The story
History
The two were Katayama Yutaka, later known in America as Nissan’s “Mr K”, and Tomiya Ryūichi, who designed Datsun bodies.source 1 After the war Katayama came to see Tomiya and urged him to build the car, and Tomiya sketched it on the spot: an open two-seater with a wheel at each corner and the engine at the back. Katayama thought it too experimental for Nissan and took it to Suminoe Seisakusho, which wanted a new business for the recovery and gave Tomiya a dozen or so engineers.source 1 Suminoe, at Ōmori in Tokyo, had been founded during the war by the textile firm Suminoe Orimono, and after the war it built Datsun bodies, among them Tomiya’s Datsun Thrift and Convar; the Toyota Automobile Museum calls it a Nissan affiliate.source 2source 1source 3
Tomiya joined Suminoe in 1949.source 1source 4 His aim, as the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame puts it, was a car that did its job with the least materials and fuel (more on him in the designers).source 1 The ministry of trade and industry was then working on its people’s-car plan, and treated Suminoe’s application to build the car as a test case.source 1 The first car, of 1950, was followed by five more prototypes, the earliest weighing only about 250 kg; the last, of 1953, was close to the production car.source 1 The prototypes had separate headlamps and cycle wings, and one of 1952, by Iwatate Kikuo’s tables, used a 250 cc Meguro single.source 2source 5 The name meant what it said: as light as a feather.source 2source 1
Less is more
The frame was a ladder of thin channel section, braced with an X. Every wheel was sprung independently, on transverse leaf springs. The wheels were wire-spoked motorcycle wheels with 19-inch motorcycle tyres, after the thinking of the Citroën 2CV; the prototypes had run on bicycle-trailer tyres.source 2source 1 There were no brakes at the front, only cable-worked drums at the back.source 2source 1source 6 In the tail sat a 350 cc air-cooled V-twin of Suminoe’s own, with overhead valves and pistons from the Datsun four; at 12.5 hp it was said to be the first Japanese car engine to give more than 30 hp a litre.source 2source 1 The seats were tubes and webbing, and one could be taken out to make room for luggage; Japanese Wikipedia says they were covered in tartan Nishijin cloth from the textile parent.source 2source 1 The hood rolled back, a single wiper cleared the screen, and semaphore indicators stood on the screen pillars.source 2source 6
A preview of the All-Japan Motor Show in Ueno Park showed it in 1953, and the first show proper in 1954.source 1 It went on sale in March 1955 at ¥300,000, soon raised to ¥380,000, and could be driven on a kei licence.source 2 Experts praised the suspension and the rational simplicity, but buyers did not want a car with no front brakes, bare equipment and the look of a cyclecar.source 2source 3
Its sensible but stripped-down functionality was not understood at that time.
Suminoe lacked the money to persist. Production ended in 1955, by the Toyota museum’s date, or 1956, by Japanese Wikipedia’s.source 2source 3 Tomiya, managing director of Suminoe from 1954, left in 1955 and designed the Fuji Cabin.source 4 He never quite gave up the idea: in 1975 he built an F/F II prototype with Aida Engineering, around an engine from the Subaru R‑2.source 4 Kei cars did not boom until the 1960s, and Japanese sources judge the Flying Feather too spartan, and too early.source 2source 1source 3
