First Automotive Crash Test Was Done in the 1930s by Chrysler!

[Tuckerfan]

The Feb. 2007 issue of Collectible Automobile has an interesting article entitled Automotive Safety in the Pre-Nader Years. (Yes, it mentions Tuckers. :D) There’s a few, IMHO, glaring admissions in the article, such as no mention of Eddie Rickenbacker’s attempt at building a “safety car,” the Stutz Blackhawk, or Packards, but it does have a nifty photo of Chrysler “crash testing” a 1934 Airflow. Basically, they pushed it off a cliff, then when it landed (on all four wheels), a guy walked up, got into the car and drove it away. There’s supposed to be film footage of this. I wonder if it survived?

[ElvisL1ves]

Could be.

Rumors also persisted that the “new-fangled” body was unsafe, which was mostly true. In one widely distributed advertising film shown in movie theatres, an empty Airflow was pushed off a Pennsylvania cliff, falling over 110 feet; once righted, the car was driven off, battered, but recognizable.

[mobo85]

@Tuckerfan

Basically, they pushed it off a cliff, then when it landed (on all four wheels), a guy walked up, got into the car and drove it away.

Lovingly referred to in the industry as the “Wile E. Coyote Test.”