Defense Plant Corporation

[Mark Shayne]

Greetings fellow Porterfield admirers. Back in March, Andy posted about an LP-65 on Barnstormers. The ad called it a "warbird" because it was transferred to the Defense Plant Corporation (DPC) in 1942-1944. Our Skinny Bird NC27249, was also owned by the DPC from 3/12/43 until 8/8/44. What is the consensus on this qualification for such status? I would imagine DPC used these birds for primary pilot training to support our country's defense efforts. Every Cub, Champ, Luscombe and
T-Craft must have been transferred as well. What say y'all?

Thanks,

Mark

[Andy Gelston]

The DPC bought a lot of Collegiate type aircraft and issued them to contracted flight schools participating in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. For instance, Interstate Aircraft's sole buyer of all their Cadets was the DPC. They never sold an airplane to a private individual, it was all government sales.

As for "warbird status," that's just marketing hype. Collegiates were never flown in combat, nor even as military hacks, nor "L-bugs." Thus, they have no military designations.

Porterfield did make WACO CG-4A gliders for a while. The War Department ordered them to shut down the Collegiate production line and retool for glider production. An Army captain arrived in a C-47 to inspect and test fly their first glider off the line. The glider had a radio onboard. The captain radioed down that the glider flew so well, he was accepting her right then, while still airborne...then he proceeded to roll her up into a ball on landing. Since she'd been accepted, Porterfield didn't lose any money in the debacle, but troop gliders were deemed obsolete on June 7th. 1944, and production halted, pronto.

[Brett Lovett]

Andy,

From my research of the CAA files for most of the Interstate Cadets (trying to learn about their Kansas City plant and any production there), I've found none that were sold directly to the DPC.  The DCP did acquire many of them later during the war from whomever owned them at the time, but that wasn't Interstate itself.  Interstate certainly did sell airplanes to private individuals, although more of the sales appear to have been to flight schools and/or dealers/resellers.  

I agree that DCP ownership doesn't qualify as "warbird status" for the reasons you've given.  

I've long been confused by the Porterfield/Columbia/Ward relationship, but recently found some period newspaper articles that sorts it out.  Porterfield Aircraft Corporation was acquired by Auchencloss, Parker, and Redpath, Inc., through a foreclosure of a loan in May 1941 and renamed it Columbia Aircraft Corporation.  E.E. Porterfield remained on board as acting manager, shutting down production in January 1942.  Sometime around then he started a new, separate company called Porterfield Aircraft Company, which won an Army contract for building Waco CG-4A troop gliders.  In May 1942, Ward Furniture Company purchased all stock in the Porterfield Aircraft Company and Porterfield moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas to be production manager.  Ward ultimately delivered only 7 gliders.  One of the newspaper articles indicates the first was built in Kansas City and was being tested at Wright Field the same day that Ward closed on the stock purchase.

One web article I found says that Porterfield won the glider contract as an individual, then formed the Porterfield Aircraft Company to build them.  It also claims that with advance payments made, those seven gliders cost the government about $380,000 each. Other companies contracted to build the gliders had issues as well.  

[Brett Lovett]

Sorry.  I typo-ed DCP twice.  I noticed it too late to edit.  It should be DPC in all cases, for Defense Plant Corporation.  

[Brett Lovett]

Oh, and troop gliders were hardly considered obsolete on June 7th, 1944.  They were used extensively as a part of Operation Market Garden in September 1944 and Operation Varsity in March 1945.  A few were even used in the Pacific theater, and production by some of the contracted manufacturers continued up until the end of the war in anticipation of use for the invasion of Japan.