Smith Flyer
The Smith Flyer was an American Buckboard, which was from 1916 to 1919 by the AO Smith Company in Milwaukee (Wisconsin ) built. Then the production rights were sold to Briggs & Stratton and the car in Briggs & Stratton Flyer renamed.
Description
The Smith Flyer was a small, simple and light vehicle with two seats and a wooden frame which was both chassis and body. The small gasoline engine was mounted on a fifth wheel that was attached to the back of the flyer and pushed him forward. The wheelbase was 1575 mm, the wheels were 20 " in diameter and the vehicle width was 762 mm. Since the engine was mounted directly to the fifth wheel, you started it with a slightly raised wheel once ran the machine, the driver of this bike from lowered with a lever and the vehicle began to move forward. Instead of the wheels of the car could be fitted with skis for the winter. In both cases, the top speed was 40-48 km / h
History
Such a drive wheel was first developed in 1910 by Arthur William Wall in Birmingham in England to drive a motorcycle. This concept was not new, Ferdinand Porsche had already in 1900 developed such a driving wheel, but it was electrically driven. The metal fabricators and supplier of automotive chassis and rear axle housing, AO Smith Company, acquired in 1914, the production rights for the United States to the Wall - thrust wheel as a side business and improved it for Smith Motor Wheel. In particular, a solid disc now was used in place of a spoked wheel and the transmission was no longer a chain, but directly from the camshaft. AO Smith put the device first as a drive for bicycles. The improved Smith Motor Wheel It cost only U.S. $ 60 and was a great success; until the end of 1915 U.S. 500,000 were implemented it.
The Smith Flyer was developed as a platform trolley with wooden frame by the American Motor Vehicle Company in Lafayette ( Indiana). AO Smith bought shortly after the appearance of the vehicle on the market in 1914 the rights to it, and produced it himself than Flyer Smith. As accessories for the winter skis were available, which were fitted in place of the wheels. 1916, the company went public and regrouped as AO Smith Corporation.
In 1918 Briggs & Stratton the production rights and set both the driving wheel and the flyer under her own name. The new owner improved the engine in many respects; he enlarged the cylinder bore and equipped the ignition flywheel with a magnet from. The improvements made for a power of 2 hp ( 1.5 kW). Briggs & Stratton sold the flyer across the USA and even issued a magazine entitled Motor Wheel Age. Also a motor scooter on the same drive concept followed by about 1920.
1925, the production rights of the flyer to the Automotive Electric Services Corporation ( AESC ) were sold. This company put the Flyers forth until there was no more engines and then replaced this with a version with electric drive. As the starter motor was a Dodge automobile, which was mounted together with the battery in the rear of the vehicle and the power passed on to the right rear wheel by drive belt. Production continued until at least 1925 on.
Briggs & Stratton built the engine, which had been the core of the driving wheel, adapting it to other situations, for example to power lawn mowers or small appliances. The drive wheel was the starting point of all subsequent Briggs & Stratton - engines.
(: Red Flea dt ) called Almost all Flyers were painted red, so were generally "Red Bug". The flyer is even mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records as the cheapest car of all time. There it is stated that the Briggs & Stratton Flyer 1922 between U.S. $ 125, - and U.S. $ 150, - cost.
The Smith Flyer was rebuilt in the 1950s as a banner Boy (not 5th wheel ). It was available finished or as a kit and was in prominent magazines such as Popular Mechanics or Popular Science and delivered by mail order.
Some Smith Flyer, there are in collections throughout the U.S. and the engineering drawings can be found now on the internet.