Wheels Galleries

There's no mistaking a Checker cab for anything else, with its big, boxy body, heavy-duty painted bumpers, eye-catching paint scheme and the lighted sign on the roof. Thomas' Checker logged more than 90,000 miles on the streets of Tulsa while in daily service.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

An accomplished industrial designer, Dick Thomas has designed stylized golf carts and even a futuristic gigantic over-the-road truck called the "Windclipper." But his heart still belongs to his bright yellow Checker taxi cab, a model designed by someone else that remained basically unchanged from 1952 to 1982.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

A lighted sign on the roof told potential riders whether a cab was in service or available.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

Each company's rates were clearly displayed on the sides of its cabs, although most riders probably never did the math to figure out what a fare would cost.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

Vertically stacked taillights and reflectors constitute the rear styling cues of a Checker, which features a trunk big enough to swallow several suitcases.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

The instrument panel is equipped with basic round analog gauges and the dash shows this cab saw a fair amount of service before it was retired from the fleet.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

The back seat of a Checker cab is upholstered in heavy-gauge, easy-to-maintain vinyl and can accommodate four passengers.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

Top 40, news, weather and sports could be tuned in on this basic Motorola AM radio.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

A pair of fold-down jump seats provide room for two more passengers, giving a typical Checker cab a capacity of eight.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

There's nothing fancy about the driver's controls or the front seat, although Thomas' cab is equipped with under-dash air conditioning.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

Beginning in the mid-1960s, Checker switched from building its own power plants to Chevrolet engines. The one in Thomas' cab is an economical V-6 mated to an automatic transmission.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

If the Checker was the preferred brand of taxi cab, the Yellow Cab Co. almost certainly was the most common name used for taxi businesses across the country.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

Bright chrome gravel guards protected the bulging rear fenders; a checkerboard stripe and the cab company's phone number were standard graphics.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle

A sampling of the various types of vehicles that Dick Thomas designed during his career.

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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle