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81-458: In 1909 Henry Ford lent three factory workers to his 15-year-old son Edsel , and Edsel's friend Charles Van Auken, to build a monoplane with a Model T engine. The Blériot XI inspired plane featured wing warping controls and a radiator perpendicular to the wind. The plane did not fly well in multiple test flights from the Fort Wayne parade grounds − the final flight ended in a tree − and

162-527: A collective bargaining agreement with the unions because the violence, work disruptions, and bitter stalemates could not go on forever. But Ford, who still had the final veto in the company on a de facto basis even if not an official one, refused to cooperate. For several years, he kept Bennett in charge of talking to the unions trying to organize the Ford Motor Company. Sorensen's memoir makes clear that Ford's purpose in putting Bennett in charge

243-454: A franchise system, which allowed for car dealerships throughout North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford was known for his pacifism during the first years of World War I , although during the war his company became a major supplier of weapons. He promoted the League of Nations . In the 1920s Ford promoted antisemitism through his newspaper The Dearborn Independent and

324-488: A pocket watch when he was 12. At 15, Ford dismantled and reassembled the timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times, gaining the reputation of a watch repairman. At twenty, Ford walked four miles to their Episcopal church every Sunday. Ford said two significant events occurred in 1875 when he was 12: he received the watch, and he witnessed the operation of a Nichols and Shepard road engine, "...the first vehicle other than horse-drawn that I had ever seen". Ford

405-646: A sawmill . They had one child, Edsel Ford (1893–1943). In 1891, Ford became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit . After his promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893, he had enough time and money to devote attention to his experiments on gasoline engines . These experiments culminated in 1896 with the completion of a self-propelled vehicle, which he named the Ford Quadricycle . He test-drove it on June 4. After various test drives, Ford brainstormed ways to improve

486-593: A $ 5 daily wage ($ 152 in 2023), which more than doubled the rate of most of his workers. A Cleveland, Ohio , newspaper editorialized that the announcement "shot like a blinding rocket through the dark clouds of the present industrial depression". The move proved extremely profitable; instead of constant employee turnover, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing their human capital and expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs. Ford announced his $ 5-per-day program on January 5, 1914, raising

567-559: A 48-hour week, but in 1926 it was announced as five 8-hour days, giving a 40-hour week. The program apparently started with Saturday being designated a workday, before becoming a day off sometime later. On May 1, 1926, the Ford Motor Company's factory workers switched to a five-day, 40-hour workweek, with the company's office workers making the transition the following August. Ford had decided to boost productivity, as workers were expected to put more effort into their work in exchange for more leisure time. Ford also believed decent leisure time

648-539: A Detroit-area coal dealer. They formed a partnership, Ford & Malcomson, Limited, to manufacture automobiles. Ford went to work designing an inexpensive automobile, and the duo leased a factory and contracted with a machine shop owned by John and Horace E. Dodge to supply over $ 160,000 in parts. Sales were slow, and a crisis arose when the Dodge brothers demanded payment for their first shipment. In response, Malcomson brought in another group of investors and convinced

729-525: A Ford Trimotor sized aircraft with separate sets of propellers providing thrust and lift. Similar to the Berliner helicopter or the modern V-22 Osprey, the mechanism was far too heavy to see practical use. One example was worked on in the shop and abandoned. In 1929 Richard Byrd used a 4-AT-13 in his fleet on an expedition to be the first to fly over the South Pole. The Trimotor sales dropped from

810-534: A US Navy contract for three Stout ST-1 aircraft. The ST-1 was a twin-engine, all-metal torpedo bomber. Its test pilot was a record setting pilot, Eddie Stinson , who recently moved to Detroit with his own all-metal Junkers-Larsen JL-6 mailplane. A 1922 crash of the prototype canceled the contract. This led to an innovative form of financing for a new venture. He began a letter campaign requesting $ 1,000 from over 100 prominent businessmen. He got $ 128,000, including money and support from Henry and Edsel Ford. This started

891-495: A bombshell with the flathead Ford V8 , the first low-price eight-cylinder engine. The flathead V8, variants of which were used in Ford vehicles for 20 years, was the result of a secret project launched in 1930 and Henry had initially considered a radical X-8 engine before agreeing to a conventional design. It gave Ford a reputation as a performance make well-suited for hot-rodding. Ford did not believe in accountants; he amassed one of

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972-523: A commercial device to help their business. Sales skyrocketed—several years posted 100% gains on the previous year. In 1913, Ford introduced moving assembly belts into his plants, which enabled an enormous increase in production. Although Ford is often credited with the idea, contemporary sources indicate that the concept and development came from employees Clarence Avery , Peter E. Martin , Charles E. Sorensen , and C. Harold Wills . (See Ford Piquette Avenue Plant .) Sales passed 250,000 in 1914. By 1916, as

1053-539: A consultant; Ford, in response, left the company bearing his name. With Ford gone, Leland renamed the company the Cadillac Automobile Company . Teaming up with former racing cyclist Tom Cooper , Ford also produced the 80+ horsepower racer " 999 ," which Barney Oldfield was to drive to victory in a race in October 1902. Ford received the backing of an old acquaintance, Alexander Y. Malcomson ,

1134-607: A focus on business efficiency would discourage warfare because, "If every man who manufactures an article would make the very best he can in the very best way at the very lowest possible price the world would be kept out of war, for commercialists would not have to search for outside markets which the other fellow covets." Ford admitted that munitions makers enjoyed wars, but he argued that most businesses wanted to avoid wars and instead work to manufacture and sell useful goods, hire workers, and generate steady long-term profits. Ford's British factories produced Fordson tractors to increase

1215-503: A massive new assembly plant at River Rouge for the new Model A, which launched in 1927. In addition to its price ladder, GM also quickly established itself at the forefront of automotive styling under Harley Earl 's Arts & Color Department, another area of automobile design that Henry Ford did not entirely appreciate or understand. Ford would not have a true equivalent of the GM styling department for many years. By 1926, flagging sales of

1296-799: A means to foster employment, but Ford saw this as self-defeating because, in his view, productivity was necessary for economic prosperity to exist. He believed that productivity gains that obviated certain jobs would nevertheless stimulate the broader economy and grow new jobs elsewhere, whether within the same corporation or in others. Ford also believed that union leaders had a perverse incentive to foment perpetual socio-economic crises to maintain their power. Meanwhile, he believed that smart managers had an incentive to do right by their workers, because doing so would maximize their profits. However, Ford did acknowledge that many managers were basically too bad at managing to understand this fact. But Ford believed that eventually, if good managers such as he, could fend off

1377-423: A mid-range make to challenge Dodge and Buick, although Henry also displayed relatively little enthusiasm for it. Ford was a pioneer of " welfare capitalism ", designed to improve the lot of his workers and especially to reduce the heavy turnover that had many departments hiring 300 men per year to fill 100 slots. Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best workers. Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering

1458-492: A peak of 86 a year in 1929 to only two sales in 1932. Losses from the aircraft division totaled six million dollars. By 1933 Stout, Mayo , and Hicks had left the company. Ford Trimotor sales lagged as the depression set in. Used Trimotors flooded the market at prices between $ 10,000 and $ 40,000. As the recession eased, Ford explored a radical flying wing design in the Ford Model 15-P using its new V-8 automobile engine from

1539-416: A six-inch stroke, which was connected to a countershaft by a belt and then to the rear wheel by a chain. The belt was shifted by a clutch lever to control speeds at 10 or 20 miles per hour , augmented by a throttle . Other features included 28-inch wire bicycle wheels with rubber tires , a foot brake, a 3-gallon gasoline tank, and later, a water jacket around the cylinders for cooling. Ford added that "in

1620-460: A stockholder in Stout's operations in 1922 at the age of 28. He became the president of the division in 1925. Edsel sponsored many aviation events from Ford Airport, cross-marketing his interests in airlines and aircraft production. The Ford National Reliability Air Tour gathered manufactures from around the world to compete in order to promote aviation. In 1926, he sponsored Admiral Byrd's flight to

1701-530: Is Ford's production of the B-24 . Up to 650 units a month were produced at Ford's Willow Run plant until 1945. Ford also produced 2418 Waco CG-4 gliders under license for the war effort. In 1956 Ford started the Aeronutronic division, specializing in space and defense communications. The company combined with Philco to produce space communications gear for NASA . The Ford Aerospace Corporation division

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1782-646: Is now McDonnell Douglas ). Together they refined the 3-AT into what is now recognizable as the "Tin Goose", the Ford Trimotor. Ford visited and encouraged Stout that this was an opportunity to build an even better facility. The new factory had two buildings with the largest doors in the world at the time. McDonnell would leave to the Hamilton Metalplane Company in 1927, building his own corrugated metal aircraft design that closely matched

1863-503: Is now part of Ford Motor Company's Dearborn Proving Ground . The airport was about 360 acres (150 ha) in size. This airport saw many world and U.S. "firsts": the first U.S. airport hotel, the first concrete runways, the first U.S. scheduled passenger service, the first contracted airmail service, the first radio control for a commercial flight, and the first U.S. passenger terminal. The buildings were designed by architect Albert Kahn and are considered to have greatly influenced

1944-693: The Ford Foundation , and control of the company to his family. Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, on a farm in Springwells Township, Michigan . His father, William Ford (1826–1905), was born in County Cork , Ireland, to a family that had emigrated from Somerset , England in the 16th century. His mother, Mary Ford (née Litogot; 1839–1876), was born in Michigan as the youngest child of Belgian immigrants; her parents died when she

2025-488: The Ford Model B . After a crash of the prototype, the effort was dropped. Ford Motor Company stopped production of new aircraft designs with the closure of the Stout Metal Airplane Division. Ford has continued to be involved in aviation in the much more profitable production role, and also has marketed its automotive products with its aviation heritage though high-profile events. Most noteworthy

2106-742: The Great Depression , unemployed Detroit auto workers staged the Ford Hunger March to the Ford River Rouge Complex to present 14 demands to Henry Ford. The Dearborn police department and Ford security guards opened fire on workers leading to over sixty injuries and five deaths. On May 26, 1937, Bennett's security men beat members of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), including Walter Reuther , with clubs. While Bennett's men were beating

2187-656: The Stout Batwing , intended for the US Army air service. One example was built and abandoned. In 1919 Stout formed Stout Engineering Laboratories. With money from the Champion Spark Plug corporation, Stout built the three-passenger Batwing Limousine in 1920. This was eventually re-skinned and had structural components replaced with duraluminum . Stout gave speeches across the country touting that all future aircraft would be metal. Soon after, Stout received

2268-612: The Stout Skycar aircraft series and the Stout Scarab car. In 1954, Stout purchased the rights to the Ford Trimotor in an attempt to produce new examples. A new company formed from this effort brought back two modern examples of the trimotor aircraft, the Stout Bushmaster 2000 . Stout was later to say, "The greatest single thing I accomplished for aviation was to get Mr. Ford interested in it." Edsel Ford became

2349-528: The $ 5-day wage. Real profit-sharing was offered to employees who had worked at the company for six months or more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner of which Ford's "Social Department" approved. They frowned on heavy drinking, gambling, and on what are now called deadbeat dads . The Social Department used 50 investigators and support staff to maintain employee standards; a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for this "profit-sharing". Ford's incursion into his employees' private lives

2430-495: The 2-AT. It was bought by a group of investors rounded up by Stout to invest in the CAM-9 airmail route forming an entity called Northwest Airlines . Ford Air Transport Service was started in 1925 to carry passengers and mail on the lucrative new airmail routes . It was assigned the first airmail routes, Cleveland-Detroit (CAM-6) and Chicago-Detroit (CAM-7). The regularly scheduled service used six Stout 2-AT aircraft. Ford became

2511-566: The 3-AT to the Ford Engineering Laboratory. At about 6am the next morning, a fire destroyed the Stout factory and all aircraft in it, including 13 new Wright Whirlwind engines, several 2-AT Pullmans and the Stout 3-AT Prototype. Damages were claimed to be $ 500,000 in 1926 dollars. Tom Towle was placed in charge of engineering, and hired MIT graduate Otto C. Koppen , John Lee, and James Smith McDonnell (co-founder of what

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2592-607: The British food supply, as well as trucks and warplane engines. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Ford went quiet on foreign policy. His company became a major supplier of weapons, especially the Liberty engine for warplanes and anti-submarine boats . Ford Airport (Dearborn) Ford Airport in Dearborn, Michigan , United States, was one of the first modern airports in the world. It operated from 1924 to 1947. The site

2673-488: The Dodge brothers to accept a portion of the new company. Ford & Malcomson was reincorporated as the Ford Motor Company on June 16, 1903, with $ 28,000 capital. The original investors included Ford and Malcomson, the Dodge brothers, Malcomson's uncle John S. Gray , Malcolmson's secretary James Couzens , and two of Malcomson's lawyers, John W. Anderson and Horace Rackham . Because of Ford's volatility, Gray

2754-523: The Ford Model T automobile in 1908 is credited with having revolutionized both transportation and American industry. As the sole owner of the Ford Motor Company, Ford became one of the wealthiest persons in the world. He was also among the pioneers of the five-day work-week . Ford believed that consumerism could help to bring about world peace . His commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including

2835-608: The Ford company adopted an annual model change system similar to that recently pioneered by its competitor General Motors (and still in use by automakers today). Not until the 1930s did Ford overcome his objection to finance companies, and the Ford-owned Universal Credit Corporation became a major car-financing operation. Henry Ford still resisted many technological innovations such as hydraulic brakes and all-metal roofs, which Ford vehicles did not adopt until 1935–1936. For 1932 however, Ford dropped

2916-503: The Ford-sponsored ZMC-2 metal-hulled airship. The Model 3-AT trimotor was heavily promoted by Henry Ford as the airplane of the future. Test flights proved otherwise, with the underpowered aircraft barely able to maintain altitude. After witnessing the tests, Henry Ford left disgusted, and shortly afterward reassigned Stout away from engineering. On January 16, 1926 Harold Hicks asked Tom Towle to bring all drawings of

2997-467: The Model T finally convinced Ford to make a new model. He pursued the project with a great deal of interest in the design of the engine, chassis, and other mechanical necessities, while leaving the body design to his son. Although Ford fancied himself an engineering genius, he had little formal training in mechanical engineering and could not even read a blueprint. A talented team of engineers performed most of

3078-601: The Netherlands to meet with peace activists. A target of much ridicule, Ford left the ship as soon as it reached Sweden. In 1915, Ford blamed "German-Jewish bankers" for instigating the war. According to biographer Steven Watts, Ford's status as a leading industrialist gave him a worldview that warfare was wasteful folly that retarded long-term economic growth. The losing side in the war typically suffered heavy damage. Small business were especially hurt, for it takes years to recuperate. He argued in many newspaper articles that

3159-750: The North Pole in a Fokker F.VII named the Josephine Ford. In 1928, he sponsored his trip to the South Pole in a Ford Trimotor named the Floyd Bennett . The similarity of design between the Fokker trimotor and the later Ford Trimotor was a source of contention between designers Stout and Anthony Fokker . In 1924 Ford and Stout negotiated the building of Ford Airport in Dearborn, Michigan . A factory that would house Stout Metal Airplane production would be built if Stout could convince all 128 of

3240-647: The Quadricycle. Also in 1896, Ford attended a meeting of Edison executives, where he was introduced to Thomas Edison . Edison approved of Ford's automobile experimentation. Encouraged by Edison, Ford designed and built a second vehicle, completing it in 1898. Backed by the capital of Detroit lumber baron William H. Murphy, Ford resigned from the Edison Company and founded the Detroit Automobile Company on August 5, 1899. However,

3321-657: The Stout Metal Airplane company. After taking over the company, and the less-than-successful performance of the Stout 3-AT , Ford reassigned Stout to speaking engagements and promotional tours. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took the Spirit of St. Louis to Mexico on a promotional tour following its non-stop flight over the Atlantic. Stout arranged with Henry and Edsel Ford to fly Lindbergh's mother to Mexico City to join her son for Christmas and to gain publicity for

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3402-520: The UAW representatives, the supervising police chief on the scene was Carl Brooks, an alumnus of Bennett's Service Department, and Brooks "did not give orders to intervene". The following day photographs of the injured UAW members appeared in newspapers, later becoming known as The Battle of the Overpass . In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Edsel—who was president of the company—thought Ford had to come to

3483-470: The actual work of designing the Model A (and later the flathead V8) with Ford supervising them closely and giving them overall direction. Edsel also managed to prevail over his father's initial objections in the inclusion of a sliding-shift transmission. The result was the Ford Model A , introduced in December 1927 and produced through 1931, with a total output of more than four million. Subsequently,

3564-473: The age of 16 to find work in Detroit . It was a few years before this time that Ford first experienced automobiles, and throughout the later half of the 1880s, he began repairing and later constructing engines, and through the 1890s worked with a division of Edison Electric . He founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903 after prior failures in business, but success in constructing automobiles. The introduction of

3645-546: The attacks of misguided people from both left and right (i.e., both socialists and bad-manager reactionaries), the good managers would create a socio-economic system wherein neither bad management nor bad unions could find enough support to continue existing. To forestall union activity, Ford promoted Harry Bennett , a former Navy boxer, to head the Service Department. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to quash union organizing. On March 7, 1932, during

3726-760: The automobiles produced were of a lower quality and higher price than Ford wanted. Ultimately, the company was not successful and was dissolved in January 1901. With the help of C. Harold Wills , Ford designed, built, and successfully raced a 26- horsepower automobile in October 1901. With this success, Murphy and other stockholders in the Detroit Automobile Company formed the Henry Ford Company on November 30, 1901, with Ford as chief engineer. In 1902, Murphy brought in Henry M. Leland as

3807-549: The aviation business during World War I , building Liberty engines . After the war, it returned to auto manufacturing until 1925, when Ford acquired the Stout Metal Airplane Company . Ford's most successful aircraft was the Ford 4AT Trimotor , often called the "Tin Goose" because of its corrugated metal construction. It used a new alloy called Alclad that combined the corrosion resistance of aluminum with

3888-525: The book The International Jew . He opposed his country's entry into World War II , and served for a time on board of the America First Committee . After his son Edsel died in 1943, Ford resumed control of the company, but was too frail to make decisions and quickly came under the control of several of his subordinates. He turned over the company to his grandson Henry Ford II in 1945. Upon his death in 1947, he left most of his wealth to

3969-432: The broad workable plan of investment and participation will do more to solidify the industry and strengthen the organization than will any social work on the outside. Without changing the principle we have changed the method of payment." In addition to raising his workers' wages, Ford also introduced a new, reduced workweek in 1926. The decision was made in 1922, when Ford and Crowther described it as six 8-hour days, giving

4050-421: The company rather than cooperate. Still, his wife Clara told him she would leave him if he destroyed the family business. In her view, it would not be worth the chaos it would create. Ford complied with his wife's ultimatum and even agreed with her in retrospect. Overnight, the Ford Motor Company went from the most stubborn holdout among automakers to the one with the most favorable UAW contract terms. The contract

4131-572: The country, making the Ford brand known throughout the United States. Ford also was one of the early backers of the Indianapolis 500 . In 1909, Ford submitted for patent application for his invention for a new transmission mechanism. It was awarded a patent in 1911. The Model T debuted on October 1, 1908. It had the steering wheel on the left, which every other company soon copied. The entire engine and transmission were enclosed;

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4212-440: The decisions of his son. Ford started another company, Henry Ford and Son, and made a show of taking himself and his best employees to the new company; the goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the Ford Motor Company to sell their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. (He was determined to have full control over strategic decisions.) The ruse worked, and Henry and Edsel purchased all remaining stock from

4293-408: The design of airports throughout the U.S. The original aircraft facilities were in use as part of the Ford testing facilities at the proving ground. However, the original (greatly modified) passenger terminal was demolished in 1961, and the remaining hangar, used as an experimental engine test facility since the late 1940s, was demolished in 2018. Only The Dearborn Inn , a hotel that was built across

4374-427: The expense of trolley wires , and "no storage battery was in sight of a weight that was practical." In 1885, Ford repaired an Otto engine , and in 1887 he built a four-cycle model with a one-inch bore and a three-inch stroke . In 1890, Ford started work on a two-cylinder engine. Ford said, "In 1892, I completed my first motor car, powered by a two-cylinder four horsepower motor, with a two-and-half-inch bore and

4455-476: The family farm, where he became adept at operating the Westinghouse portable steam engine . He was later hired by Westinghouse to service their steam engines. In his farm workshop, Ford built a "steam wagon or tractor" and a steam car, but thought "steam was not suitable for light vehicles," as "the boiler was dangerous." Ford also said that he "did not see the use of experimenting with electricity, due to

4536-421: The first regularly scheduled airmail service and air freight operator. The Ford Trimotor entered production and became a popular choice for the new airlines serving airmail contracts. In 1927, Ford became the first company to use an assembly line for aircraft production. Ford tried his hand at engineering in the company as well. Working along with engineer Karl Shultz, Ford submitted U.S. Patent no. 1749578 for

4617-446: The four cylinders were cast in a solid block; the suspension used two semi-elliptic springs. The car was simple to drive, and easy and inexpensive to repair. It was so inexpensive at $ 825 in 1908 ($ 27,980 today), with the price falling every year, that by the 1920s, a majority of American drivers had learned to drive on the Model T. Ford created a huge publicity machine in Detroit to ensure every newspaper carried stories and ads about

4698-503: The initial investors in his company to sell out to Ford. This was accomplished at a cost of $ 500,000 to Ford, and the Stout Metal Airplane Company became an official division of Ford Motor Company on July 1, 1925. Ford Then invested an additional $ 2,000,000 in the venture. The airport site chosen was 260 acres on Dearborn's Oakwood Boulevard. Ford Airport also featured an airship mooring station and hangar to test

4779-450: The low-end market. Although Henry Ford was against replacing the Model T, now 16 years old, Chevrolet was mounting a bold new challenge as GM's entry-level division in the company's price ladder. Ford also resisted the increasingly popular idea of payment plans for cars. With Model T sales starting to slide, Ford was forced to relent and approve work on a successor model, shutting down production for 18 months. During this time, Ford constructed

4860-506: The minimum daily pay from $ 2.34 to $ 5 for qualifying male workers. Detroit was already a high-wage city, but competitors were forced to raise wages or lose their best workers. Ford's policy proved that paying employees more would enable them to afford the cars they were producing and thus boost the local economy. He viewed the increased wages as profit-sharing linked with rewarding those who were most productive and of good character. It may have been James Couzens who convinced Ford to adopt

4941-623: The new Ford aircraft. In addition to Mrs. Lindbergh, Stout, his wife, other Ford executives and two pilots went on the trip. The Ford Tri-motor they flew, NC-1077, is today in Greg Herrick's Golden Wings Flying Museum near Minneapolis and is the oldest flying metal aircraft in the world. William Stout left the Metal Airplane division in 1930. He continued to operate the Stout Engineering Laboratory, producing

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5022-462: The new product. Ford's network of local dealers made the car ubiquitous in almost every city in North America. As independent dealers, the franchises grew rich and publicized not just the Ford but also the concept of automobiling; local motor clubs sprang up to help new drivers and encourage them to explore the countryside. Ford was always eager to sell to farmers, who looked at the vehicle as

5103-472: The other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of the company. In 1922, Ford also purchased Lincoln Motor Co. , founded by Cadillac founder Henry Leland and his son Wilfred during World War I. The Lelands briefly stayed to manage the company, but were soon expelled from it. Despite this acquisition of a premium car maker, Henry displayed relatively little enthusiasm for luxury automobiles in contrast to Edsel, who actively sought to expand Ford into

5184-440: The pacifist Rosika Schwimmer gained favor with Ford, who agreed to fund a Peace Ship to Europe, where World War I was raging. He led 170 other peace activists. Ford's Episcopalian pastor, Reverend Samuel S. Marquis, accompanied him on the mission. Marquis headed Ford's Sociology Department from 1913 to 1921. Ford talked to President Woodrow Wilson about the mission but had no government support. His group went to neutral Sweden and

5265-456: The price dropped to $ 360 for the basic touring car, sales reached 472,000. By 1918, half of all cars in the United States were Model Ts. All new cars were black; as Ford wrote in his autobiography, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." Until the development of the assembly line, which mandated black because of its quicker drying time, Model Ts were available in other colors, including red. The design

5346-558: The project was put aside. In World War I Ford went into the aircraft motor business with production of the Packard -designed Liberty engine for the military. Ford completed 3,950 Liberty engines. The newly formed Lincoln was bought by Ford in 1922. William Stout was appointed to the board of the Aircraft Production Board in 1917. The board awarded Stout with a contract to build a blended wing fuselage aircraft,

5427-424: The spring of 1893 the machine was running to my partial satisfaction and giving an opportunity further to test out the design and material on the road." Between 1895 and 1896, Ford drove that machine about 1000 miles. He then started a second car in 1896, eventually building three of them in his home workshop. Ford married Clara Jane Bryant (1866–1950) on April 11, 1888, and supported himself by farming and running

5508-409: The strength of duralumin . The plane was similar to Fokker 's V.VII–3m. The Trimotor first flew on June 11, 1926, and was the first successful U.S. passenger airliner, accommodating about 12 passengers in a rather uncomfortable fashion. Several variants were also used by the U.S. Army . The Smithsonian Institution has honored Ford for changing the aviation industry. 199 Trimotors were built before it

5589-582: The upscale market. The original Lincoln Model L that the Lelands had introduced in 1920 was also kept in production, untouched for a decade until it became too outdated. It was replaced by the modernized Model K in 1931. By the mid-1920s, General Motors was rapidly rising as the leading American automobile manufacturer. GM president Alfred Sloan established the company's "price ladder" whereby GM would offer an automobile for "every purse and purpose" in contrast to Ford's lack of interest in anything outside

5670-436: The world's largest fortunes without ever having his company audited under his administration. Without an accounting department, Ford had no way of knowing exactly how much money was being taken in and spent each month, and the company's bills and invoices were reportedly guessed at by weighing them on a scale. Not until 1956 would Ford be a publicly-traded company. Also, at Edsel's insistence, Ford launched Mercury in 1939 as

5751-409: Was a child and she was adopted by neighbors, the O'Herns. Henry Ford's siblings were John Ford (1865–1927); Margaret Ford (1867–1938); Jane Ford (c. 1868–1945); William Ford (1871–1917) and Robert Ford (1873–1877). Ford finished eighth grade at a one-room school , Springwells Middle School. He never attended high school ; he later took a bookkeeping course at a commercial school. His father gave him

5832-465: Was an American industrialist and business magnate . As the founder of the Ford Motor Company , he is credited as a pioneer in making automobiles affordable for middle-class Americans through the system that came to be known as Fordism . In 1911, he was awarded a patent for the transmission mechanism that would be used in the Ford Model T and other automobiles. Ford was born in a farmhouse in Springwells Township , Michigan , and left home at

5913-524: Was devastated when his mother died in 1876. His father expected him to take over the family farm eventually, but he despised farm work. He later wrote, "I never had any particular love for the farm—it was the mother on the farm I loved." In 1879, Ford left home to work as an apprentice machinist in Detroit, first with James F. Flower & Brothers, and later with the Detroit Dry Dock Company. In 1882, he returned to Dearborn to work on

5994-604: Was discontinued in 1933, when the Ford Airplane Division shut down because of poor sales during the Great Depression . In 1985, Ford was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame for his impact on the industry. Ford opposed war, which he viewed as a terrible waste, and supported causes that opposed military intervention . Ford became highly critical of those who he felt financed war, and he tried to stop them. In 1915,

6075-413: Was elected president of the company. Ford then demonstrated a newly designed car on the ice of Lake St. Clair , driving 1 mile (1.6 km) in 39.4 seconds and setting a new land speed record at 91.3 miles per hour (146.9 kilometres per hour). Convinced by this success, race driver Barney Oldfield , who named this new Ford model " 999 " in honor of the fastest locomotive of the day, took the car around

6156-418: Was fervently promoted and defended by Ford, and production continued as late as 1927; the final total production was 15,007,034. This record stood for the next 45 years, and was achieved in 19 years from the introduction of the first Model T (1908). Henry Ford turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son Edsel Ford in December 1918. Henry retained final decision authority and sometimes reversed

6237-634: Was good for business, giving workers additional time to purchase and consume more goods. However, charitable concerns also played a role. Ford explained, "It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either 'lost time' or a class privilege." Ford was adamantly against labor unions . He explained his views on unions in Chapter 18 of My Life and Work . He thought they were too heavily influenced by leaders who would end up doing more harm than good for workers despite their ostensible good motives. Most wanted to restrict productivity as

6318-548: Was highly controversial, and he soon backed off from the most intrusive aspects. By the time he wrote his 1922 memoir, he spoke of the Social Department and the private conditions for profit-sharing in the past tense. He admitted that "paternalism has no place in the industry. Welfare work that consists in prying into employees' private concerns is out of date. Men need counsel and men need help, often special help; and all this ought to be rendered for decency's sake. But

6399-639: Was signed in June 1941. About a year later, Ford told Walter Reuther, "It was one of the most sensible things Harry Bennett ever did when he got the UAW into this plant." Reuther inquired, "What do you mean?" Ford replied, "Well, you've been fighting General Motors and the Wall Street crowd. Now you're in here and we've given you a union shop and more than you got out of them. That puts you on our side, doesn't it? We can fight General Motors and Wall Street together, eh?" Like other automobile companies, Ford entered

6480-604: Was sold to Loral in 1990. In 2001 Ford sponsored the EAA's Countdown to Kitty Hawk Ford has remained a sponsor of the EAA Airventure airshow since this event. Ford is also a major contributor to the Young Eagles program, auctioning off aviation-themed custom Mustangs each year since 1998. The AT moniker originates from the Stout 2-AT "Air Truck" Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947)

6561-532: Was to make sure no agreements were ever reached. The Ford Motor Company was the last Detroit automaker to recognize the UAW, despite pressure from the rest of the U.S. automotive industry and even the U.S. government. A sit-down strike by the UAW union in April 1941 closed the River Rouge Plant . Sorensen recounted that a distraught Henry Ford was very close to following through with a threat to break up

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