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Financial Problems of the American Aircraft Industry, 1906–1940*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

John B. Rae
John B. Rae
Affiliation:
Professor of History, Harvey Mudd College
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Abstract

The early patterns of finance in a twentieth-century transportation industry are examined by Professor Rae. His analysis is especially illustrative of the problems of companies manufacturing a product to highly exacting technical standards and for sale to a limited number of customers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 39 , Issue 1: Special Transportation Issue , Spring 1965 , pp. 99 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1965

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References

1 Aircraft Industries Association, Aviation Facts and Figures, 1955 (Washington, D.C.), p. 19.Google Scholar

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4 Ibid., p. 285; Wright, Orville, How We Invented the Airplane (New York, 1953), p. 72.Google Scholar

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6 Mansfield, Harold, Vision (New York, 1956), pp. 9–12.Google Scholar

7 The Martin Company (Baltimore, 1960), p. 36. They were William Loftus, Whittier oil man; W. A. Zimmerman, Santa Ana banker; and W. A. Collins, Los Angeles realtor.

8 Of Men and Stars, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, chap. 2 (April, 1957), pp. 8–10.

9 Kelly, Wright Brothers, p. 213.

10 Freudenthal, E. E., The Aviation Business: From Kitty Hawk to Wall Street (New York, 1940), p. 17.Google Scholar Germany led with expenditures of $28,000,000 for the same period.

11 Cunningham, W. G., The Aircraft Industry: A Study in Industrial Location (Los Angeles, 1951), p. 32.Google Scholar

12 Aircraft Year Book, 1919 (New York), p. 111.

13 Ibid., p. 273.

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23 Niven, John, Canby, Courtlandt, and Welsh, Vernon (eds.), Dynamic America (New York, 1960), p. 191.Google Scholar The private plane market did develop but became almost the exclusive property of a group of small companies in Wichita, Kansas. See Neville, J. T., “The Story of Wichita,” Aviation, vol. XXIX (1930), pp. 166–70, 291–95, 353–57.Google Scholar

24 Convair History, 1–8.

25 Smith, H. L., Airways (New York, 1942), p. 337.Google Scholar

26 Of Men and Stars, chap. 3 (May, 1957), p. 2.

27 The details of this incident are given in Wilson, E. E., Slipstream (New York, 1950), pp. 50passim.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., p. 75.

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32 The other members were: Howard E. Coffin, William F. Durand, General James G. Harbord, Admiral Frank J. Fletcher, Senator Hiram Bingham, Representatives James S. Parker and Carl Vinson, and Circuit Court Judge Arthur C. Dennison.

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36 History of United Airlines, p. 156.

37 Ibid., p. 158.

38 Wolfe, Thomas, Air Transportation, Traffic, and Management (New York, 1950), p. 19.Google Scholar

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40 Ibid., p. 13; North American Aviation, Inc., Annual Report, 1948, p. 10.

41 “Chronology of World, U. S. Aircraft Industry, and North American Aviation, Inc., Events Prior to World War II,” compiled by NAA Staff Office, Dept. 191, May 19, 1959.

42 Smith, Airways, p. 148.

43 Niven, Canby, and Welsh (eds.). Dynamic America, pp. 241, 245.

44 “Brief History of North American,” p. 9. Eastern Airlines remained a North American property until 1938.

45 “Kindelberger Biography,” ms. compiled by NAA Staff Office.

46 Aviation Facts and Figures, 2956, p. 35.

47 “Brief History,” p. 17.

48 Of Men and Stars, chap. 3 (May, 1957), p. 14.

49 Interview given to the author by Mr. Squier, July 29, 1962.

50 Of Men and Stars, chap. 3, p. 3.

51 Ibid., chap. 1, p. 11.

52 Ibid., chap. 4, p. 7.

53 “Brief History of North American,” p. 17.

54 Glenn L. Martin to C. R. Crane, Dec. 28, 1938, Martin Papers.

55 President's Air Policy Commission, Survival in the Air Age: A Report (Washington, D.C., 1948), p. 50.Google Scholar

56 Mr. Frank R. Collbohm, at that time an engineer with Douglas and later president of the RAND Corporation, believes that this system made for better engineering, because it cost money to make mistakes. Interview with author, June 6, 1961.

57 “Brief History of North American,” p. 19.

58 Craven, W. F. and Cate, J. L., The Army Air Forces in World War II, vol. VI, Men and Planes (Chicago, 1955), p. 187.Google Scholar

59 Axe and Co., Aviation Industry, p. 101.

60 This account is taken from a recorded interview by E. E. Wilson, “Engineering the Humanities,” given to the author through the courtesy of Mr. Wilson and Dr. Vernon D. Tate, Librarian of the United States Naval Academy.

61 Of Men and Stars, chap. 5 (July, 1957), p. 6.

62 Craven and Cate, Army Air Forces, vol. VI, p. 191.

63 Ibid., p. 301.