Saturday 27th January 1934

The DeSoto Airflow and Chrysler Airflow caused a sensation on the opening day of the 1934 Chicago Auto Show. However, the ultra-modern ‘aero’ styling was too dramatic and too revolutionary for most consumers. Twenty years later, the cars’ many design and engineering innovations, including the aerodynamic singlet-style fuselage, the steel space-frame construction, the near 50-50 front-rear weight distribution and their light weight, would have been celebrated. Chrysler and its DeSoto Division both tried to devolve their Airflows stylistically, giving them a more conventional grille and raising the ‘trunk’ (some later models were named Airstream), but the damage was done. Sales were disappointlingly low.