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 World War I, First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carryin ...

built for the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

. It pioneered the American use of metal construction and the

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at 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 cantilev ...

"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 ...

, 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 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 List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

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 fabri ...

airplanes of the time. In addition, the internally supported cantilever wing developed for the

Stout Batwing The Stout Batwing was an experimental low aspect ratio flying wing aircraft developed by William Bushnell Stout. The aircraft used wood veneer construction and was an early example of cantilever wing design. The internally braced wing was also on ...

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 ("Eddie") Stinson, Jr. (July 11, 1893 – January 26, 1932) was an American pilot and aircraft manufacturer.Longyard, William H.: ''Who's Who in Aviation History: 500 Biographies,'' 1994, Airlife, Shewsbury, England, pp.177-178; ...

at the controls. The flight was witnessed by William A. Moffett, 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 bomber aircraft ST Mid-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1922 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft Twin-tail aircraft Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear