Harry Ferguson
Ferguson P99
Aviation
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Planes, Tractors and Automobiles
A remarkable Edwardian combination of Steve Jobs and James Dyson, Harry Ferguson was the first Briton to build and fly his own plane and the inventor of the world’s most famous tractor and the only Formula 1 winning four-wheel-drive car. Find out more about the many milestones that made his incredible journey...
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Agriculture is more important to man than all other industries put together yet it is the only industry conducted by antiquated methods

- Harry Ferguson

First Flight

By November 1909, Harry had designed a monoplane which was fitted with a V8 35hp JAP engine, construction of which was completed later that month.

The day of the first flight attempt arrived and, with wings detached and the tail resting in the back of a car, the aircraft was towed through the streets of Belfast to Hillsborough Great Park

From the Archives

Discover Discover The Harry Ferguson Memorial Garden
47 Magheraconluce Road, Dromore, County Down. BT25 1EE.

1903 to 1905

Attends classes at Belfast Technical College and there meets John Lloyd Williams who is to become the only intimate friend he had and in fact retained. While working in brother Joe's workshop he meets T McGregor Greer from Tullylagan between Cookstown and Dungannon and becomes a family friend.

October, 1938

Harry Ferguson and John Williams go to America and take a Ferguson-Brown tractor and implements to show to Henry Ford. An agreement (known as the handshake agreement) is reached whereby Ford agree to manufacture a tractor for Ferguson and it became known as the Ford-Ferguson. Central PTO patent granted.