Car and aircraft manufacturers

[dougbush]

Seeing the Ford Tri-Motor at Oshkosh made me wonder, why did Ford quit making planes? Did any other car makers make or consider manufacturing aircraft?

[waltermitty]

Seeing the Ford Tri-Motor at Oshkosh made me wonder, why did Ford quit making planes? Did any other car makers make or consider manufacturing aircraft?

Henry Ford tried to bring to production the airplane equivalent of the Model T, the Flivver, single place everyman airplane. The plane crashed killing Brooke, the engineer a friend of Ford. Ford suspended all aircraft operations. Ford made B24s in WWII. There may have been others.

[Mike M]

...why did Ford quit making planes?

$profit$

[QUOTE=dougbush;67837Did any other car makers make or consider manufacturing aircraft? [/QUOTE]

If you're only asking about commercial, not military, aircraft, well, Honda, Subaru, Saab, Toyota oh forget it.

[rwanttaja]

Better yet, when did car manufacturers stop using homebuilt aircraft to promote their sports cars?

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/pontiac.jpg

Ron Wanttaja

[rwanttaja]

On a more-serious note many of the famous automakers used to build, and even design, airplanes and aircraft engines. General Motors produced several fighters (including the FM-2 Wildcat and the P-75 Eagle), Ford built B-24s, Dodge built B-29 Engines.

Ron Wanttaja

[Floatsflyer]

BMW made radial engines for the Focke Wulf 190.

Mitsubishi, makers of all kinds of consumer products and heavy equipment, started off as a car company and continues as one today. In between it built aircraft, the most famous of which was the Zero. It produced a popular GA twin turboprop in the 70's-80's and also builds commercial passenger jets. My first VCR was a Mitsubishi brand.

[waltermitty]

There is Ford Flivver on display in the Ford museum, Dearborn.

[Dave Stadt]

Studebaker built Wright engines
and Packard built Merlins under license during WWII. I believe there is a Ford Fliver hanging in either P1 or P2 at EAA Pioneer airport.

[Mayhemxpc]

From 1933 to 1948 General Motors designed and built airplanes under its General Aviation division. You might have heard of it— it’s operating name was North American Aviation.

Someone mentioned SAAB. This was a little different. This is a case of an airplane manufacturer getting into the automobile industry. (“Born from jets.”)

[martymayes]

Toyota has dabbled in the lightplane field. The certificated a version of a Lexus engine. Wonder if they would sell the rights?

[CDS]

If I recall correctly, Beech built an auto prototype shortly after WWII.

[rwanttaja]

Toyota has dabbled in the lightplane field. The certificated a version of a Lexus engine. Wonder if they would sell the rights?

About twenty-five years ago, a co-worker and I were visiting a space contractor at Edwards Air Force base. We had some time to kill, so we drove to Mojave airport to see what was there.

This was back in the good 'ol days when you could just wander the ramp. We walked slowly past the Scaled Composites hangar, seeing planes like the Ares. Later we drove past on the non-ramp side of the hangars, and I spotted an unfamiliar aircraft parked next to Scaled. We were both pilots, but had utterly no idea what it was. I had a cheap plastic point-and-shoot (film) camera along, and shot as many pix as I could.

http://www.wanttaja.com/lima.jpg

I was working pretty often for KITPLANES magazine, and they'd given me appropriate business cards. We went into the Scaled offices, where I presented a card and requested information on the aircraft. I was politely refused.

I told my editor about it, and he had no idea, either. I sent him some of the pictures, and he printed them as the "Mojave Mystery Ship."

Ten or fifteen years later, I found out it was the Lima-2, a test bed for a Toyota Lexus aircraft engine (http://stargazer2006.online.fr/aircraft/pages/lima.htm). Scaled, apparently, had acknowledged the program, but didn't officially release a photo for years after. My one and only scoop.....

Ron "All the news that's fit to print" Wanttaja

[CarlOrton]

Ford quit making the Tri-Motor due to the depression. Right plane, wrong time.

Don't forget the Porsche-Mooney variant in the late '70's.

And in the late '70's, General Dynamics was working with Chrysler on the "lean burn" system for their autos. Microprocessors were just becoming available, and the "knowns" we assume are present today just weren't mature enough for it to be feasible.

[martymayes]

Someone mentioned SAAB. This was a little different. This is a case of an airplane manufacturer getting into the automobile industry. (“Born from jets.”)

In aviation industry Saab is an acronym- Swedes Ain’t Airplane Builders...

[Ron Blum]

No such thing as mass production in airplanes by today’s standards ... 600/year today or 17,000/year in the the late 70s. One doesn’t make money building each one by hand. Don’t get me wrong; we can make a profitable airplane today. We just need to manufacture it in a way that makes sense today ... not like it was in the 1940s.

[dsbrantjr]

On a more-serious note many of the famous automakers used to build, and even design, airplanes and aircraft engines. General Motors produced several fighters (including the FM-2 Wildcat and the P-75 Eagle), Ford built B-24s, Dodge built B-29 Engines.

Ron Wanttaja
GM also made their licensed variant of the Avenger torpedo-bomber, the TBM; the original Grumman version was designated TBF. IIRC George H. W. Bush was shot down in a TBM.