PORTERFIELD

The Porterfield Aircraft Corporation was a former American aircraft design and manufacturing company that operated from 1934 to 1942 in Kansas City, Missouri. The company was founded by Edward E. Porterfield, Jr. who sought to create a better-performing and more suitable trainer aircraft than the planes he had been using for his flying school at the Fairfax Airport. With the help of aeronautical engineers such as Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, Porterfield began producing light single-engine two-seat high-wing and biplane aircraft in 1934. Despite never achieving the same level of success as larger light aircraft manufacturers Piper Aircraft, Aeronca, and Taylorcraft, Porterfield’s planes were popular with pilots and achieved some success in Central and South American countries. However, with the outbreak of World War II, the production of light aircraft for civilian use came to a halt. In an attempt to take advantage of the training demands of the war, the company founded a technical school in December 1940 and purchased another in 1941. The company failed to secure a contract to build liaison aircraft for the U.S. military in 1942, leading to its closure. The company was succeeded by Columbia Aircraft Company, which was created when the firm Auchincloss, Parker & Redpath took over the former.