I came across this,
an abandoned 3-wheeler, it was the brainchild of Victor-Albert Bouffort,
who was an aeronautics engineer,
which could explain the streamlining of this vehicle, designed after WW2 it has only 3 wheels, apparently tyres were hard to come by, but this is not all that this incredible man invented, in 1932, Victor was 20 years old, it was at his
parents' home that he designed and in 1938, he helped build the Elytroplan – a
high-stability aeroplane, He replied to a request from the army to design a
small all-terrain vehicle that could be dropped by parachute, Bouffort set
about designing the four-wheel-drive Fardier,
a simple, light vehicle, it was
driven by a small air-cooled two-cylinder Citroen engine, in 1970, Lohr
Industrie started building the Fardier – which would later be used by the
French army's parachute troops,
at around the same time, Victor Bouffort
designed a prototype for a small tracked vehicle – the VP 90: a Patrol Vehicle
with a maximum speed of 90 km per hour, in the 1960s, Victor Bouffort became
interested in the traffic problems facing major towns and cities, He
started work on designing several city cars, including the Valmobile – a magic
70 cm long suitcase that could transform into a scooter in only two minutes, no
manufacturers were interested in the project when he unveiled it, and ironically,
they advised Victor to go and demonstrate it to the Japanese,
which he did! He
ended up signing a contract with the Japanese company Hirano which built
thousands of Valmobiles, for a much better look at this remarkable man's achievements, have a look here, for an interesting read.
No comments:
Post a Comment