Edward Gowen Budd (1870–1946) was an American inventor and businessman. He worked with the Pennsylvania Railroad, building the first all-steel car. He founded the Budd Company in 1912, which initially specialized in the manufacture of pressed-steel frames for automobiles. His company soon was supplying an all-steel sedan body to auto manufacturers such as General Motors, Studebaker, Ford Motor Company, and Chrysler Corporation. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Budd pioneered the fabrication of stainless steel, and helped create the Pioneer Zephyr, a streamlined train of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. During World War II, Budd was also the original maker of the Bazooka projectile and the rifle grenade.

Budd's Pioneer Zephyr was the first of many streamlined passenger trains. The original trainset is on permanent display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. In 1985, 40 years after his death, Edward G. Budd, the "father of the stainless-steel streamliner", was inducted into Dearborn, Michigan's Automotive Hall of Fame.

References

• PBS Online / WGBH (2000) Edward G. Budd.
• President and Fellows of Harvard College (2004), 20th Century Great American Business Leaders: Edward G. Budd.