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Stinson Aircraft
EDWARD A. STINSON, JR.
“Eddie”
1894-1932 (38)
The Stinson Aircraft Company was
founded in Dayton, Ohio, in 1920 by aviator Edward “Eddie” Stinson—nine
years after he learned to fly with the Wright Brothers. In 1925 Stinson
would make Detroit, Michigan, the base of operations for his company.
Over the next three decades, more than 13,000 aircraft would carry the
Stinson brand.
Born in 1894 in Ft. Payne, Alabama,
Eddie Stinson left school at age 16 and set out for St. Louis, Missouri,
with a mission—to pilot an untested aircraft being built by a pair of
men he did not know. Bursting with youthful bravado, Stinson convinced
the fledgling aircraft builders that they lacked any practical flight
experience and persuaded them to hire him as their pilot—conveniently
forgetting to mention that he had never even seen an airplane before,
much less flown one.
The flight test program was
unremarkable. With Eddie Stinson at the controls, the kite-like aircraft
briefly wobbled skyward from a farm pasture in a puff of blue smoke;
then crashed back to earth, losing a wing in the process. The would-be
aircraft builders gave Stinson the mangled aircraft as payment and moved
on to other ventures; for Stinson, it was the start of a lifelong
vocation.
Realizing
that his brief experience as a “test pilot” did not qualify him as an
ace flyer, Stinson exchanged his life savings of $500 in 1911 for flight
instruction at the Wright Brothers' Dayton flight school. After
graduation, Eddie Stinson quickly earned acclaim as a barnstormer, stunt
pilot, and record-setting aviator.
Stinson's plans to establish the
Stinson Aircraft Syndicate in 1925 at a site southwest of Detroit, where
today's Detroit Metropolitan Airport is located, and provided $25,000 to
develop a new monoplane.
The six-seat Stinson SM-1 Detroiter
made its first flight on January 25, 1926—the first airplane with a
heated, soundproof cabin, electric starter, and wheel brakes. Inherently
stable in flight, the Detroiter became an overnight success that enabled
Stinson to quickly assemble $150,000 in public capital to incorporate
the Stinson Aircraft Corporation on May 4, 1926. Always an aviator at
heart, Eddie Stinson was still flying as a stunt pilot, earning $100,000
a year for his efforts—a huge sum in those days.
Stinson Aircraft Corporation sold 10
SM-1 Detroiters in 1926, and started refining the basic design. The
Stinson SM-2 Junior, a three- or four-seat high-wing cabin monoplane
designed for both business and personal flight, soon followed. Business
steadily increased, and Stinson delivered 121 aircraft in 1929.
Automobile mogul E.L. Cord acquired
60 percent of Stinson's stock in September 1929, and his Cord
Corporation provided additional investment capital to permit Stinson to
sell its aircraft at a competitive price while still pursuing new
designs. At the height of the Depression in 1930, Stinson offered six
aircraft models, ranging from the four-seat Junior to the Stinson 6000
trimotor airliner.
Eddie Stinson did not live to enjoy the success of his
company. He died in an air crash in Chicago on January 26, 1932, while
on a sales trip. At the time of his death at age 38, Stinson had
acquired more than 16,000 hours of flight time—more than any other pilot
to date.
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Katherine Stinson
“The Flying Schoolgirl”
Born: 2/14/1891 Died: 7/8/1977 (86)
Montana State Fair, 1913
As a girl,
Stinson wanted to study music in Europe. To raise the money, she decided
to become a stunt pilot and cash in on the aviation craze sweeping the
country. Stinson eventually convinced aviation pioneer Max Lillie to
teach her, and in 1912 she became the fourth (4) American woman to
obtain a pilot's license. Abandoning music, Stinson performed airplane
stunts across the country as the “Flying Schoolgirl.” When the Stinson
family later moved to San Antonio, Tex., they established the Stinson
School of Flying.
In a plane she built herself,
Stinson became the first woman, and only the fourth pilot, in the United
States to master the dangerous “loop to loop” stunt. She was the first
pilot ever to fly at night, and the first to undertake night skywriting
when she flew over Los Angeles in 1915, using flares to spell “CAL.”
Stinson was the first woman to fly in Asia, performing in her own show
in China. She set a record of 610 mi when she flew from San Diego to San
Francisco in 1917. She later broke the record when she flew 783 mi from
Chicago to New York, delivering mail as the first female commissioned
airmail pilot. |
Marjorie Stinson
"The Flying Schoolmarm"
Born: 1896 Died: 15/4/1975 (79)
Encouraged by her sister Katherine's success, Marjorie Stinson decided
to learn to fly in June of 1914. With her mother's permission at the age
of 18 she enrolled in the Wright School at Dayton, soloed on August 4,
and received her license on August 12.
Marjorie received FAI Certificate No. 303.
She earned the title of "flying
Schoolmarm" by training over 100 student pilots. The Stinson School of
Flying closed in 1917 and the area it encompassed is now part of the San
Antonio Municipal Airport.
Marjorie Stinson
was inducted into the U.S. Aviation Reserve Crops, as its only woman, in
1915. |
