Who Designed the Ford Trimotor #1, Designing the Ford Trimotor

“For years we have heard and read statements saying William B. Stout designed the Ford Trimotor. In June 1953 there was a sevenpage article in Popular Mechanics called “Those Fabulous Flying Fords,” as usual naming him the designer. It was then that I felt this myth had gone too far for me to keep silent any longer. I immediately wrote a letter to the editor of Popular Mechanics describing how I designed the Ford Trimotor, affectionately called the “Tin Goose.” The managing editor wrote to Mr. Stout explaining the confusion resulting from my letter, and requested a reply from him. I understand this started quite a furor behind the scenes. As far as I know, he left the matter as ambiguous as ever. But he never said he did design it!”

The above is the introductory paragraph of a talk presented with slides, and tape recorded, at the Third Northeast Aero Historians meeting, of which the American Aviation Historical Society was one of the sponsors, held at the Van Curler Hotel, Schenectady, New York, on October 27-29, 1967. The address was given by Mr. Tom Towle, entitled “Designing the Ford
Trimotor.”

The career of Tom Towle literally spans the age of powered flight, since his inspiration and interest in aircraft began almost with the dawn of the age, from seeing the Wright Brothers fly
their airplane in the fields near Dayton in 1904. He was born close to the shop of the Wright Bicycle Co. and used to take his bicycle there to have it fixed by Wilbur or Orville or Charles
Taylor.

Mr. Towle graduated from Yale University in 1920 with an M.E. degree and, by early 1921, was working at the Dayton-Wright Airplane Co., then headed by Orville Wright, E.A. Deeds, Charles Kettering and H.E. Talbot, beginning in stress analysts under Kenneth Lane.

Over the next several years he put in brief stints at McCook Field, and at Glenn L, Martin Co. and Aeromarine Plane& Motor Co. as the contracts for airplanes favored one company and then another. In 1924 he joined the Stout Metal Airplane Co. In the following pages he describes, in his own words, his connection with the famous Ford Trimotor and how the design
evolved, as he saw it.

A contemporary account, from another participant on the Ford scene at the same time, Mr. John G. Lee, is presented as the second half of this review of “Who Designed the Ford Trimotor?” It is interesting to note that the areas of close agreement provide a highly colorful description of Mr. Henry Ford and his operations in this era just preceding the great boom in air travel that was to be opened by the Ford Trimotor and other great transport airplanes.

As Mr. John G. Lee has pointed out in the accompanying article, a successful enterprise is a desirable connection, and a third party who claimed considerable responsibility for the success of the Ford Trimotor design was Mr, Harold Hicks. We do not have direct testimony from Mr. Hicks, but his claims were set forth in an article in the Dearborn Historical Quarterly.[1]

That the Ford Trimotor had great impact on the growth of air transport is indisputable. In the period from 1926 to 1934 the Trimotor became the mainstay of a number of American airlines
whose descendants are in existence today. After that, the “Tin Goose” became the most ubiquitous of all – it established a legend only surmounted by its replacement, the “Gooneybird.” Ford Trimotor is still synonymous through the world with nostalgia.[2]

It is apparent that no one person could have been entirely responsible for the development of the Ford Trimotor. But this inside story, from two great men who were there and can. . .