1955 - Transportation

Transportation

North Carolina trucker Malcom McLean sells his fleet of 1,776 trucks for $6 million and buys the Pan Atlantic Steamship Co. with its fleet of 37 vessels (see 1937). Now 41, McLean has experimented with loading an entire truck trailer onto a ship and then removing the wheels, but he now has a better idea and converts six of his vessels into what soon will be called container ships (see 1956).

U.S. automobile sales reach an unprecedented 7,169,908 of which fewer than 52,000 are imported, but sales of small foreign cars led by Volkswagen will now begin a rapid rise (see 1949). U.S. Volkswagen sales reach 29,000, up from 2,173 just 2 years ago as Americans rebel against Detroit's stylistic excesses and slipshod quality (see 1959; 1968).

General Motors introduces the first Chevrolet V8, but half of all new cars have six-cylinder engines that are superior for city driving, only marginally less powerful in accelerating from 0 to 30 miles per hour, and far more efficient in fuel consumption (see Ford V8, 1932; Impala, 1957). By 1976 nearly 70 percent of all U.S. motorcars will have V8 engines, only 21.8 percent sixes, 8.5 percent four-cylinder engines.

The Ford Thunderbird is introduced in the form of a two-seat sportscar.

The new Ford Fairlane sedan has a $3,030 sticker price, but it takes the average American only 1,638 hours of work to earn $3,030, down from the 4,696 hours that it took to earn $850 for a Model T in 1908.

The Citroën DS-19 introduced at the October Automobile Show in Paris is the first new luxury model in 2 decades (see CV2, 1948). The $2,000 car has been designed by G. Berton for S.A. André Citroën, and some 1.4 million of the cars will be sold at steadily rising prices before Citroën is absorbed in 1974 by Peugeot.

Yamaha Motor Co. is founded in Japan under the aegis of Yamaha Musical Instrument Co. It will be a leading maker of motorcycles.

New York's Long Island Expressway opens and is inadequate for the volume of traffic.

President Eisenhower submits a 10-year $101-billion highway program to Congress (see 1956).

The President's Advisory Committee on Transportation recommends reduction of federal controls to stimulate a return to competitive conditions in transportation but in intracity transit free enterprise has worked to restrict competition. Gasoline and diesel buses have replaced some 88 percent of U.S. electric streetcar systems (see 1949; General Motors, 1956).

New York installs "Walk/Don't Walk" signals at busy intersections April 19 and institutes alternate side of the street parking regulations to facilitate street-cleaning. All major cities seek solutions to the problem of traffic choked by private automobiles.

Former automaker August S. Duesenberg dies at Indianapolis January 18 at age 75; inventor and Goodyear Tire Co. founder Frank A. Seiberling at Akron August 11 at age 95.

The Tappan Zee Bridge opens to New York State Thruway traffic at Tarrytown, N.Y., December 15 in ceremonies attended by Gov. W. Averill Harriman and actress Helen Hayes. Connecting Westchester and Rockland counties, the 15,764-foot (1,212-meter) cantilever span across the Hudson has cost $60 million and is the only bridge between the George Washington and the Bear Mountain bridges; it leaves just three miles of the toll-free, 427-mile Thruway incomplete.

New York's Third Avenue "El" makes its last run May 12 and is razed after 77 years of operation (see Sixth Avenue "El," 1940).

Rome's first subway opens to link the city's central railroad station to a convention center and government building complex south of the city. The subway was planned by the late Benito Mussolini.

Leningrad's first subway opens November 15. The Vyborgskaya line begins a network that will grow by 1996 to be 110 kilometers long and carry 721 million passengers per year to and from various St. Petersburg stations.

Boeing Aircraft introduces its 707 at Seattle August 7. Initially designated the 367-80 and called the Dash 80, it is a giant four-engine, 80-ton jet prototype 128 feet long with a 130-foot wing span; test pilot Alvin Melvin "Tex" Johnston, 41, has participated in every phase of its development and puts the aircraft through its paces over Lake Washington, dazzling spectators with two barrel rolls. Johnson will set a record with the 707 in 1957, flying from Seattle to Baltimore in 3 hours, 48 minutes at an average speed of 612 miles per hour (see 1956).

French aircraft manufacturer and Air France cofounder Louis Breguet dies of a heart attack at Paris May 4 at age 75; former Trans-Canada Airlines president Samuel J. Hungerford at Farnham, Quebec, October 7 at age 83; aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin of a cerebral hemorrhage at Baltimore December 4 at age 69, leaving an estate of $14 million. He has never married.