Designing the classic Thunderbirds

Excerpts from recent books and magazines

The design project for a two-passenger sports car, later named Thunderbird,

began at Ford in mid- 1952, when news of a sports car project at General Motors, the Corvette, was leaked.

Frank Hershey, Chief of Ford car styling, directed the new project which was designed and modeled in the Body Development Studio, managed by Damon Woods.

Three designers were assigned to the project: J.R. "Dick" Samsen, Bill Boyer,

and Alan Kornmiller. These designers created sketches and renderings of their concepts for the car. J.R. Samsen was assigned to design and direct the front half of the full-size clay model, and Bill Boyer was assigned to design and direct the rear half of the model, and the windshield. Samsen and Boyer collaborated on the fenderline and Alan Kornmiller assisted by sketching more concept ideas and large renderings. Kornmiller left Ford before the project was completed.

In 1955, a year after the T-Bird design was finished, Samsen left Ford to work for Virgil Exner at Chrysler Corp.

It was traditional for the company to forget the names of designers who left,

and give credit to executives and designers who remained with the company,

so the information given to the press and writers of magazine articles and books mentioned only Bill Boyer and sometimes Frank Hershey as designers

of the Thunderbird.