 |
FORD MOTOR COMPANY |
 |
| USA |
Henry Ford provided backing for William Stout's Stout Metal Airplane Company, maker of the 2-AT single-engined eightpassenger airliner. Ford purchased Stout in 1925 and provided premises at Dearborne where Stout designed the first Ford 3-AT Tri-Motor, a modified 2-AT with three Wright J-4 engines. Howard Hicks replaced Stout and developed the 4-AT, 78 of which were built. The larger 5-AT, with three 420 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasps, was introduced in 1928, the last "Tin Goose" being built in June 1933. In 1941 Ford built a new factory and airfield at Willow Run, Michigan, where 5,107 Consolidated B-24E/H/J/L heavy bombers were built. A production run of 5,168 B-24Ns was canceled at the end of the war. XC-109 bulk fuel tanker prototype converted from B-24E. A Ford factory at Iron Mountain, Michigan made 4,190 Waco CG- 4A gliders. See also Eastern Aircraft Division, General Motors, on wartime aircraft production by car manufacturers.
|
 All the World's Rotorcraft Tri-Motor 8A |
