Smith Flyer
Smith Flyer was a small American two-seat car made by the A. O. Smith Company in Milwaukee from about 1915 to 1919. It used a wooden frame that served as both the body and the suspension. Power came from a tiny engine mounted on a fifth wheel (a motor wheel) that directly drove the wheel. To start moving, the wheel was raised off the ground, the engine was started, and then the wheel was lowered to engage the drive. The wheelbase was 62 inches, the wheels were 20 inches in diameter, and the car was 30 inches wide.
The motor wheel concept came from Arthur William Wall of Birmingham, England, around 1910 to power bicycles. A. O. Smith bought the rights in 1914 and first used the motor wheel on bicycles, then added the wooden-framed buckboard car called the Smith Motorwheel. In 1919 Briggs & Stratton bought the rights and renamed the car the Briggs & Stratton Flyer, making improvements to the engine to reach about 2 horsepower.
Briggs & Stratton sold the Flyer nationwide and even published Motor Wheel Age. In 1925 the rights were sold to Automotive Electric Services Corporation, which continued making the Flyer until engine supplies ran out and switched to an electric motor instead. Briggs & Stratton kept the motor and used it in other devices like lawn mowers. The motor wheel became the ancestor of all later Briggs & Stratton motors.
Most Flyers were painted red and were known as the "Red Bug." The Guinness Book of Records lists the 1922 Briggs & Stratton Flyer as one of the cheapest cars ever, priced around $125–$150 then (about $2,350–$2,820 in 2024 dollars). A few Smith Flyers survive in collections, and blueprints are available online.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:24 (CET).