I am just taking a moment to call attention to the fact that International Harvester was, for about 70 years the worlds largest agricultural equipment manufacturer. At one time in the 1970s, International was the worlds 26th largest corporation. They started and owned many development companies. One of the most interesting was Solar. Solar was an IH company that made small jet engines. Engineers call them gas turbine engines. These jet engines made helicopters practical and were on all airliners as APU’s. Auxiliary Power Units produce power while on the ground.
IH sold off Solar in the 1970’s because they needed cash, but not before IH produced a few jet powered tractors. Just a few, all in museums now. All this was going on while they made 1,000,000 Scouts. The twists and turns in the road are very interesting.
