Stratford Army Engine Plant

The Stratford Army Engine Plant (SAEP) was a U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command installation and manufacturing facility located in Stratford, Connecticut, where it was sited along the Housatonic River and Main Street, opposite Sikorsky Airport.

Prior to 1927, the SAEP property was farmland. The plant was originally built in 1929 as Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporations's manufacturing facility.It occupied a 124-acre (50 ha) tract and included 49 industrial buildings and an earthen causeway that was built 800 feet (240 m) into the Housatonic River mudflats to provide for access by seaplanes. The Sikorsky S-39, Sikorsky S-40 "Flying Forest", Sikorsky S-41, Sikorsky S-42 "Clipper" and Sikorsky S-43 "Baby Clipper" were built in this plant, which had a seaplane ramp for launching the aircraft into the Housatonic River.

When sales of amphibians fell in the late 1930s, due to the growing popularity of land-based aircraft, Sikorsky was merged with the Chance Vought Company by their parent United Aircraft in 1938. The Vought-Sikorsky company then built the Vought-Sikorsky VS-44, Vought-Sikorsky OS2U Kingfisher, Vought-Sikorsky F4U Corsair and Vought-Sikorsky V-173 in the facility.

After the combined company was broken into Vought Aircraft and Sikorsky Aircraft in January 1943, Vought built the Vought TBY Sea Wolf, Vought XF5U, Vought F6U Pirate and prototype Vought F7U Cutlass in the facility.Igor Sikorsky, given $250,000 for helicopter development by United Aircraft, also developed the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300, Vought-Sikorsky VS-316 R-4, Vought-Sikorsky VS-327 R-5 and Vought-Sikorsky VS-316B R-6 in the plant. Sikorsky's production was moved to a plant in Bridgeport Connecticut in 1943 and Vought production was moved to an empty US government facility in Dallas Texas in 1949. In 1954 Sikorsky moved the majority of their manufacturing to a new plant on the north side of Stratford, further up the Housatonic River. This move left the Stratford plant vacant, and soon afterward, flooding from the Housatonic River damaged much of the facility.

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