Ford Trimotor Totally Explained

Everything about Ford Tri-motor totally explained

The Ford Trimotor, nicknamed The Tin Goose, was an American three engine civil transport aircraft first produced in 1925 by Henry Ford and continued until June 7, 1933. Throughout its lifespan a total of about 200 aircraft were produced. It was popular with the military and was sold all over the world. Unlike his famous cars, trucks and farm tractors, Ford didn't make the engines for these airplanes.

Development

The story of the Ford Tri-motor begins with William B. Stout, an engineer who had previously designed several aircraft using principles similar to those of Professor Hugo Junkers, the famous German manufacturer.
Stout, a bold and imaginative salesman, sent a mimeographed form letter to leading manufacturers, blithely asking for $1,000 and adding: "For your one thousand dollars you'll get one definite promise: You will never get your money back." Stout raised $20,000, including $1000 each from Edsel and Henry Ford. Smithsonian

In the early 1920s Henry Ford, along with a list of 19 other investors including his son Edsel, invested in the Stout Metal Airplane Company. In 1925, Ford bought Stout and its Hugo Junkers-influenced aircraft designs. Ford adapted the traditionally single engined Stout craft with three Wright air-cooled radial engines. After a series of test aircraft and a suspicious fire causing the complete destruction of all previous designs, the 4-AT and 5-AT emerged. The Ford Trimotors used an all-metal construction—not a revolutionary concept, but certainly beyond the standard in the 1920s. The aircraft resembled the Fokker F.VII but it was all metal; its wings were made of aluminum and corrugated for added strength. This has become something of a signature for the Trimotor. Transcontinental Air Transport, which later became part of Trans World Airlines, used the craft to begin its transcontinental air service from San Diego to New York in 1929.
   One 4-AT with Wright J-4 200 hp engines was built for the Army Air Corps as type C-3, and seven with Wright R-790-3 (235 hp) as type C-3A. The latter were upgraded to Wright R-975-1 (J6-9) radials at 300 hp and redesignated C-9. Five 5-ATs were built as C-4 or C-4A.
   The original (commercial production) 4-AT had three air cooled Wright radial engines. It carried a crew of three—pilot, co-pilot and stewardess—and eight or nine passengers. The later 5-AT had more powerful Pratt & Whitney engines. All models had aluminum corrugated sheet metal body and wings. However, unlike many aircraft of this era, extending through World War II and later, the aircraft control surfaces were not fabric covered, but were of corrugated aluminum. As was common for the time, the rudder and elevator were controlled by wires that were strung along the external surface of the aircraft. Similarly, engine gauges were mounted externally, on the engines, to be read by the pilot looking through the windscreen.
   Like his cars and tractors, these Ford aircraft were well designed, relatively inexpensive, and reliable (for the era). The rapid development of aircraft at this time (the vastly superior Douglas DC-2 was first conceived in 1932), helped Henry Ford to lose interest in aircraft production. While Ford didn't make a profit on its aviation business, Ford's reputation leant credibility to the infant aviation industry, and Ford helped introduce many aspects of the modern aviation infrastructure, including paved runways, passenger terminals, hangars, airmail, and radio navigation.
   The Trimotor wasn't to be Ford's last venture in aircraft production. During World War II, he built the largest aircraft manufacturing plant in the world and assembled thousands of B-24 Liberator bombers under license to Consolidated Aircraft.

Operational history

A total of 199 Ford Tri-motors were built between 1926 and 1933, including 79 of the 4-AT variant, and 117 of the 5-AT variant, plus some experimental craft. Well over 100 airlines of the world flew the Ford Tri-motor.
Between 27 November and 28 November 1929, Admiral Richard E. Byrd and his crew made the first flight over the South Pole in a Ford Trimotor called Floyd Bennett (one of three aircraft on the expedition, the others being The Stars and Stripes and The Virginian), replacing the Fokker Trimotors Byrd previously used. Franklin Roosevelt flew aboard a Ford Trimotor in 1932 during his presidential campaign.

Survivors

As of 2007, there are 18 Ford Trimotors in existence, six of which are flyable. The oldest flying Trimotor is Greg Herrick's 1927 4AT-A, Serial No. 4, C-1077. It is based at the Golden Wings Museum near Minneapolis, Minnesota. N8407 (4ATE, 1929) is based at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and tours the United States. N9645 (5ATB, 1929) is based at Evergreen Vintage Aircraft, Inc., McMinnville, Oregon. N414H, N9612 and N9651 are also flyable.
Non-flying examples are on display in museums, including the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.; the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan; and the San Diego Air & Space Museum in San Diego, California.

Commercial operators

Military operators

� Royal Australian Air Force

No. 24 Squadron RAAF

� Royal Canadian Air Force

; � Colombian Air Force

� Spanish Air Force

; � Royal Air Force

No. 271 Squadron RAF

Culture

The plane is referenced in the Clive Cussler book Iceberg and used by character Dirk Pitt for a rescue operation. The plane is also referred to in Cussler's book Valhalla Rising when Pitt uses it to escape an attack from a Fokker Dr.I, the type of plane used by Manfred von Richthofen, also known as The Red Baron. The movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom depicts a flight and crash of an aircraft much like a Ford Trimotor.

Director Howard Hawks' 1939 film Only Angels Have Wings features a Trimotor that catches fire after a freak accident with a condor eventually performing an emergency landing on an airfield. A real and a model Trimotor were used for the sequence.

The Ford Trimotor is available in many different color schemes in the popular Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight computer game. It has a brilliant simulation of the aircraft's aerodynamics and cockpit controls. It is, however, regarded as a difficult aircraft to use, as the player can't see over the front-most engine.Further Information

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