MacPherson, Earl

Earl S. MacPherson was born in Highland Park, Illinois, in 1891 . Graduate of the University of Illinois . He served in the army during the First World War and received the rank of captain ^[1] . In the early 1920s, he worked for Chalmers Motor and Liberty Motor Car, and in 1923 joined the Hupmobile company ^[2] . In 1934, he became an employee of General Motors , taking the post of chief design engineer of the Chevrolet division in 1935 .

MacPherson was the chief engineer for the Chevrolet Cadet project, a compact car that was planned to be sold for less than $ 1,000. MacPherson designed a rack suspension for this car. The MacPherson strut prototype was the Fiat's suspension design , patented in the 1920s. However, MacPherson's development was not used in the Chevrolet Cadet project. ^{[3] [4]}

After the Chevrolet Cadet project was closed in May 1947, MacPherson left GM and joined Ford Motor . One of his first projects in the new company was to adapt the suspension design developed by MacPherson for the 1949 Ford Vedette , which was to be produced by a French subsidiary. This car was the first to use MacPherson strut suspension. However, due to the fact that the Ford factory in Poissy delayed the release of the Ford Vedette, the first MacPherson suspension cars to become known to the general public were Fords Zephyr and Consul ^[2] . These models hit the headlines at the 1950 London Motor Show.

MacPherson became the chief engineer of the Ford Motor Company in 1952 . He held this position until his retirement in May 1958 . He died in 1960 ^[2] .

Peter Robinson. Icons: Earle Macpherson (Neopr.) . https://www.motortrend.com (May 16, 2016). Circulation date May 3, 2019.