The Ford Trimotor was one of the most common and successful aircraft of its time. Henry Ford, the legendary car manufacturer, himself aided in the design of the Trimotor and helped make it such a big success!
Despite this, in only a few short years, the Ford Trimotor had become almost irrelevant. Newer and more modern designs like the Boeing 247 made the trimotor almost entirely obsolete, but why?
Pre-Trimotor
Prior to the introduction of the Trimotor, most aircraft were biplanes. They were noticeably slower, usually only being powered by two engines. The fuselage was often not aerodynamic as well.
These aircraft also had severely limited ranges, often struggling to travel from one end of the state to the other, without landing or changing aircraft. Most airlines of the day operated air mail flights rater than passenger flights.
In 1922, aerospace engineer and writer William Bushnell Stout established Stout Metal Airplane. Here, Stout began to design the aircraft that would one day become the Ford Trimotor.
This design was inspired by the works of Professor Hugo Junkers in Germany. Junkers published his designs, having them translated into most major world languages at the time, for other engineers to observe.
In 1924, Stout wanted to finance a prototype for one of his designs. However, he didn’t have the money to finance his, so sent out requests for a $1,000 investment to all the major industrialists of the day.
His requests featured a partial design and industry research. Impressed, Henry Ford and his son, Edsel Ford, invested $20,000 in the company. Following the prototypes’ first flight, Ford bought the company.
Development
After buying out the company and its designs, Ford placed Stout as the company’s head. Here, he was free to refine and improve the design however he saw fit.
When Stout had showed Ford the design, it was a single-engine monoplane with only marginally better specifications than aircraft currently in production. However, Ford and Stout agreed that this needed to change.
Using Ford’s money, Stout added two further engines, just under the wings. The fuselage was also lengthened in order to accommodate more mail and/or passengers. Stout also made the fuselage out of metal instead of fabric.
By the end of development, the Stout 4-AT, now redesignated as the Ford Trimotor, resembled the Fokker F.VII in many ways. The designs were so similar that courts in Europe ruled that Ford had infringed on Junkers’ patents.
Unlike most other aircraft of the day, Ford wanted the cockpit to be as simple, and bare as possible. As such, Stout designed the Trimotor’s cockpit to have no instruments, instead, they were on the wing outside the window.
Ford also wanted to make the Trimotor attractive to passenger airlines- the main operator of the aircraft. As such, he and Stout made it so the aircraft only needed two pilots and a flight attendant, rather than more.
Service
The Ford Trimotor first flew on June 11 1926. Several months later, it was delivered to its first customers, where it entered mainline passenger service. Since then, it has had a long a detailed service history.
1920’s
Beginning in mid-1927, several non-airline companies began to buy Ford Trimotors straight from the factory. These companies, mainly gas and oil companies began operating Trimotors as some of the first business jets.
The release of the Trimotor convinced Clement Melville Keys to establish Transcontinental Air Transport (which eventually became both Western Airlines and TWA) as the Trimotor could do transcontinental flights.
In 1927, Pan Am, the largest operator of the Ford Trimotor, took possession of their first trimotors. These aircraft would be the first aircraft to perform the first scheduled international flight, between Key West and Havana.
In December 1927, famed aviators Amelia Erhart and Charles Lindburgh flew a trimotor. They flew a series of flights which landed then all over the US, as well as into Cana
In November 1929, the Trimotor made headlines. Funded by Edsel Ford, then-Commander Richard E. Byrd and Bernt Balchen performed the first flight over the geographical South Pole.
Between 1926 and 1930, over 150 trimotors had been produced by Ford. Most of these aircraft were either the 4-AT or the 5-AT variant.
1930’s
In early 1930, Cubana bought their first trimotors. These aircraft subsequently transported the majority of Cuba’s mail and passengers until the late 1930’s, when it was replaced.
February 1930 perhaps saw the oddest to use of any aircraft to date. The trimotor was the first aircraft to travel with animals, except the entire flight was for one cow (called Elm Farm Ollie!)
The 1932 US Presidential Election yielded a lot. Not just in terms of the politics but in terms of a precedent in aircraft. FDR used a Trimotor to travel on his presidential campaign, this tradition has continued to today!
In 1933, the trimotor stopped being as popular. Boeing had released the Boeing 247, Lockheed had released the Model 10 Electra and Douglas had released the DC-2. All aircraft were larger, faster and more economical, and thus, more desirable.
A failed Soviet trans-polar flight in 1937 resulted in the aircraft going missing. Due to the Ford Trimotor’s long range, it was extensively used to attempt to locate the missing flight, all to no avail.
During the mid and late 1930’s, Ford tried to stimulate sales of the trimotor. They proposed and built several variants, including one designed to fly on water, being one of the first seaplanes!
Military
The onset of WWII in 1939 didn’t see much change for the mostly US-based trimotor fleet. However, when the US joined the war in December 1941, several passenger aircraft were drafted into the US military.
When it was introduced, the trimotor was quite large, however, by 1941, it was one of the smallest passenger aircraft still in service. As such, the US military realized it would be ill-suited for cargo transportation.
Instead, these cargo transportation roles went to both the Lockheed Constellation and the Boeing 377. In light of this, the US military chose to use the Trimotor as a VIP transport aircraft.
During its time in US military service, trimotors commonly transported generals, admirals and other high ranking military personnel to and from the battlefield and/or military bases.
In 1942, most US military trimotors had been used during the Battle of Bataan. Trimotors, as with all other US military cargo aircraft, were used to evacuate as many US and Filipino troops as possible.
Earlier that year, the RAAF took possession of several Ford Trimotors. Here, they were later used as both VIP transport aircraft and later used for the evacuations Kokoda Track Campaign.
Cargo
Before the onset of WWII, the trimotor had seemingly become irrelevant. Most airlines had replaced their trimotor fleet with more aerodynamic two engine aircraft like the Boeing 247 and L-10 and L-12.
Here, they found a new and unique job: cargo transportation. Several non-airline companies were using the trimotor as a business jet before they had been succeeded by newer, faster and larger models.
Most of these companies operated mines in the most remote parts of the US and abroad. Due to the trimotor’s impressive range and MTOW, it was perfect for transporting large amounts of cargo.
On the way in, trimotors would fly in supplies, equipment and occasionally even workers. On the way out, trimotors would fly out whatever had been mined, usually in large containers inside the fuselage.
Despite newer, faster, larger and more economical models being introduced, many of these companies never got rid of their trimotor fleet. Many of these trimotors flew the same flights for almost 60 years!
It was only when new short-range jet aircraft like the 727 and early 737 variants (737-100, 737-200 and 737-300) began being used as cargo aircraft, were the trimotors finally retired in favor of larger and more efficient jet aircraft!
Specifications
Due to the Trimotor’s popularity, Stout developed several civilian, as well as military variants of the Tri-motor. In total, over 30 separate variants were designed by Stout and Ford for both military and civilian use.
Out of all of them, the Ford 4-AT-E Trimotor was the most common passenger variant.
| Specifications | Ford 4-AT-E Trimotor |
|---|---|
| Length | 49 ft 10 in (15.19 m) |
| Wingspan | 74 ft 0 in (22.56 m) |
| Cabin Width | 4 ft 6 in (1 m) |
| Height | 11 ft 9 in (3.58 m) |
| Crew | 2 (plus one flight attendant) |
| Seats | 11 |
| Cruise Speed | 107 mph (172 km/h, 93 kn) |
| Range | 570 mi (920 km, 500 nmi) |
| Service Ceiling | 16,500 ft (5,000 m) |
| MTOW | 10,130 lb (4,595 kg) |
How Safe Was The Ford Trimotor?
Today, only a handful of Trimotors are airworthy. Of these airworthy Trimotors, many do aviation heritage flights which are open to the public. As such, it is important to know how safe/dangerous the Trimotor is!
By both modern and contemporary standards, the Ford Trimotor is one of the safest aircraft to have ever flown. In its nine year service as a passenger airline, the Trimotor had only five crashes, of 200 produced.
Compared with aircraft of a similar role, design and era, the Ford Trimotor was the safest aircraft in the skies. Only 2.5% of Trimotors produced crashed, compared with between 15% and 20% of other aircraft.
Despite this, the Trimotor’s five crashes were all fatal. In total, the Trimotor had 61 fatalities on its five crashes. The Trimotor’s first crash was in March 1927, which killed 14 of the 15 people on board.
At the time, it was the worst aviation incident in US history, which led many non-aviators and flyers to believe that the Trimotor was one of the most dangerous aircraft flying.
However, after several years of flying, this belief was eroded, in favor of a more positive one. However, several subsequent crashes over the next nine years killed several high profile celebrities, including singer Carlos Gardel.
How Successful Was The Ford Trimotor?
Today, Ford isn’t known for its aircraft. After WWII, Ford stopped producing aircraft in its entirety in order to focus on its car manufacturing division. Despite this, during the 1920’s, Ford was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world!
Partly, this was due to the success of the Ford Trimotor. For an aircraft of its time- when aircraft manufacturing was a relatively new industry, the Trimotor sold incredibly well.
At the time, aircraft safety was a big thing. Newspapers around the country would report on crashes, even if they were minor and resulted in no fatalities., and even if they were on the other side of the country!
However, the Trimotor had relatively few crashes, as well as specifications that airlines wanted. As such, over 200 Trimotors were built, operating with over 100 different airlines at one point in time.
Pan Am was the largest operator of Trimotor, operating several different variants of the aircraft over its history. During his 1932 presidential election, FDR flew in a Pan Am Trimotor, inadvertently setting the groundwork for Air Force One.
Due to this, several militaries became interested in the Trimotor for VIP or cargo transportation. At one point in time, the Spanish, Colombian, Canadian, Australian and British air forces operated Trimotors.
The US military was the largest military operator of the Trimotor. All three branches of the US military (at the time) operated Trimotors, including the US Navy, Marine Corps and Army Air Corps.
Legacy
Due to its success, the Ford Trimotor has left a massive mark on the aviation industry as a whole, some of which you can still see today!
Ford
The early success of the Trimotor emboldened Henry Ford to expand out of the automotive industry and into the aircraft manufacturing business seriously. By the late 1920’s, Ford had increased funding to its aircraft subsidiary.
Henry Ford, too, got involved with the aircraft manufacturing side of the business. Using what he’d learned making early cars, Ford decided to design the “Model T of the Air”, who’s business model was similar to the Ford Model T.
Despite Ford’s direct input and optimism, the “Model T of the Air” as he called it (marketed as the Ford Flivver) was a complete failure. Only five were created, and Ford left the aircraft manufacturing business in 1936.
With the onset of WWII, Ford again reopened its aircraft manufacturing business. This time, Ford repurposed its main factories in order to produce Consolidated B-24 Liberators under license.
Following WWII, Ford officially produced their last aircraft, in favor of their car manufacturing business. After the war, the US, nor Allied militaries needed B-24s, so Ford soon lost the contract.
Eventually, the factories were restored to producing cars, many of which serve in that respect, even today! Over the 1950’s and 1960’s, Ford reinforced their image of producing American-made cars for American people.
Ford Trimotor
Today, you can actually still see several Trimotors around the world! Of the 200 Trimotors that were built, 18 are in full or partial condition. Most of these are in aviation museums all across the world.
Of these 18 Trimotors, five are currently being restored for future use/display. The other thirteen are currently on display at museums, mostly in the United States. Eight of these thirteen Trimotors still fly!
Depending on where you go, it is highly plausible that you will be able to get the chance to fly in a heritage flight. However, these flights only happen on specific dates and you my need to prebook your tickets.
Both legendary aviation pioneers, Charles Lindburgh and Amelia Earhart flew in same the Trimotor. This Trimotor is currently airworthy, and is on display at the Golden Wings Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In 2009, this Trimotor was used by the makers of Amelia, a biopic of Amelia Earhard. Due in part to the Trimotor’s amazing performance in the movie, International Aviation HQ called it one of the best aviation movies ever!
Following Stout building the Stout Bushmaster 2000 (more on that in a minute!) only two were developed. One of these two is on display at the Mid America Flight Museum in Mount Pleasant in Texas.
Future Aircraft
Following WWII, Stout was angry that Ford had closed down its aircraft manufacturing division that he was the head of. Despite closing it down, Ford had transferred all of the rights to the company’s designs to himself.
In 1954, Stout decided to buy the rights to the Trimotor in the hopes of revitalizing it. Following this, he partnered with Hayden Aircrft Corporation to help him modernize and produce the design.
10 years later, in 1964, Stout flew the first prototype of what would eventually become Stout Bushmaster 2000. The Bushmaster 2000 was a modernization of the Ford 15-AT-D Trimotor.
Despite all of Stout’s work, the aircraft was a failure. Only two aircraft were ever produced, one of which crashed in September 2004. This was due to the design being inferior to others of the day, especially early jets.
Although the Ford-produced Trimotors were a success, much of its design was changed. Ford engineers, as with others from other companies, realized that low wing monoplanes were more stable and aerodynamic.
These engineers also realized that trimotor designs were aerodynamic, although, twinmotor and monomotor designs were more aerodynamic. As technology progressed, these realizations were implemented into reality.
Have you ever flown on a Ford Trimotor? What was it like? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Jim Maurer via Flickr.