This is the single greatest honor in the motor vehicle industry, intended to honor a career and/or lifetime achievement. To become a "Hall of Famer" the nominee must be either retired or deceased. Recipients must have significantly impacted the development of the automobile or the motor vehicle industry. Typically, four to eight individuals are inducted each year.
Developed the first all-metal airplane in America, in addition to countless automotive innovations
In the 1930s, developed a version of the minivan, which offered controlled heat and electric doors
Born in 1880 in Quincy, Illinois, Stout was very interested in gadgets and
making things at an early age. A magazine paid him twelve dollars for an article on mechanical toys he had made himself. He continued to write articles to put himself through the University of Minnesota.
In 1914 Stout created a cycle-car powered by a V-2 motorcycle engine with friction drive and four-speed automatic transmission. In 1919 at his Stout Engineering Labs in Dearborn, Michigan, he built the first American commercial monoplane. Henry Ford bought the Stout Metal Airplane Company in 1925 and Stout produced the Ford Tri-motor.
Stout designed many other advanced vehicles like his Scarab car, a people- moving forerunner to the minivan in 1936. It had a rear-mounted Ford V8 engine, flexible seating, thermostatically-controlled heat, electric door locks and a unit body. At the time of his death in 1956, Stout was studying the flight of insects and adapting their wing structure to airplane design.
