Ford Pygmy

The Ford Pygmy was one of two pilot vehicles that Ford submitted in response to the United States Army's requirement for a light reconnaissance and command car before the Second World War, the programme that gave rise to the wartime jeep. Ford delivered the Pygmy and a second pilot with a body built by the Budd Company to Camp Holabird, Maryland, on 23 November 1940. The Pygmy was hand built in the Ford development shop in Dearborn, Michigan, from parts in Ford's commercial and agricultural lines. It was the first pilot to have a flat grille with the headlamps behind it, an intermediate bow for the canvas top, a fuel tank under the driver's seat and a two piece folding windshield, features that were later adopted in the Willys MB. It is the oldest known survivor of the original quarter ton pilot vehicles and is preserved in largely original condition in Huntsville, Alabama.