The Stinson Detroiter was a single-engined cabin biplane built by the Stinson Aircraft Syndicate in the 1920s, which was used as an airliner and executive aircraft. A four-seat prototype flew in January 1926, and was followed by 26 production aircraft designated Stinson SB-1, which were built between August 1926 and June 1927. It formed the basis of the Stinson SM-1 Detroiter, a monoplane derivative that succeeded it in production and was built in larger numbers.
In 1925, the American aviator Eddie Stinson developed a preliminary design for a single-engined cabin biplane, and formed the Stinson Airplane Syndicate with a number of Detroit businessmen, including William E. Metzger, to develop his design. The prototype of Stinson's design, the Detroiter, was built in a rented Loft in Detroit, and made its first flight, with Stinson at the controls, at Selfridge Field, Michigan, on January 25, 1926.
The Detroiter was a single-bay biplane of mixed wood and metal construction. The fuselage had a welded steel-tube structure, covered in fabric, and was of rectangular section, while the wings had spruce spars and duralumin ribs. The enclosed cabin had seats for a pilot and three passengers. It was powered by a Wright J-4 Whirlwind radial engine driving a two-bladed metal propeller. Unusual features for the time included cabin heating (heated by the engine exhaust), an electric engine starter to avoid the need for hand starts and individual wheel brakes, with a parking brake also being fitted. Snow chains could be fitted to the mainwheels.
Stinson extensively demonstrated the Detroiter in the early months of 1926, and in May that year Stinson founded the Stinson Aircraft Company, acquiring a building in Northville, a suburb of Detroit, as a factory. Production began in August that year of the SB-1 Detroiter, which differed from the prototype in having a deeper fuselage which accommodated five people, revised wing bracing and a new tail. It retained the J-4 engine. Twenty-six SB-1s were built from August 1926 to June 1927, with some later aircraft using the Wright J-5 Whirlwind. The SB-1 was replaced in production by the Stinson SM-1 Detroiter, a monoplane derivative of the SB-1 with a stretched fuselage based on that of the SB-1 and a new, high-mounted wing, with more than 100 built.
The SB-1 Detroiter was used by several airlines in the United States and Canada, including Northwest Airways, which used three Detroiters on airmail services between Minneapolis-St Paul and Chicago from November 1926 and on passenger services from July 1927, Florida Airways, and Wien Alaska Airlines. Two SB-1s were used by Hubert Wilkins on his 1927 Arctic expedition, with one (flown by Wilkins and Carl Ben Eielson) being abandoned after crashlanding on ice fields north-east of Point Barrow, Alaska.
The SB-1 was also used as an executive aircraft. Examples were sold to Horace Dodge Jr. and to John Duval Dodge, the respective sons of Horace Elgin Dodge and John Francis Dodge, the founders of Dodge Brothers Company, and to the racing driver and playboy Cliff Durant.