The Stout ST was a twin-engine

torpedo bomber A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight ...

built for the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

. It pioneered the American use of metal construction and the

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

"thick wing" design concepts of German aeronautical engineer

Hugo Junkers Hugo Junkers (3 February 1859 – 3 February 1935) was a German aircraft engineer and aircraft designer who pioneered the design of all-metal airplanes and flying wings. His company, Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (Junkers Aircraft and Mo ...

, themselves pioneered in the second half of 1915.

Development

The US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics had a requirement to review several types of torpedo-carrying aircraft. Prototypes of the Curtiss CT, Stout ST, Fokker FT and

Blackburn Swift F The Blackburn Dart was a carrier-based torpedo bomber biplane designed and manufactured by the British aviation company Blackburn Aircraft. It was the standard single-seat torpedo bomber operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) between 1923 and 19 ...

were evaluated at the Anacostia Naval Yard.

William Bushnell Stout William Bushnell Stout (March 16, 1880 – March 20, 1956) was a pioneering American inventor, engineer, developer and designer whose works in the automotive and aviation fields were groundbreaking. Known by the nickname "Bill", Stout designed an ...

approached the Navy with his all-metal torpedo bomber design. He estimated the aircraft would cost $50,000 each to produce. The aircraft was built in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

over a two-year period. Navy officials visited the facility frequently to inspect the new metal-forming and construction methods.

Design

The aircraft was a twin engine conventional geared mid-winged monoplane. Its primary feature was its corrugated metal construction, a new technique and different from the

tube-and-fabric Tube-and-fabric construction is a method of building airframes, which include the fuselages and wings of airplanes. It consists of making a framework of metal tubes (generally welded together) and then covering the framework with an aircraft fab ...

airplanes of the time. In addition, the internally supported cantilever wing developed for the Stout Batwing was employed. The aircraft was test flown successfully, however, the airplane showed signs of inadequate longitudinal stability.

Operational history

The first flight of the prototype, designated ST-1, was at Selfridge Field with

Edward Stinson Edward Anderson Stinson, Jr. (July 11, 1893 – January 26, 1932) was an American pilot and aircraft manufacturer. "Eddie" Stinson was the founder of Stinson Aircraft Company. At the time of his death in 1932 in an air crash, he was the world's ...

at the controls. The flight was witnessed by

William A. Moffett William Adger Moffett (October 31, 1869 – April 4, 1933) was an American admiral and Medal of Honor recipient known as the architect of naval aviation in the United States Navy. Biography Born October 31, 1869 in Charleston, South Carolina, ...

, chief of Navy Aeronautics. Stinson suggested changes to the aircraft, but none were made. At an acceptance ceremony, a Marine pilot stalled the aircraft and crashed it. The pilot survived, but all orders for the aircraft were canceled by the Navy. The loss of the aircraft and the Navy contract were financially devastating for Stout, prompting him to start his famous letter-writing campaign to eventually form Stout Engineering Company.

Variants

;ST-1 :Prototype, one built.

Specifications Stout ST-1

Notes

References

http://www.aerofiles.com/_stout.html {{USN torpedo aircraft 1920s United States civil utility aircraft ST Mid-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1922 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft Twin-tail aircraft