"Montblack" wrote in message

We are aware of 8 Tri-Motors still flying:

There is one at the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville, Oregon (same
facility as the Spruce Goose.)

Hate that thing. Mostly because they took some of the seats out of it and
put it in the waist of the B-17 for the purpose of carrying potential
investors. (As a volunteer, my job was to get people into the airplanes and
strapped in, tell 'em not to grab onto the overhead rudder and elevator
cables (on the '17) and then clean their friggin' pop cans out of the ammo
boxes when they were done. I remember helping somebody who got to ride in
the nose of the fortress for takeoff, complaining that he wanted to ride the
Tri-motor. Another, in the B-17 asked me "Is this the Tri-motor or the
B-17?" Gee...let's start by counting the engines. )

-gattman
Portland, OR



Bob Ellis in Kalamazoo, MI (4-AT-58, 5-AT-58, 4-AT-62),
Kermit Weeks in Polk, FL (4-AT-38),
EAA in Oshkosh, WI (4-AT-69),
Chino Air Museum in Grand Canyon, AZ (5-AT-74),
Kansas City, KS (15-AT/BU-2000-1),
and ours in Long Beach, CA (15-AT/BU-2000-2).
There are 11 more reported Tri-Motors which are not flyable, but still
around.


Golden Wings Museum at ANE has a Ford Tri-Motor that is not on this list.
http://www.goldenwingsmuseum.com/Aircraft.html

It's the one that was at OSH this year.

This was interesting, from the History link - then go in a couple of
pages:
http://www.fordtri-motor.com/

Part of C-1077 is in the Spirit of St. Louis

Bill Stout: "We offered to have Harry Russell go over Lindbergh's plane
before he left, Harry being considerably more reliable than the local
mechanics. A very small thing may often influence a large event. Harry
looked over the equipment and found that one of the brushes in the magneto
was worn down to within an eighth inch of the end. Taking a long flight
without a replacement would certainly have meant trouble. There were no
replacements, so Harry took one of the brushes out of our trimotor and put
the worn one in its place, knowing that our trip was shorter going home,
and
that we had two other engines to depend on if one stopped."

As the Spirit of St. Louis only flew an additional 101.5 hours, the part
placed on it in Mexico City from Ford C-1077 is no doubt hanging with the
Spirit in the National Air & Space Museum.

I helped with a wedding at the Museum on Saturday. There are 5 working
Tri-Motors (one Ford) all next to one another in the hangar (see Golden
Wings Museum link above)


Montblack