[Farmall] Red Tractors 1958-2013

[Howard Pletcher]

Yes, Solar Turbine Division, purchased by IH in 1960, sold to Cat in 1981.
 There were Solar Turbines in the HT-340 tractor and in the Turbostar, at
turbine powered CO like the CO-4000.

Generally it was said that Truck and Ag seemed to operate in markets that
had opposite cycles, when one was down, the other was up, helping to keep
overall profits more level.  But if both happened to hit a down cycle, I
could easily see Solar being the money maker as I see that as a relatively
high profit business although I've never seen this info.

Interesting bit of trivia, many years ago I was watching a History Channel
program on Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis.  The plane was
built on the second floor of a  factory and they were showing shots of it
being taken out of an opening in a wall onto the top of a semi-trailer so
it could then be moved to the ground.  The film identified the building as
being offices for Solar Turbine at the time the film was made (Solar did
not exist when the Spirit was built.)


On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 8:35 PM, <jtchall at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> I read somewhere, probably A Corporate Tragedy, that the jet engine sales
> were a huge part of the bottom line one year. What was the name of that
> division, Solar? Didn't they build the engine in that weird looking utility
> tractor that went to the Smithsonian?
>
> John Hall
>
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