Ford’s Aviation History Lives on in This Building Which Will Soon Be Renovated

One of Ford Motor Company’s oldest buildings, which traces its beginnings to the company’s time in the early aviation industry, will soon be renovated as part of the Dearborn campus update that includes the Product Development Center. The Experimental Vehicles Building (EVB), which sits next to the Ford Experience Center (FXC) and across Oakwood Boulevard from Ford’s new World Headquarters, will be seeing several updates inside and out. 

The redesign will also bring the EVB into Ford’s modern era, aesthetically. Originally constructed in the 1920s and updated in the 1960s, the exterior of the EVB will be transformed to reflect the architectural design of Ford’s other Dearborn buildings and to bring in more natural light. 

Ford’s ties to the skies 

The EVB facility, which was originally built as an Albert Kahn-designed airplane factory, is one of the last remnants of the Ford Airport, which operated from 1925 until the site gave way to the company’s proving grounds in the late-1930s. The building was used as an airplane factory during Ford’s foray into aviation, which came at a time when the nascent industry was known more for stunts than travel, and included production of the Ford Tri-Motor Airplane. 

The 260-acre Ford Airport, which opened in 1925, included other buildings designed by Kahn. It was one of the world’s first modern airports, and along with producing nearly 200 Tri-Motor airplanes, Ford also operated the world’s first regularly scheduled commercial airline. The airplane factory housed inside what is now the EVB was built in 1926. Employees there were known for utilizing the same production techniques that helped make the Model T a household name and a fixture in millions of driveways around the world. 

The airport closed in 1947, a few years after test tracks were laid around the airport’s runways. The airplane factory became known as the Experimental Garage in 1951 and was renovated in 1968. The Ford Land team is currently looking at ways to incorporate Ford’s aviation heritage into the newly renovated EVB space. The building’s historic brick garage section is expected to remain largely untouched. The teams working in the facility are expected to be temporarily relocated for 18 months during the renovation. 

The company’s flirtation with aviation also yielded another jewel of Ford’s hometown campus: the newly renovated Dearborn Inn. Also designed by Albert Kahn, the luxury hotel was one of the country’s first dedicated to airline passengers. It originally opened in 1931 and recently underwent significant renovations to improve its infrastructure and guest experience, all while preserving Ford’s ties to skies. Ford’s partner, Marriott, has been managing the 290,000-square-foot hotel since 1989.

Digging up the past

Moses Fridman, a software integration technical specialist with more than 25 years at Ford, recently attended a lecture about the Ford Airport hosted by the Albert Kahn Legacy Foundation. The Detroit-based firm, and its founder, was a frequent collaborator with Henry Ford and Ford Motor Company, designing many of the company’s buildings in its early years, including the Highland Park plant and more than two dozen buildings at the Rouge. After some digging, Fridman discovered that the EVB’s “X” Garage still retains the original structure of the former airplane factory that once inhabited the structure. 

Fridman, a self-professed history nerd, appreciates Ford’s commitment to its roots in and around Dearborn and Detroit, and the company’s efforts to repurpose historic buildings. 

“It really helps preserve a continuity and makes you feel like you're connected to the history of the company and to its previous achievements and successes,” he said. “It really underscores the whole Ford as an American icon concept ... we’re working in this place and sitting in some of these buildings that go all the way back to the founding of the company and to the Model T as an early iconic product.”

From planes to prototypes 

The same space that once helped make Ford’s futuristic ambitions in flight a reality will soon be updated with the latest tools and spaces to help our teams channel their own pioneering spirit as they develop the next generation of vehicles. That will include capabilities that we can only dream of today, which will be used in ways we can only imagine.