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Mr. Ford's Canard

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Mr. Ford's Canard THIS CREATION HAS TO GO UNDER THE CATEGORY OF “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?” BY HOWARD CARTER PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE WILLIAM T. LARKINS COLLECTION here is little doubt that William Bushnell Stout was a bit of a huckster but he also had a vision that some T Side view of the Dragonfly takes on an appearance of a pile of parts rather than an actual aircraft. Built of corrugated duralumin, the of his more creative concepts could forward wing set-up was given the French term of canard. further aviation. He started the Stout Metal Airplane Company in stranger than the aircraft that gained the name “Dragonfly” forming a forwardly extending stepped-down prolongation of 1922 after having built a creation (and, quite honestly, we do not know if that was a factory the first mentioned portion, the forward wing being carried called the Batwing Limousine in name or one applied randomly at a later date but it is known near the forward end of said forwardly extending portion.” 1920 (with money coming from the that Stout had a fascination with the dragonfly insect). Are we all clear on that? The patent was taken out by Champion Spark Plug Corporation). So, how to explain the Dragonfly? Apparently it was an Stout for the Ford Motor Company. In reality, the Dragonfly Less than a success, he then covered The design featured a huge amount of built-in drag. No dimensions exist for the aircraft (that we can find). The landing gear was cranked up by hand. attempt to build a two-seat “everyman” amphibian. A patent was a twin-engine open-cockpit (two separate cockpits) design portions of this creation with dura- for the design was issued 19 July 1926 and described the with power provided by a pair of howling Bristol Cherub lumin and proclaimed that aircraft of the future would be all from one-hundred businessmen. He actually got $128,000 creation as: “An airplane having in combination with a pair engines pumping out 32-hp each. Each engine was mounted metal. This did not work but, and rather amazingly, he got a from investors that included Henry and Edsel Ford and of wings one totally ahead of the other, a spacing and on a truss structure set outside the very short fuselage (or contract from the US Navy to built the Stout ST-1 twin- thus was born the Stout Metal Airplane Company. This mounting structure for said wings including a main rear- perhaps hull would be a better term) engine all-metal torpedo-bomber. Eddie Stinson (who was would lead down the long road to the creation of the famed ward cockpit position tapering in height and depth toward The aircraft emerged from the Ford facility during 1927 carving a name for himself in the new world of aviation) had Ford Tri-Motor. the tail of the airplane, and a propeller located at a point and began to undergo a series of taxi tests. During one of recently moved to Detroit with his own all-metal Junkers- The association with Ford would, of course, result in one ahead of the forward end of said por- these tests, it hit what was described as a “bump” on the air- Larsen JL-6 monoplane. He then met Stout and was quickly of the world’s most famous aircraft but on the path to that tion but in rear of and field surface and was heavily dam- appointed as test pilot for the ST-1 but it crashed in 1922, aircraft there were some really strange machines but few above the forward aged. It appears no attempt was thus ending Navy interest. wing, said struc- made to repair the aircraft. Henry Not one to lose enthusiasm, ture also includ- Ford was extremely secretive when Stout started a campaign in ing a portion it came to his aviation endeavors Detroit to raise $1000 so very little information exists on this aircraft. AC The Ford-Stout Dragonfly shortly after completion. William B. Stout is sitting on the right wing and proudly viewing his latest creation. The Bristol Cherub was a two-cylinder air-cooled engine built in England and introduced in 1923. 42 AIR CLASSICS/August 2019 airclassicsnow.com 43.
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