The Ford Airport / Ford Tri-motor -- William B. Stout: 1880-1956

At this airport, built by Henry Ford in 1924, world and national history was made, ushering in a new era of flight embracing the all-metal airliner, radio control devices, airmail, scheduled flights, and the airline services that the generation of the 1930s came to expect. For the first time in the world: A hotel, the Dearborn Inn, was designed and built for the air traveler. A guided flight of a commercial airliner was made by radio. For the first time in the U.S.A.: An all-metal, multi-engine, commercial airliner was built. A regularly scheduled passenger airline in continuous domestic service was inaugurated. Under the Kelly Act the first contract airmail for domestic routes was flown. Ford Tri-motor -- William B. Stout: 1880-1956 Born in Illinois, Stout came to Michigan as an automotive designer in 1914. During World War I he turned to aviation. In 1922 he produced America´s first all-metal plane, a Navy torpedo plane. The same year he organized the Stout Metal Airplane Company. In the next two years he built America´s first successful commercial metal planes. The company occupied the new airplane factory at the Ford Airport in 1924 and became a division of the Ford Motor Company in 1925. While he was the division´s consulting engineer the Ford Tri-motor was developed. In 1926 he founded the Stout Air Services, this country´s first regularly scheduled passenger airline. Later, in his Dearborn workshop, Stout designed the "Sky Car," a combination airplane and automobile; the "Rail Plane," a gas-driven railroad car; a collapsible "House Trailer;" and the "Scarab Car," a spacious, rear-motor auto. An airline terminal for passenger use was constructed. The airport´s closing in 1933 ended Ford´s experimental work in aviation.