considering most cars at the time still used wood which led to many deadly accidents on the road.
The car was set to completely transform the industry. It looked streamlined, modern and unlike anything else on the road. It would have forced the other car manufacturers to follow suit.
In response to the impending success of the Airflow, GM decided to embark on a smear campaign. They started buying advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post. They claimed that the design had been stolen from one of their unreleased prototypes. After all, how could a smaller car company like Chrysler create a car that was more advanced than anything in GM’s arsenal? GM went on to claim that the reason why the car never made it to production was because it turned out to be a danger to the roads.
Knowing that the ads were false, Chrysler fought back. They showed a baseball pitcher throwing a fastball at safety glass windshield that did not shatter. They shot out a tire at high speed to show the advanced suspension kept the car from losing control. They rolled the car over and then drove it perfectly. In one last effort, they drove the car off a 110-foot cliff and then drove it away without even a broken window. Despite every effort to prove the car was completely safe, indeed much safer than anything else on the road, it was not enough to overcome the GM campaign. Production was stopped on the Airflow in 1937.