Ford Trimotor
The Ford Trimotor (also called the "Tri-Motor", and nicknamed the "Tin Goose") is an American three-engined transport aircraft. Production started in 1925 by the companies of Henry Ford and ended on June 7, 1933, after 199 had been made.[1] It was designed for the civil aviation market, but also saw service with military units.
SACO
SCADTA
On March 17, 1929, a 4-AT-B Tri-Motor, NC7683, suffered a double engine failure during its initial climb after takeoff from Newark Airport in Newark, New Jersey. It failed to gain height and crashed into a railroad freight car loaded with sand, killing 14 of the 15 people on board the aircraft. At the time, it was the deadliest airplane accident in American history.[27][28]
Colonial Western Airways
On April 21, 1929, a 5-AT-B Tri-Motor, NC9636, collided with a United States Army Air Service (USAAS) Boeing PW-9D fighter, 28-037, over San Diego; all six on board both aircraft died. The pilot of the Boeing PW-9D was performing stunts and then attempted to pass in front of the airliner, but misjudged the speed of the Maddux aircraft and his aircraft struck the cockpit of the Ford Tri-Motor.[27][29]
Maddux Air Lines
On September 3, 1929, a 5-AT-B Tri-Motor, NC9649, named City of San Francisco, crashed into Mount Taylor near Grants, New Mexico in a thunderstorm; all eight people on board died.[30][31]
Transcontinental Air Transport
On January 24, 1933, a Ford Trimotor on a cargo flight crashed on takeoff, killing 2 out of the 3 occupants on board.[33]
Pacific Air Transport
On June 24, 1935, Tri-Motor 5-AT-B of SACO Servicio Aéreo Colombiano registered F-31 with a Tri-Motor of SCADTA, (Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transportes Aéreos), registered C-31, at Olaya Herrera Airfield near Medellín, Colombia; of the 20 on board both aircraft, only three passengers survived. Among the dead was the tango singer Carlos Gardel.[30][34]
collided
C/N:10 tail number: NC1077 (4-AT-B, September 1927) "NC1077, G-CARC Niagara" Currently owned by Greg Herrick's Yellowstone Aviation. Oldest flying Trimotor, C/N (Construction Number) 10. It is based at the Golden Wings Museum,[37] near Minneapolis, Minnesota, US.[38][39] This aircraft featured in the 2009 film Amelia (a biopic of aviator Amelia Earhart).[40]
[36]
C/N:42 tail number: NC9610 (Formerly NC7684) (4-AT-B, September 1928) Currently owned by , based in Belleville, Michigan, US.[41][42]
Yankee Air Force
C/N:69 tail number: NC8407 (4-AT-E, 1929) Originally owned by: Eastern Air Transport Currently owned by: The is based at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, US. It tours the United States performing at airshows and other aviation events.[46][47][48]
Experimental Aircraft Association
C/N:8 tail number: NC9645 (5-AT-B, 1928) "City of Wichita/City of Port Clinton" Currently owned by: . It is dressed in Transcontinental Air Transport livery. It is based at the Erie-Ottawa International Airport in Port Clinton, Ohio, US.[49] It was previously owned by Evergreen Vintage Aircraft, Inc., and previously based at the Evergreen Aviation Museum, McMinnville, Oregon, US.[50][51]
Liberty Aviation Museum
C/N:34 tail number: N9651 (5-AT-B, 1929) - The "City of Philadelphia" Originally owned by: Trans Continental Air Transport. Currently owned by: . It is based at Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, Florida, US. This aircraft has made many film appearances, including Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.[52][53][54]
Kermit Weeks
C/N:58 tail number: NC8419 (5-AT-C, 1929) Originally owned by: Northwest Airlines. Currently owned by: . Based at The Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan, US. The airplane combined several 5-AT airframes, one of which served with five carriers before being used by the United States Forest Service between 1951 and 1959. The original crashed and burned on August 4, 1959, while landing at a remote strip in the Nez Perce National Forest, killing two smokejumpers.[55][56][57][58]
Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum
C/N:74 tail number: N414H (5-AT-C, 1928) Originally owned by: Ford Motor Co. Previously owned by Sopwith, Ltd. It was based at in Valle, Arizona, US. It was used in 2008 and 2009 for flight instruction and type ratings.[59][60][61] It is now owned by, and based at the Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum (WAAAM) in Hood River, Oregon, US.[62]
Valle Airport
Crew: 3 (pilot, co-pilot, flight attendant)
Capacity: 11 passengers
Length: 49 ft 10 in (15.19 m)
Wingspan: 74 ft 0 in (22.56 m)
Height: 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m)
Cabin length: 16 ft 3 in (5 m)
Cabin width (average): 4 ft 6 in (1 m)
Cabin height (average): 6 ft 0 in (2 m)
Cabin volume: 461 cu ft (13 m3)
Empty weight: 6,500 lb (2,948 kg)
Gross weight: 10,130 lb (4,595 kg)
Fuel capacity: 231 US gal (192 imp gal; 874 L)
Oil capacity: 24 US gal (20 imp gal; 91 L)
Powerplant: 3 × 9-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 300 hp (220 kW) each for take-off
Wright J-6-9 Whirlwind
Propellers: 2-bladed fixed-pitch propellers
Data from Flight International 14 November 1930[75]
General characteristics
Performance
Stout Bushmaster 2000
Related development
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
Related lists
Andrade, John. U.S. Military Aircraft Designations and Serials since 1909. Hinckley, Leicestershire, UK: Midland Counties Publications, 1979. 0-904597-22-9.
ISBN
Best, Martin S. (Summer 2007). "The Development of Commercial Aviation in China: Part 2 : China National Aviation Corporation (pre-WWII)". Air-Britain Archive. pp. 51–80. 0262-4923.
ISSN
Head, Jeanine M. and William S. Pretzer. Henry Ford: A Pictorial Biography. Dearborn, Michigan: Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, 1990. No ISBN.
Larkins, William T. The Ford Tri-Motor, 1926–1992. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, 1992. 0-88740-416-2.
ISBN
March, Daniel L. British Warplanes of World War II. London: Aerospace Publishing, 1998. 1 874023-92-1.
ISBN
O'Callaghan, Timothy J. The Aviation Legacy of Henry & Edsel Ford. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Proctor Publications, 2002. 1-928623-01-8.
ISBN
O'Leary, Michael. "When Fords Ruled the Sky (Part Two)". Air Classics, Volume 42, No. 5, May 2006.
Winchester, Jim, ed. "Ford Trimotor". Civil Aircraft (The Aviation Factfile). London: Grange Books plc, 2004. 1-84013-642-1.
ISBN
Wynne, H. Hugh. The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots and Hollywood's Classic Aviation Movies. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1987. 0-933126-85-9.
ISBN
Lee, John G. (Summer 2014). "Early Days of the Ford Trimotor: Recollections of a Participant". AAHS Journal. 59 (52). American Aviation Historical Society: 128–134.
Towle, Tom (Summer 2014). "Designing the Ford Trimotor". AAHS Journal. 59 (52). American Aviation Historical Society: 122–127.
Weiss, David A. The Saga of the Tin Goose: The Story of the Ford Trimotor. Brooklyn, New York: Cumberland Enterprises, Incorporated, 1996. 0-9634299-2-2.
ISBN
Litwak, Jerry: 'Skinning a Tin Goose ... the hard way'. Pages 251 and 252 of 'Air International' magazine, May, 1978 describe the rebuilding of Scenic Airway's Tin Goose 5AT, owned by John Seibold, after it groundlooped in Nevada on February 6, 1977. Per the article, it was supposedly ready to fly again by late 1978.
Ford Trimotor "a tribute to the Ford Tri-Motor", and contains facts, pictures, bibliography and more.
EAA's Ford Trimotor 4AT-E virtual tour detailing the entire aircraft
(pilot report), Budd Davisson, June 1986, Air Progress, Vol.45, No. 5, transcribed at Airbum.com