DeSoto received the then-revolutionary Airflow model due to its price structure relationship to larger and more expensive Chrysler brand cars.

This aerodynamic, radically designed car debuted to much fanfare alongside its more luxurious stablemate, the Chrysler Airflow.

From the front bumper back, the Airflow's design represented the first major attempt to smooth away the wind catching objects and channels found on cars of the era.

In addition to the benefits of its smoother exterior design, which translated into a quieter passenger compartment than on previous DeSoto models, the car featured wider front seats and deeper back seats with more leg room.

DeSoto (and Chrysler) touted all of its Airflow bodies as "futuristic" in an age of streamlining, but the public found the cars to be too different in a time of economic uncertainty.

Tests showed its all-steel uni-body construction safer than those of other cars made at the time (most automotive manufacturers still used body on frame construction, with a stout metal chassis and partial wooden sub-framing over which steel skins were applied for their car bodies).

In one widely distributed advertising film shown in movie theatres, an empty Airflow was pushed off a Pennsylvania cliff, falling over 110 feet (34 m); once righted, the car was driven off, battered, but recognizable.

Those buyers who did choose the Airflow found that their models carried a more prominent peaked grille design.