Ten futuristic concepts from the 1950s/60s

It has long been no secret that in Soviet times there were a huge number of wonderful concepts that never reached the factory assembly line. Today all that remains is to remember and sigh. There is even an opinion that if we had capitalism then, this would never have happened. But this is not so, even America, which was more technically advanced at that time, had a considerable number of prototypes of beautiful cars that never saw mass production. Here is one such example. On the verge of bankruptcy in the second half of the 40s, Ford Motor Company entered the next decade with several concepts at once.


Benson (grandson of Henry Ford and director of Lincoln-Mercury) was passionate about concept cars. The division introduced three vehicles (the Lincoln XL-500 in 1953, the Mercury XM-800 in 1954, and the Lincoln Futura in 1955), leading to the styling of the new Lincoln 56. In 1952, work on the Futura began with Bill Schmidt, Lincoln's chief designer. -Mercury from 1945 to 1955. His sources of inspiration were the water world (after a trip to the Bahamas with Bill Mitchell) and, as was often the case in the 50s, aeronautics.

In the fall of 1954, the drawings, full-size model, chassis with running gear and engine were sent to Ghia (Turin, Italy) for sheet metal body construction. Later, this car was used for 4 years for advertising purposes, and even became a screen hero, starring in a popular film. And this is far from the only example of a great American concept. The video from the American Legends channel contains a selection of ten of the most futuristic prototypes from the 1950s/60s.