William Bushnell Stout: Skycar

Skycar, c. 1930.

 

William Bushnell Stout worked for Ford as a designer until 1930 when he left to pursue designing aircraft and automobiles at his Stout Engineering Laboratory. The most notable aircraft designed by Stout during this time was the Stout Skycar, which was a lightweight personal aircraft intended to be as simple and affordable as a personal automobile. Four variations of the Skycar were built between 1931 and 1944. Stout also drew up conceptual renderings of numerous other types of aircraft with similar designs to the Skycar, including the Stout Safety Car and an airplane with an attached trailer, and applied the design concepts of his streamlined aircraft fuselage’s to the design of the Pullman Railplane. – D.P.

Concept drawing of airplane with attached trailer, c. 1941.

 

Pullman Railplane painting, 1933.