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The Stinson Aircraft Company
was founded in Dayton, Ohio, in 1920 by aviator Edward “Eddie”
Stinson, the brother of Katherine Stinson. After five years of
business ventures, Stinson made Detroit, Michigan the focus of
his future flying endeavors. Stinson found Detroit's business
community receptive to his plans. A group of local businessmen
— the Detroit Board of Commerce's Aviation Committee —
supported Stinson's plans to establish the Stinson Aircraft Syndicate
in 1925 at a site southwest of Detroit, where today's Detroit
Metropolitan Wayne County Airport is located, and provided $25,000
to develop a new monoplane; the SM-1 Detroiter made its first
flight on January 25, 1926, and 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. Business was steadily increasing, and
Stinson delivered 121 aircraft in 1929. Automobile mogul Errett
Lobban (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, Illinois
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 at the time.
The Stinson name did not last much past the end of World War
II. Eddie Stinson's death accelerated the assimilation of Stinson
Aircraft Corporation into larger corporate entities: first by
Cord Corporation, then by Aviation Corporation (AVCO), and later
by Consolidated Vultee. By 1950 the Stinson company was sold
to the Piper Aircraft Corporation, which continued to produce
108s for a limited time. Piper transformed an original Stinson
design (the "Twin Stinson") into the successful Piper
Apache, the world's first general aviation all-metal twin-engined
modern aircraft. |
