The Dixie Flyer was an

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

built in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

from 1916 until 1923. Dixie Flyers were marketed under the slogan of "The Logical Car." They may be classified as

Brass Era car The Brass Era is an American term for the early period of automotive manufacturing, named for the prominent brass fittings used during this time for such features as lights and radiators. It is generally considered to encompass 1896 through 19 ...

s or

vintage car A vintage car is, in the most general sense, an old automobile, and in the narrower senses of car enthusiasts and collectors, it is a car from the period of 1919 to 1930, Either a "survivor" or one that has been fixed up according to the or ...

s. The origins of the company can be traced back to 1878, when the Kentucky Wagon Manufacturing Company was established. In 1912, the local Electric Vehicle Company was acquired, which marked the entrance of Kentucky Wagon into the automotive field.Kimes, p.456. An

electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...

called the Kentucky Electric was planned, but did not come to pass. Erroneously, some lists of old automobiles list the Kentucky Electric from the Kentucky Wagon company in this period. The sole electric automotive product of the company was the Urban Electric

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construct ...

, produced from 1912 to 1916. In 1914, the Hercules Motor Car Company of New Albany across the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

contracted with Kentucky Wagon to build bodies for their cars. Hercules went out of business in 1915, with its assets acquired by Kentucky Wagon. There appear to have been plans to continue the Hercules name, but the Hercules instead formed the nucleus of the new Dixie Flyer in 1916. All cars had four-

cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...

engines An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

,Burness, Tad, ''Monstrous American Car Spotter's Guide'', Motorbooks International Publishers, 1986, p.77 originally supplied by Lycoming and later by Herschell-Spillman. Two distinctive features of early Dixie Flyers were their vertical windshields that were integrated into the curved cowl dash, and the spring-mounted

radiator A radiator is a heat exchanger used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

s. This latter feature was to reduce vibration, as well as strain on the

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of a manufactured object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

. The Shadburne Brothers acquired the company for a very brief period in 1917, but ownership quickly reverted to Kentucky Wagon. The Firefly speedster of 1922 was the sportiest Dixie Flyer, unfortunately, it was their last new model as well. The post-World War I recession claimed another victim in the Dixie Car company. Truck production was also discontinued at this time; however, wagons were still produced for almost another decade. Dixie Flyer, National and Jackson, were all merged into Associated Motor Industries and Corporation in 1923. Dixie Flyers and Jacksons were henceforth discontinued. Many of the last Dixie Flyers were converted to Nationals by simply exchanging the Dixie radiator emblems and

hubcap A hubcap or hub cap is a decorative disk on an automobile wheel that covers at minimum the central portion of the wheel, called the hub. An automobile hubcap is used to cover the wheel hub and the wheel fasteners to reduce the accumulation of ...

s with National ones. In June 2010 a restored 1922 Dixie Flyer was returned from Melbourne, Australia to Louisville, where it will be displayed at Kentucky Trailer, the successor business to Kentucky Wagon.

Notes

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References

* Kimes, Beverly Rae and Clark Jr, Henry Austin. ''Standard Catalog of American Cars: 1805-1942.'' (Third Edition). Iola, WI: Krause Publications. 1996. History of Louisville, Kentucky Cars introduced in 1916 1916 establishments in Kentucky 1923 disestablishments in Kentucky Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Cars discontinued in 1923