Since 1890, Sutphen Corporation has been making products firefighters use every day to mitigate a variety of incidents. When a Sutphen fire apparatus rolls down a street, it is readily identifiable as a Sutphen with its well- known headlight bezels on the front of the cab and its siren mounted through the front grille.
Sutphen has been a family-owned business for 135 years. Originally founded by C.H. Sutphen, the fourth and fifth generations of the Sutphen family are currently at the helm of the 135 year-old business. Leading the company are fourth- and fifth-generation family presidents, Shelby Sutphen Chambers and Julie Sutphen Phelps.
C.H. Sutphen’s son Harry joined the company after World I, and his sons Tom and Bob ran the the company until Bob’s son, Drew, and Tom’s daughter, Julie, became the leaders of the business in the 1990s with Drew overseeing Sutphen Dublin and Urbana and Julie overseeing Sutphen Hilliard and East. It was Tom Sutphen who, in 1958, started developing what has become a staple of Sutphen’s production offering: the Sutphen aerial.
According to Dan Sutphen, a fourth-generation family member and the vice president of sales, after the company began developing aerial prototypes, the company’s first-ever Sutphen aerial truck was ready and officially debuted at FDIC 1964. After the demonstrations, Sutphen sold the truck to the city of Norwalk, Ohio. Dan Sutphen says, “Tom saw an opportunity to provide a stronger, safer aerial device for the fire service by developing a four-sided box boom design. Inspired by this vision, he entered the aerial device business and created a product that continues to set the standard for strength, safety, and reliability in the fire service.”
Sutphen’s first aerial product—a 65-foot aerial platform quint—was born from Tom Sutphen’s vision. He sought to create a fire apparatus that prioritized safety for both firefighters and victims. “Rather than requiring individuals to climb a ladder,” says Dan Sutphen, “this new platform allowed them to ‘take an elevator’ directly to the scene, revolutionizing fireground accessibility and rescue operations.”
Aerial Evolution
That original 65-foot quint telescopic platform has seen decades of innovation and refmement, yet many of its core design principles are still evident in today’s Sutphen midmount aerials. These include the following:
- Lightweight, heavy-duty aluminum aerials that reduce wear on the trucks while improving braking and engine performance.
- Huck-bolted aerial devices that provide superior strength, rigidity, and ease of maintenance.
- Self-leveling platforms that function like a Ferris wheel, keeping firefighters and victims safe and upright within the bucket regardless of aerial positioning.
“Despite these consistent design philosophies, today’s apparatus are significantly more advanced than the original,” says Dan Sutphen. “Major improvements have been made in the body and chassis design, including enhanced body compartments, increased cab safety, and greater chassis capacity. Over 60 years later, Sutphen continues to build upon its legacy of innovation, safety, and durability in aerial fire apparatus.”
1 The first Sutphen aerial tower was built on a Ford C-800 cab and chassis and had a 65-foot boom. (Photos courtesy of Sutphen Corporation.)
2 To combat the effects of metal weakening when welded, Tom Sutphen deci