Ford Motor Company. Superintendents Office.

Ford Motor Company's entry into aircraft manufacturing reflected Henry Ford's diverse interests but was mainly due to the influence of Edsel Ford. Edsel Ford had an interest in flight and flying since his teens and was active in various aviation-related clubs and organizations throughout World War I and the early 1920s. As a director of the Detroit Aviation Society and later the Aircraft Development Corporation, Edsel Ford was acquainted with aviation experts in the Detroit area, including William B. Stout. Stout had moved to Detroit from his family home in Minnesota in 1914 and by 1917 was a leading expert in aircraft design, construction, and promotion. Stout's main innovation in commercial flight was his design of an all-metal aircraft capable of carrying cargo and passengers that was also fairly inexpensive to manufacture. Financial investments from many of Detroit's leading manufacturers and industrialists, including Henry and Edsel Ford, allowed Stout to establish the Stout Metal Airplane Company in 1922. By late 1924, Stout's success brought him to the attention of Henry Ford, who offered to build a large factory and hangar for future development. In July 1925, Henry Ford negotiated the outright purchase of Stout's company, making it an operating division of Ford Motor Company with Edsel Ford as president and William B. Mayo as chief engineer and production chief. After a fire destroyed Stout's prototypes in January 1926, Henry Ford authorized the construction of a larger factory to build new planes based on Stout's original design. The famed Ford Tri-Motor was produced from 1926 to 1932 before effects of the Depression grounded Ford aircraft production.