Nancy Beardsley, Voice of America, June 12, 2003

The Ford Motor Company is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. American inventor Henry Ford formed the company on June 16, 1903 in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford went on to design a car, the Model T, and a production method - the auto assembly line - that helped transform the way people worked and traveled. An extended celebration of the centennial comes to a climax June 12-16 at Ford headquarters in Dearborn.

The flashy T-Bird, or Thunderbird, the Beach Boys sang about is one of many Ford-built cars to capture the popular imagination. Over the decades, those cars have inspired road tours and nostalgic fan clubs, and centennial spokesman Jon Nens says they'll be featured attractions at the celebration.

Those people include not only the Ford family-which still leads the company after several generationsbut Ford employees and fanatical fans like Joss Sanderson. He's a long-time lover of Model Ts who organized a month-long motorcade from California to Michigan, a distance of almost 5,000 kilometers. Forty-three Model Ts, some around 90 years old, are taking part. The group has traveled about 56 kilometers an hour, mostly on minor highways and country roads, and they've had their share of mechanical breakdowns. But speaking from Sioux City, Iowa, Joss Sanderson talked about why it's so much fun to take a leisurely drive in a Model T.

The Ford company began building Model Ts in 1908. They were such an instant hit that the company soon started producing them assembly-line style, with each worker installing the same part in car after car," he said.

Russ Banham says Henry Ford's goal was to produce affordable vehicles for everyday people.

By the mid 1950s, that world also included TV commercials, where Ford and other companies unveiled each year's new models and designs.

But if Ford became linked to some of the most popular vehicles of the 20th century, it was also tied to some of the biggest disasters. Some failed because they were proven unsafe on the road, others because drivers just didn't like the way they looked. One of the company's most infamous flops came in the mid 1950s with the Edsel, named for Henry Ford's son.

Ford and other American automakers faced an even bigger crisis two decades later, with growing American concern over fuel efficiency and air pollution.

In the 1990s, still other new vehicles have captured the public's heart.

Big, heavy trucks are growing in popularity, and Ford spokesman Jon Nens says The F series pick up is now the company's most popular product worldwide. As it celebrates its centennial, Ford is also showcasing what it hopes will be the next major trends, including the Ford MA concept car. Jon Nens says drivers assemble it themselves.

The Ford Company will hold other centennial events throughout the year, ending on December 17 at in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. That's where Wilbur and Orville Wright had their first successful airplane flight, also in 1903. The Wright brothers were friendly with Henry Ford, and the Ford Company has sponsored a traveling flight exhibit for the Wright centennial. The joint celebration will be a reminder of the year that one obscure inventor started an auto company, two others took a plane ride, and launched a new era of travel.