[45jim]

Clive you are looking at these definitions from the wrong end. DND did not engineer or develop these vehicles and those definitions are engineering ones, looking for engineering terminology in non-engineering documentation is pointless; just like today, DND couldn't engineer a cam-stick. DND wrote a "Statement of Requirements" for the manufacturers to work from and then issued a "Request for Proposal". The manufacturers would take this away and develop and submit their proposal on how to meet that statement. From that, DND would issue a contract, within that contract there may be a deliverable such as a prototype vehicle. This vehicle is tested and rarely accepted "as is" and may be the first of several developmental vehicles built until a standardized vehicle is accepted for production. This continues today.

The first CMP (37 Ford) was built as an engineering exercise totally funded by Ford, and termed "Ford 15 cwt. 4x2 Prototype", followed by the "General Motors 15. cwt 4x2 Prototype". Neither of these were termed "pilot".

Flipping through Blueprint for Victory this is all covered by Syd Swallow as he talks about the prototypes that were built and tested. There is also a nice photo (on page 20) with a caption "This Ford 15 cwt. 4x2 is either a pilot model or a very early production model. It represents the earliest true Canadian Military Pattern design. The type 2A1 G.S. body is almost identical to that shown on the 1939 Prototype III Ford 15 cwt." Also on page 18, a caption describes the Ford 1939 Prototype III "The CMP design actually evolved over a three year period."

From this statement we can see that there were several prototypes built (at least three Ford variants), then a pilot conceivably with all the changes desired by DND was provided to be accepted before initial production began. This also shows that the 1937 and 1938 prototypes were part of a continuous development program that led to the cab 13 CMP produced later in the war. To suggest that these early vehicles were developed and procured in some sort of vacuum totally separate from later developments is unsupported by any factual data. In fact, the goal WAS the final CMP design.

The engineering designation of "prototype", "pilot", "initial production" (or very early production) and "serial production" are very important to understand how such vehicles are brought from the drawing board to reality. Even in wartime these engineering principles are followed. If you were a WWII Jeep guy you would be all over this.