In 1912, Hugo H. Young, a Mansfield Ohio, Harley-Davidson dealer, had an idea for a new type of motorcycle sidecar suspension - one that would permit the third wheel to tilt and stay on the ground when the motorcycle leaned while going around curves either to the left or right. In order to allow the wheel's geometry to change, a "flexible" connection was required between the motorcycle and the side car. The flexible connection would also allow the sidecar's wheel to follow imperfections in a roadway's surface without affecting the motorcycle's balance. By incorporating a pivoting axle, the sidecar's wheel is made to follow the direction of the motorcycle, whether rounding turns or on a straight course.

Young built a prototype sidecar for his own use. A traveling salesman friend saw the newly designed sidecar and realizing its great possibilities, urged him to patent and manufacture the sidecar. In 1913, Young filed for a patent and subsequently organized the Flexible Side Car Company to manufacture a sidecar using the novel suspension. On April 9th 1914, Young and his partner, Carl F. Dudte, incorporated the Flexible Sidecar Co. for $25,000 in nearby Loudonville, Ohio.

Charles F. Kettering, the founder of the Dayton Electric Company and a Loudonville native, was elected president of its board of directors the following year. From 1915 until 1958 - the year of his death - Kettering was Flxible's largest shareholder and served on its board as president from 1915-1940 and  chairman from 1940 to 1958. When Kettering sold Dayton Electric Co. to General Motors in 1918, he instantly became one of its major stockholders and would eventually become GM's Vice President. He also served on General Motors' board of directors from 1929 through 1958.

In 1916, the company built its own factory and later that year 1916 Young was finally granted patent no. 1,204,924 for his novel sidecar suspension and wheel. Flxible built a number of machinegun-equipped sidecars for the Excelsior Motor Company Co Ltd. for use by British Forces in WWI.

In July of 1919 the company's directors increased it capitalization to $500,000 and changed its name from the Flexible Sidecar Co. to The Flxible Co.  The name Flxible - without the first "e" - was trademarked and has been exclusive to Flxible ever since. By 1919 Flxible was promoting itself as the worlds largest manufacturer of motorcycle sidecars.

In the early 1920s the sidecar market suffered when Henry Ford reduced the price of a new Model T Roadster to $360.00; which was less than the cost of a new motorcycle and sidecar. The handwriting was on the wall and Flxible sought out a new market, and a new product. The factory was large, and their workforce skilled in woodworking and metal finishing, so commercial body building was contemplated. However the market for side cars didn't totally disappear and Flxible continued to produce them into the early 1930s. 

The first 4-wheeled Flxible, a Studebaker 12-passenger sedan/bus originally ordered by Eli D. Hershberger, was delivered to E.L. Harter late in 1924, who operated a bus line from Ashland to Mt. Vernon, Ohio. The first Flxible performed so well, that Harter decided to buy a second one the following April. This second coach was used in regular service for over 3 years and accumulated a total of over 275,000 miles before being trade in on another Flxible in 1928.

Charles F. Kettering's had sold Dayton Electric Co. to General Motors in 1918 and as a major GM stockholder was able to make arrangements for Flxible to obtain new Buick chassis direct from the factory. At much the same time, Flxible determined that their sedan/bus bodies were equally-suited for use as hearse and ambulances. A total of eleven professional cars were built in 1925 and 22 were built the following year. Total 1926 bus production amounted to 31 coaches and all were built on Buick chassis whose wheelbases  were extended up to 168".  

Early on many of Flxible's buses and professional cars were sold through Buick dealers who stood to profit twice (chassis & body) from each Flexible sale. This arrangement was mutually beneficial and Flxible experienced a steady period of growth, which was also aided by a series of contracts with the US Navy, who remained a regular customer through the 1950s.

Through the late 1920s Flxible used Buick Series 50 and 47 chassis beneath most of their buses and bus-like hearses and ambulances but did build a few using chassis from Cadillac, Reo and Studebaker. The rear ends of Flxible coaches were boxy and utilitarian although their side-loading coaches featured extra wide doors for easy access. Luckily, new bodies appeared in 1928 that were significantly more attractive and featured the popular limousine-styling seen on their competition. 

The body of a typical 1928 Flxible 15-passenger bus was made with wood framing and composite wood and metal panels. The Goodyear company used a small fleet of Flxible buses to advertise it's new "Balloon" tires and even built a portable mooring mast for blimps using a specially-equipped Flxible bus.  

Flxible's sales totaled $528,796 in 1929, which also included sidecars and auto bodies, which were a very small fraction of the business by then. (A small number of auto bodies are known to have been built by Flxible during the 1920s, however no pictures or examples are known to survive.)

They continued to mount their bodies on Buick 57 and 60 Series 94hp chassis through 1930. Their expanding bus business had strong connections to municipalities and large businesses and their ambulance sales benefited. Customers included the American Legion, DuPont, US Public Health Service, the US Armed Forces and numerous municipalities. As the Depression progressed, Flxibles output gradually decreased going from a high of 112 buses/264 professional cars in 1929 to a low of 6 buses/156 professional cars in 1934. The market for buses had all but dried up, but luckily their funeral cars and ambulances remained popular and with the assistance of their well-heeled board of directors (namely Kettering), the firm avoided bankruptcy.

Flxible's arrangement with Buick spanned 40 years and 1931-1932 production was built using 104hp straight-eight Buick series 8-870 chassis. The Buick frame was purpose-built for professional car work and featured one-piece side-rails and a wheelbase of 155". A handful of Cadillac V8-chassised coaches were built in 1932 but Buick-equipped chassis outnumbered them 100-to-1.  Due to the country's financial woes, Flxible began offering a cheaper bus, called the Airway Coach, which was based on a less expensive Chevrolet truck chassis.  The Airway Coach, which was first introduced in 1932, was distinguished by its round back and composite metal and wood framework.

Flxible professional cars shared the new more streamlined skirted-fender chassis that Buick offered for 1933 and 1934, but their bodywork remained largely unchanged from that of their 1928 models and was beginning to show its age. A few Pontiac chassis were offered this year in order to compete with similar Ford and Chevrolet-chassised coaches offered by their competition.  In 1934 Buick shipped 7,367 stripped chassis for export and professional cars.  That numbered dropped to 4,993 in 1935.

Starting in 1935 General Motors started offering a 160" extended-wheelbase professional car chassis that was available from their Buick, Cadillac, LaSalle and Oldsmobile divisions. Consequently all Flxibles were built on the new purpose-built Buick Series 40, 60, and 90 commercial chassis starting this year.

By 1935 Flxible was in the black again with sales reaching over half a million dollars, although profits amounted to only $10,300.  

Flxible became one of the first coachbuilders to get away from wood-framed fabric roofs. Up until 1935 most auto bodies were built using wood framework covered with stamped metal sheets to form the body.  The central portions of the roofs were usually covered with a synthetic leather or rubberized cloth covering both to lighten the vehicle and to prevent drumming. Luckily for Eureka, their long relationship with General Motors allowed them to access to the Fisher Division's Turret Top: the first production seamless all-metal roof. This innovation made Eureka coaches considerably stronger and lighter than most of their competition who continued to use wood framed, fabric-covered roofs up until WWII. Another feature common to lower-priced Flexible coaches were the awkward front-end treatments they used to match their high-waisted bodies to GM's new lower alligator hoods. They added a rectangular  5 1/2"valance to both sides of the hood and manufactured a special spacer that fit on top of the grill that enabled the beltine of the body to match that of the GM hood. Flxible had always enjoyed a healthy relationship with the federal government, and they supplied a fleet of gray-colored ambulances to the US Navy's Medical Corps in 1935-1936.

In 1936, the Flxible Airway Coach made its appearance on many bus routes throughout the country. The bus was built on a Chevrolet truck chassis using special springs and had many features which made it attractive to both the public and the drivers. Its economical operation and low maintenance costs made it much desired by many operators. The Airway Coaches sold well in 1936 and in 1937 Flxible introduced their first C.O.E. (cab-over-engine) bus, called the Clipper. Based on a Chevrolet truck chassis, the Clipper carried 25 passengers and featured streamlined metal bodywork over wooden framing.  Sales rebounded strongly this year and totaled $1.1 million.

1937 saw the introduction of Flxible's Challenger service car, which was based on a stretched Chevrolet or GMC panel truck. They also introduced a series of distinctive carved-panel hearse called the Classic A and Double A which featured two gothic arches on each side of the vehicle with a corresponding arch on the rear entrance. The high-waisted look continued from the previous year and luckily for Flxible many of their customers were government agencies who were buying them because of their low price, not their awkward appearance.

Flxible embraced GM's new commercial chassis and built over 350 coaches on Buick, Cadillac and LaSalle chassis in 1938. The twin-arched Classic A art-carved hearse remained popular and was available in two versions, the first had carved drapery panels inside the arches, the second had glass windows in place of the carvings. Both versions were dedicated end-loaders.

In 1938, they introduced their legendary Flxible Clipper whose integral body/chassis rear-engined design was the forerunner of the company's line of streamlined inter city buses that would be built in the 1960s. 1939 Clippers offered a choice of a Chevy 6-cylinder or Buick straight-8 mounted longitudinally at the rear and the option of either 25 or 29 passenger seats depending on the engine and equipment. The Clippers proved so popular that a new bus factory had to be built in 1940. Nearly 5,000 of these coaches were in operation at one time serving over 1,000 bus owners.

Flxible abandoned composite wood-framing in 1939 and released an all-new 100% steel body that was both stronger and lighter than their previous coaches. Flxible specialized in fleet sales and it came as no suprise that all-steel Flxible ambulances were selected for use by the 1939 World's Fair in Queens, New York. Painted in World's Fair blue, features included roof-mounted emergency light pods, a federal siren and a large rendering of the fair's Trylon and Perisphere painted in orange on the rear compartment doors. The World's Fair coaches were built on Buick and LaSalle chassis. Flxible continued to raise the the bodies of their coaches by 5 1/2" while most other makers were trying to lower their own. This practice added a few inches of headroom to the interior but forced them to add an ugly 5 1/2" valance to the bottom of the alligator hood in order to match the beltine of the high-mounted body. The raised body made for some ugly double running boards as well. The first being the traditional running board that was closest to the ground, the second was actually the bottom of the body sill. Exposed body sills were a throwback to the early 1920s and unused by anyone other than Flxible at this late date.

With free publicity garnered from their fleet of World's Fair ambulances plus increased military fleet sales, Flxible enjoyed a great year in 1940, producing 542 professional cars on mostly Buick and LaSalle chassis. 1940 Flxible coaches certainly weren't the industry's best-looking coaches, but due to their low prices and skillful marketing, they were definitely the best-selling.

Quite unfairly, LaSalle had acquired the reputation of being a "cheap" Cadillac and was eliminated by GM just as Cadillac released their new Bill Mitchell-designed models in 1941. The new Cadillac was decidedly forward-looking, side-mounted spares had been eliminated and the new Hydra-Matic automatic transmission was available for the first time having been pioneered by Oldsmobile in the previous year. The prow-nosed look seen in the Thirties was gone, replaced by massive front-end highlighted by the now-famous eggcrate grille.  Headlamps were now mounted in, rather than on top of, the front fenders. Equipped with a Cord-like coffin-nose hood the new Cadillacs were noticeably different from their predecessors and set the standard for American luxury during the 1940s.

For a number of years Flexible also built stretched 6- and 8-door passenger car-based airport limousines. Originally designed for use by airlines as 12 passenger terminal buses, they were also used by limousine services, bus companies, resort hotels and movie studios to transport small numbers of people over small distances. A number of glass- and removable canvas-roofed Flxible sightseeing coaches operated in many National Parks including Yosemite, Rocky Mountain and others through the 1950s.

Flexible addressed the double running board appearance of their extra-high coaches in 1941 by extending the bodywork downward in order to cover the body sills. However, the bulbous front treatment initiated in 1935 still remained. The Flxible 5 1/2" valance was now molded onto the bottom of Buick's new two-way hoods - which could be opened from either side or removed completely - in order to match the beltine of their high-mounted body.  Flxible also introduced the first of a series of very attractive flower cars this year. It was built using a 5-window business coupe roof mounted on top of a standard Flxible coach body that had been built without a roof. The coupe's rear quarter-windows were blanked-in and the roofline flowed gracefully back to the rear of the flower box. The wide rear attendant's doors remained and could be used to load chairs and other graveside accessories. Also available was a new landau hearse that was built using a curved side-door window found only on this model. The rear quarter-windows were blanked-in and an attractive landau bar was placed at their center. The twin-arched Classic A art-carved hearses remained but would disappear with the start of WWII. The bulk of Flxible's 1941 output of 503 coaches were mounted on Buick 50 and 70 Series chassis. The remainder used Cadillac's Series 60 and 75 Coaches.

For the 1941 National Funeral Director's Convention Flxible introduced a new style of funeral car for the 1942 model year called the Innovation. Built using the same basic structure as their flower cars, it featured a 5-window business coupe roof mounted on top of a standard Flxible coach body that had been built without a roof. The coupe's rear quarter-windows were blanked-in and the base of the roofline flowed gracefully back to the rear of the what was normally the flower box. But on the Innovation coaches, the flower box was replaced by smooth painted rear deck that covered the entire top of the casket compartment.  Purchasers had the option of a plain painted-metal exterior or sides made of large rectangular wood-carvings that started just behind the driver's door and continued to the rear of the body. The casket compartment was upholstered in mohair with walnut trim and the rear hatch had built in-rollers to allow the casket easy access. Unfortunately of the 209 professional cars built by Flxible before the war ended production in July, only three were Innovation coaches.

Flxible's first wartime subcontract was for the manufacture of gear guards for the steam winches on Liberty ships. Then in rapid order came contracts for parts for the M-4 tank along with parts and assemblies for the Navy's Corsair fighter planes. During late 1942 and early 1943 a handful of black-out trimmed Flxible buses and ambulances were assembled for civil-defense and military use, but the bulk of the huge Flxible plant was re-tooled for war work. Their most memorable contract was for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. of nearby Akron, Ohio. In order to combat the growing U-boat problem, Goodyear was given a large contract for their famous lighter-than-air blimps. Flxible was given a subcontract by Goodyear to construct the control cars, fins, rudders and nose cones for Goodyear's series L blimps.

This new Goodyear contract not only utilized the bulk of Flxible's available floor space, but also gave its skilled workers and engineers an opportunity to use their talents to the best advantage. Additional contracts were entered into with Goodyear & Curtiss Wright for the manufacture of wing flaps for the Corsair, the empennage for the Helldiver and the lower center section of the C-46.

With the war ending in 1945 Flxible soon returned to coach production and developed a more streamlined version of the Clipper, in mid 1946 replacing the flat windshields with a curved version.

Buick was the only chassis used by Flxible for their post-war professional cars which featured a greatly inflated stick price. Due to widespread shortages of materials and a corresponding demand for new coaches it was a sellers market. The base price for a 1946 Flxible-Buick Premier ambulance was $5,177, a full $1,500 more than a comparable coach cost in 1941. Actual prices could go even higher as most post-war vehicles were sold subject to price at the time of delivery. 

A January 2, 1947 explosion in building #1's paint department touched off a huge fire, which eventually destroyed most of the two-story building which was built in 1927. The funeral car assembly line, trim shop and painting department were completely destroyed in the blaze which caused an estimated $1,000,000 in damages. The explosion occurred at 2:10pm and all 200 of Flxible's employees escaped unharmed however over 90 coaches in various stages of completion were totally destroyed. Luckily the plants main offices were spared and a Herculean effort by Flxible's contractors and staff enabled professional car production to resume in just three short months. Over 350 Flxible-Buicks were produced that year with list prices slightly higher than the previous year's coaches. 

In 1948 almost 650 professional cars were manufactured by the Loudonville plant. The best-looking model was still the Landau which was introduced just before the war in 1941. The landau featured distinctive rearward curving rear side-door windows not found on their regular limousine-style coaches and ambulances. The rear quarter-windows were blanked-in and black and chrome landau bars were affixed to the panels. The distinctive Flxible 5 1/2" valance continued to be added onto the bottom of the Buick Series 70 hoods in order to match the beltine of the high-mounted body, just as before the start of the war.

In 1941 Flxible had introduced the first parallelogram-shaped window seen on a bus. In 1950 they introduced their first all-new postwar coach, the VisiCoach, which featured the the same windows, only dramatically enlarged. 

In 1951 Flxible joined forces with the Fageol Twin Coach Co. of Kent Ohio to produce 1,590 buses for the US Army. Their product was a dual-purpose convertible coach that could be used to carry both troops and casualties. The pair also built a small order of 22 intercity buses for an operator in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Flxible eventually assumed production of Twin Coach's transit buses and received a large 300-unit order for city buses from the Chicago Transit Authority in 1953. In order to fulfill the huge and profitable order, Flxible shut down all professional car assembly through 1958.  Their Clipper and city transit buses were a standardized, high-profit product which could easily be built in quantity, as opposed to it mostly custom-built hearses and ambulances.

The Introduction of the two-level VistaLiner in late 1954 offered new level of comfort for passengers and was one of the first coaches to include individual speakers for each passenger. The "King Of The Highway's torsilastic springs, independent front suspension, air conditioning, and comfortable seating provided operators with increased reliability and profitability as well.

A new plant was acquired in Millersburg, Ohio to build motor homes, custom coaches and specialty buses based in their VisiCoach intercity transit bus. Shells were transported from Loudonville to be outfitted as Land Cruiser motor homes, mobile medical units and mobile post-offices and bookmobiles. Flxible also produced a number of non-vehicle metal products in Millersburg that included coin-operated lockers and vending machines. A plant was built in Australia that made Clipper Coaches under the name Ansair-Flxible from 1960 until 1965.

Flxible re-entered the professional car field in 1959 with a totally new series of coaches designed around Buick's new X-frame chassis. They also introduced a new standard-wheelbase coach called the Flxette that offered the quality of an extended-wheelbase Flxible professional car for a greatly reduced cost. A few one-off coaches were built on occasion, and Flxible tested the limousine market in 1959 with their prototype  Flxible-Imperial limousine that was built using an Imperial Southampton chassis. It looked very similar to the super-expensive Italian-built Imperial Ghia limousines but lacked the extra trim found on Ghia's Crown-chassised coaches. Only one was built, but a few years later, two 1962 Flxible-Buick limousines were built to match a large customer's 1962 funeral coaches.

In 1961 Flxible introduced their "new look" city transit coach - pioneered by GM and accepted as the industry standard for the next 18 years. The coach featured a rear longitudinally-mounted Detroit Diesel powerplant, an enlarged reflection free windshield, double bay passenger windows and new modern fluorescent interior lighting. 

Flxible's 1961 professional cars were available with a novel type of rear door called the Flxi-door. A modification of the "doublentree" design originally introduced by Buffalo, New York's Brunn & Co. in 1930, the Flxi-door featured the ability to open the rear cargo door from either the right or the left-hand side. Each handle controlled a bolt that moved up and down through two horizontal eyes cast into a heavy plate attached to the door pillar. There were two bolt and plates on the left side of the door and two bolts and plates on the right side. The Flxi-doors suffered the same fate as Brunn's "Doublentree" door had 30 years earlier, they were too expensive, too difficult to produce and attracted too-few buyers. Through 1964, Flxible produced about 300 professional coaches per year using Electra chassis and the basic body structure introduced in 1959.

In 1963 Flxible purchased Southern Coach Co. (see Southern Coach) of Evergreen, Alabama and sold its new motor home and custom coach plant in Millersburg, Ohio to the Clark Equipment Co. The new Flxible-Southern plant manufactured truck bodies and a new front-engined bus called the Flxette. The V-8 equipped mid-sized bus could seat up to 19 passengers remained in production at the Evergreen plant through 1973.

For the second time in its history, Flxible exited the professional car manufacturing business at the end of the 1964 model year. Citing their inability to keep up with greatly increased demand for transit buses due to a lack of space, Flxible sold their fixtures, tooling, and engineering designs as well as the trade names "Flxette" and "Premier" to Knightstown, Indiana's National Coaches Inc.

In a story in the January 7, 1965 edition of The Loudonville Times, Flxible's president T.P. Butler proclaimed "It takes a specialist to handle the highly specialized business of manufacturing professional cars, and National Coaches was a completely logical choice. They have the experience, the facilities, they do not manufacture a variety of products and they are staffed with highly skilled craftsmen who are masters of the fine art of building fine coach bodies".

Vern Z. Perry of National Coaches reassured former Flxible customers that "sales and service of Buick professional cars will be handled through generally the same distributors that have been handling Flxible-Buicks in the past". Butler further emphasized that the transfer "will permit a wide range of models to be included in the future production, such as nine­passenger limousines, service cars and high-headroom ambulances, which have long been desired by the industry".

National introduced Flexible's coachwork on their all-new 1966 coaches introduced in late 1965. The Flxible-based National coaches were easily distinguished from older (pre-1966) National-Buicks by their commercial windshields and driver's door glass and attractive styling.

The main Flxible plant in Delaware, Ohio produced city transit buses of a single basic type in 33-, 35­and 40-foot lengths, 96 and 102 inch widths (33-footers in the 96-inch width only) and equipped with Detroit Diesel 6V-71 or 8V-71 engines (33-footers with 6V-71 only) and Allison fully automatic transmissions.

In order to settle an anti-trust lawsuit, GM agreed to permit other bus builders to use its patents, most notably angle drive starting in the early 1960s. Since 1966 Flxible buses have been fully comparable to GM's.  In 1967 the 29 passenger StarLiner coach was phased out and the intercity Flxliner was discontinued in 1969.

In 1970, Flxible became subsidiary of the Rohr Corp., an aerospace company which also built rapid transit cars. Under Rohr's ownership, Flxible developed a new transit coach designed to meet new Federal accessibility guidelines for handicapped individuals caller the 870 ABD.

In 1974 the corporate headquarters and final assembly were moved to to new facilities in Delaware, Ohio and the Loudonville facility turned to the manufacture of sub-assemblies, and parts. The Delaware plant produced city transit coaches in 33', 35' and 40' lengths, and 96" and 102" widths equipped with Detroit Diesel 6- or 8-cylinder engines and Allison automatic transmissions.

In 1976 production of the Southern-Flxible Flxette ceased and two years later the final "new-look" GM-style coach was delivered. Its replacement, the vastly superior 870 ABD, rolled off the assembly line later that year. It featured 40% fewer parts, lower floors, larger windows and lightweight extruded-aluminum sidewalls constructed with no external fasteners.

Flxible once again changed ownership and was purchased by Grumman Allied Corp. in the same year (1978). Re-named Grumman-Flxible, the new firm accumulated a backlog of over 2,500 870 ABDs,  including a huge 1,013 unit order from the New York City Transit Authority.

In 1981 the company introduced the new Grumman Metro which featured nearly 100 changes from the ABD which was introduced only 3 years earlier. By the time the Metro was introduced in Flxibles 70th year, Grumman had sold Flxible to Cruse W. Moss' General Automotive Corporation (GAC) of Ann Arbor, Michigan which produced it for 12 long years until GAC declared bankruptcy in 1995.

© 2004 Mark Theobald - Coachbuilt.com with special thanks to Thomas A. McPherson

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