The Story of the Ford Trimotor
From
a painting called "Shrinking Land" by John
Young"http://www.oldgloryprints.com/aviation art.htm.
The Ford Trimotor: travel across America takes days instead of
weeks.
When in 1925 the Ford
Motor Company took over the Stout Aircraft Company
it also acquired the designs of William B Stout one
of the best designers of light metal structures of
the day. The first and only result of the takeover
of Ford in the field of aviation would be the Ford
4-AT Trimotor, a powerful three-engined, high wing
monoplane constructed totally of metal, with a skin
of corrugated duralumin based on the Junkers system.
The
German company in fact began a court action against
Ford for breach of patent. This meant that Ford had
to provide insurance to buyers of the aircraft in
case Junkers, in turn, took action against them.
Notwithstanding, between June 1926 and September
1932, 195 Ford Trimotors were built, and flew with
companies all over the world.
Henry Ford was,in fact, a visionary in aviation. He predicted that in the future airplanes would be, "made of metal, not wood, multi-engined, and monoplanes". Ford believed multi-engined planes would provide extra safety, as engines were very reliable. Also, monoplanes would not be subjected to the same icing conditions as biplanes, with their extra wings, struts, wires, etc.
Ford also founded
it's own airline, and pioneered radio air navigation.
The first modern airport in America was in Dearborn,
Michigan, site of the present day Ford Museum. Runways
were of concrete, and about 1 mile in length. It
took that much runway for the lumbering Trimotors
to get airborne.
The Ford Trimotor, robust and easy to maintain, had a fuselage of rectangular cross-section, rounded off fore and aft, built around a structure of multiple longitudinal spars, which together with the frames and skin carried most of the structural forces. The thick profile wing, also multi-sparred, was entirely made of metal including the skin. The aircraft had a wingspan of 22' 55 metres and its length was 15' 20 metres.
The empty weight was
3.150 kilos and its maximum takeoff weight was 5.000
kilos. 
It
was powered by three Wright J-6 300 hp radial engines.
With a crew of two (pilot and radio operator or flight
engineer) its cabin could accomodate up to 12 passengers,
comfortably seated
on wicker chairs, at a cruising speed of 182 kilometres
per hour
over hour over a range of 850 kms.
True or false?
Decide if the following statements are true or
false:
Click the button corresponding to your choice.
If the buttons disappear your choice was right.