The Corbitt Company was located in Henderson in northeastern North Carolina. It was in business there for roughly the first half of the twentieth century.
After an apprenticeship in the tobacco business under J.P. Taylor of Henderson, Richard J. Corbitt became a buyer and seller of leaf tobacco, representing Taylor in his birthplace of Enfield, NC and in Henderson, where he settled permanently in 1894. The following year he went into business on his own. Corbitt foresaw the big companies dominating the tobacco industry, so in 1899 he decided to enter the buggy manufacturing business. In 1899, there were four buggy builders in Henderson; eight years later, Corbitt had bought all three of his competitors.
In 1917-18, Corbitt supplied trucks to the US Army and Navy. It started building 4x4s and 6x6s for the Army in the early to mid-1930s.
From 1939-1945 Corbitt designed and built over 3,200 50SD6 6-ton, 6x6 prime movers for the US Army. These trucks were equipped with either the 779 or the 855 cubic-inch Hercules 6-cylinder gasoline engine. They were used in every theater of operation during World War II. Corbitt lacked production capacity for all the trucks needed, so White, Brockway, Ward LaFrance, and FWD all built the same or very similar trucks. Altogether, over 10,000 of these trucks were built by the five manufacturers.In 1946 Corbitt built two prototypes of a huge 8x8 truck, the T-33, for the Army. This truck looks modern even by 21st century standards. It carried 1/4 inch armor plate and was 131” tall and 114” wide. A 450 horsepower radial aircraft engine was mounted in the rear. The T-33s were said to be the second largest trucks in the world at the time.In 1946 Corbitt built two prototypes of a huge 8x8 truck, the T-33, for the Army. This truck looks modern even by 21st century standards. It carried 1/4 inch armor plate and was 131” tall and 114” wide. A 450 horsepower radial aircraft engine was mounted in the rear. The T-33s were said to be the second largest trucks in the world at the time.
Âíåäîðîæíûå òðàñïîðòíûå ñðåäñòâà (Land Locomotion – Mechanical Vehicle Mobility LL-MVM) Home