'Wingfoot Express' Rolls Again for Wingfoot Truck Tire Centers
AKRON, Ohio, June 15 -- A symbol of trucking's pioneer - the Wingfoot Express - is returning to the nation's highways. This time, it's rolling for namesake Wingfoot Commercial Tire Systems as the nation's largest tire distributor and retreader branches out even farther with new commercial tire centers.
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Once called the Goodyear "land blimp," a companion to the company's fleet of aerial ambassadors, the 1917 Packard Model E 3-ton truck was used in the 1980s and 1990s as a public relations vehicle to promote medium truck tires. The truck recently was displayed at the National Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio.
"We're excited to return the Wingfoot Express to the road to help us open new commercial tire centers," said Charles Walters, director of marketing and sales administration for Fort Smith, Ark.-based Wingfoot Commercial Tire Systems, a Goodyear subsidiary.
"It's appropriate that this truck returns now as the nation celebrates the Interstate Highway's 50th anniversary, although Wingfoot trucks were traveling the Lincoln Highway long before the federal highway system was established," Walters said.
This Packard actually was rescued from a Minnesota swamp, where it sat idle for 40 years, in 1983. The replica truck made the 750-mile Akron-to- Boston trip the next year without a tire change, unlike the original.
In April 1917, a five-ton Packard with a 10-foot-high specially-built body established the first interstate trucking route with regular nonstop runs from the Akron tire factory to the company's tire fabric mill in Connecticut.
The truck had the first sleeper cab in the trucking industry, so that the two-man crew could alternate driving chores. Most novel about Goodyear's truck were the big pneumatic tires it rolled on. Solid rubber tires were standard equipment for short truck hauls.
The trucks of the day motored along at 8 to 10 miles per hour, and the solid tires gave a bone-jarring ride. Cargo was limited to less-than-fragile items. The company was convinced that air-filled tires could carry heavier loads faster and offer a smoother ride. The Wingfoot Express became the vehicle to prove its point.
That inaugural journey was filled with adventure. The truck, accompanied by a movie man and publicist in two support cars, was barely to Akron outskirts when it got stuck in the mud. The agonizing odyssey included muddy ditches, collapsed bridges, flat tires and two engine failures.
Finally, 21 days overdue, the exhausted men arrived in Killingly, Conn. To their surprise, they were greeted by a rousing brass band and hundreds of fabric mill workers. One driver said, "It took 28 days and 28 tires."
But lessons were learned. Tire engineers promptly gave the truck tires a stronger bead and heavier sidewalls. Future trips used seven Wingfoot Express trucks, and the 740-mile trip was pared down to 80 hours within a year.
The pneumatic truck tires became so reliable that in 1918, the trucks carried Boy Scouts on a 3,000-mile excursion along the East Coast without a single flat. Now, the replica Wingfoot Express will promote a growing namesake - Wingfoot Commercial Tire Centers - and relocate at Wingfoot's headquarters in Fort Smith.
Wingfoot Commercial Tire Systems LLC, a subsidiary of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company , operates more than 173 commercial tire centers in North America. It is part of a strong national network of tire service centers that serve large nationwide fleets as well as regional and local transport companies. For more information on Wingfoot, please visit http://www.wingfootct.com/.
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