Avion (United States) - AllCarIndex

Avion was a small American efficiency-car venture created by Craig Henderson and Bill Green in Bellingham, Washington, in the mid-1980s. The pair completed the Avion prototype in 1984 as a lightweight, highly streamlined two-seat sports car using a small diesel engine and composite/aluminum construction. In 1986 the car set a Guinness-recognized border-to-border fuel-economy record of about 103.7 mpg on a Mexico-to-Canada run. After years out of the public eye, Henderson revived the project in 2008–2010, undertaking new demonstrations and publicizing the car’s real-world economy on highway drives.

In 2010 Avion completed a 1,478-mile drive from the Canadian border to Mexico on a single tank of diesel (12.4 U.S. gallons), averaging 119.1 mpg; separate Washington-to-Oregon runs recorded about 113 mpg. Henderson repeatedly described intentions for limited production, but no series manufacturing followed and Avion remained a prototype effort associated with X PRIZE–era interest in extreme efficiency. The vehicle later appeared in museum exhibits, leaving Avion as a niche, homebuilt marque best known for record-setting economy demonstrations rather than commercial sales.