Streamliner
vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape that provides reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired upright and recumbent bicycles. As part of the Streamline Moderne trend, the term was applied to passenger cars, trucks, and other light-, medium-, or heavy-duty vehicles. Vehicle streamlining has become so prevalent that it is no longer an outstanding characteristic. In land speed racing, it is a term applied to the long, slender, custom-built, high-speed vehicles with enclosed wheels.
Trains
Before World War II
Europe
Germany, 1930: The first high-speed streamliner in Germany was the Schienenzeppelin, an experimental propeller-driven single railcar, built in 1930. On 21 June 1931, the car set a speed record of 230.2 km/h (143.0 mph) on a run between Berlin and Hamburg. In 1932, the propeller was removed, and a hydraulic system was installed. The Schienenzeppelin achieved 180 km/h (112 mph) in 1933.
“Streamliner” enters the record as vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Streamliner, vehicle and incorporating can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Streamliner” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Streamliner, vehicle and incorporating provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q887455. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1930, 1931, 1932 and 1933.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Streamliner” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.