THE GYRAUTO: 1935

摘要

Previously, this author wrote an article about the "Dynosphere" (a.k.a. "Dynasphere") vehicle that was designed and built by Professor Dr. John Archibald Purves of Taunton, England, circa 1932; that article was published in the Spring 2011 Issue of Weight Engineering. This is a follow-up article about Ernest Fraquelli and his equally outrageous vehicle called the "Gyrauto." The Gyrauto differed from the Dynosphere in that the Dynosphere consisted of just one big wheel, while the Gyrauto consisted of two big wheels side-by-side on a common axle-line. The idea behind both these vehicles seems to have been to achieve unprecedented efficiency by reducing an automobile to its essentials, i.e., just one big wheel. This is not quite as foolish as it seems; much later Jack Northrop was to pursue an aeronautical analogy in that he was to conceive of an aircraft as just one big flying wing, and that dream was eventually realized in the success of the B-1 bomber.