(Ford) Trimotor @·AIRCRAFTUBE

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    Ford Trimotor

Ford Trimotor

In the early 20s 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 did not 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 was not 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, Richard Evelyn Byrd and crew made the first flight over the South Pole in a Ford Trimotor.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt flew on a Ford TriMotor in 1932 during his presidential campaign.

Commercial operators

Military operators

  • Australia (RAAF) - No. 24 Squadron RAAF
  • Canada (RCAF)
  • Colombia (Fuerza Aérea Colombiana, or FAC)
  • Spain (Ejército del Aire, or EA)
  • United Kingdom (RAF)
  • United States (USAF) - As the C-4

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.

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This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Ford Trimotor of Wikipedia ( authors )

Specifications (Ford Trimotor)

  • Cost : US$42,000 in 1933.
  • Crew : 3 ( 2 Pilots and 1 Flight Attendant).
  • Capacity : Eight passengers.
  • Length : 50 ft 3 in (or 15.32 m).
  • Height : 12 ft 8 in (or 3.86 m).
  • Wingspan : 77 ft 10 in (or 23.72 m).
  • Wing area : 835 ft² (or 77.6 m²).
  • Wing loading : 16.17 lb/ft² (or 78.87 kg/m²).
  • Empty weight : 7,840 lb (or 3,560 kg).
  • Loaded weight : 10,130 lb (or 4,590 kg).
  • Max takeoff weight : 13,500 lb (or 6,120 kg).
  • Fuel capacity : 230 US gal (or 886 L).
  • Fuel consumption : 45 US gal/h (or 173 L/h).
  • Maximum speed : 150 mph (or 241 km/h).
  • Cruise speed : 90 mph (or 145 km/h).
  • Stall speed : 64 mph (or 103 km/h).
  • Range : 550 mi (or 885 km).
  • Service ceiling : 18,500 ft (or 5,640 m).
  • Powerplant : Three Pratt & Whitney Wasp C 9-cylinder radial engines.
  • Power : 420 hp (or 313 kW) each.
  • Power/mass : 10.71 lb/hp (or 6.52 kg/kW).

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This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Ford Trimotor of Wikipedia ( authors )
Ford Trimotor : Your comments on this subject
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