Flxible

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A 1987 Flxible Metro-A, owned by WMATA Metrobus, parked in Washington, D.C.

The Flxible Co. (pronounced "flexible") was an American manufacturer of motorcycle sidecars, funeral cars, ambulances, intercity coaches and transit buses, based in the U.S. state of Ohio. It was founded in 1913 and closed in 1996. The company's production transitioned from highway coaches and other products to transit buses over the period 1953–1970, and during the years that followed, Flxible was one of the largest transit-bus manufacturers in North America.[1]

History

In 1913, Hugo H. Young and Carl F. Dudte founded the Flexible Side Car Company in Loudonville, Ohio, to manufacture motorcycle sidecars with a flexible mounting to the motorcycle. The flexible mounting allowed the sidecar to lean on corners along with the motorcycle, and was based on a design patented by Young.

In 1919, the company dropped the first "E" in "flexible" and changed its name to The Flxible Company as the business looked for new opportunities to expand.

After low-priced

intercity buses
, initially (1930s and early 1940s) built on GMC truck chassis, and powered with Buick Straight 8 engines.

Charles Kettering and General Motors

Charles F. Kettering

Charles Kettering, a Loudonville, Ohio native and vice president of General Motors, was closely associated with Flxible for almost the entire first half of the company's existence. In 1914, Flxible was incorporated with the help of Kettering, who then became president of the company and joined the board of directors. Kettering provided significant funding for the company in its early years, particularly after 1916, when he sold his firm, the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco)
, to GM for $2.5 million. Kettering continued to serve as president of Flxible, until he became chairman of the board in 1940, a position he held until his death in 1958.

After selling Delco to GM in 1916, Kettering organized and ran a research laboratory at GM and, by the 1950s, held the position of vice president at GM. As a result of Kettering's close relationship with both GM and Flxible, many GM parts were used in the production of Flxible vehicles, particularly prior to GM's 1943 purchase of

Yellow Coach, a competing bus manufacturer, of which GM had been a majority owner since 1925. For example, most Flxible ambulances, hearses and buses, from the mid-1920s to the early 1940s, were built on Buick chassis, and Flxible's "Airway" model buses of the mid-1930s were built on a Chevrolet
chassis.

1955 Flxible VistaLiner (VL100)

In 1958, as a result of the

anti-trust case, United States v. General Motors Corp.,[2] GM was mandated to sell their bus components, engines, and transmissions to other manufacturers, free of royalties. However, in the early 1950s and prior to the consent decree, Flxible built a small number of buses with GM diesel engines while Kettering still served on the board. It has been postulated that GM may have made its diesel engines available to Flxible to reduce the criticisms of GM's business practices that some felt were monopolistic.[3] The same has been said about GM's decision in the 1960s and 1970s not to produce a 35 ft (11 m) "New Look" transit bus with an 8-cylinder engine. However, it is also possible that GM chose not to enter that market because the potential sales did not warrant the added costs of engineering and production.[4]
Another result of the consent decree, which was not settled in its entirety until 1965, was that GM was barred from having any of its officers or directors serve as an officer or director for any other bus manufacturing company. That provision would have applied to Kettering, had he not died in 1958.

Bus manufacturing

1947 Flxible Clipper highway coach

In 1953, Flxible absorbed the

Grumman Corporation in 1978 and became known as Grumman Flxible. The name reverted to Flxible when Grumman sold the company in 1983 to General Automotive Corporation. In 1996, Flxible declared bankruptcy
and its assets were auctioned. The last Flxible vehicles were produced in 1995.

870 "A" frame problems

In the mid-1980s, several

Houston, Los Angeles and Orange County, California had also reported problems with their 870s. Regardless, NYCTA ordered fifty Metros in 1995, but Flxible closed its doors before the order was produced, and NYCTA obtained the remaining new buses from Orion
instead.

Last transit buses in service

By the mid-2010s, very few transit systems were still operating any Flxible buses. Portland, Oregon's TriMet retired its last Flxible buses in May 2015,[5] after which the only known continued use of Flxible buses in service was by Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) in Charleston, South Carolina, and by Metro Transit in Omaha, Nebraska.[6] However, Omaha ordered replacement buses in summer 2018[7] and retired its last Flxible buses before the end of that year.[citation needed] Subsequently, CARTA retired its last Flxible buses in October 2019.[citation needed]

Engineering program

Flxible implemented a CAD program, CATIA, in the late 1990s to support production design. They were one of the first customers of IBM/Dassault.

Production outside the United States

Mexican-made DINA Flxliner bus, in second-class service, berthed in the Silao, Guanajuato central terminal, 2006.
A Changjiang CFC6110GD bus in Beijing, China, showing the similarity to the Flxible Metro, and wearing a Flxible logo on the front.

Flxible's intercity buses were popular in

Ville St-Laurent, Quebec
.

In 1994, Flxible's parent company, General Automotive Corporation, and three other American companies –

Carrier – entered into a joint venture with Changzhou Changjiang Bus, a Chinese manufacturer located in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, to produce buses based on the Flxible Metro design and with the Flxible name. The resulting company, China Flxible Auto Corporation,[citation needed] manufactured buses in a variety of lengths, from 8 m (26 ft 3 in) to 11 m (36 ft 1 in). These buses, which include both front- and rear-engine designs, and share only their general exterior appearance with the American-built Flxibles, were sold to many transit operators in major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. A trolleybus version was manufactured for only one operator, the Hangzhou trolleybus system, which bought 77 units between the late 1990s and 2001. For these vehicles, Changzhou Changjiang supplied the chassis and Metro-style bodies to the Hangzhou Changjiang Bus Company (in Hangzhou), and that company equipped them as trolleybuses.[8]

Products

A Unitrans Flxible New Look
A Flxette minibus in 1984
  • Motorcycle sidecar (1913-early 1920s)
  • Intercity coach (1924–1932)
  • Funeral car (1925–1942, 1946–1952, 1959–1964)
  • Ambulance (1925–1952, 1946–1952, 1959–1964)
  • "Airway" intercity coach (1932–1936)
  • "Clipper" intercity coach (1937–1942, 1944–1950)
  • Parts for
    blimps
    (1942–1945)
  • "Airporter" intercity coach (1946–1950)
  • "C-1" intercity coach (1950)
  • "VisiCoach" intercity coach (1950–1958)
  • FL "Fageoliner" transit bus (1953–1954)
  • FT "Flxible Twin" transit bus (1953–1959)
  • VL-100 "VistaLiner" two-level intercity coach (1954–1959)
  • "StarLiner" intercity coach (1957–1967)
  • "Hi-Level" intercity coach (1959–1962)
  • "New Look" transit bus (1960–1978)
  • "FlxLiner" intercity coach (1963–1969)
  • "Flxette" light duty transit bus (1964–1976)
  • "Flxible" Cruiser Motor Home (1967–1969)
  • 870 "Advanced Design Bus" transit bus (1978–1982)
  • METRO "Advanced Design Bus" (1983–1996); METRO "A" (1983–1987), METRO "B" (1988–1991), METRO "C" (1992), METRO "D" (1993–1994) and METRO "E" (1995–1996)

Buick conversions

  • 1927 motorbus
    1927 motorbus
  • 1940 ambulance
    1940 ambulance
  • 1960 hearse
    1960 hearse
  • 1963 hearse
    1963 hearse

Flxible Owners International

Clipper-era Flxible nose emblem
one of 131 Australian-built Clippers

Flxible Owners International (see external link) was founded in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the Family Motor Coach Association, and is dedicated to the preservation of buses and coaches produced by Flxible. The organization holds a rally in Loudonville biannually, in even-numbered years and normally in mid-July, where many preserved Flxible coaches and buses may be seen.[9][10]

The majority of vehicles owned by members are of the Clipper series (Clipper, Visicoach, Starliner) that were produced from the 1930s until 1967. However, there are also quite a few "non-clipper" Flxible coaches that are owned, maintained, and operated by proud Flxible owners. This includes the Starliner, VL100 (VistaLiner), Hi Level, and Flxliner as well as some of the more modern transit buses. Most of these vehicles have been converted to

motor homes
; however, there are still a few examples of seated coaches belonging to members.

See also

  • RTS, a line of buses that competed with Flxible's last line of buses, the Flxible Metro
  • New Flyer Industries
    , a bus manufacturer that has replaced Flxible in terms of dominance

References

  1. .
  2. E.D.Mich.
    1956).
  3. ^ McKane, John H. & Squier, Gerald L. (2006), 17.
  4. ^ McKane, John H. & Squier, Gerald L. (2006), 58.
  5. ISSN 0739-7194
    .
  6. ^ Morgan, Steve (September 2014). "The Flxible Metro – Catch Them While You Can". Bus Industry. Bus History Association. p. 21.
  7. ^ Getting Road-Ready: How a Bus Earns its Stripes August 16, 2018. Metro (Omaha).
  8. ISSN 0266-7452
  9. ^ Brewer, Jim (July 17, 2006). "1930 Flxible coach steals show at bus rally". Ashland Times-Gazette. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
  10. ^ Brewer, Jim (July 21, 2008). "Flxible buses parade through downtown Loudonville". Ashland Times-Gazette. Archived from the original on February 23, 2012. Retrieved May 28, 2012.

Further reading

McPherson, Thomas A. (1993) "Flxible Professional Vehicles: The Complete History" Toronto, Ontario, Specialty Vehicle Press, ISBN

External links