Wind Wagon- 1929

The Boy Mechanic (published in 1925) offered hundreds of detailed drawings of things a boy could build. One chapter was titled “Building a Wind Wagon.” It is unknown how many were built but this one was constructed in the late 1920s by 15-year-old Ted Jameson (Uncle of racer, author, and commentator Sam Posey). The angle-iron frame is mated to a beam front axle with a pair of bicycle-style wheels. It is powered by a Harley-Davidson v-twin motorcycle engine which, instead of driving the wheels, drives an airplane propeller. The wind wagon has neither front nor rear suspension. It also has very little torque, so its acceleration and hill climbing abilities leave something to be desired. It was found to work best on a frozen lake. Posey refers to it in his autobiography The Mudge Pond Express: “When Mudge Pond froze over in the winter, the Wind Wagon would whistle across the ice, my mother hanging on for dear life in a rudimentary back seat while Teddy, his eyes nearly blinded by the freezing prop wash, tried to skirt the holes in the ice.”