HISTORY
The
Stinson Aircraft Company was founded
in Dayton, Ohio, in 1920 by aviator
Edward “Eddie” Stinson, brother to
Katherine Stinson. After five years
of business ventures, Stinson made
Detroit, Michigan the focus for his
future flying endeavors. Stinson
found Detroit's business community
receptive to his plans. A group of
local businessmen — the Detroit
Board of Commerce's Aviation
Committee — supported Stinson's
plans to establish the
Stinson
Aircraft Syndicate
in 1925 at a site southwest of
Detroit, where today's Detroit
Metropolitan Wayne County Airport is
located, and provided $25,000 to
develop a new monoplane; the SM-1
Detroiter made its first flight on
January 25, 1926, and became an
overnight success that enabled
Stinson to quickly assemble $150,000
in public capital to incorporate the
Stinson Aircraft Corporation
on May 4, 1926. Always an aviator at
heart, Eddie Stinson was still
flying as a stunt pilot, earning
$100,000 a year for his efforts — a
huge sum in those days. Stinson
Aircraft Corporation sold 10 SM-1
Detroiters in 1926. Business was
steadily increasing, and Stinson
delivered 121 aircraft in 1929.
Automobile
mogul Errett Lobban (E.L.) Cord
acquired 60 percent of Stinson's
stock in September 1929, and his
Cord Corporation provided additional
investment capital to permit Stinson
to sell its aircraft at a
competitive price while still
pursuing new designs. At the height
of the Depression in 1930, Stinson
offered six aircraft models, ranging
from the four-seat Junior to the
Stinson 6000 trimotor airliner.
Eddie
Stinson did not live to enjoy the
success of his company. He died in
an air crash in Chicago, Illinois on
January 26, 1932, while on a sales
trip. At the time of his death at
age 38, Stinson had acquired more
than 16,000 hours of flight time —
more than any other pilot at the
time.
The Stinson
name did not last much past the end
of World War II. Eddie Stinson's
death accelerated the assimilation
of Stinson Aircraft Corporation into
larger corporate entities: first by
Cord Corporation, then by Aviation
Corporation (AVCO), and later by
Consolidated Vultee. By 1950
the Stinson company was sold to the
Piper Aircraft Corporation, which
continued to produce 108s for a
limited time. Piper transformed an
original Stinson design (the "Twin
Stinson") into the successful Piper
Apache, the world's first general
aviation all-metal twin engine
modern aircraft.
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