Editing Henry Ford (section)

==Career==
In 1891, Ford became an [[engineer]] with the [[DTE Electric Company|Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit]]. After his promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893, he had enough time and money to devote attention to his experiments on [[Petrol engine|gasoline engines]]. These experiments culminated in 1896 with the completion of a self-propelled automobiles, which he named the [[Ford Quadricycle]]. He test-drove it on June 4. After various test drives, Ford brainstormed ways to improve the Quadricycle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1896/quad.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615125140/http://hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1896/quad.html|title=The Showroom of Automotive History: 1896 Quadricycle<!-- Bot generated title -->|archivedate=June 15, 2010}}</ref>

Also in 1896, Ford attended a meeting of Edison executives, where he was introduced to [[Thomas Edison]]. Edison approved of Ford's automobile experimentation. Encouraged by Edison, Ford designed and built a second automobile, completing it in 1898.<ref name="birth">Ford R. Bryan, [http://hfha.org/HenryFord.htm "The Birth of Ford Motor Company"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120829193220/http://hfha.org/HenryFord.htm|date=August 29, 2012}}, Henry Ford Heritage Association, retrieved August 20, 2012.</ref> Backed by the capital of Detroit [[lumber baron]] William H. Murphy, Ford resigned from the Edison Company and founded the [[Detroit Automobile Company]] on August 5, 1899.<ref name=birth/> However, the automobiles produced were of a lower quality and higher price than Ford wanted. Ultimately, the company was not successful and was dissolved in January 1901.<ref name=birth/>

With the help of [[C. Harold Wills]], Ford designed, built, and successfully raced a 26-[[horsepower]] automobile in October 1901. With this success, Murphy and other stockholders in the Detroit Automobile Company formed the [[Henry Ford Company]] on November 30, 1901, with Ford as chief engineer.<ref name=birth/> In 1902, Murphy brought in [[Henry M. Leland]] as a consultant; Ford, in response, left the company bearing his name. With Ford gone, Leland renamed the company the [[Cadillac Automobile Company]].<ref name=birth/>

Teaming up with former racing cyclist [[Tom Cooper (driver)|Tom Cooper]], Ford also produced the 80+ horsepower racer "[[Ford 999|999]]," which [[Barney Oldfield]] was to drive to victory in a race in October 1902. Ford received the backing of an old acquaintance, [[Alexander Y. Malcomson]], a Detroit-area coal dealer.<ref name=birth/> They formed a partnership, Ford & Malcomson, Limited, to manufacture automobiles. Ford went to work designing an inexpensive automobiles, and the duo leased a factory and contracted with a machine shop owned by [[John F. Dodge|John]] and [[Horace E. Dodge]] to supply over $160,000 in parts.<ref name=birth/> Sales were slow, and a crisis arose when the Dodge brothers demanded payment for their first shipment.

===Ford Motor Company===
[[File:Ford Edison Firestone1.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Henry Ford with [[Thomas Edison]] and [[Harvey S. Firestone]]. [[Fort Myers, Florida]], February 11, 1929.]]

In response, Malcomson brought in another group of investors and convinced the Dodge brothers to accept a portion of the new company.<ref name=birth/> Ford & Malcomson was reincorporated as the [[Ford Motor Company]] on June 16, 1903,<ref name=birth/> with $28,000 capital. The original investors included Ford and Malcomson, the Dodge brothers, Malcomson's uncle [[John S. Gray (Michigan)|John S. Gray]], Malcolmson's secretary [[James Couzens]], and two of Malcomson's lawyers, John W. Anderson and [[Horace Rackham]]. Because of Ford's volatility, Gray was elected president of the company. Ford then demonstrated a newly designed car on the ice of [[Lake Saint Clair (North America)|Lake St. Clair]], driving {{convert|1|mi|km}} in 39.4 seconds and setting a new [[land speed record]] at {{convert|91.3|mph|km/h|abbr=off}}. Convinced by this success, race driver [[Barney Oldfield]], who named this new Ford model "[[Ford 999|999]]" in honor of the fastest [[locomotive]] of the day, took the car around the country, making the Ford brand known throughout the United States. Ford also was one of the early backers of the [[Indianapolis 500]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum |url=https://imsmuseum.org/fame_inductee/henry-ford/ |website=Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum |access-date=10 November 2023}}</ref>[[File:1909 Ford Advance Catalog - Model T Transmission.png|thumb|Ford's [[Transmission (mechanical device)|Transmission Mechanism]]. (1909)]]

=== Transmission Patent ===
In 1909, Ford applied for a patent on his new [[Transmission (mechanical device)|transmission]] mechanism. It was awarded a patent in 1911.<ref>{{Cite patent|number=US1005186A|title=Transmission mechanism|gdate=1911-10-10|invent1=Ford|inventor1-first=Henry|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US1005186A/en}}.</ref>

====Model T====
The [[Model T]] debuted on October 1, 1908. It had the [[steering wheel]] on the left, which every other company soon copied. The entire engine and [[Transmission (mechanical device)|transmission]] were enclosed; the four cylinders were cast in a solid block; the [[Car suspension|suspension]] used two semi-elliptic springs. The car was simple to drive, and easy and inexpensive to repair. It was so inexpensive at $825 in 1908 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|825|1908|r=-1}}}} today), with the price falling every year, that by the 1920s, a majority of American drivers had learned to drive on the Model T.<ref>Richard Bak, ''Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire'' (2003), pp. 54–63.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/ |title=The Life of Henry Ford |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011005164558/http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/ |archive-date=October 5, 2001 |access-date=November 28, 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Ford assembly line - 1913.jpg|left|thumb|Ford assembly line, 1913]]

Ford created a huge publicity machine in Detroit to ensure every newspaper carried stories and ads about the new product. Ford's network of local dealers made the car ubiquitous in almost every city in North America. As independent dealers, the franchises grew rich and publicized not just the Ford but also the concept of car local [[motor club]]s sprang up to help new drivers and encourage them to explore the countryside. Ford was always eager to sell to farmers, who looked at the automobile as a commercial device to help their business. Sales skyrocketed—several years posted 100% gains on the previous year. In 1913, Ford introduced moving assembly belts into his plants, which enabled an enormous increase in production. Although Ford is often credited with the idea, contemporary sources indicate that the concept and development came from employees [[Clarence Avery]], [[Peter E. Martin]], [[Charles E. Sorensen]], and [[C. Harold Wills]].<ref>Nevins (1954), 1: 387–415.</ref> (See [[Ford Piquette Avenue Plant]].)

Sales passed 250,000 in 1914. By 1916, as the price dropped to $360 for the basic touring car, sales reached 472,000.<ref>Lewis 1976, pp. 41–59.</ref>

By 1918, half of all cars in the United States were Model Ts. All new cars were black; as Ford wrote in his autobiography, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_p72">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA72 p. 72].</ref> Until the development of the assembly line, which mandated black because of its quicker drying time, Model Ts were available in other colors, including red. The design was fervently promoted and defended by Ford, and production continued as late as 1927; the final total production was 15,007,034. This record stood for the next 45 years, and was achieved in 19 years from the introduction of the first Model T (1908).<ref>{{Cite news |title=Beetle overtakes Model T as world's best-selling car |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/beetle-overtakes-model-t-as-worlds-best-selling-car |access-date=2022-06-26 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref>

Henry Ford turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son [[Edsel Ford]] in December 1918. Henry retained final decision authority and sometimes reversed the decisions of his son. Ford started another company, Henry Ford and Son, and made a show of taking himself and his best employees to the new company; the goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the Ford Motor Company to sell their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. (He was determined to have full control over strategic decisions.) The ruse worked, and Henry and Edsel purchased all remaining stock from the other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of the company.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), vol. 2.</ref>

In 1922, Ford also purchased [[Lincoln Motor Company|Lincoln Motor Co.]], founded by Cadillac founder [[Henry Leland]] and his son Wilfred during World War I. The Lelands briefly stayed to manage the company, but were soon expelled from it.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lincoln Motor Company Plant |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/lincoln-motor-company-plant.htm |website=National Park Service |access-date=July 1, 2021 |date=August 29, 2018}}</ref> Despite this acquisition of a premium car maker, Henry displayed relatively little enthusiasm for luxury automobiles in contrast to Edsel, who actively sought to expand Ford into the upscale market.<ref name="King 2003">{{harvnb|King|2003}}.</ref> The original [[Lincoln L series|Lincoln Model L]] that the Lelands had introduced in 1920 was also kept in production, untouched for a decade until it became too outdated. It was replaced by the modernized [[Lincoln K series|Model K]] in 1931.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Edsel Ford and the Lincoln DNA |url=https://corporate.ford.com/articles/history/edsel-ford-and-the-lincoln-dna.html |access-date=2023-10-19 |website=Ford Corporate |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:1924-1925 Ford - T Roadster, Coimbatore (1).jpg|thumb|A 1926 Ford T Roadster on display in India]]

By the mid-1920s, [[General Motors]] was rapidly rising as the leading American vehicle manufacturer. GM president [[Alfred Sloan]] established the company's "price ladder" whereby GM would offer an automobile for "every purse and purpose" in contrast to Ford's lack of interest in anything outside the low-end market. Although Henry Ford was against replacing the Model T, now 16 years old, Chevrolet was mounting a bold new challenge as GM's entry-level division in the company's price ladder. Ford also resisted the increasingly popular idea of payment plans for cars. With Model T sales starting to slide, Ford was forced to relent and approve work on a successor model, shutting down production for 18 months. During this time, Ford constructed a massive new assembly plant at River Rouge for the new Model A, which launched in 1927.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), 2: 409–436.</ref>

In addition to its price ladder, GM also quickly established itself at the forefront of automotive styling under [[Harley Earl]]'s Arts & Color Department, another area of automobile design that Henry Ford did not entirely appreciate or understand. Ford would not have a true equivalent of the GM styling department for many years.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

====Model A and Ford's later career====
By 1926, flagging sales of the Model T finally convinced Ford to make a new model. He pursued the project with a great deal of interest in the design of the engine, chassis, and other mechanical necessities, while leaving the body design to his son. Although Ford fancied himself an engineering genius, he had little formal training in mechanical engineering and could not even read a blueprint. A talented team of engineers performed most of the actual work of designing the Model A (and later the flathead V8) with Ford supervising them closely and giving them overall direction. Edsel also managed to prevail over his father's initial objections in the inclusion of a sliding-shift transmission.<ref name="Sorensen1956p223">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|p=223}}.</ref>

The result was the [[Ford Model A (1927-1931)|Ford Model A]], introduced in December 1927 and produced through 1931, with a total output of more than four&nbsp;million. Subsequently, the Ford company adopted an annual model change system similar to that recently pioneered by its competitor General Motors (and still in use by automobiles today). Not until the 1930s did Ford overcome his objection to finance companies, and the Ford-owned [[Universal Credit Corporation]] became a major car-financing operation. Henry Ford still resisted many technological innovations such as hydraulic brakes and all-metal roofs, which Ford automobiles did not adopt until 1935–1936. For 1932 however, Ford dropped a bombshell with the [[Ford flathead V8 engine|flathead Ford V8]], the first low-price eight-cylinder engine. The flathead V8, variants of which were used in Ford automobiles for 20 years, was the result of a secret project launched in 1930 and Henry had initially considered a radical X-8 engine before agreeing to a conventional design. It gave Ford a reputation as a performance make well-suited for hot-rodding.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), 2: 459–478.</ref>

Also, at Edsel's insistence, Ford launched Mercury in 1939 as a mid-range make to challenge Dodge and Buick, although Henry also displayed relatively little enthusiasm for it.<ref name="King 2003"/>

====Labor philosophy====
=====Five-dollar wage=====
[[File:Timehenryford.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine cover, January 14, 1935]]
Ford was a pioneer of "[[welfare capitalism]]", designed to improve the lot of his workers and especially to reduce the heavy [[turnover (employment)|turnover]] that had many departments hiring 300 men per year to fill 100 slots. Efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best workers.<ref>Nevins and Hill (1957), 2: 508–540.</ref>

Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering a $5 daily wage (${{Inflation|index=US|value=5|start_year=1914|r=0}} in {{Inflation/year|index=US}}), which more than doubled the rate of most of his workers.<ref>Using the [[consumer price index]], this was equivalent to $111.10 per day in 2008 dollars.</ref> A [[Cleveland, Ohio]], newspaper editorialized that the announcement "shot like a blinding rocket through the dark clouds of the present industrial depression".<ref>Lewis, ''Public Image,'' p. 71.</ref> The move proved extremely profitable; instead of constant employee turnover, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing their [[human capital]] and expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs.<ref>Nevins, ''Ford,'' 1: 528–541.</ref><ref>Watts, ''People's Tycoon,'' pp. 178–194.</ref> Ford announced his $5-per-day program on January 5, 1914, raising the minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying male workers.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2014/01/27/267145552/the-middle-class-took-off-100-years-ago-thanks-to-henry-ford |title=The Middle Class Took Off 100 Years Ago ... Thanks To Henry Ford? |work=NPR.org |last=Ciwek |first=Sarah |date=January 27, 2014 |access-date=July 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106033815/https://www.npr.org/2014/01/27/267145552/the-middle-class-took-off-100-years-ago-thanks-to-henry-ford|archive-date=January 6, 2022|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/jan-5-1914-henry-ford-implements-5-a-day-wage/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206105248/https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/jan-5-1914-henry-ford-implements-5-a-day-wage/|archive-date=February 6, 2022|title=Jan. 5, 1914 : Henry Ford Implements the $5-a-Day Wage |website=The New York Times |author=The Learning Network |date=January 5, 2012 |access-date=July 29, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Detroit was already a high-wage city, but competitors were forced to raise wages or lose their best workers.<ref>Watts, ''People's Tycoon,'' pp. 193–194.</ref> Ford's policy proved that paying employees more would enable them to afford the cars they were producing and thus boost the local economy. He viewed the increased wages as profit-sharing linked with rewarding those who were most productive and of good character.<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_pp126-130">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA126 pp. 126–30].</ref> It may have been [[James Couzens]] who convinced Ford to adopt the $5-day wage.<ref>Lewis, ''Public Image,'' pp. 69–70.</ref>

Real profit-sharing was offered to employees who had worked at the company for six months or more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner of which Ford's "Social Department" approved. They frowned on heavy drinking, gambling, and on what are now called [[deadbeat parent|deadbeat dads]]. The Social Department used 50 investigators and support staff to maintain employee standards; a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for this "profit-sharing".<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|year=1915|title=Helpful Hints and Advice to Ford Employes [sic]|url=https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/367411/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119152200/https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/367411/|archive-date=November 19, 2021|access-date=February 13, 2021|website=www.thehenryford.org|publisher=Ford Motor Company|location=Detroit|pages=8–9|language=en}}</ref>

Ford's incursion into his employees' private lives was highly controversial, and he soon backed off from the most intrusive aspects. By the time he wrote his 1922 memoir, he spoke of the Social Department and the private conditions for [[profit-sharing]] in the past tense. He admitted that "paternalism has no place in the industry. Welfare work that consists in prying into employees' private concerns is out of date. Men need counsel and men need help, often special help; and all this ought to be rendered for decency's sake. But the broad workable plan of investment and participation will do more to solidify the industry and strengthen the organization than will any social work on the outside. Without changing the principle we have changed the method of payment."<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_p130">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA130 p. 130].</ref>

=====Five-day workweek=====
In addition to raising his workers' wages, Ford also introduced a new, reduced workweek in 1926. The decision was made in 1922, when Ford and Crowther described it as six 8-hour days, giving a 48-hour week,<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_p126">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA126 p. 126].</ref> but in 1926 it was announced as five 8-hour days, giving a 40-hour week.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Crowther |first=Samuel |date=October 1926 |title=Henry Ford: "Why I Favor Five Days' Work With Six Days' Pay" |url=http://geowords.com/e_/e_readings/ford2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108141134/http://geowords.com/e_/e_readings/ford2.htm |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |magazine=World's Work |pages=613–616}}</ref> The program apparently started with Saturday being designated a workday, before becoming a day off sometime later. On May 1, 1926, the Ford Motor Company's factory workers switched to a five-day, 40-hour workweek, with the company's office workers making the transition the following August.<ref name="history">{{Cite web |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-factory-workers-get-40-hour-week/print |title=May 01, 1926 : Ford Factory workers get 40-hour week |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180325165437/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-factory-workers-get-40-hour-week/print |archive-date=March 25, 2018 |access-date=December 1, 2018 }}</ref>

Ford had decided to boost productivity, as workers were expected to put more effort into their work in exchange for more leisure time. Ford also believed decent leisure time was good for business, giving workers additional time to purchase and consume more goods. However, charitable concerns also played a role. Ford explained, "It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either 'lost time' or a class privilege."<ref name=history/>

=====Labor unions=====
Ford was adamantly against [[trade union|labor unions]]. He explained his views on unions in Chapter 18 of ''My Life and Work''.<ref name="Ford_Crowther_1922_pp253-266">{{Harvnb|Ford|Crowther|1922}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4K82efXzn10C&pg=PA253 pp. 253–66].</ref> He thought they were too heavily influenced by leaders who would end up doing more harm than good for workers despite their ostensible good motives. {{Anchor|No_prosperity_without_productivity}} Most wanted to restrict productivity as a means to foster employment, but Ford saw this as self-defeating because, in his view, productivity was necessary for economic prosperity to exist.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

He believed that productivity gains that obviated certain jobs would nevertheless stimulate the broader economy and grow new jobs elsewhere, whether within the same corporation or in others. Ford also believed that union leaders had a [[perverse incentive]] to foment perpetual socio-economic crises to maintain their power. Meanwhile, he believed that smart managers had an incentive to do right by their workers, because doing so would maximize their profits. However, Ford did acknowledge that many managers were basically too bad at managing to understand this fact. But Ford believed that eventually, if good managers such as he, could fend off the attacks of misguided people from both left and right (i.e., both socialists and bad-manager reactionaries), the good managers would create a socio-economic system wherein neither bad management nor bad unions could find enough support to continue existing.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

To forestall union activity, Ford promoted [[Harry Bennett]], a former [[United States Navy|Navy]] boxer, to head the Service Department. Bennett employed various intimidation tactics to quash union organizing.<ref>Harris, J.: ''Henry Ford'', pp. 91–92. Moffa Press, 1984.</ref> On March 7, 1932, during the [[Great Depression]], unemployed Detroit auto workers staged the [[Ford Hunger March]] to the [[Ford River Rouge Complex]] to present 14 demands to Henry Ford. The [[Dearborn, Michigan|Dearborn]] police department and Ford security guards opened fire on workers leading to over sixty injuries and five deaths. On May 26, 1937, Bennett's security men beat members of the [[United Automobile Workers]] (UAW), including [[Walter Reuther]], with clubs.<ref name="Wallace">{{Cite book |last=Wallace |first=Max |url=http://archive.org/details/americanaxis00maxw |title=The American axis : Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the rise of the Third Reich |date=2003 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-29022-1 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref> While Bennett's men were beating the UAW representatives, the supervising police chief on the scene was Carl Brooks, an alumnus of Bennett's Service Department, and Brooks "did not give orders to intervene".<ref name=Wallace />{{rp|311}}The following day photographs of the injured UAW members appeared in newspapers, later becoming known as [[The Battle of the Overpass]].{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Edsel—who was president of the company—thought Ford had to come to a [[collective bargaining]] agreement with the unions because the violence, work disruptions, and bitter stalemates could not go on forever. But Ford, who still had the final veto in the company on a ''de facto'' basis even if not an official one, refused to cooperate. For several years, he kept Bennett in charge of talking to the unions trying to organize the Ford Motor Company. Sorensen's memoir<ref name="Sorensen1956p261">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|p=261}}.</ref> makes clear that Ford's purpose in putting Bennett in charge was to make sure no agreements were ever reached.{{citation needed|date = June 2021}}

The Ford Motor Company was the last Detroit automaker to recognize the UAW, despite pressure from the rest of the U.S. automotive industry and even the U.S. government. A sit-down strike by the UAW union in April 1941 closed the [[River Rouge Plant]]. Sorensen recounted<ref name="Sorensen1956pp266-272">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|pp=266–72}}.</ref> that a distraught Henry Ford was very close to following through with a threat to break up the company rather than cooperate. Still, his wife Clara told him she would leave him if he destroyed the family business. In her view, it would not be worth the chaos it would create. Ford complied with his wife's ultimatum and even agreed with her in retrospect.

Overnight, the Ford Motor Company went from the most stubborn holdout among automakers to the one with the most favorable UAW contract terms. The contract was signed in June 1941.<ref name="Sorensen1956pp266-272" /> About a year later, Ford told Walter Reuther, "It was one of the most sensible things Harry Bennett ever did when he got the UAW into this plant." Reuther inquired, "What do you mean?" Ford replied, "Well, you've been fighting General Motors and the Wall Street crowd. Now you're in here and we've given you a union shop and more than you got out of them. That puts you on our side, doesn't it? We can fight General Motors and Wall Street together, eh?"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reuther Dickmeyer |first=Elisabeth |url=https://archive.org/details/puttingworldtoge0000dick/page/63 |title=Putting the world together : my father Walter Reuther, the liberal warrior |date=2004 |publisher=LivingForce Pub |isbn=978-0975379219 |location=Lake Orion, Michigan |page=[https://archive.org/details/puttingworldtoge0000dick/page/63 63] |oclc=57172289}}</ref>

===Ford Airplane Company===
[[File:Ford 4ATF.jpg|thumb|left|Ford 4-AT-F (EC-RRA) of the Spanish Republican Airline, [[L.A.P.E.]]]]
Like other automobile companies, Ford entered the aviation business during [[World War I]], building [[Liberty L-12|Liberty engines]]. After the war, it returned to auto manufacturing until 1925, when Ford acquired the [[Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company|Stout Metal Airplane Company]].

Ford's most successful aircraft was the [[Ford Trimotor|Ford 4AT Trimotor]], often called the "Tin Goose" because of its corrugated metal construction. It used a new alloy called [[Alclad]] that combined the corrosion resistance of aluminum with the strength of [[duralumin]]. The plane was similar to [[Fokker]]'s V.VII–3m. The Trimotor first flew on June 11, 1926, and was the first successful U.S. passenger airliner, accommodating about 12 passengers in a rather uncomfortable fashion. Several variants were also used by the [[U.S. Army]]. The [[Smithsonian Institution]] has honored Ford for changing the aviation industry. 199 Trimotors were built before it was discontinued in 1933, when the Ford Airplane Division shut down because of poor sales during the [[Great Depression]].

In 1985, Ford was posthumously inducted into the [[National Aviation Hall of Fame]] for his impact on the industry.<ref name=NAHF/>

====World War I era and peace activism====
{{Further|Peace Ship|1918 United States Senate election in Michigan}}

Ford opposed war, which he viewed as a terrible waste,<ref name="Ford-Bio-A&E">Henry Ford, Biography (March 25, 1999). ''A&E Television''.</ref><ref>Michigan History, January/February 1993.</ref> and supported causes that opposed [[military intervention]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2017/04/06/examining-american-peace-movement-prior-world-war-i |title=Examining the American peace movement prior to World War I |date=April 6, 2017}}</ref> Ford became highly critical of those who he felt financed war, and he tried to stop them. In 1915, the pacifist [[Rosika Schwimmer]] gained favor with Ford, who agreed to fund a [[Peace Ship]] to Europe, where World War I was raging. He led 170 other peace activists. Ford's Episcopalian pastor, Reverend Samuel S. Marquis, accompanied him on the mission. Marquis headed Ford's Sociology Department from 1913 to 1921. Ford talked to President Woodrow Wilson about the mission but had no government support. His group went to neutral Sweden and the Netherlands to meet with peace activists. A target of much ridicule, Ford left the ship as soon as it reached Sweden.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Watts |url=https://archive.org/details/peoplestycoonhen00watt |title=''The People's Tycoon'' |publisher=A. A. Knopf |year=2005 |isbn=9780375407352 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/peoplestycoonhen00watt/page/225 225–249] |url-access=registration}}</ref> In 1915, Ford blamed "German-Jewish bankers" for instigating the war.<ref>Norwood, Stephen Harlan. ''Encyclopedia of American Jewish History''. Vol. 1. Abc-clio, 2008, p. 182.</ref>

According to biographer Steven Watts, Ford's status as a leading industrialist gave him a worldview that warfare was wasteful folly that retarded long-term economic growth. The losing side in the war typically suffered heavy damage. Small business were especially hurt, for it takes years to recuperate. He argued in many newspaper articles that a focus on business efficiency would discourage warfare because, "If every man who manufactures an article would make the very best he can in the very best way at the very lowest possible price the world would be kept out of war, for commercialists would not have to search for outside markets which the other fellow covets." Ford admitted that munitions makers enjoyed wars, but he argued that most businesses wanted to avoid wars and instead work to manufacture and sell useful goods, hire workers, and generate steady long-term profits.<ref>Steven Watts, ''The people's tycoon: Henry Ford and the American century'' (Vintage, 2009). pp. 236–237.</ref>

Ford's British factories produced [[Fordson]] tractors to increase the British food supply, as well as trucks and warplane engines. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Ford went quiet on foreign policy. His company became a major supplier of weapons, especially the Liberty engine for warplanes and [[Eagle-class patrol craft|anti-submarine boats]].<ref name=Ford/>{{rp|95–100,119}}<ref>Allan Nevins and Frank Ernest Hill, ''Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915–1933'' (1957), 2: 55–85.</ref>

In 1918, with the war on and the [[League of Nations]] a growing issue in global politics, President [[Woodrow Wilson]], a Democrat, encouraged Ford to run for a Michigan seat in the U.S. Senate. Wilson believed that Ford could tip the scales in Congress in favor of Wilson's proposed [[League of Nations|League]]. "You are the only man in Michigan who can be elected and help bring about the peace you so desire," the president wrote Ford. Ford wrote back: "If they want to elect me let them do so, but I won't make a penny's investment." Ford did run, however, and came within 7,000 votes of winning, out of more than 400,000 cast statewide.<ref>Banham, Russ. (2002) ''The Ford Century.'' Tehabi Books. {{ISBN|188765688X}}, p. 44.</ref> He was defeated in a close election by the Republican candidate, [[Truman Newberry]], a former [[United States Secretary of the Navy]]. Ford remained a staunch Wilsonian and supporter of the League. When Wilson made a major speaking tour in the summer of 1919 to promote the League, Ford helped fund the attendant publicity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Watts |url=https://archive.org/details/peoplestycoonhen00watt |title=''The People's Tycoon'' |publisher=A. A. Knopf |year=2005 |isbn=9780375407352 |page=[https://archive.org/details/peoplestycoonhen00watt/page/378 378] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>John Milton Cooper Jr., ''Woodrow Wilson: A Biography'' (2009), p. 521.</ref>

====World War II era and controversies====
Ford opposed the United States' entry into World War II<ref name="Wallace" /><ref>Baldwin, Neil (2001). ''Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate''. New York: Public Affairs.</ref> and continued to believe that international business could generate the prosperity that would head off wars. Ford "insisted that war was the product of greedy financiers who sought profit in human destruction". In 1939, he went so far as to claim that the torpedoing of U.S. merchant ships by German submarines was the result of conspiratorial activities undertaken by financier war-makers.<ref>Stephen Watts, ''The People's Tycoon'' (2005), p. 505.</ref> The financiers to whom he was referring was Ford's code for Jews; he had also accused Jews of fomenting the First World War.<ref name="Wallace" /><ref>Baldwin.</ref>

In the run-up to World War II and when the war erupted in 1939, he reported that he did not want to trade with belligerents. Like many other businessmen of the Great Depression era, he never liked or entirely trusted the Franklin Roosevelt Administration, and thought Roosevelt was inching the U.S. closer to war. Ford continued to do business with [[Nazi Germany]], including the manufacture of war [[materiel]].<ref name="Wallace" /> However, he also agreed to build warplane engines for the British government.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://michiganhistory.leadr.msu.edu/wwii-and-ford-motor-company/|title=WWII and Ford Motor Company – Michigan History}}</ref> In early 1940, he boasted that Ford Motor Company would soon be able to produce 1,000 U.S. warplanes a day, even though it did not have an aircraft production facility at that time.<ref name="LegendOfHenryFord">{{cite book | last=Sward | first=Keith | title=The Legend of Henry Ford | publisher=Rinehart & Company Inc. | year=1948 | url=https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_d3s5 | access-date=April 26, 2020}}</ref>{{rp|430}} Ford was a prominent early member of the [[America First Committee]] against World War II involvement, but was forced to resign from its executive board when his involvement proved too controversial.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Susan |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/847526899 |title=1940 : FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler--the election amid the storm |date=2013 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0300195132 |location=New Haven, Connecticut |oclc=847526899}}</ref>

Beginning in 1940, with the requisitioning of between 100 and 200 French [[Prisoner of war|POWs]] to work as slave laborers, ''[[Ford Germany|Ford-Werke]]'' contravened Article 31 of the 1929 [[Geneva Conventions|Geneva Convention]].<ref name="Wallace" />

When [[Rolls-Royce Limited|Rolls-Royce]] sought a U.S. manufacturer as an additional source for the [[Rolls-Royce Merlin|Merlin]] engine (as fitted to [[Supermarine Spitfire|Spitfire]] and [[Hawker Hurricane|Hurricane]] fighters), Ford first agreed to do so and then reneged. He "lined up behind the war effort" when the U.S. entered in December 1941.<ref>Watts, ''The People's Tycoon'' (2005), p. 508.</ref>

====Willow Run====
Before the U.S. entered the war, responding to President Roosevelt's call in December 1940 for the "Great Arsenal of Democracy", Ford directed the [[Ford Motor Company]] to construct a vast new purpose-built aircraft factory at [[Willow Run]] near Detroit, Michigan. Ford broke ground on Willow Run in the spring of 1941, B-24 component production began in May 1942, and the first complete [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator|B-24]] came off the assembly line in October 1942. At {{convert|3,500,000|ft2|m2|abbr=on}}, it was the largest assembly line in the world at the time. At its peak in 1944, the Willow Run plant produced 650 B-24s per month, and by 1945 Ford was completing each B-24 in eighteen hours, with one rolling off the assembly line every 58 minutes.<ref name="Willowrun">Nolan, Jenny. [https://web.archive.org/web/20180625103810/http://blogs.detroitnews.com/history/1997/01/27/willow-run-and-the-arsenal-of-democracy/ "Michigan History: Willow Run and the Arsenal of Democracy."]  ''The Detroit News,'' January 28, 1997. Retrieved: August 7, 2010.</ref> Ford produced 9,000 B-24s at Willow Run, half of the 18,000 total B-24s produced during the war.<ref name="Willowrun" /><ref name="LegendOfHenryFord" />{{rp|430}}

====Edsel's death====
When Edsel Ford died of cancer in 1943, at age 49, Henry Ford nominally resumed control of the company, but a series of strokes in the late 1930s had left him increasingly debilitated, and his mental ability was fading. Ford was increasingly sidelined, and others made decisions in his name.<ref>Watts, ''The People's Tycoon'' (2005), p. 503.</ref> The company was controlled by a handful of senior executives led by [[Charles Sorensen]], an important engineer and production executive at Ford; and [[Harry Bennett]], the chief of Ford's Service Unit, Ford's paramilitary force that spied on, and enforced discipline upon, Ford employees. Ford grew jealous of the publicity Sorensen received and forced Sorensen out in 1944.<ref>Watts, ''The People's Tycoon'' (2005), pp. 522–525.</ref> Ford's incompetence led to discussions in Washington about how to restore the company, whether by wartime government fiat, or by instigating a coup among executives and directors.<ref name="Sorensen1956pp324–333">{{Harvnb|Sorensen|1956|pp=324–333}}.</ref>

====Forced out====
Nothing happened until 1945 when, with bankruptcy a serious risk, Ford's wife Clara and Edsel's widow Eleanor confronted him and demanded he cede control of the company to his grandson [[Henry Ford II]]. They threatened to sell off their stock, which amounted to three quarters of the company's total shares, if he refused. Ford was reportedly infuriated, but he had no choice but to give in.<ref>Yates, Brock. "10 Best Moguls", in ''Car and Driver'', 1/88, p. 45.</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Maybe an less than perferct RS|date=March 2014}}<ref>Watts, ''The People's Tycoon'' (2005), pp. 522–527.</ref> The young man took over and, as his first act of business, fired Harry Bennett.