The 1929 Lincoln Aero Phaeton, by LeBaron, was one of the earliest American vehicles to employ a tailfin. Priced at a towering $7,400, it sold poorly and was not cataloged the following year.
Today fins are remembered as the outward expression of our automotive engineering prowess during the height of American postwar optimism, but they were first used far earlier than most would imagine. As they had done with airplanes, fins were originally intended to enhance the stability of vehicles traveling at a rapid pace, and first appeared on production cars during the 1930s. Later, they were used as a styling flourish to suggest technical advancement, extreme power, and high speed, but regardless of their uses, fins were easy to employ, difficult to ignore and came to define an entire automotive age.
The lozenge-like 1936 Peugeot, by Andreau, sported one large fin centrally mounted on the sloping rear deck. Several French coachbuilders and manufacturers embraced such Art Deco design themes, which were often employed on cars intended for concours d’elegance and other important auto displays.
Prewar Experimentation
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