Higgins Aircraft was a subsidiary of

Higgins Industries Higgins Industries was the company owned by Andrew Higgins based in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Higgins Industries is most famous for the design and production of the Higgins boat, an amphibious landing craft referred to as LCVP (land ...

set up to build aircraft during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It manufactured war materials at the sprawling Michoud plant in northeastern New Orleans. Higgins Aircraft was contracted to build the all-plywood-construction Curtiss-Wright

C-76 Caravan The Curtiss-Wright C-76 Caravan (company designation CW-27) was an American all-wood military transport aircraft. The C-76 was intended as a substitute standard aircraft in the event of expected wartime shortages of light alloys.Dreher, Carl, ...

, and later, the

C-46 Commando The Curtiss C-46 Commando is a twin-engine transport aircraft derived from the Curtiss CW-20 pressurised high-altitude airliner design. Early press reports used the name "Condor III" but the Commando name was in use by early 1942 in company pub ...

, but both contracts were cancelled at an early stage, and the company managed to complete only two C-46A aircraft before production shut down. The Commando contract was cancelled on 10 August 1944.Associated Press, “Sweeping Cutback in Aircraft Production Slated As Plants Turn Energy to New Superfortresses”, ''The San Bernardino Daily Sun'', San Bernardino, California, Friday 11 August 1944, Volume 50, page 1. Before the government repossessed the factory complex, Higgins managed to finish a helicopter of early design in 1946. The Higgins factory complex was subsequently subdivided and sold at auction.

References

* Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States Defunct helicopter manufacturers of the United States {{aviation-stub