American architect Richard Buckminster Fuller is seen here with his most
iconic design—the geodesic dome, a kind of structure that has no limiting
dimensions. Getty/Hulton Archive
7 R. Buckminster Fuller 7Dymaxion house , which had its own utilities. He designed
in 1928, and manufactured in 1933, the fi rst prototype of
his three-wheeled omnidirectional vehicle, the Dymaxion
car. This automobile , the fi rst streamlined car, could cross
open fi elds like a jeep, accelerate to 120 miles (190 km)
per hour, make a 180-degree turn in its own length, carry
12 passengers, and average 28 miles per gallon (12 km per
litre) of gasoline. In 1943, at the request of the industrialist
Henry Kaiser, Fuller developed a new version of the
Dymaxion car that was planned to be powered by three
separate air-cooled engines, each coupled to its own
wheel by a variable fl uid drive. The projected 1943
Dymaxion, like its predecessor, was never commercially
produced.