Science: Unstreamlined Future

Last week in Manhattan conventioning members of the Society of Automotive Engineers inclined to agree with Defense Transport bigwigs from Washington that the ideal U.S. truck of the future may well be as unstreamlined, blunt, durable and efficient as a jeep.

In a backhanded blast at the slicker-dicker sort of U.S. truck builder, ODT’s Bill Cumming, chief of its Vehicle Maintenance Section, snorted that after World War II smart fleet operators will demand a general sacrifice of “looks” and “streamlining” to efficiency, will insist on trucks with cabs “which a full-sized driver can enter easily—in which he can sit up straight, look out the windshield, get his knees under the steering wheel and operate the controls!”