REO Flying Cloud History

Launched in 1927 and named after the famous clipper ship, the REO Flying Cloud was styled by Fabio Segardi and was the first car to use Lockheed's new hydraulic internal-expanding brake system — a notable advance over the mechanical brakes still common at the time. It became REO's volume passenger model through the late 1920s and the Depression years.

The Flying Cloud carried REO's car business to its end: when the company abandoned passenger-car manufacturing in 1936 to concentrate on trucks, the final REO car was a Flying Cloud. After that, the marque built only commercial vehicles.