After the Sugar Company moved its refining operations down to the Santa Ana Sugar plant, the factory buildings were home to diverse enterprises. Dr. Ross Pet food was probably the best known, but the factory was also used by Douglas Aircraft, and the warehouse was used to store cotton. One of the more interesting ventures was as the site for a proposed auto manufacturing plant. In January 1949, the Press-Telegram wrote of Curtis Wright’s venture to build a “light motor car,” with parts made out plastic and plywood. The venture apparently went nowhere because we hear little about it after 1949. Wright had earlier come to the public attention with his prototype for a flying car. Part of it can be seen in the background of the Press-Telegram photo below. A more complete photo of the car is at the bottom of this page.
Wright apparently built the majority of his fortune not from his two “flying cars” but as a builder of streamlined trailers. In fact, Silver Palaces, a tribute to the sleek post WWII streamlined trailers, gives him credit for “the resurrection of the streamlined trailer.” A July 1946 issue of Trail-R-News Magazine noted that “Wright Enters Third Year.” He worked with Wally Byram, the main engineer behind the Airstream trailer. Thet came out with a model called The Clipper which debited in 1947. In 1949 Wright sold his trailer business to three investors who renamed it the Silver Steak Trailer Company. Little information on him is available after this.
Inventor Building New Light Motor Car at Alamitos Plant
LOS ALAMITOS, Jan. 31—An engineering and manufacturing project which, if successful, may employ 1,k000 people is under way at the old Los Alamitos Augar Co. plant under direction of Curtis Wright, auto and light plane builder.
Several years ago, Wright built a roadable helicopter with folding rotor blades which he proposed to manufacture to fill the need for a car that would fly—or an airplane that could be driven on the highway. The helicopter now sits in the midst of automobile assembly lines as Wright prepares to manufacture3 a light motor car. Later, he said, he hopes to build a package “windmill” with separate motor to be attached to his three passenger coupe at the owner’s option.
But for the time being, Wright plans to manufacture a four-cylinder auto designed to carry up to six passengers, depending on the model. The car will sell for #1350 for picku7p truck to $1465 for the suburban sedan. Skeleton tooling for the car now is completed, dealers will have show models within a month and delivery of production models is promised within from 60 to 90 days, the manufacturer said.
The cars have the new “step-down” feature with a wide outside frame, an overall length of 13½ feet on a 108-inch wheelbase, an inside width of 63 inches and are 63 inches high. They will cruise at 50 to 60 miles per hour, Wright promised, with a top speed of 75, and will travel 40 miles per gallon of gasoline.
The two curved parts of the car’s body, the top and the hood ansd front fender combination are of plastic with the color in the plastic rather than painted on the surface, making damage from collision much less costly. Balance of the car body is of plywood. On[ly] the suburban sedan body and the chassis are built here, with engine and other parts bought elsewhere and assembled here for the time being.
His use of a trade name similar to that used by a major airplane manufacturing concern, Curtiss-Wright, is legal, Wright said, and has been passed on by the higher courts. Curtis Wright was a name known in plane manufacturing before the merger joined Curtiss and Wright, and the two combinations are spelled differently , with one hyphenated and having a double “s”.
“Anyway,” said Wright, “A man has a right to use his own name and he has bene using it in aircraft, trailer and automobile production since 1924.