Re: Soldering irons: made in America but designed in Russia?

The design is reminiscent of the Chrysler Airstream, which was a major flop

AFAIK the Airstream was not a major flop. The Airflow was, but mostly due to really bad manufacturing defects.

I might have gotten the name wrong, as I was in a rush. Regardless, Chrysler produced a "streamlined" car that the public didn't warm to.

Reason I mentioned it was that the Airflow doesn't look similar to the PT Cruiser at all while the Airstream does (with the PT Cruiser being a whole lot smaller).

The Airflow was Ferdinand Porsche's inspiration for the Volkswagen. That's why most people's immediate reaction on seeing it is "Whoa--a huge Beetle!"

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Not really. AFAIK it was this one that inspired Porsche, he supposedly had technical discussions with Hans Ledwinka who designed the Tatra car:

Hard to say though because the Chrysler Airflow came to market at just about the same time. However, back in those days there was no fast mail, Internet or even air travel between the US and Europe so information exchanges would have been slow.