- William B. Stout launched one of the nation’s first passenger airlines
- The Ford Motor Co. invested in Stout and developed the first Tri-Motor airplane
- Michigan routes connected Chicago, Cleveland and Grand Rapids by air
Over 800 flights from three continents come through Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, the state’s largest and busiest airport. But few passengers may realize that commercial air travel as we know it today was invented a century ago just 10 miles away from where that airport is today.
Aeronautical engineer William B. Stout designed one of the first passenger airplanes, and the most innovative of its time, laying the groundwork for passenger planes commonly used today.
The Stout 3-AT, designed in the early 1920s, was the first all-metal tri-motor plane built in America. During this time, planes were made of wood and fabric, which had limited durability and strength. They were primarily used to deliver mail, cargo or for military purposes. The world’s first commercial passenger “airline”? Historians say it was a flying boat that took off across Tampa Bay, Florida, in 1914.
“At that time, people were a little hesitant to fly, partly because it was very expensive but also because their experiences with aviation had been either the war or … daredevil pilots … which was fun to watch, but it didn’t necessarily make you take aviation seriously,” said Matt Anderson, curator of Transportation at the Henry Ford Museum.
Henry and Edsel Ford of the Ford Motor Co. were interested in the aviation industry and invested heavily in Stout’s Metal Airplane Co. to further develop the Stout 3-AT, which eventually became the Ford Tri-Motor.
“The Ford Tri-Motor was seen as a real breakthrough at the time, because it was made out of duralumin, which was an aluminum alloy, (a) lightweight metal but strong,” Anderson said. ”The fact that it was an all-metal airplane just looked safer.”
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Stout operated from Ford Airport in Dearborn under the name Stout Air Services. In 1926, the Ford Tri-Motor became the first passenger airplane service in the state, offering round-trip service to Grand Rapids for $35, which is equivalent to about $658 today.
Initially, the planes were very small but Stout did his best to ensure his guests were comfortable by adding curtains and lamps. He also offered passengers rudimentary meal service.
The Tri-Motor was much louder than planes are today, so passengers were offered cotton to put in their ears to alleviate the noise.
“The other big advantage is the Tri-Motor system itself,” Anderson said. “A Tri-Motor airplane of that time didn’t need all three engines to fly. It could fly perfectly fine with just two engines … but having those three was about a margin of safety,” he said.
While commercial air travel didn’t become popular until after World War II, Stout was able to gain enough public trust to expand routes and offer daily round-trip flights to Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Buffalo.
“Ford Motor Company and Stout both did a lot of advertising with brochures, magazine advertisements, even articles … talking about the conveniences and the advantages of air travel,” he said.
Help from the Ford family
In the 1920s, the Ford Motor Co. dominated the automotive industry with the Model T, making Detroit a world leader in the automotive industry, stamping its name as the “Motor City.”
As automobiles transformed transportation on the ground, Henry Ford and his son began looking toward the skies, shifting some of the company’s focus from automobiles to aircraft manufacturing and air travel.
Initially, it was Edsel Ford who was heavily involved in Stout’s Tri-Motor design. Eventually, he convinced his dad to get on board and built what is believed to be the first paved runways for airplanes at the Ford Airport, which is now the test track next to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.
After Stout’s initial prototype proved to be unsuccessful, Ford bought Stout’s metal airplane manufacturing business. And Stout continued to manufacture airplanes and fly them independently.
“That’s when Henry and Edsel started the reliability tours,” said Jamie Myler, research archivist and historian for the Ford Motor Company Archives. “They were competitions where airplane manufacturers would come to Dearborn and they would fly different routes each year with increasing distance to sort of show people that it was a reliable way to travel and to ship materials.”
In 1925, Congress passed the Kelly Act, which allowed the Postmaster General to hire private airlines to deliver mail.
“Part of what changed public perception about this is, one, the federal government got involved first simply by … allowing airplanes to fly the mail, which kind of added legitimacy to the whole enterprise,” Anderson said.
Shortly after the bill was passed, Ford and Stout began delivering mail, and sometimes personnel, to and from Chicago, Cleveland and Grand Rapids.
Both Ford and Stout were operating separate airlines from the Ford Airport. The Ford Air Transportation Service was for Ford’s internal company use, and Stout Air Services was the passenger airline. But Mrs. Ford forbade air travel on Sundays, prompting Stout to establish a separate airfield in Romulus, where he was flying only on Sundays.
“Henry Ford believed so deeply in the airplane industry that he thought that at some point in the future, every person would have an airplane in their garage at home,” Myler said.
Ford remained in the aviation industry for a short time, taking a step back amid The Great Depression. In 1928, he sold airmail routes to Stout Air Services. The following year, Stout Air Services was sold to the United Aircraft and Transportation Corp., which was the parent holding company of what is now United Airlines.
“We always do better when we focus on our main business, which is building cars and trucks for the world,” Myler said.
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