Here it is, the 1983 Studebaker! It has one wheel, runs on atomic power, and has an energy field to protect it from collisions. It can hover over land or sea, and even make quick jaunts into outer space! “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” See this video for the commuter’s dream ride of the future! Only from Studebaker!
For a 1958 exhibition, the Art Center of South Bend asked Studebaker to “imagine a vehicle that would address the needs of the commuter in 25 years”. In the styling studio, Ed Herrmann thought it would be a good opportunity to experiment with glass reinforced plastic materials. So the Astral was born! Here it is in a recent exhibition at the Petersen Automotive Museum. But how can a car have no windshield to protect the driver and passengers from the wind, not to mention the vacuum of space?
Ha! In the future we’ll have no need of crude windshields. A transparent force field emanating from those little holes seals off the cabin and encapsulates its air supply. Of course!
Here’s the Astral’s description at the time. It certainly would “solve our future highway and city traffic dilemmas.”
As outrageous a fantasy as the Astral was, it did accurately predict one important component of cars in the future, one which does in fact address the needs of commuters. Check out that electronic map in the center console!
Looks like we found the inspiration for the Homer.
I was thinking this was the inspiration for the “cars” in the Jetsons cartoon. It first aired in 1962.
Absolutely, the Jetsons. That was my first thought!
Whoever typed up the sign describing that concept should have checked their spelling more closely. There are 3 spelling mistakes in it.
This is a much better response to the question than the first one that probably crossed their minds at Studebaker in 1958: “What the hell does it matter, we won’t be around to build it.” Actually, this is the first I have ever seen this one.
The flying car was really big in the late 50s. But, as I tell my children, people can’t handle the two dimensions they have to drive in now. Adding altitude to the mixture would be a disaster.
I love the “ionic beams emanating from a greater source.” Not a lot of input from engineering, is my guess.
I just realized what the seats and control pod and the whole style remind me of: a Space Age bowling alley, like in The Big Lebowski.
Yep, 1983 has come and gone, and where’s my flying car? Instead of flying cars, I get easily offended political activists. And no futurist back then bothered to dream them up.
A couple of nights ago I curled up with the girlfriend to watch “2001: A Space Odyssey” (she’d never seen it). After all these years, and at least a couple of hundred viewings, I found the movie depressing. Well, not the movie. Society’s inability to live up to the movie (which wasn’t stretching things all that far by 1968 standards) was what I found depressing.
No political activists in the 50s? With all due respect, I’d suggest brushing up on all the political hot winds blowing back then.
Trust me, I know them all, going back a couple of centuries. The big difference is that they didn’t seem to have the ability to affect mankind’s ability to strive forward back then.
Agreed. The end of the Cold War, of which the Space Race was a second front, had a lot to do with it. I sure do miss the ‘New Frontier’ but I sure don’t miss being perched on WWIII. In 2001, that orbiting spacecraft the pitched bone turns into was filled with atomic bombs.
On the other hand, they mocked up a pocket calculator for Dr Floyd to use but decided it wasn’t believable, even by 2001. We didn’t get the Astral, but we got a lot else nobody predicted. Like for example Curbside Classic!
Forvet the car, I like the dress.
Best laugh I’ve had all week, even better than flying whale blubber.
That dress is half the reason I wrote it up. Incredible!
Is that Little Edie behind the wheel? http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=un4ZiZ-ZLT8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dun4ZiZ-ZLT8
The dress is probably a paper/polymer fiber that’s disposable…because, you know, in the space age we’ll simply wear things once, and then discard them!
Who needs washing machines and dryers when we’ll have an unlimited supply of raw materials?
Landfills? Who needs those when we’ll have nuclear-powered devices to vaporize all of that pesky garbage into nothing?
I miss the fantasy world depicted in old issues of Popular Science. Fortunately I can still visit it, courtesy of Google Books.
This concept vehicle has been displayed at the Studebaker Museum in South Bend. Description was pretty rudimentary — I learned more about the “concepts” driving the design from this CC post. (BTW, if all the cars were flying, how would “Curbside Classics” be re-titled?)
Yes, the “tail fins” were hilarious. They look like nothing more than the mylar appliqués for a ’58 Hawk!
Capricorn 5 you are now ready for Carousel….
Put 6 large rubber tires under it and it would look like the ATV I had in the ’70s. It didn’t fly but it would go just about anywhere and cross water too. It didn’t get its power from ions but a loud and smelly two-stroke engine when you could get it to run.
Good point!
Meet George Jetson! Actually, he got kicked off the set for this shoot when Jane didn’t like his answer to her question “do these wings make my butt look fat?”
Yeah, his mistake was saying “It’s not the wings. Ow, ow ow! Stop hitting me!”
Studebaker-Packard was, of course, operating with limited resources at the time.
Want proof? Check out the “controls” in the console, between the front seats. It wouldn’t surprise me if those were actually the heads of discarded golf clubs…
My Father built this show car while working in Studebaker’s styling department.