The airplane was built in 1929. My dad was nine years old in 1929. One of EAA’s Trimotors doing a tour of the southeast. The Ford is based at the VAC museum this weekend. Jay Jay, if you read this, get down there and take a ride! Anyway, here some pictures. Oh, and Tom Reilly’s B-25 was there flying today. I’ll have pictures of it too.
[CENTER]
[/CENTER].
Killer B was flying this morning too.
[CENTER]
[/CENTER]
Cool! What a fun day. Any interior pics? Was it loud?
Interior pix didn’t come very good. I didn’t want to use the flash inside the airplane and startle folks. Yeah, Keavdog, it was very noisy. I was prepared though. I had foam ear plugs to keep out most of the sound. These old airplanes don’t have any insulation so if you don’t wear ear protection, you’ll be deaf in no time.
Oh wow that’s awesome! I got to ride in a B-25 a few years ago, it’s amazing to get to ride in a piece of history.
Plenty cool Frank!
Thanks, Hodakamax.
Neat, thanks for posting the photos.
Pat
You bet.
Thanks for coming out and helping us keep the old girl flying! The airplane you rode is very significant historically, she is 5AT number 8, and she worked for Transcontinental Air Transport when they pioneered a coast-to-coast service that combined trains by night, Fords by day, getting from New York to LA in just two and a half days! She was the second airplane to leave Columbus, Ohio westbound on the first day of that service.
I will be with her in Ocala weekend of the 20th of April, we don’t charge a thing to look her over on the ground, sit in the seats and make airplane noises!
Boy, I wish, Ashley. I’ll be attending the Dixie Wing WWII Heritage Days at Atlanta Peachtree Airport that weekend. I am participating in two photography workshops during the event.
It’s wonderful that we have folks dedicated to keeping the old birds flying! About 10 years ago, I took a ride in the “Liberty Belle” B-17. It was a wonderful experience. I encourage everyone to support the foundations that are dedicated to keeping these meomories alive!
I had heard that the flat metal panels on those trimotors resonated and made them deafening inside.
Your report reminds me that I still have to get around to making custom decals to convert the old Admiral Byrd Ford trimotor kit into the plane from the ill-fated 1929 Arkham University Antarctic expedition.
Yes they did! I flew probably the last commercially flying tri motor (in service into the early 80’s AIR), which serviced the Lake Erie islands as part of Island Airways. They also used a De Havilland Beaver as the mail plane (never got to ride in that one, mail only).
Yes they did! I flew frequently on probably the last commercially flying Tri Motor when it served the Lake Erie Islands as part of Island Airways. Well into the early 80’s (AIR) and the plane was at least 60 years old. All the rivets had at least a half inch gap from being stretched over the years.
They also had a De Havilland Beaver that was the mail plane. Didn’t get to ride in that one, since only mail was flown in it.
The aviation museum in Port Clinton is rebuilding a Tri Motor, back to Island Airways livery (not the actual plane, it was sold when it became to valuable to be in service, to costly to use and maintain, and was in Florida in a hangar that was flattened in huricane Andrew).
Back in the late 80s, i worked for Computer Shopper magazine in Titusville, Florida. A woman I worked with grew up on one of the islands in Lake Erie. That Ford Trimotor was her school bus, taking her and other children to school on the mainland. After the airplane was pulled from commercial service, the owner would bring the airplane to Florida in the winter and sell rides. I flew on the Island Airlines Ford at least three times, once in the co-pilot’s seat. I think the Island Airlines Ford now sits in Kermit Week’s Fantasy of Flight museum in Polk City, Florida.
I Say !
Aren’t those High Tech airplanes wonderful ? Someday we might have jets and they will pack us in like sardines , right ? Those sounds certainly take me back to when My bird flew . B-25 aircraft are cranky , smoky and noisy , ain’t it grand ?
Yeah, sometimes I feel like I was born twenty-five years too late…
I first heard a -25 as a kid, and it was deafening! I continue to marvel, when I hear one, how two engines can make that much noise. When they are far away, they aren’t as noisy as four and six engined planes, but up close they are amazingly loud. Of course, I have never been that close to a -36 on takeoff- that must be loud also.
I only flew once in a piston engined airliner, a Convair twin and marveled at how roomy all the seats were. I figured out that with the lower power of piston engines, the payload was lower and you simply couldn’t cram that many people into a plane, so the passengers got spread out room. It wasn’t that noisy but I was surprised how much the plane was shaken when starting the engines.
My rides in crop-duster converted B-17’s were scary; it takes the whole runway to get thousands of gallons of pesticide off the ground with only about 4,000 horsepower. At least it didn’t need to climb much above treetop level. Something to be said for all that effortless jet power.
Used to hear B-36’s at altitude when I was a child in Canada. The six engines, slightly out of synch, plus the fact the props are turning in the wing’s turbulence would produce this deep throbbing resonance that would have me running out of the house to look up at the tiny plane. whoom…whoom…whoom.