The Stout Skycar is a series of four one-off American light aircraft of the 1930s.
30-655: William Bushnell Stout was a prolific designer of road vehicles and aircraft, including the Ford Trimotor series. He was founder of the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company and in 1931 designed the Skycar which was specified for easy handling and provided with automobile-style comfort. Single examples of four variations on the basic design were produced between 1931 and 1944. The Skycar I
60-457: A 110 in (2794 mm) wheelbase and 30× 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch (76×8.8-cm) Houk detachable wire wheels , with three speeds and shaft drive. With complete electrical equipment, from Bijur starter to ignition (on a separate switch from starter) to headlights to Klaxet electric horn (with a button in the steering hub, rather than a bulb) to pushbutton door locks, it sold for US$ 775, equivalent to $ 23,574 in 2023 The 1916-17 Model D
90-399: A Pullman Railplane and Club Car. He is also known as the originator of prefab housing and the sliding car seat. All of these innovations were modern in design, incorporating many features new in both appearance and function, features not yet available in vehicle design. Stout retired to Phoenix, Arizona , and died on March 20, 1956, four days after his 76th birthday. Stout self-published
120-484: A higher-powered version utilising stainless steel construction and twin tail booms. The four-wheel landing gear was intended to facilitate a later rebuild to roadability which never occurred. It was built with support from Fred Fisher of General Motors. The Skycar III of 1943 had a higher-powered Lycoming engine to enable operation at higher gross weight, but was otherwise similar to the Skycar II. The Skycar IV of 1944
150-592: A number of all-metal aircraft designs, which, like the earliest aircraft designs of Andrei Tupolev in the Soviet Union, was based on the pioneering work of Hugo Junkers . In February 1923, newspapers carried stories of the test flights of the Stout Air Sedan with Walter Lees as the pilot. In 1924 his company, the Stout Metal Airplane Company , was bought by the Ford Motor Company. Stout developed
180-448: A simple aircraft that would have controls similar to early model Fords including the ignition switch and the starter button. Stout planned to build the Sky Car (i.e. its original name was "Sky Car" but various newspaper and magazine articles spelled it "Skycar") and sell it at the price of a moderately priced car (approximately $ 2000) if mass-produced in numbers. The Skycar II of 1941 was
210-465: A small booklet (15 pp.) of poems, circa 1936. Two of the poems were in the form of letters: On Receiving Word that Stan Knauss Was Joining the Air Corps (September 18, 1918) and On Stan Becoming a Father (December 4, 1930). His autobiography, So Away I Went! , was published in 1951. Stout is remembered for his engineering credo, "Simplicate and add more lightness." This would later become best known as
240-562: A thick-wing monoplane, and his design of an internally braced cantilevered wing improved the efficiency of aircraft. This led to the development of the famous "Batwing Plane" and the all-metal "Torpedo Plane" . After his career at Packard Motors, he left for Washington to serve as the advisor to the United States Aircraft Board. Stout developed an all-metal transport aircraft for mail use, the Stout 2-AT . His three engine follow-on,
270-585: The Stout 3-AT , was underpowered, and did not perform as well, leaving Stout out of the engineering role in his company newly acquired by Ford. The redesigned 3-AT did form the basis for the popular Ford Trimotor aircraft. In August 1925, Stout inaugurated Stout Air Services , which operated the first regularly scheduled airline in the United States. Stout also built the Liberty-powered all-metal monoplanes to initiate this service. Later, between 1928 and 1932,
300-648: The University of Minnesota , being forced to quit due to extreme eye problems. He married Alma Raymond in 1906. Stout was interested in mechanics, especially aeronautics, founding the Model Aero Club of Illinois. In 1907 he became Chief Engineer for the Schurmeir Motor Truck Company and in 1912, he became automobile and aviation editor for the Chicago Tribune . In the same year he founded Aerial Age ,
330-557: The Model C went on sale in 1915. James Booth next developed a sporting version called Vitesse using the Alanson P. Brush designed Ferro V8 , to compete with Mercer and Stutz . The roadster idea was vetoed by company directors and the engine was used in the four-seater Model D instead About one-third of Model C production had been shipped to Europe and Scripps-Booth smaller luxury cars were popular in export markets. Reliability issues with
SECTION 10
#1732851464586360-587: The Sterling engine in early cars caused the engine to be changed to a Chevrolet 490 in the Model G. James Booth believed the company should build their own engines and when company directors declined to do this, Booth resigned. In 1916, Scripps-Booth Company consolidated with the Sterling Motor Company to become the publicly traded Scripps-Booth Corporation . By the end of 1917, Scripps-Booth had been purchased by Chevrolet whose founder William C. Durant
390-636: The Stout Engineering Company in Dearborn, Michigan , complete with a research section and later built the prototype Stout Scarab car in 1932. In 1934 he founded the Stout Motor Car Company. The "beetle-like" Scarab featured an all-aluminum tubular airframe covered with aluminum skin, with the engine compartment at the rear, a sealed storage compartment in front of a passenger compartment with reclining aircraft-type seats. The front or nose of
420-587: The Stout engineering laboratory to Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation becoming the Stout Research Division of Consolidated. He was named the director of Convair 's research division through World War II. While at Consolidated, Stout promoted three designs for postwar production, including a flying car using a Spratt wing. Stout's other innovations included the Skycar , an automobile/airplane hybrid and
450-549: The adopted maxim of Colin Chapman of Lotus Cars . It actually originated with Stout's designer Gordon Hooton . William B. Stout Middle School in Dearborn, Michigan bears his name. Scripps-Booth Scripps-Booth was a United States automobile marque based in Detroit , Michigan . Established by James Scripps Booth in 1913, Scripps-Booth Company produced motor vehicles and
480-544: The airline flew passengers and Ford cargo between Dearborn, Chicago and Cleveland. In 1929, Stout sold Stout Air Services to United Airlines. After the Great Depression in 1929 reduced sales of the Trimotor aircraft, Stout left Ford in 1930. Although no longer with Ford, he continued to operate his Stout Engineering Laboratory. Stout also invested in the short-lived Wichita, Kansas based Buckley Aircraft Company , developing
510-536: The all-aluminum Buckley LC-4 . In 1930 Stout said: "Aviation in the U.S. has been stagnating for two years. We are all copying. Aviation has shown no progress ... comparable to that made in radio and talking pictures. Think how many copies have been made of the plane Colonel Lindbergh used on his flight across the Atlantic ... of other famous planes. None of us are building the plane that the public wants to buy, and that proves we are standing still." In 1943 Stout sold
540-546: The brand name in 1922. The factory was converted to build Buicks . Approximately 60,000 Scripps-Booths had been produced. The Vintage Chevrolet Club of America accepts the following Scripps-Booth models: For 1914, Scripps-Booth offered a three-passenger torpedo roadster , powered by a 103 in (1702 cc) ( 2 + 7 ⁄ 8 ×4-inch, 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 ×102 mm) 18 hp (13 kW) water-cooled four-cylinder of valve-in-head design with Zenith carburetor and Atwater-Kent automatic spark advance. It featured
570-801: The first aviation magazine ever published in the United States. He was also a contributor to the Minneapolis Times under the pen name, "Jack Knieff." In 1914, Stout became Chief Engineer of the Scripps-Booth Automobile Company. His "Cyclecar" had caught the attention of Alvan MacCauley who subsequently brought Stout to Packard Motors in Detroit. He had become General Sales Manager of the Packard Motor Car Company and in 1916, when they started an aviation division, they asked Stout to become its first Chief Engineer. In 1919 he started
600-496: The suspension using compressed air, and push button electric doors. When the vehicle was made public in 1946, Stout picked the name Forty-Six for that year. Some firms considered producing the Forty-Six, but as Stout stated he doubted there would be much of a market for a $ 10,000 car, the estimated price if it had been mass-produced. Stout's aviation career began as a result of his success in his automotive efforts. He began to build
630-467: The vehicle contained the spare tire. Only nine Scarabs were ever built and although advanced, the public never appreciated the innovative features of the vehicles. In the mid-1930s, Stout, in co-operation with L.B. Kalb of Continental Motors, a major manufacture of lightweight air cooled aircraft engines, did some extensive research and pre-production development into rear engine drive automobiles which were powered by aircraft engines. Stout even commissioned
SECTION 20
#1732851464586660-446: The well known Dutch auto designer John Tjaarda to design some streamlined car bodies, although none of the car designs ever reached production. In the last years of World War II, Stout, in co-operation with Owen-Corning, began what was called Project Y to build a one-off car for evaluation of ideas like a frame-less fiberglass body, belt drive rear wheel drive, a suspension which kept the vehicle from leaning into turns by adjusting
690-756: Was a pioneering American inventor, engineer, developer and designer whose works in the automotive and aviation fields were groundbreaking. Known by the nickname "Bill", Stout designed an aircraft that eventually became the Ford Trimotor and was an executive at the Ford Motor Company . William Bushnell "Bill" Stout was born March 16, 1880, in Quincy, Illinois . He graduated from the Mechanic Arts High School , in St. Paul, Minnesota , in 1898. He then attended Hamline University , and transferred in his second year to
720-772: Was also known as the Spratt-Stout Model 8 and the Convair 103 . It was similar to the Skycar III with twin tail-booms, but fitted with twin fins and rudders. The Skycar I, sometimes referred to as the Model 11-W . It was flown as a personal aircraft by Stout for several years and was later donated to the Smithsonian Institution . It is on display in the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport Virginia . The Skycar II
750-461: Was also the founding president of Sterling Motor Company. Billy Durant regained control of General Motors and Scripps-Booth became a division of GM with A. H. Sarver as president. The Scripps-Booth cars were now built with Oakland chassis and Northway engines. With the departure of Durant from GM in 1921, Alfred P. Sloan could not find a use for Scripps-Booth in the GM line-up and discontinued
780-700: Was evaluated by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) as the XC-65 light transport. It was destroyed in a hangar fire circa 1942. The Skycar III was tested by the USAAF as the XC-107. Data from:- Aerofiles: Stout Data from Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1931, Aerofiles: Stout General characteristics Performance William Bushnell Stout William Bushnell Stout (March 16, 1880 – March 20, 1956)
810-399: Was first displayed at the spring 1931 Detroit Show. The aircraft was a two-seat high-wing monoplane, accommodating the occupants in tandem layout. It had an all-metal steel-tube frame covered with corrugated metal skin. Centre-line nose and tail-wheels plus a standard landing gear were fitted. The rear fuselage was constructed from an open framework carrying a single fin and rudder, inside which
840-529: Was later acquired by General Motors , becoming a division of it, until the brand was discontinued in 1923. The company was founded by artist and engineer James Scripps Booth (of the Scripps publishing family), who also built the Bi-Autogo . Although the company's first models were cyclecars , Scripps-Booth later produced a "luxurious light car" intended for the luxury market. Designed by William B. Stout ,
870-534: Was located the rear pusher engine. The Sky Car was displayed with a Moorhouse engine (Alfred Moorhouse of Detroit, assignor to Packard Motor Car Company). Fuel was carried in two tanks in the leading portion of the central section of the engine housing, from where it was fed by gravity to the engine. At a later date the aircraft was fitted with twin booms carrying the single fin and rudder (see photo of preserved aircraft). The aircraft featured balanced pivoting outboard wingtips rather than ailerons. Stout attempted to design
900-514: Was powered by an overhead valve V8 engine designed by Alanson Brush. Before marrying the main character in John O'Hara 's 1934 novel Appointment in Samarra , a youthful Caroline Walker drives a Scripps-Booth Model C Roadster. The car's unusual seating arrangement, in which "the driver sat a foot or so forward of the other seat, which made kissing an awkward act", is especially noted. Groucho Marx owned
#585414