1977 Cushman Truckster Coupe

The Cushman Company began in 1903 in Lincoln, Nebraska. The founders were Everett and Clinton Cushman, and they incorporated Cushman Motor Works in 1913 to manufacture engines for farm equipment, marine engines, and power plants for pumps. The Easy Manufacturing Company, owned by father and son John and Charles Ammon, merged with Cushman in 1934. The firm made farm implements in Lincoln and had previously purchased castings from Cushman.

As serendipity would have it, in 1935, a youngster in search of spare parts brought a scooter to the Cushman plant. Powered by an old Cushman washing machine motor, the scooter intrigued owner Charles Ammon, who thought it might make an ideal product. The first Cushman motor scooter came out in 1936, and sales boomed.

From 1936 to 1965, Cushman produced two-wheel scooters. They were widely used by the United States military in World War II. The model 53 was designed to be dropped by parachute with Army Airborne troops, it was known as the Cushman Airborne. Other models were used on military bases for messenger service.

Cushman Trucksters were produced from 1958 to 2002. Small and light duty, they had been used for ice cream sales, mall and stadium maintenance, and by the NYPD. Cushman became a division of the Outboard Marin Corporation in 1962. Ransomes (of Great Britain) purchased Cushamn in 1989, which was, in turn, purchased by Textron.