Geoff Hacker continues his travels across the country, this time to Mesa, Arizona, to view a vehicle that goes a little outside the scope of the fiberglass cars he’s researching for Forgotten Fiberglass , the book he’s working on with co-author Rick D’Louhy.
It’s the 1932 Arrow Plane, a precursor to the six McQuay-Norris streamliners that we featured in an SIA Flashback a while ago. From Geoff’s photos, we can definitely see the family resemblance - after all, Hill Auto Metal Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, built both the Arrow Plane and the McQuay-Norrises and allegedly used the Arrow Plane, commissioned by Chicagoan Lyman Voelpel, as a testbed for the McQuay-Norrises.
Like its successors, the Arrow Plane used quite a few  Ford parts, including a Ford engine. Unlike its successors, the Arrow Plane used a simple few gauges and a Ford four-cylinder fitted with a Miller overhead-camshaft conversion (instead of a V-8). Voelpel specified that the engine be mounted in the rear of the car and drive the front wheels.
According to the Hill Auto Body Metal Company entry on coachbuilt.com, Hill built just one Arrow Plane, which in its current state appears to have had several modifications since the photograph that ran in the SIA article was taken. However, the current owner claims that Hill built six such Arrow Planes. He quite possibly could have the Arrow Plane confused with the McQuay-Norrises, however.
Hill also apparently built a couple other oddities, including the Grove Laboratories land yacht and a bus-based streamliner for Bromo Seltzer. May have to look into those…
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