I flew in a Ford Tri-motor in the early thirties. I remember the control cables running out in the open thru the cabin area and curtains separating the pilots from the passengers. This particular plane was owned by a barnstormer, flying out of a cowpasture, charging three bucks for a trip over town. The field is near my home and each time I passby and note how short the field is with treeline on each end I can't believe it.

I took my grandson for a ride in a Ford Tri-Motor on June 28, 2008, flying from the Dayton Wright Brothers Airport, Dayton Ohio. This particular aircraft was the 126th Tri-Motor built by Ford (NC8407) and was one of two that were used to start Eastern Airlines. This plane was used in the Jerry Lewis movie "The Family Jewels". It was also used as a crop duster, and as a "Smoke Jumper" aircraft. My grandson and I very much enjoyed the flight over Dayton and its suburbs.

When I was 6 days old (April 21, 1929) a Fokker Trimotor and
an Army Air Corps Boeing PW9 collided over San Diego and crashed close behind my house. My father and grandfather were among the first to get to the crash. For years my family had relics of the crash. The Trimotor was an airliner of Maddux Air Lines which later became part of TWA. There were no survivors of the crash.....6 on the trimotor
plus the pilot of the Army fighter.

In the summer of 1968 My family, wife and four kids were at the same Rockford,IL Air Show that Rosie Head (re:see Fokker quad plane)was killed at. We all went up in a Ford Trimotor. The youngest Marzie was still in the hanger, coming out in December. Adults paid five bucks the kids flew free. Nearly all of the kids built model airplanes, my present hobby.

I flew in a Ford Trimotor about two years ago with my two grandsons. While an undergrduate student at MIT my prof of design was one Otto Koppen (got his intsturment rating at 80 years of age). Koppen was one of the designers of the TriMotor; he told as how with the demise of the Fokker TriMotor (death of Knute Rockne) Koppen and fellow engieers at Ford secretely got access to a Fokker and made detailed measurements (wing span, length, airfoil etc.) and reproduced this airplane in aluminum. Koppen was also the designer of the heliocourier airplane.

There was one of these that flew passengers out to the Catawba Islands in Lake Erie from Sandusky, Ohio up until the early 1970's.

Fue y sigue siendo un avión excepcional que dio un grán avance a la aviación comercial.

Como piloto me habria gustado pilotarlo. Por lo que he leido es un noble aparato.

Saludos.
Luis