Sid Swallow Ford Prototype? Need help!!

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Originally Posted by 45jim

Normal vehicle development follows established engineering principles. Normally, this is: "design" (a small word for a lot of work), a "mock up and/or prototype", "pilot", "initial" production and finally "serial" production.

This vehicle is certainly not a "mock up" or "prototype" (which are usually one-off's) we have all seen photos of the earliest iterations of CMP's which were quickly made up from available parts to develop the actual requirements for the final design. This is not one of those trucks.

In my opinion, this vehicle is a pilot, one of a small test batch of vehicles built to the developed specification. 25 Ford and 25 Chevrolet vehicles is not a sufficient quantity to be considered initial production.

The cab 11 4x2 was the first CMP to reach "initial production" and then changes were made to result in the cab 12 which went into "serial production".

From examining a fair number of DND documents ranging from 1930 to 1948, dealing with vehcile development, I think that I can state the following;

Design - purely a paper exercise that started with an identified need. Concepts were bandied about and specifications were agreed to.

Pilot - a one-off vehicle, assembled with all the bits and pieces to ensure fit and function. At times the pilot (machinery and signals 3-tonners) was disassembled and re-used as the basis for another project. At other times the pilot was accepted by DND and put into service. The pilot would have all aspects of the vehicle, and its equipment, tested. Pilots are prepared for the client (DND, ec..). If the client is satisfied with the pilot as-is, or will be satisfied following certain changes, then the specs are formally accepted.

Production - To DND, Depatrment of Munitions and Supply, and the auto-makers, anything produced to the approved specs is considered a 'production' vehicle - regardless of quantity.

There was no use of the terms 'prototype' or 'limited production' or 'serial production' in any of the thousands of documents I examined. In the case of the six Signals Lorries developped in late May 1945, the same chassis/body was used for each variant, although the interiors differed. Each variant was the pilot for that specific specification.

A review of the combined inventories taken in December 1939 and February 1940 show a number of pilots in service. However, no one type of vehicle had more than one pilot.

To use the 1938 Chev 15cwt GS or the 1940 Ford 15cwt GS as examples of 'pre-production', and then say that the "cab 11 4x2 was the first CMP to reach "initial production" and then changes were made to result in the cab 12 which went into "serial production" implies that the final CMP design was the goal all along. In fact, the 1938 Chev design was the then-current goal and DND identified a need for 51 vehicles - which they bought. The same applies to the Ford 1940 15cwt. As there was no intent (or money) to exceed these quantities at the time, it was immaterial to either DND or the manufacturers to concern themselves with the terms 'initial production' or 'serial production'.

Clive