Aircraft without wings: local design and serial production of utilitarian vehicles in Argentina (1952-1955)

Abstract

In Euro-US-centric historical accounts, Latin America has been traditionally characterized as a region that produces goods with little added value, an exporter of agricultural commodities in the periphery of the world economy. However, recent historiographic trends have suggested the historical significance of experiences with development in the region in which state structures consistently promoted and closely shaped initiatives in scientific and technological realms. Focusing on the manufacture of utilitarian automotive vehicles in Argentina in the 1940s and 1950s, this article adds to existing analytic approaches by exploring the precise relationalities of design and production initiatives surrounding a single vehicle, the Rastrojero. With close attention to both the materialities and political priorities of that project, it explores variable understandings of optimized manufacture in the mid-twentieth century in light of particular state apparatuses, national economic agendas, and sociotechnical alliances.