Tri-Motor 1929 Ford - My Flight

[kach22i]

It's a 1929 Ford Tri-Motor now flying out of Pontiac airport, a once a year thing (see pictures).

If you ever get the chance, go for it. It's the cost of a fill-up ($40) if you purchase your tickets ahead of time, and a extra ten bucks if you don't.

[kach22i]

A few more pictures......................

[kach22i]

Did you catch that the second from the top picture shows dials in the support strut for the engine?

Can you guess what the picture above is?

I need help to ID this model (see picture below), I am stumped. It was in the showcase at the airport. If you look at it real close, parts of it look like a stealth bomber or flying wing. Pretty cool hey?

[Pete Pranger]

Nice pictures. A ride like that is a heck of a way to kill an afternoon, I haven't had the opportunity to fly anything with a piston (let alone a radial) in a long time.

I flew -3's and convairs for IFL there in Pontiac a few years ago. Nice area, but too cold for my taste.

Pete

[exc911ence]

Originally posted by kach22i
Did you catch that the second from the top picture shows dials in the support strut for the engine?

Can you guess what the picture above is?

I need help to ID this model (see picture below), I am stumped. It was in the showcase at the airport. If you look at it real close, parts of it look like a stealth bomber or flying wing. Pretty cool hey?

That looks like the Italian SAVOIA MARCHETTI S-55 "SAINT MARIA" FLYING BOAT:

[350HP930]

Isn't that the aircraft model that killed roy rodgers?

[304065]

The cowboy? He died of congestive heart failure.

http://dpsinfo.com/dps/rnames.html

Kach, I got my instrument rating from an instructor based at PTK, I've been over there hundreds of times. What a blast it must have been.

[singpilot]

I think this is the same one that gives hundreds of rides at Oshkosh. I loved the wicker passenger seats. Your pics show leather seats, but I think the wicker ones were lighter and cooler.

I use PTK whenever we fly teams in and out of Detroit. Is amazing how many people have never heard of that airport. Great alternative to Metro Wayne. Spectacular approach controllers. Mixing fast corporate jets and airliners with Katanas and Cubs.

Great pics!

[350HP930]

Originally posted by john_cramer
The cowboy? He died of congestive heart failure.

Whoops, I meant will rogers

[304065]

Whoops, I meant will rogers

Ok, Will Rogers died in a plane crash, but not in a Trimotor, he died in an experimental aircraft built and flown by no less an aviator than Wiley Post!

The aircraft was powered by a single 550 HP P&W wasp, which quit on takeoff, resulting in a classic stall/spin.

Here's a good link to Post in front of his Lockheed Vega, the Winnie Mae out at Floyd Bennett field.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/arch/rudyarnold/rabw997.jpg

[kach22i]

Wow, thanks for all the information gathering and input. You guys really know your stuff.

What struck me as odd about the Tr-Motor was the corrugated metal skin. The corrugations are everywhere, even the top and underside of the wing!

What keeps this plane in the air? The short field take off ability is incredible. Do you think little vortexes or jetties are formed at the boundary layer (via the corrugations)? Would this help or hurt lift? I know this plane does not have much of a top speed, but it beats traffic any day.

I talked to a semi-retired architect yesterday who said that there was a commercial Tri-Motor run operating in S.E. Michigan to Toledo Ohio as late as the Mid-1970's. Take that DC-2

[greglepore]

ABC news had video of a Trimotor crash at an airshow http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/videofiles/Video/040927airshow_video_smi/index.html

Same plane?

[A Quiet Boom]

If I remember correctly my dad told me he flew on Tri-Motors for short business trips during his early years at NASA (late '60s/early '70s) I'll have to ask him about that.

[TSNAPCRACKLEPOP]

we used to skydive from a single radial engine plane in mid Missouri, what the heck is the name of that town,east of Columbia?

[1973911s]

So what was that second picture?

[johnco]

A newspaper ad from 1930 for the Ford Trimotor

[kach22i]

Originally posted by greglepore
ABC news had video of a Trimotor crash at an airshow http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/videofiles/Video/040927airshow_video_smi/index.html

Same plane?

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...........................I'll try later.


Wheel fairings? Looks alright.

[kach22i]

Originally posted by LynnsABCs
What's the German WWII plane that had corrugated body parts? Does the corrugation make the light weight (thin) metal stronger and that's what they corrugated it?

http://www.airchive.com/SITE%20PAGES/VIN-UDVAR.html
Junkers JU-2
The JU-2 was Germany's answer to the DC-3. This Lufthansa example is immaculately restored.A few are still flying today at air shows.

I know that corrigation makes metal stronger to deflection in one direction, I am baffled at how the air tollerates this and lets these planes fly (okay.. at low speeds).

The extra drag may add to lift like a stealth fighter flying on vortexes of swirlie air?

[sigrana]

I will add an excerpt from my book "The Russian Aero-marine" (www.brunodemichelis.com):

"An excellent import (better late than never….)
SAVOIA-MARCHETTI S-55
Wingspan 24 m
Length 16.5 m
Height 7 m
Empty weight 5750 kg
MTOW 10000 kg
Engines 2 x 880 hp “Asso”
Max. speed 280 km/h
Range 4000 km
Ceiling 5000 m
This catamaran-flying boat, possibly the most successful in the world during the years
between WWI and WWII, was designed in Italy in 1922 by A. Marchetti as an open sea,
long-range torpedo-bomber. Its unorthodox parallel hulls, of wooden construction, were
covered in plywood and double-layered below the water line with a water-proof padding,
assuring strength and long life. The prototype flew in 1923 with positive results, in spite of
using two 300 hp Fiat engines, fairly marginal for its weight. During the following years,
the S-55 was at first converted to a passenger liner and then definitely re-considered as a
military craft. The engines used were more powerful and the result was remarkable: in
1926, equipped with two 500 hp “Asso” engines, the S-55 achieved 14 world records,
including speed, altitude and distance with a heavy payload. During the following year, the
same craft, re-baptized “Santa Maria” (in honor of Cristoforo Colombo’s caravel)
completed a round tour of the Atlantic (well before Lindberg’s solo flight) leaving from
Sesto Calende (near Milan, Italy), flying to West Africa, then to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos
Aires, New York and back to Italy. It covered 30,000 miles in 193 flying hours, with 50
stops. That was not enough: in 1933, ten years after its maiden flight, the final version of
this incredible flying boat, equipped then with 880 hp Isotta-Fraschini “Asso” engines and
three-blade propellers, left once more the aviation world in astonishment. A squadron of
twenty four S-55s, commanded by Gen. Italo Balbo, flew non-stop in close ”V” formation
from Orbetello, near Rome, Italy to the grounds of the “Century of Progress” Exposition in
Chicago, Illinois, USA. Then the whole squadron flew back to Italy in the same fashion.
The flying time was 48 hours each way, without a glitch. This achievement gave origin to
the expression ”Balbo formation”, used since when referring to a large, spotlessly flying
squadron. In spite of having unsuccessfully tried to acquire these torpedo-bombers since
1927, the USSR could only purchase six S-55s in 1932, when the GVF received them in
their most recent version. Even when transformed into passenger carriers, they still showed
the bomb riggings, that were not removed after a series of tests for special weapons, carried
out in Sevastopol during 1933. The very reliable S-55s were mostly used by the Far East
airlines, between Vladivostok and Petropavlov, until their retirement in 1939.

Originally Posted by kach22i

Did you catch that the second from the top picture shows dials in the support strut for the engine?

Can you guess what the picture above is?

I need help to ID this model (see picture below), I am stumped. It was in the showcase at the airport. If you look at it real close, parts of it look like a stealth bomber or flying wing. Pretty cool hey?