One thing our post from late last year on the elliptical-wheel jeep/tractor was missing was any mention of who developed that. Thanks to my ever-growing Mechanix Illustrated collection and the August 1949 issue, we have an answer: John Kopczynski, head of the Pivot Punch and Die Corporation in North Tonawanda, New York. So, judging from the fact that the photo in the earlier post was taken in late 1950s, John didn’t waste much time building a full-scale prototype to test his idea.
In the same issue, we also see a New on the Road roundup featuring a Globester scooter, an early Ferrari V-12, an Imp, a Bond three-wheeler, a Mayrath tractor and a Fend Flitzer three-wheeler.
UPDATE: From a little bit of Googling, it appears Kopczynski later went on to found Ascension Industries in North Tonawanda and even to serve as mayor of that city. Coincidentally, the article on the North Tonawanda History Museum’s website (originally from a December 1972 issue of the Tonawanda News) that relates that information also carries an interview with Jerry Boone, then a Chrysler executive who extolled the virtues of Chrysler’s turbine engines, which were the subject of the SIA Flashback the other day. Another page on the NTHM’s website mentions that Kopczynski died in 2005.