Ford, Driving or Flying

[Bill Greenwood]

Ford was a pioneer in early reliable cars, first the really basic and cheap Model T, then Model A and on to the v8s etc. And built some airplanes. I just saw on Jay Leno special of his many rare and special cars, a part with a friend who owns a both a good as new Model A and a 32? v8. The A was John Dillinger's personal car and the v8 was the one he stole from the sheriff when he escaped from the jail in Indiana in 1934. He wrote a letter to Ford appreciating the V8 and what a good get away car it was.
I might like to own that model A. One historic car I would not want to even sit is is a car Hitler owned which just went unsold at an auction for $155,00.
Ford built the execellent Tri Motor planes and then gave up on aviation after an accident in his small private plane design. What if they had contiued to build planes,would Ford be what Cessna was to light gen aviation? Of course Ford did build thousands of B-24 s in WWII but not be their design and not a gen av plane for the public.

[waltermitty]

I think the Ford Trimotor was a purchased design, as well. There is a Fliver, the Ford personal airplane, in the Henry Ford Museum. I think Lindberg commented that it was the worst airplane he ever flew.

[malexander]

Bill, I was at the Henry Ford museum a few years ago. I was looking at some stuff in one of the glass display cases. There was a "note" in one of them that looked like a 3rd grader had written it.
It said, Dear Mr. Ford: My business ain't exactly legal, but I think your flat head V8 is the best engine ever built. It was signed Clyde W. Barrow<sp>.

[Frank Giger]

Hell no.

Ford was very smart on the market, and was dead on the money when he bailed from any hint of General Aviation. Airplanes aren't cars. Folks do not replace their airplanes after a couple years of flying them, so it's a finite market with little turnover.

We are still flying the aircraft built in the post war period, when lots of smart people thought that everyone would want to learn to fly and buy an airplane after they came home from WWII. Heck, some folks are still flying pre-WWII aircraft.

If someone has an airplane that is forty or fifty years old, we think nothing of it. If someone drives a car that old, they get special license plates, tax exemption, and their own spot at car shows.

Could Ford have taken the losses and out Cessna'd Cessna? Absolutely. But the shareholders would be at his throat for it.

[waltermitty]

Ford eventually became smart on the market. He was dragged kicking and screaming to the Model A. What killed him on aviation was the death of his friend. I'm not sure where the Fliver fell (no pun intended) in his car production. If it was in he latter Model T years he was clueless about marketing.

[martymayes]

The Flivver was designed by Otto C. Koppen who later went on to ldesign a plane called the Helio Courier (or something like that?) The Flivver first flew around 1926-27

[Floatsflyer]

The Flivver was designed by Otto C. Koppen who later went on to ldesign a plane called the Helio Courier (or something like that?)

That's right and he was also a co-owner of the company and a test pilot. The Helio Courier is still an airplane in solid demand as a bush plane. I had an acquaintance who was on a Arctic fishing trip in a Helio about 10 years ago. In level flight returning to the base camp, a wing departed the airframe. Four occupants perished.

[Bill Greenwood]

I hadnt heard about the note from Clyde Barrow, but I like that Dillinger seems to have had a good sense of humor, at least much as you can in his business. The tv special said that while Ford was pretty upright, law and order type, and therefore coudnt approve of Dillinger he did have enough marketing sense to make the customer appreciation note public and gave a boost to the sales of his new v8 car, I think an extra cool thing for this collector was that this was the exact car that Dillinger stole from the sheriff, may have even been a convertible and seems to have been preserved without any bullet holes.

[Bill Greenwood]

Times sure have changed from the 30's. Back then people used to rob banks, kind of flip flopped in our last recession.

[Bill Greenwood]

That little Ford Fliver airplane was nice looking, kind of a rounded approach to streamlining. I've never read why it flew so badly or was dangerous. It doesn't look radical like a too small wing or anything that far from other planes?