The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk airplane question ,Tri-motor

I know its not a truck question but it is old. This weekend there is a F0rd Tri-motor, 1929 in town giving rides. Its only $50 if they have room. The airport is right by my house so it should fly right over head. They were out today and came right over our shop. It really sounded cool. Does anybody anything about this plane?

I seen a 1937 Chevy truck add with a guy unloading boxes at a airport with a big plane right behind him, I'am thinking of driving over and getting a few pictures. I wish I had some boxes and a cool hat.... Joe

The Ford Tri motors were designed in the 20's when Henry Ford decided the airplane industry needed a Model T so to speak.They are corragated sheetmetal,quite crude looking and cruise about 125 mph I think.Like all vintage aircraft,they are designed to takeoff and land from grass runways,Byrd flew in one over the Northpole back when.
Should be quite an experience, like a flying 1920's truck,lol.

It would be nice to know what the official occasion is. I don't think that there are too many of those flying these days. If you do take a ride, a set of ear plugs may be a good thing!

Ford Tri-motors were, indeed, the model T of the fledgling aircraft industry.

As a matter of disclaimer, I am not a historian and have little information about Tri-motors, but they were used to carry the mail and passengers around the country by the barn stormers who created the start-up airlines.

I think the tri-motors as passenger airplanes were used in the combined air-rail transcontinental schedules. That is an interesting piece of history in itself, and the reason Winslow, Arizona has a runway capable of handling anything that flies.

Joe, Ford wasn't the only one to make the tri-motor. There have been a lot of 3 engine airplane designs. In that configuration of tri-motor airplanes Ford seems to come to mind for most folks. I'm not positive but, I believe Fokker built a tri-motor in that same configuration before Ford did. There was probably more Fokker tri-motors built in this country than Ford Tri-motors. I think it was a Fokker that Byrd used when he headed for the North Pole. I believe it was a Fokker tri-motor that Coach Knute Rockne died in when the wooden wing spar failed in flight due to dry rot. The public out cry from that tradegy spured our law makers to pass laws to inspect commercial airplanes for public safety. As some one said ear plugs would be a good idea if you take a ride. And from what I've read the tri-motors were a lot of work to fly, very much like a BIG old heavy loaded truck. Heavy on the controls, slow to respond, lots of hard labor involved to just take it around the patch. Wish I was there. I would take that ride, if I could get one, for sure. Mike

Mike, you are 100 percent correct. The Fokker was the first tri-motor in that configuration. At first, Ford built licensed copies and then they made some changes to the design.

The tri-motor is just one of the many things Ford gets credit for but didn't actually -- like invent the automobile, invent the assembly line, invent the V-8, etc, etc.

The Fokkers achieved an impressive number of aviation firsts, including 1st non-stop transcontinental flight, first over the North Pole, first female to fly (as a passenger) the Atlantic (Amelia Earhart in a Fokker flown by Bernt Balken, I think). There are others, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

My dad and I flew in a tri-motor at Owls Head about 20 years ago -- might have been that same plane. What a great flight! Go for it -- you'll have a wonderful experience.

John

I think that the control yoke was a big old wooden steering wheel, maybe like the Model T.
I have seen a program on PBS on the development of aircraft at that time and they described flying long distance in the tri-motor as an "ordeal".
Certainly though, they are quite a piece of history.

I think Germany had a Junkers tri motor that they used for a transport during WWII. It seems to me that it was similar in configuration.

The Junkers JU-52 had three motors. It was originally designed and flew with one motor but during the design process the engineers put in bracing and provisions for two more motors, one on each wing in case someone wanted three motors. This then became the JU-52/3M. The fuselage and wings were corrugated, like some truck beds perhaps. Hey I had to get a truck plug in here somewhere. Incidentally Stinson also built a tri-motor plane.

JoeH, I would drop that $50 in a heartbeat.

Stinson built 2 models of tri motors, a low wing and high wing monoplane.

Here's a link to some photos of the JU52.

There were very few examples of the single engine JU52 but one was used extensively in Canada in the '30's.

This one on display at the Winnipeg museum has been converted from a 3 engine one. It was registered as CF-ARM, just like the original.
The original was powered by a Rolls Royce 'Buzzard' engine of 900hp.

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/bush_flying/mtwjnk52.htm#4

George

I went and checked out the old plane, it is a F0rd 1929 Tri-motor. The guy was telling about the engines but I couldn't keep up! They are bigger than it originaly had due to parts. These are 400 hp Pratt-Whitney's, and man did they sound good. And its true, it did have a big'ol truck steering wheel and what looked like truck gauges, I couldn't get all the way with out spending the $50. The flights were only 10 minutes long and that was only because of the slow speeds they are flying. They are going due south 4 miles and turning around so total length was less than 10 miles! At $450 per flight and 20 to 30 flights a day, thats some big money. It looks like a barn flying over its so big and slow... and really not to loud.

Neatest thing is the take off, 200 yards max before its off the ground, landing is the same way. I think they could land it in a parking lot if they tried. Joe

Joe, I'm sure sorry ya didn't take a ride. Your comments on the flight would have been good reading. $50.00 is a steal for 10 minutes of flight in a Tin Goose. 30 flights is $13500.00 in a day. That's 5 full flight hours done 10 minutes at a time. 10 minutes of wrestling really heavy controls. That's kinda like haulng with a fully loaded "old" 3 axel Reo dump truck 4 and ahalf minutes out, 4 and a half back. Then getting it into position to be reloaded. And without dumping your load so the drive back was easier. The only thing them old round motors burn faster than oil is money. And it takes several people to keep her flying. It would be a real trick to keep her flying on just that much money a few days of the month, in season.

Do you know where she is going next? Des Moines or Davenport would be great! Send them up here,I want a ride. Mike

Is this the one?
http://www.airventuremuseum.org/fordtrimotor/

They would have had my $50 in a heartbeat.

That is a real bargain. Rule of thumb for operating a piston aircraft is 2 times the fuel burn for maintenance which would be 25 gal/hr @ $2.70 gal x 3 engines= $202.50/ hr fuel + $405.00/ hr maintenance= $607.50/hr. Ouch

During Saturdays flights, they shut the engines off just long enough to unload and reload. I bet they made 25 or more flights. It came by my house every 20 minutes from starting about 9 am. Around noon they changed flight paths for an hour or so then came back my way. You are right, I am sorry I didn't take flight in it, but we are on a budget and it just wasn't ment to be... This is there web page, maybe its coming your way. Joe
Tri-motor

Check this out. Sad. I've seen this plane before and it's was beautiful replica. (Scroll down a ways and you'll find it).

tri-motor crash