O. E. Williams Aeroplane Co.

Osbert Edwin "Bert" Williams. Wife, Inez Williams, apparently a co-founder.

In Fenton, MI, late 1914, Williams established the O. E. Williams Aeroplane Co., which included a manufacturing plant and the O. E. Williams School of Aviation; the school was the first such in Michigan. In addition to taking flight training, students worked in the plant, building or repairing the 2-place pusher biplanes used for flight training; some of his licensed pilots contracted with Patterson Aviators of Detroit in 1915-1916 and traveled the U.S. to offer exhibition flights. In 1915, he built the Williams Model 5, a biplane similar to but larger than a Curtiss N4. In March 1917, Williams sold his local operations to Flint Aircraft Co., Flint, MI, and moved to a 53-acre farm near Mobile, AL. Later than spring, an aviation school and factory opened on the property. He secured a Federal contract to build 12 Williams airplanes but on 25 Oct 1917, just a week before the contract was to start, he was killed when his aircraft struck an anthill during descent. It appears that the Flint Aircraft Co. took over the contract and built the 12 Williams tractor biplanes.

Locations: manufacturing building on Leroy Street, Fenton, MI; land at north end of Lake Fenton was used as landing strip and in winter the frozen lake was used instead; in 1917, operated from a former farm near Mobile, AL

Sources

• SD307
• aerofiles.com; earlyaviators.com/ewilliam.htm
• PITA204
• PMAM10, 15
• SFEN80, 127

Names	O. E. Williams Aeroplane Co., Williams
Country	US
City	Fenton, MI; Mobile, AL
Affiliations
Keywords
Started aero	1914
Ended aero	1917
Key people	Osbert Edwin "Bert" Williams, Inez Williams
Wikidata id