Over the next 30 years Roy continued to develop hydraulic crane and excavator designs, gaining more than 20 US patents. With his Milwaukee Hydraulics Company, Billings went on to develop a series of Hydrocranes, and sold many hundreds before selling the rights to Bucyrus-Erie in 1948.

In his filing, former crane operator Billings argued the case for a lighter alternative to heavy lattice boom truck cranes, which then required 7USt trucks, claiming his hydraulic telescopic boom crane could be mounted on a small 1 ½ USt truck.īillings' invention was truly visionary: the crane features a telescopic boom with internal hydraulic cylinder, H-style outriggers, full slew and hydraulic hoist. On 2 September 1942 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US native Roy O Billings filed his patent application for a 'truck crane'.

Today, Stuart Anderson finds, many customers are returning to cranes mounted on commercial trucks, rather than purpose built chassis. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the design of the world’s first telescopic boom truck-mounted crane.