Inspired by the success of E Foster Salsbury's Motor Glide scooter, Cushman Motor Works launched its own Auto-Glide version in 1936. Founded in the early 1900s by cousins Clinton and Everett Cushman, the Lincoln, Nebraska firm had long been established as engine manufacturers, its products powering boats, farm machinery and lawnmowers among countless varied applications. Cushman's scooter came about quite by chance following aviator Colonel Roscoe Turner's demonstration of a Motor Glide at an air show in Lincoln in 1936. A local boy liked what he saw and fashioned his own crude scooter using a Cushman Husky lawnmower engine as power unit. By this time Cushman had been taken over by The Easy Manufacturing Company, whose owners, the Ammon family, got wind of the enterprising youngster's one-off and decided to have a go themselves. The result was the Auto-Glide and the start of an American legend.

The Cushman scooter would evolve through countless incarnations over the years, one of the most significant developments being the launch of a new, larger line in 1949. This was the 'Eagle', which abandoned the scooter's traditional, open-framed, 'step-through' layout, placing the gas tank in the conventional, motorcycle position. It was a brave move, but would prove an outstanding success, selling more units than any other Cushman model.

The 1962 example offered here, has been meticulously restored to showroom condition and reported to run well.