Five Connections Between the Need for Speed in the Air and on the Ground

Americans have long felt the need for speed. Speed on the ground and in the air may have more connections than you think. Learn about some of these connection below.

1) Does your car look like it goes fast? The designers may have taken some inspiration from aircraft design.

Bright and boldly colored cars arranged in a staggered row as seen from the back of the cars. They are have some type of tail fin. — These are promotional models used to highlight the latest Cadillac styles and fashions for 1955. Note the tailfins, which Cadillac began adding after one of their designers was inspired by the P-38 Lightening fighter plane during World War II. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

At first, locomotives, torpedoes, and bombsights of the 1940s inspired things like automobile hood ornaments. By the jet age of the 1950s, jet airplanes, rockets, and missiles held the country’s attention and influenced many elements of car design. Tail fins, side trim, and taillights mimicked the shape of jet planes and rockets. Tiny rocket and jet plane hood ornaments seemed ready to take off from car hoods. These motifs sold cars by associating them with the fastest, most exciting technologies of the decade. Mid-20th century cars looked fast even when they stood still, as their design expressed the modernism and forward-looking optimism of flight.

2) We love toys that go fast – whether they be in the shape of a car, airplane, or spacecraft.

A teenaged-looking boy holds up a large model airplane as if he is about to launch it into the air. — Eugene Stiles hand-launching speed record aircraft model in Alameda, California on July 20, 1949. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Call it a craving for speed or letting the imagination run wild, but children adore store-bought or homemade racing toys. There are actually more Hot Wheels toy racing cars in the world than actual cars. For generations, children have played with speed, design, and competition, whether racing cars, flying model airplanes, launching model rockets, or assembling miniature vehicles from kits. Hobbies and even careers have grown out of this early fascination with speed.

3) Speed, both in the air and on the ground, has played an important role in many of the safety protocols we are familiar with today.

Composite showing Col. Stapp during rocket sled test — Composite showing Col. John Stapp during a rocket sled test in June 1954. The test to studied the effects of bailing out at high altitude and supersonic speeds. The images show the facial distortions produced under such extreme conditions. Photos 1-3 were taken during the acceleration phase which had a of force of 12 G; photos 4-6 were taking during deceleration which had a force of 22 G. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Safety concerns developed hand-in-hand with the introduction of faster cars and airplanes, as crashes and accidents became more frequent and deadly. Air Force flight surgeon John Stapp conducted groundbreaking research on crash protection and the effects of high-speed acceleration and deceleration on human subjects—himself included. Stapp’s work led to the safety standards and technologies we take for granted today. The benefits of Stapp’s research are evident every time a driver pull on a seatbelt or a jet pilot safely ejects from a damaged aircraft.

4) Ever heard of the famous pilot and aircraft designer Glenn Curtiss? He won the world’s very first air race in Reims, France in 1909. He also got his starting manufacturing and racing motorcycles, on the ground.

A man sits posed on a motorcycle, looking at the camera. He is in front of what is presumably a fake background meant to look like the beach. — Glenn H. Curtiss seated on his Curtiss 1907 V-8 motorcycle. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Curtiss embraced the motorcycle as a new form of transportation and motorsports medium in the early 1900s, he built them, competed on them, and even sponsored his own team of skilled motorcycle racers from 1904 to 1908. The early aviation community sought out Curtiss because of his reputation for designing powerful, lightweight motorcycle engines. In 1906, he designed his first V-8 engine in response to several requests from early aeronautical experimenters. He took his 1907 Curtiss V-8 Motorcycle to the Florida Speed Carnival in January 1907, where he recorded a record-setting speed of 136 mph (218 km/h) and was dubbed “the fastest man on Earth.” Just a few years later won the world’s first air race, receiving the Gordon Bennett Trophy in Reims, France, flying at an average of 46.5 mph (74.8 km/h).

5) For many who make a living pursuing speed, sometimes the line between speeding on the ground and the air is almost nonexistent.

A red, white, and blue colored jumpsuit and cape propped in a sitting position. In the background is a partial view of a red, white, and blue motorcycle. — Evel Knievel's jumpsuit and cape. In the background is his 1972 Harley Davidson XR-750 motorcycle. Image courtesy of Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel combined skill, showmanship, and patriotism in death-defying motorcycle “flights” over vehicles. By carefully coordinating his angle, thrust, and speed—which reached 90–100 mph (145–160 km/h) at takeoff—he remained in the air as far as 165 feet (50 meters). That’s farther than the very first flight of a heavier-than-air powered aircraft carried out by the Wright Flyer in 1903—which came to a thud after only traveling for 120 feet.

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