Photo  Galleries
	Wright Brothers/ 1903 Wright Flyer
	1903 Reproduction
	Ford Aviation Innovations

Henry Ford Aviation Innovations Photo Gallery
From the Collections of Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village and Ford Motor Company
   

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Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh at the Ford Airport in 1927. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh visited Henry Ford after his solo flight across the Atlantic and gave Ford his first and only airplane ride, in the “Spirit of St. Louis.”  Lindbergh later became the nation’s first chief commercial pilot – for Ford Motor Company.	Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh look at Ford Flivver at Ford Airport in August 1927.	Henry Ford
Edsel Ford	Dayton, Ohio, in 1936 Henry Ford (right) and his son Edsel (left) enjoyed a personal and professional relationship with Orville Wright (center), visiting each other and corresponding regularly over many years.	Edsel Ford (left), Richard Byrd (center) and William Stout in front of Ford Tri-Motor airplane, 1935 In 1923, Edsel Ford invested in the the Stout Metal Airplane Company, formed to build the first all-metal aircraft. It later became part of Ford Motor Company. In 1928, Ford donated a Ford Tri-Motor airplane to Commander Richard E. Byrd, the explorer, for the first flight over the South Pole.
B-24 bomber final assembly area at Ford Motor Company's Willow Run plant-built plant, September 1944 When World War II broke out, Ford built thousands of aircraft engines, as well as the B-24 Liberator bombers that were so instrumental in the Allied victory.	During World War II, Ford Motor Company produced more than 4,000 gliders in Kingsford, Mich., at the Iron Mountain assembly plant that helped carry American infantry into combat during the Normandy invasion and elsewhere.	Ford’s vision of aviation for the masses really gained momentum with the Ford Tri-Motor aircraft, first built 1925 and improved in 1926 with a Wright Brothers “Whirlwind” engine.  With the Tri-Motor’s immediate success, Ford’s Airplane Manufacturing Division became the world's largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft at the time. Ford built 196 Tri-Motor airplanes, ending production in 1932. Some still fly today.