Henry Ford’s Fabulous Flying Collection
Think of the name Ford and you’ll most likely think about automobiles first, and airplanes second. Dearborn, Michigan is home to “The Henry Ford”, a museum not dedicated to just automobiles, but to the history of industrialization. Although scores of cars (not all Fords either) are on display, part of the museum includes a great collection of aviation artifacts. There are 14 significant aircraft on display.
The aviation section, named “Heroes of the Sky”, is broken down into six smaller exhibits: First Flight, Inventors, Explorers, Entrepreneurs, Barnstormers, and Record Breakers. Each exhibit includes up to four aircraft and items such as personal letters, flight gear, and trophies. Thoughtfully arranged, a story is told about each era, including some surprising Ford family involvement.
A pair of Wright Flyer replicas are displayed; one over the main entrance, the other in the First Flight gallery. The Inventors’ area includes a 1909 Bleriot IX, a 1931 Pitcairn-Cierva autogiro that was used by the Detroit News for aerial photos, and the only Vought-Sikorsky VS-300A helicopter, which was Igor Sikorsky’s demonstration aircraft of the world’s first practical single rotor helicopter.
The Explorer’s exhibit houses the Fokker F-VII Trimotor “BA-1” that Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett used to (reputedly) overfly the North Pole. Edsel Ford (son of founder Henry Ford) financed the Arctic expedition; the aircraft was named “Josephine” after Edsel’s daughter. The name FOKKER was painted conspicuously on the wings and fuselage, so as not to mistake the aircraft as a Ford Trimotor!
In the Entrepreneur’s area sits the actual Ford 4AT-B Trimotor that Byrd flew over the South Pole. Named “Floyd Bennett” after his flying partner from the North Pole flyover, a bit of history is cited alongside the aircraft. William Mayo, Ford Motor Company’s chief engineer, convinced Henry Ford and his son Edsel to collaborate with another Detroit business, Bill Stout’s Metal Airplane Company, to build the “Tin Goose”. Although only 199 examples of the Ford Trimotors were built, the aluminum and duralumin construction helped prove that mass-produced metal airliners could be manufactured. Some surprising history is that Henry Ford flew only a few times in his life; Charles Lindbergh was the pilot of his first airplane ride. Ford sponsored the 1926 Air Reliability Tour, and researched radio beacons and other navigation aids too. It was said that Ford never made a profit in aviation, but it was a worthy endeavor for him and the company. Other aircraft in this exhibit area include a Boeing 40B, a high-time Douglas DC-3 and a rare Ford Flivver sport plane.
The Barnstormers exhibit houses a Curtiss JN-4D “Jenny Canuck” (a JN-4D built in Canada) and a 1915 Laird biplane. Finally, the Record Breakers hall contains a Stinson Detrioter, a Lockheed Vega, and a Dayton-Wright RB-1 racer built for the 1920 Gordon-Bennett race (it didn’t finish). The fourth aircraft is one of three replicas of the Ryan NYP built for the classic Jimmy Stewart movie: “The Spirit of St. Louis”, which chronicled the Lindbergh Atlantic crossing. It’s actually a modified Ryan B-1 Brougham that Jimmy Stewart once personally owned.
The Henry Ford is a sprawling museum that can easily take a full day to explore. The aviation exhibits take about an hour or so to browse through. If you’re looking for an aviation collection rich in history and well presented in the Detroit area, this is one not to be missed.
Article and photos by: Ken Kula, July 2009
