Ford Trimotor

The Ford Trimotor was a three engine civil transport aircraft first produced in 1926 by Henry Ford and continued until about 1931. It was also popular with the military and was sold all over the world. Unlike his famous cars and farm tractors, Ford did not make the engines for these aircraft. The original (commercial production) 4-AT had 3 air cooled Wright radial engines. The later 5-AT had more powerful Pratt & Whitney; engines. The plane had aluminum corregated sheet metal body and wings. However, like many aircraft through World War II and later, the aircraft control surfaces were fabric covered. Amazingly, but common for the time, the rudder and elevator were controlled by wires that ran on the outside of the aircraft. Like his cars and tractors, they were well designed, relatively cheap, and reliable (for the time period). The rapid development of aircraft at this time, (the vastly superior Douglas DC-2 was first conceived in 1932), helped Henry Ford to loose interest in aircraft production. This was not to be Ford's last venture in aircraft production. During World War II, he built the largest aircraft manufacturing plant in the world and produced thousands of B-24 bombers. They were, however, designed by another company.

One 4-AT with Wright J-4 200 hp engines was built for the Army Air Corps as type C-3, and 7 with Wright R-790-3 (235 hp) as type C-3A. The latter were upgraded to Wright R-975-1 (J6-9) radials at 300 hp and redesignated C-9. Five 5-ATs were built as C-4 or C-4A.

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