At least two different engines were used in Flivvers. Suspension function was achieved by using rubber doughnuts to mount the wheel struts to the wing. A custom exhaust manifold connected the cylinders to a stock Model T muffler. That wheel also carried the planes only brake. Since Ford didn’t like tail-draggers, the Flivver featured a tailwheel mounted to the rudder, making the plane steerable in the ground. The surfaces were made of fabric stretched over the frame. What Koppen came up with had a fuselage made of welded steel tubing and the wings were made of wood. Ford apparently liked the idea of a plane in every garage to go with the Model T that likely was there. Koppen would later say Ford’s instructions to him were that it had to be a single seat plane that was small enough that it could “fit in his office”. Some of the confusion may be due to the fact that two different versions and five total prototypes of the Flivver were built, with some of the planes being modified as many as three times. Koppen would go on to develop the world’s first short take off and and landing (STOL) airplane, the Helio Courier. Now some may think that because Ford’s attempt to build an everyman’s airplane ended up not being a successful venture that Koppen didn’t know what he was doing, but after working for Ford the aviation engineer returned to MIT where he had a long and distinguished career as an aeronautical engineering professor. Henry Ford had complained that the tail-dragging skid originally fitted to the plane tore up the sod at his airfield, Ford Airport.Īfter Stout and Mayo turned their boss down, happy with the young engineer’s work on the Trimotor, Henry turned to Otto Koppen. His first job there was to design the tail wheel on the Ford Trimotor. Koppen left the Army and got a job in Dearborn at the Ford owned Stout Metal Airplane Company. After he had a harrowing emergency landing he discovered that his parachute was faulty – had he bailed out he would have fallen to his death. Army Air Corps where he served for four years under Jimmy Doolittle. After graduating from college, Koppen enlisted in the U.S. Koppen, a young MIT trained aeronautical engineer. To design the new plane, named the Ford Flivver, after one of the Model T’s nicknames, Ford turned to Otto Koppen. Ford simply moved the project to a building in the Ford Laboratories complex.

All of Ford Motor Company stock was owned by Henry, Clara, and Edsel Ford, with Henry having the greatest share (49/3/48) so the firm was effectively Henry’s private feudal empire. By then Henry Ford had bought out all of his investors and partners. He first proposed the idea to the men running his aircraft division, Trimotor designer William Bushnell Stout and William Benson Mayo but based on Henry’s design brief, neither experienced aeronautical man wanted anything to do with project.

Otto travels to eight planets and rescues the humans, defeating the Giant Brain in a final confrontation.Following the success of the Ford Trimotor, one of the first successful commercial passenger and cargo airplanes, which was introduced in 1925, Henry Ford got the aviation bug and decided to build what he called a “Model T of the air”, a small, affordable single seat airplane. The player takes on the role of Otto Matic, one of a line of robots charged with policing the galaxy, as he attempts to defeat the Brain Aliens and restore the independence of the Earth. The people of Earth are being systematically abducted by the flying saucers of the Brain Aliens, who wish to transform the humans into new Brain Aliens, subject to the will of their leader, the Giant Brain. Otto Matic takes place in the year 1957, as the Earth is being conquered by the evil Brain Aliens from Planet X. The level design tends towards the whimsical: enemies include enormous walking vegetables, clowns, and miniature robotic wrecking balls, and the landscapes are usually cartoonish and warped. The levels include power-ups such as weapons, health, rocket fuel and jump-jet fuel, and occasionally brief vehicle sections. The majority of the game's points are scored by saving humans from abduction, although some points are also awarded for finding weapons and ammunition. To progress to the next level, the player must return to the rocket ship with enough fuel for take off. As soon as Otto has disembarked, the rocket ship promptly takes off again and lands at the end of the level. Levels typically begin with Otto landing his rocket ship on a planet controlled by the Brain Aliens. The gameplay of Otto Matic is level-based, and the player's success on a level is measured with points.

Otto matic pilot airplane