Tooling for mass production required $150,000 that he didn’t have, so he suspended Doodlebug sales. Brogan hand-built 30 Doodlebugs and sold them for $400 each before realizing he lost $100 on every car he turned out. Requests to buy and distribute came from every state and 20 foreign countries. Frank Brogan referenced an October 1944 clipping from The Washington Post, which featured Ray Russell’s Gadabout in his patent application.Īfter photos of the Doodlebug appeared in the nation’s newspapers and popular magazines, Brogan received an average of 200 postcards and letters per month. The engine was removed just as quickly-lift the rear deck lid, release three pins, disconnect the gas line, and lift the engine from its position beside the five-gallon fuel tank and battery. Changing the hidden front tire simply required popping out the grille and unscrewing two bolts.
Gear-shifting was automated using a mercury-actuated system similar to fluid drive, which eliminated the clutch pedal. With the buyer’s choice of rear-mounted, single-cylinder Briggs & Stratton or twin-cylinder Onan air-cooled engines, the Doodlebug could achieve a top speed of 45 miles per hour and travel nearly 70 miles on a gallon of gas.īrogan designed the Doodlebug especially for women, so he made sure operation and maintenance were easy. The topless, doorless three-wheeler measured 96 inches long, rolled on a 66-inch wheelbase, and could be turned around within its own length. It featured a highly streamlined steel body with headlights and windshield posts seamlessly blended in. So, Frank Brogan crafted a sleek, two-passenger runabout he called the Brogan Doodlebug. And in 1944, his wife asked him to design a small car to make shopping tasks easier for women whose husbands took their primary vehicles to work. Later, he designed a motor scooter for his daughter. But he also created the lightweight Brogan Foldable Monoplane that could be towed from the airport to the owner’s home for garage storage. His B & B Specialty Company at Rossmoyne, Ohio, primarily manufactured a variety of screws, fasteners, and other machine products. However, as the supply of dependable used cars dried up during World War II, pilot Frank Brogan believed attitudes would change.
But the public preferred large used cars over tiny small ones. After Ford stopped producing the Model T in 1927, upstarts like Martin, Littlemac, American Austin, and Bantamattempted to fill the economy car void. In 1912, a cyclecar craze began in Europe and quickly spread to the United States, where more than 200 manufacturers sprouted and shriveled within 18 months. Minimal motoring” – small, no-frills, basic transportation – has never satisfied the American automobilist. Sleek 1946 Brogan Doodlebug looked like an escapee from an amusement park.
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