Oil Progress Parade #12 has several segments. First, Lake Tahoe Olympic Games of 1960, with coverage of construction and some events including opening ceremonies, ski jump, hockey, ice skating. Next, “Small World” which features the work of small gasoline engines such as those used in go karts, chain saws, and other applications. Next, “Flying Without Wings” which shows an air car that used a Curtiss Wright engine. Last segment “A Well Goes to College” shows an oil well on the property of the University of Texas, with shots of campus.

Background on Air Car:

Following the end of World War II, the United States military invested a great deal of money in developing new hardware offering tactical advantages on future battlefields. One of the concepts the Army Transportation Research Command evaluated was the 1960 Curtiss-Wright Model 2500 Air Car. This 21-foot-long, 8-foot-wide, 5-foot-tall contraption was everything that Luke Skywalker’s land speeder would promise 17 years later—stylish driving without the burden of wheels.

Curtiss-Wright was and remains an aerospace and defense supplier with experience in aircraft development. Following the war, the military had a keen interest in improving amphibious landing and transport craft. The Air Car was developed with that need in mind. Since the United States hadn’t perfected repulsor lift technology yet, Curtiss-Wright had to go in a different direction, creating what was termed a ‘Ground Effects Machine’ (GEM), which we now know as a hovercraft.