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Streamliner

Streamliner

Overview
A streamliner is any vehicle that incorporates streamlining
Streamline
Streamline may refer to:*Streamlines, streaklines, and pathlines, in fluid flows. See also: Drag **Streamliner, any vehicle shaped to be less resistant to air...

 to produce a shape that provides less resistance to air. The term is most often applied to certain high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycle
Recumbent bicycle
A recumbent bicycle is a bicycle that places the rider in a laid-back reclining position. Most recumbent riders choose this type of design for ergonomic reasons; the rider’s weight is distributed comfortably over several square feet of the back and buttocks....

s. The term was also applied to cars, but now car streamlining is so prevalent that it is not an outstanding characteristic.
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Encyclopedia
A streamliner is any vehicle that incorporates streamlining
Streamline
Streamline may refer to:*Streamlines, streaklines, and pathlines, in fluid flows. See also: Drag **Streamliner, any vehicle shaped to be less resistant to air...

 to produce a shape that provides less resistance to air. The term is most often applied to certain high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycle
Recumbent bicycle
A recumbent bicycle is a bicycle that places the rider in a laid-back reclining position. Most recumbent riders choose this type of design for ergonomic reasons; the rider’s weight is distributed comfortably over several square feet of the back and buttocks....

s. The term was also applied to cars, but now car streamlining is so prevalent that it is not an outstanding characteristic. In land speed racing
Land speed record
The land speed record is the fastest speed achieved by any wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; what is used in practice is the Category C flying start regulations, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...

, it is a term applied to the long, slender, high-speed vehicles with enclosed wheels.

Streamliners before World War II


The first high-speed streamliner in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...

 was the "Schienenzeppelin
Schienenzeppelin
The Schienenzeppelin or rail zeppelin was an experimental railcar which resembles a zeppelin airship in appearance. It was designed and developed by the German aircraft engineer Franz Kruckenberg in 1929...

", an experimental propeller
Propeller
A propeller is a type of fan which transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and air or water is accelerated behind the blade...

 driven single car, built 1930. On June 21 1931 it set a speed record of on a run between Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and Hamburg
Hamburg
Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany and the sixth-largest city in the European Union...

. In 1932 the propeller was removed and a hydraulic system installed. After that, the Schienenzeppelin made in 1933.

The Schienenzeppelin led to the construction of the diesel-electric DRG Class SVT 877
DRG Class SVT 877
The DRG Class SVT 877 Hamburg Flyer – sometimes also Flying Hamburger or in German Fliegender Hamburger – was Germany's first fast diesel train, and is credited with establishing the fastest regular railway connection in the world in its time...

 "Flying Hamburger". This 2-car train set had 98 seats and a top speed of . During regular service starting May 15 1933, this train ran the distance between Hamburg and Berlin in 138 minutes with an average speed of . The SVT 877 was the prototype for the DRG Class SVT 137
DRG Class SVT 137
The DRG Class SVT 137 was a class of streamlined diesel train sets of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft and later of the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Reichsbahn...

, first built in 1935 for use in the FDt
FDT
FDT may refer to:* Fédération Démocratique du Travail, the Democratic Federation of Labour* Front Démocratique du Tchad, the Democratic Front of Chad* File descriptor table* Fred Dalton Thompson* Formal Description Techniques...

 express train service. During test drives, the SVT 137 "Bauart Leipzig" set a world speed record of in 1936. The fastest regular service with SVT 137 was between Hannover and Hamm
Hamm
Hamm is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany. It is located in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. As of December 2003 its population was 180,849. The city is situated between the A1 motorway and A2 motorway...

 with an average speed of . This service lasted until August 22 1939.

In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...

 development of streamlined passenger services began in 1934 with the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835, and ran its first trains three years later...

 introducing relatively low speed streamlined railcar
Railcars
Railcars is a San Francisco-based shitgaze project of Aria C Jalali. After releasing an EP on Filthy Little Angels records in 2006, Jalali teamed up with Xiu Xiu front man Jamie Stewart to produce his follow up EP "Cities vs Submarines" in 2008 ....

 and the London and North Eastern Railway
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...

 introducing the 'Silver Jubilee' service using streamlined A4 class
LNER Class A4
The Class A4 is a class of streamlined 4-6-2 steam locomotive, designed by Nigel Gresley for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1935. Their streamlined design gave them high-speed capability as well as making them instantly recognizable, and one of the class, 4468 Mallard, still holds the...

 steam locomotives and full length trains rather than railcars. In 1938 on a test run the locomotive Mallard
LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard
Number 4468 Mallard is a London and North Eastern Railway Class A4 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive built at Doncaster, England in 1938. While in other respects a relatively typical member of its class, it is historically significant for being the holder of the world speed record for steam...

 built for this service broke the record for the fastest steam locomotive reaching . The London Midland and Scottish Railway introduced streamline locomotives of the Princess Coronation Class
LMS Princess Coronation Class
The Princess Coronation Class is a class of express passenger steam locomotives built by the London Midland and Scottish Railway and designed by William Stanier. They were an enlarged version of the LMS Princess Royal Class. Several examples were originally built as streamlined, though this was...

 shortly before the outbreak of war.

The Ferrovie dello Stato
Ferrovie dello Stato
The Ferrovie dello Stato , know also with the acronym FS, is the operator of the Italian railway network. A public concern, it is a railway company of Italian state and its capital is held by the Italian state....

 (Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...

 railways) developed the FS Class ETR 200, a three unit electric streamliner. The development started in 1934. These trains went into service in 1937. On December 6 1937 an ETR 200 made a top speed of between Campoleone and Cisterna on the run Rome-Naples. In 1939 the ETR 212 even made . The journeys from Bologna to Milan were made in 77 minutes, meaning an average of .

In The Netherlands Nederlandse Spoorwegen
Nederlandse Spoorwegen
Nederlandse Spoorwegen , or NS, is the principal passenger railway operating company in the Netherlands. Its trains operate over the tracks of the Dutch national rail infrastructure company ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003.Every day, over one million people of a population of 16 million...

 introduced the Materieel 34 (DE3) a three unit streamlined diesel-electric trainset in 1934. An electric version, Materieel 36 went into service in 1936. From 1940 the "Dieselvijf" (DE5), a top speed five unit diesel-electric trainset based on DE3, completed the Dutch streamliner fleet. During test runs, a DE5 ran . In the same year the similar electric Materieel 40 were first built.

Facing a catastrophic loss of business during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, American railroads cast their eyes of streamlined trains that were made of light weight material, were streamlined to gain speed, and used an internal combustion diesel engine rather than steam.Two early American streamliners were the Union Pacific M-10000
M-10000
The Union Pacific Railroad's M-10000, delivered to the railroad on February 12 1934, at a cost of $230,997, was the first internal combustion engine, lightweight streamlined express passenger train in the United States. The carbodies and interior fittings were built by Pullman-Standard...

(nicknamed Little Zip and as The City of Salina in revenue service 1934-41) and the Burlington
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the Burlington Route served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,...

 Zephyr
Pioneer Zephyr
The Pioneer Zephyr is a diesel-powered railroad train formed of railroad cars permanently articulated together with Jacobs bogies, built by the Budd Company in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , commonly known as the Burlington...

. Design of the Zephyr (later named the Pioneer Zephyr to distinguish it) started first, although the train took longer to build because of a more advanced design incorporating a diesel-electric power system, while the M-10000 used a spark-ignition engine running on "petroleum distillate", a fuel similar to kerosene. These trains were much lighter than the common engines and passenger cars of the day, as the "Zephyr"was constructed using stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox, is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 11% chromium content by mass. Stainless steel does not stain, corrode, or rust as easily as ordinary steel...

 and the M-10000 chiefly of the aircraft alloy Duralumin. Both trains were star attractions at the 1933–1934 World's Fair
World's Fair
Universal Exposition or Expo is the name given to various large public exhibitions held since the mid-19th century. They are the third largest event in the world in terms of economic and cultural impact after the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games...

 ("A Century of Progress
Century of Progress
A Century of Progress International Exposition was the name of a World's Fair held in Chicago, Illinois from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation...

") in Chicago, Illinois.

On May 26 1934, the Zephyr made a record-breaking "Dawn to Dusk" run from Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

 to Chicago. The train covered the distance in 13 hours, reaching a top speed of and running an average speed of . The fuel cost for the run was US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...

14.64 (a mere 4¢
Cent (currency)
In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1/100 of the basic monetary unit. The word also refers to the coin which is worth one cent....

 per gallon
Gallon
A gallon is a measure of volume of approximately four litres. Historically it has had many different definitions, but there are three definitions in current use. These are the U.S. liquid gallon and the lesser used U.S...

—if a similar run was made in 2004, it would cost more like $550-650.)

For a short time in the late 1930s, the ten fastest trains in the world were all American streamliners.

A wide variety of Zephyrs were eventually built for Burlington by the Budd Company
Budd Company
The Budd Company is a metal fabricator and major supplier of body components to the automobile industry. The company's headquarters are in Troy, Michigan. It was founded in 1912 by Edward G...

. For example, after the introduction of the Pioneer Zephyr, two Twin Cities Zephyrs of the same design briefly served the link between Chicago and the Twin Cities
Minneapolis-St. Paul
U.S. Census Bureau Areas|-! colspan="2" | |-! colspan="2" style="background:#d8d8e8;color:#000;" | Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud CSA, MN-WI|-| Population || 3,502,891...

. As a public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the practice of managing the communication between an organization and its publics. Public relations gains an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment...

 gimmick, the two trains first headed to Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...

 on parallel tracks while loaded with, naturally, twin
Twin
Twins are two offspring resulting from the same pregnancy, usually born in close succession. They can be the same or different sex. Twins can either be monozygotic or dizygotic ....

s. Within a few years, they were replaced by other trains of a slightly different design and the original twin trains went on to serve elsewhere on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the Burlington Route served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,...

.

The success of the visual styling of the stainless steel locomotives did not go unnoticed by railroads still committed to the steam engine. Many steam locomotives were also streamlined during this time to attract passengers, although the streamlining was less effective in improving efficiency for those engines than it was in making a visual statement. Nonetheless, some of these steam locomotives still became very fast—some were said to exceed on a fairly regular basis around this time. Some famous examples include the New York Central's "Super Hudsons" as used on the Twentieth Century Limited and Empire State Express; the Milwaukee Road's purpose-build Atlantics and Hudsons used in "Hiawatha" service; the Pennsylvania Railroad's duplex-drive 4-4-4-4 type T1 locomotives, and two Union Pacific engines, a 4-6-2 and a 4-8-2, used on the "Forty Niner" and other trains.

USA


Streamliners and successor high-speed train systems largely disappeared in the United States due to the increasing popularity of the automobile
Automobile
An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 and airline
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for passengers or freight, generally with a recognized operating certificate or license. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit.Airlines vary...

 travel. Government regulations forced all railroads to continue to operate passenger-carrying rail service, even on long routes where, the railroads argue, it was almost impossible to make a profit. Many argue that these regulations and the government's heavy support of highway
Highway
A highway is a main road for travel by the public between important destinations, such as cities and states. Highway designs vary widely and can range from a two-lane road without margins to a multi-lane, grade separated motorway. In English and U.S...

-building projects exacerbated the problem. Since 1971, the majority of passenger rail systems in the United States have been operated by Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971 to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a blend of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union Station...

. Faster Acela Express
Acela Express
Acela Express is Amtrak's rail service that uses high-speed tilting trains. Acela operates along the Northeast Corridor in the Northeast United States between Washington, D.C., and Boston via Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.The tilting design allows the train to travel at higher speeds on...

 trains have been introduced in the Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England"...

 to Washington DC Northeast Corridor
Northeast Corridor
The Northeast Corridor is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States by ridership and service frequency. The route is fully electrified and serves a densely urbanized string of cities from Washington, D.C., in the south through Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Trenton, Newark, New...

. Many areas around the United States have been considering construction of new high-speed lines, but rail travel is much less common in the United States than in Europe or Japan.

After 26 years of service and traveling over , the Pioneer Zephyr took up residence at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry
Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)
The Museum of Science and Industry is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA in Jackson Park, in the Hyde Park neighborhood adjacent to Lake Michigan. It is housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition...

. The M-10000 unfortunately found its way to the scrap heap, along with many other early trainsets. It was retired in 1942 and its Duralumin skin was recycled for military aircraft. Some have survived, though. The Flying Yankee
Flying Yankee
The Flying Yankee was a diesel-powered streamliner built in 1935 for the Maine Central Railroad and the Boston and Maine Railroad by Budd Company and with mechanical and electrical equipment from Electro-Motive Corporation...

, the third streamliner to be completed, is currently undergoing restoration to operational condition. Its design is only slightly different from the first Zephyr.

Europe



In Europe the streamliner tradition gained new life after the Second World War. In Germany, the DRG Class SVT 137
DRG Class SVT 137
The DRG Class SVT 137 was a class of streamlined diesel train sets of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft and later of the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Reichsbahn...

 were used again, but at lower speed. Based on the Kruckenberg
Franz Kruckenberg
Franz Friedrich Kruckenberg was an engineer and pioneer of high speed railway systems. He designed several high speed trains. His most famous train was the Schienenzeppelin....

 SVT 137 the famous DB Class VT 11.5
DB Class VT 11.5
The trainsets of Class VT 11.5 were diesel multiple units built by Deutsche Bundesbahn in the 1950s and used for Trans Europ Express services...

 (later renamed to DB Class 601) was used as "Trans Europ Express
Trans Europ Express
The Trans Europ Express is a former international railway service in Europe.-Origin:The TEE network was set up in 1957 following an idea of Ir. F.Q. den Hollander, president-director at that time of the Dutch railway company...

 (TEE)" for international high speed trains. In East Germany the DR Class VT 18.6 was built for international express service also. From 1965, DB used more and more streamlined electric locomotives DB Class 103
DB Class 103
The Baureihe 103 is a class of electric locomotives in Germany, originally operated by Deutsche Bundesbahn. For a long period, they were perceived as flagships of the DB rolling stock.- Development :...

 with regular trains for high speed service, but from 1973 DB used with the DB Class ET 403 (nickname "Donald Duck") a real streamliner again. The ET 403 was a four-unit electric train with tilting technology. Since 1991 the ICE Service with ICE 1 (Class 401) is used for high speed service. However, it needed more than 60 years to break the record speed of the first "Flying Hamburger" from 1933 on the run Hamburg-Berlin.

The Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...

 SBB
SBB

This article is about the Polish band. For the Michigan band, see Small Brown BikeSBB is a Polish progressive rock band formed in 1971 in Siemianowice by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Józef Skrzek...

 and the Dutch NS
Nederlandse Spoorwegen
Nederlandse Spoorwegen , or NS, is the principal passenger railway operating company in the Netherlands. Its trains operate over the tracks of the Dutch national rail infrastructure company ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003.Every day, over one million people of a population of 16 million...

 developed the RAm TEE (Dutch: DE) for the routes Zurich
Zürich
Zürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne...

-Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...

 and Amsterdam-Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium...

-Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. These trains were sold in 1977 to the Canadian
Canada
Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 Ontario Northland Railway
Ontario Northland Railway
The Ontario Northland Railway is a Canadian railway operated by the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, a provincial Crown agency of the Government of Ontario....

 (ONR) and served on the line Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...

–Moosonee as the Northlander
Northlander
The Northlander is a Canadian passenger train operated by the Ontario Northland Railway in Ontario.It operates 6 days per week year-round in both directions and connects Cochrane with Toronto. The train usually consists of one engine, an auxiliary power unit, three or four coaches and a lounge car...

. From 1961, SBB used the SBB RAe TEE II, a four system electric streamlined trainset for the TEE service.

Italy also made use of the pre war trains and FS
Ferrovie dello Stato
The Ferrovie dello Stato , know also with the acronym FS, is the operator of the Italian railway network. A public concern, it is a railway company of Italian state and its capital is held by the Italian state....

 developed new trains like the FS Class ETR 300 ("Settebello", FS Class ETR 401, ETR 450
ETR 450
ETR 450 was the first series Italian tilting train .The Pendolino project was started in the 1970s by FIAT Ferroviaria, but also absorbed technology from titlting train experiments from elsewhere, most notably the British Advanced Passenger Trains...

 (Pendolino) and ETR 500
ETR 500
ETR 500 is a family of Italian high-speed trains introduced in 1993.thumb|A Frecciarossa ETR 500 train at Milan's Central Station/ May 2008thumb|The interiors of the Frecciarossa ETR 500/ May 2008...

.

In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...

 streamline services ended on the outbreak of war. During the war the LNER and LMS streamlined locomotives had part of their streamlining removed to aid maintenance while other streamline locomotives had the streamlining removed. By the late 1940s and early 1950s the state of the railways was improving as war damage and delayed maintenance work cleared more and more mainline track for high speed running.

The first experiments with diesel streamliner services in the United Kingdom were the "Blue Pullman" trains introduced in 1960 and withdrawn in 1973. These provided luxury business services, but were never hugely successful and ran little faster than mainstream services. The Blue Pullman was followed by various research work into streamlined trains and tilting trains which led to the iconic Intercity 125
InterCity 125
The InterCity 125 was the brand name of British Rail's High Speed Train fleet. The InterCity 125 train is made up of two power cars, one at each end of a fixed formation of carriages, and is capable of in regular service. Initially the sets were classified as Classes 253 and 254...

 (Class 43
British Rail Class 43 (HST)
The British Rail Class 43 is the TOPS classification used for the InterCity 125 High Speed Train power cars, built by BREL from 1976 to 1982....

) offering train services across the United Kingdom.

High speed train services today


Throughout most of the world many if not most high speed passenger trains are now streamlined, and speeds have continued to rise as high-speed rail
High-speed rail
High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions include 200 km/h and faster — depending on whether the track is upgraded or new — by the European Union, and above 90 mph by the United...

 services become the normal long distance rail service.

Vehicles used for speed records

  • Electric
    • Buckeye Bullet
      Buckeye Bullet
      The Buckeye Bullet holds the distinction of being the world's fastest electric car. It holds the U.S. electric Land speed record at 314.958 mph , and has a top recorded speed of 321.834 mph . It also holds the International record at 271.737 mph , set October 3, 2004...

    • Buckeye Bullet 2
      Buckeye Bullet 2
      The Buckeye Bullet 2 is a second-generation, student-built, alternative-fuel race car created by students from the Center for Automotive Research at The Ohio State University. The original Buckeye Bullet, an electric-powered streamliner, holds the U.S...

    • White Lightning
      White Lightning car
      The White Lightning was the fastest electric car, capable of speeds up to 400 km/h. It was built by Dempsey's World Record Associates and has been driven to record speeds by Pat Rummerfield, also known as the only fully-recovered quadriplegic in the world...

  • Combustion
    • Bluebird - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Bluebird_record-breaking_vehicles
    • Blue Flame
    • Goldenrod
    • JCB Dieselmax
      JCB Dieselmax
      The JCB Dieselmax is a diesel-engined 'Streamliner' car designed for the purpose of breaking the land speed record for a diesel-engined vehicle....

  • Thrust
    • Thrust SSC
      ThrustSSC
      Thrust SSC is a British-designed and built jet-propelled car developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers and Jeremy Bliss....


Streamlined buses


Many bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. A bus seats a maximum of 8 to 300 passengers...

es soon adopted a stylish streamline look in the 1930s with tests showing that streamlined design reduced fuel costs.

Streamlined trailers



Camping (caravan) trailer manufacturers have also employed streamlining to make more easily towed trailers. Current and past manufactures have included: Airstream
Airstream
Airstream is a brand of luxury recreational vehicle manufactured in Jackson Center, Ohio, USA. It is currently a division of Thor Industries. The company, which now employs fewer than 400, is the oldest in the industry. Airstream trailers are easily recognized for their distinctive rounded...

, Avalon, Bonair Oxygen.

Streamlined water transport



Streamlining was applied to the art deco
Art Deco
Art Deco was a popular international art design movement from 1925 until the 1940s, affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, interior design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film...

 style auto/passenger ferry Kalakala
Kalakala
The MV Kalakala is a former ferry that operated on Puget Sound from 1935 until her retirement in 1967.Kalakala was notable for her unique streamlined superstructure, art deco styling, and luxurious amenities...

in the 1930s.

Sterling Streamliner Diners


Inspired by the streamlined trains, and especially the Burlington Zephyr, Roland Stickney designed a diner
Diner
A diner is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially on Long Island, in New York City, in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout the US and in Canada...

 in the shape of a streamlined trainset called the Sterling Streamliner in 1939. Built by the J.B. Judkins coach company, who had previously built custom car bodies, the Sterling and all other diner production ceased in 1942 at the beginning on American involvement in World War II.

External links