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An Industry Worth Protecting? The Manufacturers Aircraft Association’s Struggle against the British Surplus, 1919–1922
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 June 2022
Abstract
The American aircraft industry’s important role in the economic, military, and cultural expansion of the United States over the past one hundred years has been well documented by historians. But America’s twentieth century aerial dominance was not preordained. After World War I, the nascent American aircraft industry faced a concerted British effort to dump thousands of war surplus machines on the U.S. market. With aircraft outside of the nation’s tariff regime, members of the Manufacturers Aircraft Association turned to Congress for emergency protections in the face of what they considered an existential threat. Despite efforts to equate a strong industrial base for aviation with the national defense, aircraft antidumping legislation became mired in partisan debates over tariff policy and accusations of wartime corruption. In the absence of relief from Congress, the Wright patent served as a barrier against the importation of foreign surplus machines.
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Footnotes
The author would like to thank attendees of the Linda Hall Library’s History of Science and Technology Works in Progress Seminar and reviewers for the Journal of Policy History for their insightful comments and suggestions.
References
NOTES
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21. By 1920, the MAA was comprised of the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Co., Boeing Airplane Co., Burgess Co., Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corp., Curtiss Engineering Corp., Dayton Wright Airplane Co., Fisher Body Corp., Gallaudet Aircraft Corp., L.W.F. Engineering Co., Glenn L. Martin Co., Packard Motor Car Co., St. Louis Aircraft Corp., Sturtevant Aeroplane Co., Thomas-Morse Aircraft Corp., West Virginia Aircraft Corp., and Wright Aeronautical Corp. Manufacturers Aircraft Association, Aircraft Yearbook (New York: Doubleday, Page and Co.: 1920), 140.
22. For more on the schism between the more sports-minded members of the Aero Club and those seeking to establish aviation as a legitimate business in the first decades of U.S. aviation, see Pisano, Dominick A., “The Greatest Show Not on Earth: The Confrontation between Utility and Entertainment in Aviation,” in The Airplane in American Culture, ed. Dominick A. Pisano, (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2003);CrossRefGoogle Scholar David Courtwright, Sky as Frontier: Adventure, Aviation, and Empire (College Station: Texas A&M Press, 2005); Bill Robie, For The Greatest Achievement: A History of the Aero Club of America and the National Aeronautical Association (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993).
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27. Conceived as “the first great move in awakening the consciousness of America to a fuller appreciation of aeronautics,” there was a certain irony that an exhibition established to promote the strength of the American aircraft industry included so many machines of foreign design. Manufacturers Aircraft Association, Aircraft Yearbook 1920 (New York: Manufacturers Aircraft Association, 1920), 140.
28. Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Manufacturers Aircraft Association, February 12, 1919, folder 10, box 2, MAA papers, AHC.
29. Affidavit of Arthur Johns, June 7, 1919, Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Corporation v. United Aircraft Engineering Corporation, Transcript of Record, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Series: Case Files, Briefs and Appendices, 1891–1993, National Archives and Records Administration Kansas City (hereafter referred to as Curtiss v. UAEC); “Buys an Airplane for Business Travel,” Air Service Journal 4, no. 11 (March. 15, 1919): 6.
30. Cross-License Agreement of July 24, 1917, and statement of Samuel Bradley both in Hearings Before the Select Committee of Inquiry into Operations of the United States Air Services (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1925), 226–33, 313. The vast majority of fees went to pay royalties to the Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation for U.S. Patent No. 821,393 and the Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Corporation for U.S. Patent No. 1,203,550 as called for in the cross-license agreement, but subscribers also received payments for “after-acquired” patents based on a monetary evaluation by a board of arbitration. Katznelson and Howells argue that the cross-licensing agreement provided the U.S. Government with a convenient and economical way to obtain access to a vast number of aeronautical patents without the need to defend itself against continuous claims of infringement in the Court of Claims. Ron D. Katznelson and John Howells, “The Myth of the Early Aviation Patent Hold-Up—How a US Government Monopsony Commandeered Pioneer Airplane Patents,” Industrial and Corporate Change 24, no. 1 (2015): 1–64.
31. As Bittlingmayer pointed out, the MAA was “the subject of at least four major public investigations during the years 1917–35.” Bittlingmayer, George, “Property Rights, Progress, and the Aircraft Patent Agreement,” The Journal of Law & Economics 31, no. 1 (April 1988): 227 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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34. “Curtiss Future Plans Broad,” Aerial Age Weekly 9, no. 4 (March 17, 1919): 26; “Curtiss Company Organizes Distributing Agencies,” Aerial Age Weekly 9, no. 6 (April 21, 1919): 284. Curtiss faced stiff competition from subsidized British, French, Italian, and German interests as it sought to export its machines in the 1920s. See Newton, The Perilous Sky; Pugach, Noel H., “American Aircraft Competition and the China Arms Embargo, 1919–1921,” Diplomatic History 2, no. 4 (Fall 1978): 351–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Xu, Guangqiu, “American–British Aircraft Competition in South China, 1926–1936,” Modern Asian Studies 35, no. 1 (2001): 157–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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36. “Idle Wings,” New York Tribune, February 10, 1919; “Who has Aeroplanes for Sale?” Aerial Age Weekly 9, no. 11 (May 26, 1919): 527.
37. With the war raging in Europe, Curtiss entered into several valuable contracts with Allied nations. According to Curtiss biographer William F. Trimble, “in early 1915, Curtiss delivered more than fifty Model K flying boats to the Russian navy” and “had dispatched 125 JN trainers and Forty H-4s to Europe” by October 1. Trimble, Hero of the Air, 180.
38. Negotiated for Great Britain of behalf of their agents J. P. Morgan & Co. and signed on November 20, the specifics of this order called for 200 JN-4As with OX-5 engines at $7,675 a piece; 40 sets of unit A spares and 24 sets of unit B spares at $5,621.05 and $4,601.90 each, respectively; 800 extra OX-5 engines at $2,375 each; and 1,000 sets of spares parts for engines priced at $145 each for a total of $3,915,287. It also stipulated the transfer of blueprints for the JN4-A and OX-5 motors to Great Britain. Agreement of November 20, 1916 (aircraft sales), in Curtiss v. UAEC, 21–38.
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77. Ord-Hume, The Great War-Plane Sell-Off, 67.
78. Precis by Mr. Cameron, January 28, 1920, 3165, T 1/12466, Records created or inherited by HM Treasury, National Archives, Kew, UK.
79. Ramsey to the Ministry of Munitions, February 7, 1920 and Contract between the British Government and the Imperial & Foreign Corporation, January 20, 1920, both in 3165, T 1/12466, Records created or inherited by HM Treasury, National Archives, Kew, UK; Alfred Nutting, Aircraft for Purchase, March 17, 1920, enclosed in Adee to Bradley, May 7, 1920, Legislation, Anti-Dumping, 1920, folder 10, box 133, MAA papers, AHC.
80. Sales Brochure, “Handley Page, Ltd., Sole Managing and Selling Agents for the Aircraft Disposal Co., Ltd.,” c. 1920, MUN 5/165/1124/50, Records of the Ministry of Munitions and successors, National Archives, Kew, UK; “The Big Aircraft Deal,” The Aeroplane 18 (March 24, 1920): 642.
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85. Exhibit F, Wright v. Handley Page et al.
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87. “How the “Surplus” Aeroplane Spectre is Being Put to Work to Produce Permanent Business for the Aeronautic Industry,” Aerial Age Weekly 11, no. 5 (April 12, 1920): 147.
88. Memorandum to Mr. W. H. Workman, May 31, 1918, Corr. Re: American User, box AC 70/10/3, Records of Handley Page, Ltd., Royal Air Force Museum Archives, London; “How the “Surplus” Aeroplane Spectre is Being Put to Work to Produce Permanent Business for the Aeronautic Industry,” Aerial Age Weekly 11, no. 5 (April 12, 1920): 147.
89. Historian Douglas A. Irwin dismisses Republican concerns over postwar dumping as a purely political tool, but Handley Page’s plan to dump thousands of war surplus aircraft and engines on the U.S. market constituted a genuine threat to the struggling American industry.
90. Anti-dumping Legislation, H. Rep. 66-479; To Provide Revenue and Encourage Domestic Industries by the Elimination, through Assessment of Special Duties, of Unfair Foreign Competition, and for Other Purposes, H.R. 10918, 66th Cong. (1919).
91. Copies of Correspondence Received from U.S. Senators and Representatives Regarding Anti-Dumping Bill, dated February 3 to May 1, folder 6, box 133, MAA papers, AHC; To Provide Revenue and Encourage Domestic Industries by the Elimination, through Assessment of Special Duties, of Unfair Foreign Competition, and for Other Purposes, H.R. 10918, 66th Cong. (1919).
92. Duties on Imports, Views of a Minority, S. Rep. 66-510; 59 Cong. Rec. S. 6625 (daily ed. May 6, 1920).
93. Bradley to Gott, March 16, 1920, Gott to Bradley, March 29, 1920, and Greely G. Curtis to Senator Walsh, all in folder 6, box 133, MAA papers, AHC; Martin to Bradley, March 25, 1920, folder 7, box 133, MAA papers, AHC.
94. Bell to Balsley (telegram), May 7, 1920 and Memorandum No. 1: Reference Aircraft Situation, both in folder 10, box 133, MAA papers, AHC. According to reports from the Consul General in London, invoices were generated for shipment to the United States of “six aero engines without planes and 57 aeroplanes with engines” from May 4–11 and another “twenty-four airplanes and two hundred fifty-six engines” from May 12–19. Polk to Bradley (telegram), May 14, 1920, folder 1, box 134, MAA papers, AHC; Colby to Bradley (telegram), May 22, 1920, folder 3, box 134, MAA papers, AHC.
95. 66 Cong. Rec. S. 7584 and 7588 (daily ed. May 25, 1920).
96. New to Bradley, May 14, 1920, and May 26, 1920, both in folder 1, box 134, MAA papers, AHC.
97. Third Pan-American Aeronautic Congress and Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce to Isaac Bacharach (telegram), May 25, 1920, folder 10, box 133, MAA papers, AHC.
98. Statements of Brigadier General William Mitchell and Statement of Clement M. Keys, May 28, 1920, in Importation of Surplus Airplanes, Part 1, 7–10, 22.
99. Loening had inspected the aircraft that the Aerial Sales Corporation displayed at the Third Pan-American Congress at the behest of Wright Aeronautical Corporation president George Houston, “with Mr. Workman not too happy about it.” Chance Vought to Fordney, June 1, 1920, folder 2, box 134, MAA papers, AHC; Loening to Fordney (telegram), May 26, 1920, HR 14368, box 415, RG 233, Records of the US House of Representatives, 66th Congress, Committee on Ways and Means, HR 66A-D32, NARA I; Grover C. Loening,” in Who’s Who in American Aeronautics (New York: Gardner, Moffat, 1922), 69; Loening, Takeoff to Greatness, 130.
100. Statement of William L. Brackett, and Statement of Alfred W. Harris, both in Importation of Surplus Aircraft, Part II, 36–58.
101. Aeroplane Anti-dumping, H. Rep. 66-1088. The bill reported out of the House Ways and Means Committee became H.R. 14368.
102. Hitchcock to Curtiss, June 5, 1920, folder 5, box 134, MAA papers, AHC; 59 Cong. Rec. S. 6625 (daily ed. June 4, 1920).
103. Bradley to Baxter, Jun. 17, 1920, folder 3, both in box 134, MAA papers, AHC; Affidavit of David J. Sandlands, in Wright v. Handley Page et al.
104. Workman to Halley in Affidavit of David J. Sandlands, in Wright v. Handley Page et al.
105. Workman to Ewell, July 31, 1920 and August 18, 1920, both in Affidavit of A. Travers Ewell, September 13, 1920, Workman to Woodall, September 7, 1920, in Affidavit of Harding C. Woodall, September 13, 1920, and Workman to McCausland, in Affidavit of Evelyn McCausland, September 13, 1920, all in Wright v. Handley Page et al.
106. ADC machines were regularly seen at Long Island’s Hazelhurst Field and the Curtiss Airport in Atlantic City. According to Sandlands, on July 12 Workman paid a $633 duty under Entry no. 4,416 for two cases marked ADC that had arrived in the Port of New York on May 25. On August 5, an incredulous Bradley expressed his dismay to Port of New York Director of Customs H. C. Stewart that imported surplus aircraft “have been assessed, duties paid and the equipment released.” Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Manufacturers Aircraft Association, June 18, 1920, folder 10, box 2, MAA Papers, AHC; Affidavit of Herbert R. Walrath, September 10, 1920 and Affidavit of Charles S. Jones, September 9, 1920, both in Wright v. Handley Page et al.; Bradley to Stewart, August 5, 1920, folder 4, box 134, MAA papers, AHC.
107. For more on the creation of the British Wright Company, see Crouch, The Bishop’s Boys and Driver, The Birth of Military Aviation.
108. The British Wright Company retained “rights for sporting use and … manufacture for export.” George Thatcher and Sons to Treasury Solicitor, September 11, 1914, in Affidavit of William H. Workman, in Wright v. Handley Page et al.; Letter from Brewer to C. G. Grey, printed in The Aeroplane 11, no. 14 (October 4, 1916): 581–82.
109. Testimony of Orville Wright, November 19, 1920, in Wright v. IAC.
110. Wheatley to Rentschler, August 7, 1920, folder 3, box 134, MAA papers, AHC; Affidavit of John Inwood, May 15, 1920, in Wright v. IAC. Wright Aeronautical Corporation vice president Frederick Rentschler retained the investigative services of Joseph Wheatley, a former Treasury official, to collect data on the importation situation in New York.
111. Exhibit C: Agreement between Wright Aeronautical Corp. and Interallied Aircraft Corp., June 25, 1920, in Affidavit of Clifford E. Dunn, in Wright v. Handley Page et al.
112. Houston requested restitution equal to four times the cost of airplanes sold. Bill of Complaint, May 6, 1920, and Affidavit of George Houston, May 4, 1920, both in Wright v. IAC.
113. Loening based his assessment on inspections of two IAC Avros at Long Island’s Hazelhurst Field. Affidavit of Grover Loening, May 10, 1920, Affidavit of David J. Sandlands, May 7, 1920, Affidavit of Rudolf Rothmund, May 7, 1920, Affidavit of Arthur L. Thurston, and Affidavit of Peter J. Sullivan, May 11, 1920, all in Wright v. IAC.
114. This agreement also allowed WAC to inspect the “factory, warehouse, plant and office of Interallied and its books” at any time. Exhibit C: Agreement between Wright Aeronautical Corp. and Interallied Aircraft Corp., June 25, 1920, in Affidavit of Clifford E. Dunn, in Wright v. Handley Page et al.; Affidavit of George Houston, in Wright Aeronautical Corp. v. Aerial Transport Corp. In Equity No. 393, RG 21, Records of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, National Archives and Records Administration, Philadelphia. (hereafter referred to as Wright v. ATC).
115. Affidavit of John Inwood, November 17, 1920, in Wright v. Handley Page et al. The Lawrence Sperry Aircraft Co. began running advertisements for Avros that were “formerly sold by Interallied Corp” in April 1921. Aerial Age Weekly 13, no. 4 (April 4, 1921): 95.
116. Second Affidavit of George Houston, July 10, 1920, in Wright v. ATC; Affidavit of George Houston, November 22, 1920, in Wright v. Handley Page et al.
117. Aerial Age Weekly 11, no. 19 (July 19, 1920): 640.
118. MAA Press Release regarding Wright v. IAC, Affidavit of Clifford E. Dunn, in Wright v. Handley Page et al.; Bill of Complaint, June 8, 1920, in Wright v. ATC.
119. Affidavit of Alfred W. Harris, July 6, 1920; Affidavit of Wiley L. Brackett, July 8,1920, both in Wright v. ATC; Aircraft Disposal Company Ltd., Board Meeting Minutes, December 20, 1920, box AC 70/10/36, Records of Handley Page, Ltd., Royal Air Force Museum Archives, London.
120. Denial of Preliminary Injunction, September 23, 1920, Final Decree, January 21, 1921, both in Wright v. ATC.
121. Affidavit of William H. Workman, November 16, 1920, in Wright v. Handley Page et al.
122. The Society of British Aircraft Constructors, Lmt., Minutes of Meeting of Committee of Management, Oct. 20, 1920, National Aerospace Library, The Hub, Fowler Avenue, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hampshire, UK.
123. Emergency Tariff Bill, H. Rep. 67-1.
124. Peterson to Bradley, April 26, 1921 and Fordney to Bradley, May 5, 1921, both in folder 6, box 134, MAA papers, AHC.
125. Bradley to Fordney and Bradley to Penrose, April 27, 1921, folder 6, box 134, MAA papers, AHC.
126. Bradley to Elias, May 24, 1921, folder 6, box 134, MAA papers, AHC.
127. General Tariff Revision, H.R. Rep. No. 67-248; Pub. L. No. 67-318, 42 Stat. 858–990.
128. Historians often portray the litigation between Wright and Curtiss as the reason why the United States lost its lead in aviation prior to World War I. Aviation historian Thomas Crouch, however, disagrees that such efforts seriously affected early aeronautical development in the United States. The Bishop’s Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1989); Katznelson and Howells, “The Myth of the Early Aviation Patent Hold-Up.”
129. President Wilson signed a $640 million appropriation on July 24, and additional supplemental bills followed in the months ahead. According to Air Service figures, these appropriations allowed American aircraft manufacturers to deliver 11,815 training and combat aircraft to the U.S. Army alone in 1918, a two hundred percent increase over the fifty-nine machines delivered between the years 1908 and 1916, inclusive. War Expenditures: Hearings Before Subcommittee No. 1 (Aviation), 510, 518.
130. For more on the path-dependent process inherent within the adoption of specific technologies, see Arthur, W. Brian, “Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events,” The Economic Journal 99, no. 394 (March 1989): 116–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For more on the use of path dependence in historical analysis, see Pierson, Paul Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
131. For more on the struggle between the United States and Great Britain for postwar control of the global aerial market and the importance of jet technology in that shift, Jeffrey A. Engel, Cold War at 30,000 Feet: The Anglo-American Fight for Aviation Supremacy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Dobson, Alan P., Peaceful Air Warfare: The United States, Britain, and the Politics of International Aviation (New York: The Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Giffard, Hermione, Making Jet Engines in World War II: Britain, Germany, and the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.