28 AUGUST 2018 ÇPlane&Pilot
I
t’d been a very long time since I paid for an airplane
ride. Standing in line by the BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE
sign, I took a self-conscious look over my shoulder. I’d
lown a bunch of planes, many of which folks graciously
paid me to ly, and I had mixed feelings about ponying
up a goodly sum of cash for a trip around the pattern
as a passenger. It was the Sun ‘n Fun ly-in
years ago in Lakeland, Florida, where Amy
had joined me for her irst ly-in camping
experience after our wedding. She and I had
sat in the campground, watching the corru-
gated Ford loat over our tent, and my poker
face is terrible. She gave me permission to
buy a ticket before I inished asking—she’d
known that question was coming long before
I began to form the words.
Waiting to buy my ticket, I was startled
to recognize the man in line behind me.
Jim Kimball, of Jim Kimball Enterprises,
manufacturers of the Pitts Model 12 and restorers of
numerous award-winning antique and classic aircraft,
stood with cash in his hand.
In such company, paying money for an airplane ride
didn’t seem so terribly uncool.
Mister Jim was buying a ride for one of his employees,
who’d grown up on an island in the Great Lakes. While her
contemporaries on the mainland were riding to school
in wheeled yellow boxes of corrugated metal, she rode
to school in a corrugated metal vehicle with wings and
three engines. he school bus from her childhood was
the Ford Trimotor. He wanted to buy her a ride down
memory lane on the EAA’s Trimotor. I got to join her.
here are plenty of arguments to make as to which
design ushered in air travel as a viable means of trans-
port across America. Many argue the DC-3 did the trick.
Others claim that air travel wasn’t really established
before pressurized cabins or even jet airliners graced thesky. here are many landmark designs that ushered in
signiicant advances in air travel, so it becomes a rather
subjective matter of choosing which advances appeal to
the individual’s argument.
As an antique aircraft fan, though, I’m steadfastly
in the Ford Trimotor camp. Before Ford’s “Tin Goose,”
most airlines were actually airmail contractors who only
begrudgingly took paying passengers. heir machines,
such as the DeHavilland DH-4, were lying machines
from World War I reworked to carry mailbags, and the
occasional passengers rode with the sacks of mail. he
Ford Trimotor, though, was designed from the outset for
hauling people. Its reliability and “modern” amenities
enabled a combination of air travel by day and rail by
night, ushering in transcontinental air travel.
Designed by Bill Stout, the Stout Metalplane took wing
in 1926, and soon Henry Ford took note and got involved.
he Trimotor made a huge developmental leap over its
predecessors. Curtiss ielded the Condor at about the
same time, a large cabin biplane that had one foot in
the past, while the Ford machine had a foot planted into
the future. It was such a dynamic time in aviation, with
new airframe and engine technology rapidly evolving, so
that almost any design that took wing would be quickly
outdated. he Fords saw service with Transcontinental
Air Transport (later TWA), American, Pan-American,
Western, and a slew of other operators, but the design
was soon eclipsed by the arrival of the DC-2.
Retiring from the frontlines, the lock of
Tin Geese lew south, where they soldiered
on, serving the mines and backcountry
communities of South America. Some came
back north eventually, where they served
with Island Airlines as a bus system of sorts,
connecting the island communities of the
Great Lakes. Others lew sightseeing lights
over the Grand Canyon. hey were slow and
outdated, but these routes weren’t long.
Between islands, their plodding pace left
boats far behind; sightseeing passengers in
Arizona needed a little time to soak in the amazing vistas.
hey excelled for these roles well into advanced age.
And then, they were done. Changing rules and evapo-
rating stockpiles of parts made the Fords impossible
to operate on a daily schedule, and by the time I had a
chance to try one on, there was pretty much only the
EAA’s bird hopping rides and one in the desert where
collectors of type ratings can go earn their Trimotor type
rating, an investment that helps keep that tin goose in
the air. Oh, there are others, sure, but those were the two
most accessible ones. And at the time, a short ride was a
heck of a lot more afordable than a full-on type rating.
I paid the money, got a ticket, and came back later that
morning for my ride.
As the props spun to life, I closed my eyes and stepped
back in time. If I took of my glasses, the nearby warbirds
and antique were visible while the modern-day spam cans
blurred in the distance. he aroma of half burnt-fuel andTake Me Flying,
Tin Goose
Slow, rattly, windy and magical
❯ ❯ “As the props spun
to life, I closed my eyes
and stepped back in
time. If I took off my
glasses, the nearby
warbirds and antiques
were visible while the
modern-day spam cans
blurred in the distance.”AIRFARE
By Jeremy KingPORTRAIT: LARA TOMLIN