Important Design 
6 June 2013
Important Design 
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R. Buckminster Fuller

Dymaxion blueprints

USA, 1933
leather bound binder, blueprints, paper, photo collage 2½ h × 11½ w × 10½ d in (6 × 29 × 27 cm)
estimate: $20,000–30,000
result: $19,050
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This collection of more than eighteen blueprints illustrates various design elements for Dymaxion Car #1 and Dymaxion Car #2. From general assembly drawings to details of the front spring saddle bolt, this collection illustrates the ingenuity and technical prowess of Bucky Fuller via his revolutionary Dymaxion Car. Proceeds from the sale of this lot will fund a new documentary The Last Dymaxion: Buckminister Fuller’s Dream Restored by filmmaker Noel Murphy.
Signed with title block to multiple pages.

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The Dymaxion

Bucky Fuller's Revolutionary Car

Buckminster Fuller, the visionary American architect, industrial designer and inventor, designed the Dymaxion in 1933. Ahead of its time, the Dymaxion exhibited forward-thinking optimism. Shaped like a zeppelin, the Dymaxion featured an aerodynamic body spanning nearly twenty feet in length and only three wheels. It traveled at speeds up to 90 miles per hour and was astoundingly gas efficient.

Fuller first began sketching the Dymaxion in 1927, but it wasn’t until 1933, when his drawings at the New York Auto Show captured the attention of an investor, that his car would become a reality. That year he teamed with William Starling Burgess, a celebrated aviator and engineer, to form the 4D Dymaxion Corporation. Between 1933 and 1935, Fuller and the 4D Company would complete three working prototypes of the vehicle: Dymaxion Car #1, Dymaxion Car #2 and Dymaxion Car #3. Today only Dymaxion Car #2 survives; it is currently being restored by the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.
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