Stout Metal Airplane
Division of the Ford Motor
Company
was an American aircraft
manufacturer founded by
William Bushnell Stout as
the
Stout Metal Airplane Co.
in 1922. The company was
purchased by Ford Motor
Company in 1924 and later
produced the Ford Trimotor.
At the height of the
Depression, Ford closed the
aircraft design and
production division in 1936,
temporarily re-entering the
aviation market with the
production of the B-24, at
the Willow Run aircraft
factory during World War II.
In 1909 Henry Ford lent
three factory workers to his
15 year-old son Edsel, and
Edsel's friend Charles Van
Auken, to build a monoplane
with a Model T engine. The
tricycle gear plane featured
wing warping controls and a
radiator perpendicular to
the wind. The plane did not
fly well in multiple test
flights from the Fort Wayne
parade grounds − the final
flight ended in a tree − and
the project was put aside.
In World War I Ford went
into the aircraft motor
business with production of
the Packard-designed Liberty
engine for the military.
Ford completed 3,950 Liberty
engines. The newly formed
Lincoln was bought by Ford
in 1922.
Stout
William Stout was appointed
to the board of the Aircraft
Production Board in 1917.
The board awarded Stout with
a contract to build a
blended wing fuselage
aircraft, the Stout Batwing,
intended for the US Army air
service. One example was
built and abandoned. In 1919
Stout formed Stout
Engineering Laboratories.
With money from the Champion
Spark Plug corporation,
Stout built the
three-passenger Batwing
Limousine in 1920. This was
eventually re-skinned and
had structural components
replaced with duraluminum.
Stout gave speeches across
the country touting that all
future aircraft would be
metal. Soon after,
Stout received a US Navy
contract for three Stout
ST-1 aircraft. The ST-1 was
a twin-engine, all-metal
torpedo bomber. Its test
pilot was a record setting
pilot, Eddie Stinson, who
recently moved to Detroit
with his own all-metal
Junkers-Larsen JL-6
mailplane. A 1922
crash of the prototype
canceled the contract. This
led to an innovative form of
financing for a new venture.
He began a letter campaign
requesting $1,000 from over
100 prominent businessmen.
He got $128,000, including
money and support from Henry
and Edsel Ford. This started
the Stout Metal Airplane
company.
After taking over the
company, and the
less-than-successful
performance of the Stout
3-AT, Ford reassigned Stout
to speaking engagements and
promotional tours. In 1927,
Charles Lindbergh took the
Spirit of St. Louis to
Mexico on a promotional tour
following its non-stop
flight over the Atlantic.
Stout arranged with Henry
and Edsel Ford to fly
Lindbergh's mother to Mexico
City to join her son for
Christmas and to gain
publicity for the new Ford
aircraft. In addition to
Mrs. Lindbergh, Stout, his
wife, other Ford executives
and two pilots went on the
trip. The Ford Tri-motor
they flew, NC-1077, is today
in Greg Herrick's Golden
Wings Flying Museum near
Minneapolis and is the
oldest flying metal aircraft
in the world.
William Stout left the Metal
Airplane division in 1930.
He continued to operate the
Stout Engineering
Laboratory, producing the
Stout Skycar aircraft series
and the Stout Scarab car. In
1954, Stout purchased the
rights to the Ford Trimotor
in an attempt to produce new
examples. A new company
formed from this effort
brought back two modern
examples of the trimotor
aircraft, the Stout
Bushmaster 2000.
Stout was later to say, "The
greatest single thing I
accomplished for aviation
was to get Mr. Ford
interested in it."
Edsel Ford
Edsel Ford became a
stockholder in Stout's
operations in 1922 at the
age of 28. He became
the president of the
division in 1925. Edsel
sponsored many aviation
events from Ford Airport,
cross-marketing his
interests in airlines and
aircraft production. The
Ford National Reliability
Air Tour gathered
manufactures from around the
world to compete in order to
promote aviation. In 1926,
he sponsored Admiral Byrd's
flight to the North Pole in
a Fokker F.VII named the
Josephine Ford. In 1928, he
sponsored his trip to the
South Pole in a Ford
Trimotor named the Floyd
Bennett. The similarity of
design between the Fokker
trimotor and the later Ford
Trimotor was a source of
contention between designers
Stout and Anthony Fokker.
Ford Airport
In 1924 Ford and Stout
negotiated the building of
Ford Airport in Dearborn,
Michigan. A factory that
would house Stout Metal
Airplane production would be
built if Stout could
convince all 128 of the
initial investors in his
company to sell out to Ford.
This was accomplished at a
cost of $500,000 to Ford,
and the Stout Metal Airplane
Company became an official
division of Ford Motor
Company on July 1, 1925.
Ford Then invested an
additional $2,000,000 in the
venture.
The airport site chosen was
260 acres on Dearborn's
Oakwood Boulevard. Ford
Airport also featured an
airship mooring station and
hangar to test the
Ford-sponsored ZMC-2
metal-hulled airship.
The Fire
The Model 3-AT trimotor was
heavily promoted by Henry
Ford as the airplane of the
future. Test flights proved
otherwise, with the
underpowered aircraft barely
able to maintain altitude.
After witnessing the tests,
Henry Ford left disgusted,
and shortly afterward
reassigned Stout away from
engineering.
On January 16, 1926 Hicks
asked Tome Towle to bring
all drawings of the 3-AT to
the Ford Engineering
Laboratory. At about
6am the next morning, a fire
destroyed the Stout factory
and all aircraft in it,
including 13 new Wright
Whirlwind engines, several
2-AT Pullmans and the Stout
3-AT Prototype. Damages were
claimed to be $500,000 in
1926 dollars.
Tom Towle was placed in
charge of engineering, and
hired MIT graduate Otto C.
Koppen, John Lee, and James
Smith McDonnell (co-founder
of what is now McDonnell
Douglas). Together they
refined the 3-AT into what
is now recognizable as the
"Tin Goose", the Ford
Trimotor.
Ford visited and encouraged
Stout that this was an
opportunity to build an even
better facility. The new
factory had two buildings
with the largest doors in
the world at the time.
McDonnell would leave to the
Hamilton Metalplane Company
in 1927, building his own
corrugated metal aircraft
design that closeley matched
the 2-AT. It was bought by a
group of investors rounded
up by Stout to invest in the
CAM-9 airmail route forming
an entity called Northwest
Airlines.
Production
Ford Air Transport Service
was started in 1925 to carry
passengers and mail on the
lucrative new airmail
routes. It was assigned the
first airmail routes,
Cleveland-Detroit (CAM-6)
and Chicago-Detroit (CAM-7).
The regularly scheduled
service used six Stout 2-AT
aircraft. Ford became the
first regularly scheduled
airmail service and air
freight operator.
The Ford Trimotor entered
production and became a
popular choice for the new
airlines serving airmail
contracts.
In 1927, Ford became the
first company to use an
assembly line for aircraft
production.
Ford tried his hand at
engineering in the company
as well. Working along with
engineer Karl Shultz, Ford
submitted U.S. Patent no.
1749578 for a Ford Trimotor
sized aircraft with separate
sets of propellers providing
thrust and lift. Similar to
the Berliner helicopter or
the modern V-22 Osprey, the
mechanism was far too heavy
to see practical use. One
example was worked on in the
shop and abandoned.
In 1929 Richard Byrd used a
4-AT-13 in his fleet on an
expedition to be the first
to fly over the South Pole.
Decline
The Trimotor sales dropped
from a peak of 86 a year in
1929 to only two sales in
1932. Losses from the
aircraft division totaled
six million dollars. By 1933
Stout, Mayo, and Hicks had
left the company. Ford
Trimotor sales lagged as the
depression set in. The Used
Trimotors flooded the market
at prices between $10,000
and $40,000. As the
recession eased, Ford
explored a radical flying
wing design in the Ford
Model 15-P using its new V-8
automobile engine from the
Ford Model B. After a crash
of the prototype, the effort
was dropped.
Post History
Ford Motor Company stopped
production of new aircraft
designs with the closure of
the Stout Metal Airplane
Division. Ford has continued
to be involved in aviation
in the much more profitable
production role, and also
has marketed its automotive
products with its aviation
heritage though high profile
events.
Most noteworthy is Ford's
production of the B-24. Up
to 650 units a month were
produced at Ford's Willow
Run plant until 1945. Ford
also produced 2418 Waco CG-4
gliders under license for
the war effort.
In 1956 Ford started the
Aeronutronic division,
specializing in space and
defense communications. The
company combined with Philco
to produce space
communications gear for
NASA. The Ford Aerospace
Corporation division was
sold to Loral in 1990.
In 2001 Ford sponsored the
EAA's Countdown to Kitty
Hawk. Ford has remained a
sponsor of the EAA
Airventure airshow since
this event. Ford is also a
major contributor to the
Young Eagles program,
auctioning off
aviation-themed custom
mustangs each year since
1998.
Source:
Wikipedia
|