Goodyear’s Wingfoot Express turns 90
AKRON, Ohio — Goodyear’s pioneering interstate Wingfoot Express truck line celebrates its 90th birthday this week. Back in 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 one truck eventually blossomed into a fleet of trucks, complete with the industry’s first sleeper cab.
Steve McClellan, vice president of Goodyear commercial tire systems, said he appreciates the company’s history in trucking, but “is especially proud of our kinship with America’s truck drivers.”
The company still considers truck drivers as heroes of the highway, and for the past 24 years has recognized drivers who help others in a time of need. California FedEx Freight truck driver Ed Regener, the 2006 Goodyear North America Highway Hero, recently was honored for saving two men in a fiery crash on Interstate 10 near Phoenix.
“The Wingfoot Express always has been about the customer and today, it symbolizes 90 years of delivering business solutions for our customers from the time the original tire is placed on a new truck and through its life cycle,” he said.
A 1917 Packard Model E 3-ton truck — similar to the models used in the first fleet — symbolizes the original truck fleet. Housed in Fort Smith, Ark., at the headquarters of Wingfoot Commercial Tire Systems, the Wingfoot Express truck will celebrate the 90th anniversary this year with stops at Wingfoot Tire Center grand-openings nationwide.
Wingfoot Commercial Tire Systems LLC, a subsidiary of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 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.
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Hi:
Dave Lockard here – I had the privilege of working with Goodyear back in the 1980’s when their subcontractor, the late Clyde Walters of Canton, Ohio was restoring the Packard Wingfoot Express.
Goodyear obtained a spare engine and a worm drive rear from me-when Clyde took the rear apart, it was missing the ring gear!
Goodyear used the engine they were rebuilding for me (part of the deal) for a ‘Great Race’ when it was sponsored by Interstate Battery. In July of1999, Goodyear had their ‘Wingfoot’ truck out at the 100th Anniversary of the Packard Motor Car Company.
The last I heard was that the Wingfoot was out at Goodyear’s Santa Rosa test track in Texas.
Thought you’d enjoy some pictures from the Goodyear archives when they were trying to sell pneumatic tires in 1917 to a reluctant trucking industry that used solid rubber tires on heavy trucks.
I’d be glad to share numerous pictures if you if you’d wish.
I am curious as to where this restored “Wingfoot Express” truck is today. I remember it in Iowa a few times perhaps 15 or 20 years ago, and even ran photos and a story about it in the club newsletter I was writing at the time. I have not seen it for several years and hope it is preserved somewhere that I could visit it again.