Lansing, Illinois is going to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Henry Ford's airplane hangar that produced Ford Tri-Motor airplanes, and connected Ford's Chicago manufacturing plants with the automaker's facilities in Dearborn

https://fordauthority.com/2026/07/illinois-village-to-celebrate-ford-hangars-100th-anniversary

coolest thing I saw today

 Having served as Vice President of Sales for Stihl America (one of seven serving the United States and Canada) for many years, his last assignment before retiring was as a corporate product liability consultant, where he said he "got paid $50 an hour to educated $100-an-hour lawyers how to use a chain saw," then served as an expert witness in personal injury court cases.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10239267169851764&set=a.3247429238833

and I want to let you know that it's the 100th Anniversary of Stihl !  Still family owned !

The partnership started simply, with a 10-by-10-foot STIHL booth at championships, funding for minor improvements and a paintjob for One Moment. 

But what Phelps saw at the 2015 championships inspired bigger plans. Participants and spectators numbered upward of 150,000, even though online presence was virtually nonexistent, and the races were untelevised. 

When Phelps discovered title sponsors were planning to stepdown in the near future, he pitched STIHL execs on a major sponsorship. They responded with an overwhelming yes. The first STIHL National Championship Air Race was held in Reno in September 2017.

https://covabizmag.com/real-people-race-airplanes

https://www.facebook.com/NCAROfficial

https://100.stihl.com/

I grew up in the Upper Penisula of Michigan, that's way the hell up there, where it snows every winter, and in the 70s and 80s, going to the forests, to get deadwood, fallen trees, for dry wood to burn, and cutting up live trees (known as green) for drying until the next winter, was almost universal with everyone that lived there. 

Sure cuts down on the cost of heating when you only have to pay for a chainsaw, an old truck, and gas and oil for both. 

And I never saw anyone use any brand of chainsaw, that wasn't a Stihl. Of course, other brands existed. But I didn't know that. 

Same with fishing reels. I only knew of Zebco. Snowmobile boots? Sorel. Never saw anything made by any other company.   

in 1925 Holt and Best merged to form their new tractor company, so familiar to people around the world: Caterpillar. Happy 100th anniversary to Caterpillar!

The first "1925 Caterpillar" was the Caterpillar Sixty, a rebranded version of the C. L. Best 60 Tracklayer

https://zeppelin70years.com/2020/05/04/1925-american-pioneering-spirit-how-caterpillar-started-out

https://www.caterpillar.com/en/company/history/history-timeline/caterpillars-most-unusual-products.html

a '25 Bean Fourteen is en route from England to Australia! (to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the "Sundowner" Bean https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-sundowner-is-bean-driven-by-birtles.html )

https://www.facebook.com/warrenbrown65

Tillamook celebrated 100 years of the Pig n Ford Model T races this month

Chrysler barely made it 100 years, it's only making a van. But it's still celebrating the past, and it did have a hell of a lot of successes to celebrate

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ5kXCv_WN_h4F4XGZfbyoZuqfAGI-uMc  for the other 3 celebration of Chrysler history videos

Happy 100th birthday to the Goodyear Blimp! (one tire company became the restaurant critic, this other, became the live aerial coverage at major events in sports arenas and race tracks, proof that companies can become celebrated outside their genre)

The first non-military airship, Pilgrim, debuted in 1925 as the first helium-filled, non-rigid airship, marking the start of the Goodyear Blimp program.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158368321844061&set=p.10158368321844061&type=3

the portable mooring mast built on a bus wasn't a short lived operation, it was maintained over decades, above, 1969, and below in back and white, debuting the messaging lighting system, was 1949. Both busses are labeled "Airship operations"

In 1946 and 47, Goodyear ordered 3 Clipper busses from Flxible. 

https://www.popsci.com/technology/19-vintage-goodyear-blimp-photos-on-its-100th-anniversary/

https://58flx.wordpress.com/1947-flxible-2/

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/395342260392

Goodyear hired Lingenfelter to restore the bus

https://www.instagram.com/p/C--yGizNBX6/?img_index=1

http://libertyaviationmuseum.org/collection/vehicles.html#:~:text=Goodyear%20had%20three%20buses%20built,into%20a%20private%20motor%20home.

as long as I'm posting about Goodyear, it turns out, they also own 10 other brands of tires, including Cooper, Dunlop, Mickey Thompson, and Avon, of the ones I've heard of  

https://www.slashgear.com/1870435/goodyear-group-tire-brands/