Earle S. MacPherson was born in
Highland Park, Illinois, in 1891, and was a graduate of the
University of Illinois. He served in World War I and attained the rank of
captain. He worked successively for the
Chalmers Motor Company and for the
Liberty Motor Car Company in the early 1920s, and joined
Hupmobile in 1923. In 1934, he joined
General Motors, becoming chief design engineer of
Chevrolet division in 1935. MacPherson was the chief engineer of the
Chevrolet Cadet project, a compact car intended to sell for less than $1,000. MacPherson developed a strut-type suspension for the Cadet, partly inspired by
Fiat designs patented by
Guido Fornaca in the 1920s (although the Cadet did not use a true MacPherson strut design) and a patent by
Frank M. Smith of
Stout Motor Car Corp. After the Cadet was canceled in May 1947, MacPherson left GM, joining the
Ford Motor Company later that year. One of his first projects was to adapt his strut suspension design for the 1955
Ford Vedette, for Ford's
French subsidiary. This became the first car to use the true
MacPherson strut suspension.
Ford's Poissy plant got off to a slow start with the Vedette, however, and the
Fords Zephyr and
Consul which captured the headlines at the 1950
London Motor Show have also been claimed as the first cars to appear "in mass production" with MacPherson struts. ==References==