Mailed by Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, 9280 Airport Road, Mount Hope, Ontario, MAY 2015 A PUBLICATION OF CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE MUSEUM L0R 1W0 Above: The Ford Tri-Motor’s “dated” flight deck. At left: An externally mounted engine. Photos courtesy of Doug Partington Flying in a Ford Tri-Motor Sitting in the business end of the Ford Tri-Motor. craft of the day were made of wood and It could be a freighter, a passenger air - Early 4-AT models were built with three By Ted Lowrey fabric wrapped around a framework of craft or a search and rescue aircraft. It identical Wright radial engines with around some form of metal tubing (Consider the could operate on floats or skis. It was well- 220 horsepower each; they carried two e as Canadian Warplane Her - construction of some of our museum’s pre- suited to flying in inclement weather, and crew and up to 12 passengers. Later model itage members look at certain and early WWII aircraft as they lay par - as a “bush transport” it flew prospectors 5-ATs used three 420-horsepower Pratt and aircraft and see beauty, both the tially disassembled for servicing on our and supplies to rugged mine sites. It could Whitney radials, and carried two crew and Waesthetic beauty of its appearance and the museum floor). still make money hauling low-value bulk up to 17 passengers. 5-ATs had a maximum fWunctional beauty of its design features. The aircraft body was made of alu - freight. speed of around 150 mph, cruised at 90 And the exterior finish suggests to us a his - minum alloy, corrugated for extra strength Over one hundred airlines used the Tri- mph, and had a range of 550 miles. tory of usage – “chapters in a book” that in certain areas. Corrugation added rigid - motor, as well as non-airline operations. Its all-metal construction, simple con - reminds us of what once was. ity, but increased drag and lowered per - Indeed some were used by our Allied trol systems, three engines, and reasonable However, the special aspect of our formance. Even the control surfaces – Armed Forces during WWII. cost made it the “airliner of choice” until CWH Museum and other facilities like it rudder, elevators, ailerons – were made of The specific Ford Tri-Motor that is the more modern airliners, like the DC-3, were is that we are allowed to do more than metal (Many of our Museum WWII air - centrepiece of this story first flew in 1929 developed in the mid-’30s. think about an aircraft’s history. We are al - craft have fabric-covered control surfaces). and was owned by Eastern Airlines. For ***** lowed to fly in an aircraft and deeply sense Secondly, there was a new level of a period of time, from 1930 on, it was And now it was my turn to fly in a Ford its history. Think of flying in our Lysander, comfort for the passengers. They sat in owned by Cubana Airlines and was based Tri-Motor, an aircraft whose production or our Dakota, or our Lancaster. modern-for-the-time seats that were de - in Havana. stopped before I was born – this one num - The skills of our pilots help us to actu - ber 146 of 199. ally “feel” the history of the aircraft. Our My son Scott and I arranged a two-and- restoration of such aircraft preserves avia - a-half day holiday around my Tri-Motor tion heritage; but by sharing it with a flight, Saturday morning and two Cleve - younger generation through flight oppor - land Indians baseball games Friday and tunities people can actually experience that At left: Saturday nights. Flights operated from heritage. A Model T Carl Kellar Airfield, next to the Liberty An aircraft of which some have been Ford race Aviation Museum in Port Clinton, Ohio, restored so that people can fly in it and ac - car (from on the southwest shore of Lake Erie. tually sense its history is the Ford Tri- Australia), The cost of a 20-minute flight, pre- motor. First flown in 1922 as a the same booked, was $70 U.S. single-engine, eight-passenger “airliner,” age as Scott and I were at the airfield well be - it was designed and built by the Stout the Ford fore the Tri-Motor’s first flight at nine o’ - Metal Airplane Company and called the Tri-Motor. clock on Saturday morning. The drive Stout Air Sedan. from Cleveland took about an hour and a The company, the aircraft development, quarter. Just after we arrived a Grumman its production and its promotion was as - Avenger was brought out of a hangar, sumed by Henry Ford. In 1926 Ford built started up, unfolded its wings and took off. a new 60,000 square foot Tri-Motor fac - As I watched it leave the runway I be - tory “laid out to accommodate the Ford signed for both comfort and appearance, Twenty-eight years later this author flew came more appreciative of the dedication, system of progressive production.” and could be quickly removed to convert out of Havana, in a DC-4, fortunate to es - skills, and efforts of our CWH Avenger History suggests Ford never made a the Tri-Motor to a freight-carrying aircraft. cape from the Cuban Revolution. He was restoration crew. Some day we will watch profit bringing his business efficiencies to Passenger air travel was in its earliest looking forward to flying in an airplane that their efforts come to completion as our the building of the Ford Tri-Motor. What stages and Henry Ford was well aware of at one time flew in and out Havana. CWH Avenger takes to the air. he did, in the mid-1920s, was to change the how to demonstrate its advantages. One of Most Ford Tri-Motors were flown to Because I had pre-booked I was able to expectations of passenger airplane travel. the things he did was to have very promi - their end-of-life, or wrecked and just aban - go on the 9 a.m. flight. Other than our Air travel then was in its earliest stages and nent, well-known people fly in Tri-Motors doned. Because of their historical signifi - CWH DC-3 this was the easiest vintage the Tri-Motor, the most advanced airliner and then let North America know the con - cance some of these Tri-Motors have been aircraft I’ve climbed into. However, there of its day, brought about these changes. venience these people experienced. purchased and restored to static display or was just enough room for its nine passen - Firstly, it introduced a new level of Thirdly, Henry Ford brought construc - flying condition. CWH members can ap - gers. Unlike our Lancaster or our DC-3, in safety. With three engines, (two suspended tion efficiencies to the building of Tri-Mo - preciate these efforts. which once the aircraft is safely airborne below the wings), it was first flown in June tors (that the company would later bring to Ford Tri-Motors were built between you can un-strap yourself and move of 1926. It has two more engines to rely on the building of WWII B-24 Liberators). 1926 and 1933. Significant numbers are 79 around, in the Tri-Motor we remained in if one ceases. The 1927 price was $45,475 for a Tri- of the smaller 4-ATs, and 117 of the larger our seats, seatbelts on, for the whole flight. Also, it must have been reassuring to Motor, around $740,000 in today’s dol - 5-ATs, plus a few experimental models to fly in an all-metal aircraft when other air - lars. bring the total build number to 199. • continued on next page 2 CWH FLIGHTLINES MAY 2015 Tri-Motor • continued from the front page The interior, classy in the 1920’s, was dated by today’s Museum’s News Briefs standards. Two of the engines on the Tri- Motor are mounted, well-braced, externally, one beneath each wing. Each passenger can see, only a few yards away, an oper - ating engine. That offers an un - usual impression; the engines are working very hard, but the aircraft is moving quite slowly. If you let your mind relax you may wonder what decade you are flying in. As I was relaxing “flying in a different decade,” I looked out to the ground and saw a giraffe looking up at us. Now I won - dered if I might be flying over a different continent. (There is a Photo courtesy of Eric Dumigan Photo courtesy of Gavin Conroy tourist attraction – the African Safari Wildlife Park – very close SkyFest: June 20-21, 2015 to the airfield.) As soon as the flight landed For Father’s Day weekend this year we offer an and the nine passengers got off, intimate event on the ramp at the Canadian War - nine more climbed on. The pilot plane Heritage Museum. Although not an air show, didn’t even unfasten his seat - there will be flying throughout the day featuring all belt. of the museum’s flying aircraft with support from ***** specially invited guests. It was time for Scott and I to Confirmed are the P-51 Mustang and P-40 Kit - have breakfast. Attached to the tyhawk from Vintage Wings of Canada, plus the Liberty Aviation Museum is the Military Aviation Museum’s de Havilland Mosquito, Tin Goose Diner – a 1950’s-style Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane. stainless steel diner. Our break - Discounted member rides in Canadian Warplane fasts were nicely presented and Heritage Museum aircraft including the Tiger Moth, served.