STOUT AIR SERVICES, INC. was an early airline that provided transportation between Detroit and Cleveland in the late 1920s and 1930. The service was initiated by Wm. B. Stout, an engineer, a designer of toys, motorcycles, and automobiles, and an assoc. editor of Henry Ford. Stout first organized the air service in 1925, carrying passengers between Detroit and Grand Rapids, then began service between Cleveland and Detroit in Nov. 1927, using metal 14-passenger tri-motor monoplanes built by Ford's aircraft division. The Cleveland office, managed by Glenn J. Jury, was located in the Marshall Bldg. at Broadway and Hamlet in 1928, moved to PUBLIC SQUARE in 1929, then to Rocky River Dr. in 1930.
The first passengers making the 100-minute trip were attracted by the novelty of the experience, but by Apr. 1928 business travelers were the airline's main customers. In the first 5 months of service, the company transported 2,000 passengers between Detroit and Cleveland, and by May 1929 had added flights to Chicago to its schedule. That same month, the Thompson Aeronautical Corp. announced that it would begin over-the-lake air passenger service to Detroit, and to meet the competition, Stout reduced the flying time between Cleveland and Detroit to 90 minutes. Air service in Cleveland under the Stout name continued into 1930, although in 1929 the company was purchased by Natl. Air Transport (later United Airlines).
Stout, Wm. B. So Away I Went (1951).