Tag Archives: #Vintage Airplanes

Ford Trimotor Flight

21 Mar

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

 

 

 

 

 

“Did you hear that the EAA’s 1929 Ford Trimotor is going to be here to give rides next month?” my friend Dick asked me. “No” I said. “Want to go for a ride with me?” he asked. “Sure, where can I sign up?” I said. I was thrilled by the prospect of being able to fly in one of aviation’s early landmark aircraft, and was eager to hear more about it. Dick and I are volunteer tour guides at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum in Titusville, Florida. We both love airplanes and enjoy telling guests to the museum all about the museum’s 35+ vintage airplanes. When we heard about the EAA’s 1929 Ford Trimotor coming to our museum, we could hardly wait.

 

 

Henry Ford had wanted to get into the commercial aircraft manufacturing business, to take advantage of the growing domestic commercial airline industry in the United States. So in 1923, Ford bought the Stout Metal Airplane Company, and William B. Stout became chief designer for the new Ford Aircraft Division.The Stout 3-AT Trimotor was the first all-metal commercial transport built in the U.S. much of which was based on early design and developments by the German designer Hugo Junkers. The implacable and underpowered aircraft was barely able to maintain altitude, and Henry Ford was furious. Tom Towle was put in charge of Ford’s aircraft engineering department, and along with Otto Koppen, John Lee and James McDonnell, refined the 3-AT into the 4-AT and eventually into what we now know as the 5-AT Ford Trimotor (commonly known as the “Tin Goose”),

 

 

 

 

These rugged aircraft were built to handle rough field operations and could also be fitted with floats or skis. The design of the Ford Trimotor represented a quantum leap over other airliners of its time, providing fast and efficient transportation for the airline industry. A total of 199 Ford Trimotors were built between 1926 and 1933. Well over 100 airlines, worldwide, would fly the Ford Trimotor from mid-1927 to late 1933, when more modern airliners began to appear to take their place. By the early 1930’s, the Ford Aircraft Division was reputedly seen as the “largest manufacturer of commercial airplanes in the world.”

 

 

The Ford Trimotor became known for its use on many record breaking flights. Commander Richard E. Byrd made the first flight above the geographic South Pole on November 27 and 28, 1929, in a Ford Trimotor named the Floyd Bennett.

 

 

A Ford Trimotor was even used for the flight of Elm Farm Ollie, the first cow to fly in an aircraft and to be milked in mid-flight. One of the most famous 5-AT Ford Trimotors was used for 65 years, by Scenic Airways, to fly visitors on sight-seeing flights over Arizona’s beautiful Grand Canyon.

 

 

The day arrived for our flight “To Experience the Golden Age of Aviation” in our 1929 5-AT Ford Trimotor. During our pre-flight briefing (seatbelt safety, etc.), we were told this airplane was very simple, and was mechanically flown by the pilot. Then he added that the pilot only had to remember one number. That number was “90 mph”- 90 mph to takeoff – 90 mph for cruise – and 90 mph for landing. We were the first two passengers in line, so we took the two bulkhead seats. This allowed us to talk to the pilot, through the opening to the cockpit, while the plane was loading, and to observe the starting of the two wing engines, out our windows.

 

 

The interior of the plane was beautifully restored with rich wood paneling and Art Deco style fixtures of the early 1920’s and 1930’s. The plane had large windows which gave the passengers great visibility during our flight. The seats were very modern and comfortable, with modern seat belts and life vests.  I’m sure they were much more comfortable than the Wicker seats (no seat belts) I’ve read about, that were furnished in the first commercial Ford Trimotor’s. I’m not sure I would feel very safe riding in an airplane in that configuration!

 

 

After take-off, we turned south and flew at approximately 1000 feet down U.S.#1. It was a beautiful clear day, and to the east we could see the Indian River and NASA’s Vertical Assembly Building (VAB), and to the west Port St. John, Cocoa and Rockledge. The vibration and noise levels made it hard to talk to my friend across the aisle, but were not as bad as I had expected. Now we turned back north toward TICO Airport, and we were able to view the scenery the passengers on the other side of the plane had been able to see on the way south. The guy at the pre-flight briefing had been right; I could tell little engine difference from takeoff to landing.

 

 

My friend, Dick, is a pilot, and after we landed, he had several questions for the pilot while the other passengers were disembarking. I have to admit it was an exciting adventure, and I am really glad we took the flight. And now I have another item I can check off of my “Life’s Bucket List.”

 

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—–The End—–

 

If you are interested in enjoying one of these amazing flights go to eea.org

 

 

 

 

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America’s North Country Trip~Part 11

29 Nov

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

 

 

 

Day 11 (Monday)

 

This morning I did a little back-tracking north on US-20 heading for my first visit of the day to the Legacy Flight Museum located at the Rexburg-Madison County Airport in Rexburg, ID. This was a small one-hanger museum where all of their planes are flyable. I learned that several of the planes from this museum were at the Extreme Blue Thunder Airshow in Idaho Falls last weekend.

 

 

As I walked thru the hanger taking photos, I spotted a yellow P-51 Mustang that looked familiar. I asked the tour guide if that really was Bob Hoover’s “Ole Yeller” and he said, “Yes.” I asked him how it ended up in their museum, and he said, “Bob knows one of the owners of this museum, and when Bob was forced to retire from flying, he designated that his P-51 Mustang would be displayed, maintained and flown by this museum until a specified time, when it would go to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.” What an amazing man and airplane!

 

 

Now I headed east on SR-33, past a beautiful part to the Teton Mountain Range to visit The Teton Valley Museum located in Driggs, ID. The museum was closed, but I learned from their website that their exhibits mostly center on local history of the surrounding Teton Valley.

 

 

Just down the road a ways, at the Driggs Airport, I visited the Teton Aviation Center. This center houses a small FBO as well as an impressive collection of beautifully restored WWII warbirds. There is also the “Warbird Café” where you can eat a delicious meal and have a great view of the Grand Teton Mountains from your table.

 

 

In downtown Driggs I visited the Teton Geotourism Center just to see what it was all about. They advertise to be the world’s first Geotourism center which they say is the portal to an experience on the Teton Scenic Byway (a part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem). Most of their exhibits are interactive, showing the Teton Valley in its best light. I did like the on-board husky-driven snow sled ride video.

 

 

As I headed south and west on SR-33 thru the Caribou Targhee National Forest, where I picked up US-26 in Swan Valley. I continued south along the Snake River, crossing the border into Wyoming, where I picked up US-89 into Afton, WY where I visited the CallAir Museum. This was a very small museum located in the Afton Civic Center building. I learned that the Call Aircraft Factory was founded in 1939 there in Afton, and went on to design and manufacture single engine passenger aircraft and crop duster aircraft until 1970.

 

 

Before I left Afton, I wanted to see and photograph what is advertised to be the World’s Largest Elk Horn Arch. The arch is 18 feet high and 75 feet wide, and is said to contain over3000 elk antlers. Sure enough, there it was, stretching across US-89 in downtown Afton, with a pair of elk sparing on top. Wow! That took a lot of elk Horns to build! There must have been a lot of elk roaming around these parts in the early days, as I have seen all kinds of elk Horn furniture in museums on this trip.

 

 

Now I headed south on US-89, skirting the Bridger National Forest, until I picked up US-30 just below Geneva, ID. US-30 continues south another 25 miles before it turns east, past the Fossil Butte National Monument, to where I could merge with I-80 near Little America Travel Center. Since it was only another 25 miles to the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River, WY were I had planned my next visit, I put off a potty break until I got there. As expected, this museum’s exhibits majored on the cultural heritage of southwestern Wyoming, including the early explorers, fur trappers, sheepherders, cowboys, and the Pony Express.

 

 

 

While there in Green River, I went looking for what I thought would be an old timey Wild West saloon where I could get a sarsaparilla. But the address for the Wild Horse Saloon and the Hitching Post were both the same, and I found out that they had been combined, and were now called the Hitching Post Restaurant & Saloon. Since I was sure this saloon would probably not be serving anything as mild as a sarsaparilla, I decided to look for the Island Park, down by the Green River, to relax while I called DiVoran. I couldn’t find the Park, so I just pulled up in a nice shady spot next to the river and made my call. The rustling water was very soothing.

 

 

 

Now I headed east on I-80 another 15 miles to Rock Springs, WY to look for my motel for the night. After I got checked in, I saw the Best Western “Outlaw Inn” across the street. They had a restaurant called the” Open Range” where I enjoyed a dinner of Baby Back Ribs with all the trimmings. What a great way to end a long day on the road.

 

 

—–To Be Continued—–

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My 2016 Mid-West Trip Part 3

20 Jul

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

Bill Stars Plane

 

 

Day 3 (Monday)

The day trip from Houston to Galveston took longer than I had expected. My first stop was to visit the Lone Star Flight Museum. This was a very nice museum with about 20 aircraft (in one very large hanger) most of which were restored to flying condition.

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I was surprised to see they had a German Me-262 Schwalbe (Swallow) jet fighter on display.  I ask one of the volunteers if the Me-262 was in flying condition and he said, “Yes.”  Then he told me it was on loan from another museum, and it was actually one of the three beautiful new Me-262 reproductions built by the Classic Fighter Industries at Paine Field in Everett, Washington.

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The next stop was to visit the Galveston Railroad Museum which had a very nice collection of rolling stock. Their train station restoration was amazing and reminded me of several stations I had visited on my travels to and from duty stations while in the U.S. Navy. A large variety of train memorabilia, including original dinning ware, from the 1920s through the 1960s was also on display.

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I was disappointed when I couldn’t find the Texas Seaport Museum where I hoped to see the Tall Ship Elissa. Greta took me to the Galveston cruise ship terminal which was bustling with cruise line passengers, taxis and limousines.  The entire dock area was blotted out by the mass of the cruise ship tied up alongside the terminal, taking on passengers. The Elissa is a two-masted, iron-hulled brigantine sailing ship originally built in 1877 in Aberdeen, Scotland by the Alexander Hall & Company. The ship is one of the world’s oldest sailing ships, and is maintained and sailed annually around the Gulf of Mexico.

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I stopped and took a photo of the famous Willis-Moody Mansion there in Galveston. I had read that the mansion is a 31-room Romanesque historic residence that was built in 1895 by Narcissa Willis. It was later bought by the entrepreneur William Lewis Moody Jr. and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I decided not to take a tour of the mansion and headed back toward Houston.

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The route Greta proposed for my return to Houston took me past the small town of Texas City, TX. I was old enough (9 years old) to remember the tremendous disaster that happened at the Port of Texas City in 1947.  So I decided to stop and see if they had a museum or memorial honoring the many people that were killed as a result of that disaster.

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The small Texas City Museum is said to have a section set aside for the 1947 disaster, but the museum was closed. However, there was a Texas City Remembers park that honored the people killed in that horrific disaster.

I stopped to pay my respects.

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I made it back to Houston in time to visit the site of the Battleship USS Texas

(BB-35). I had toured two other U.S. battleships and a U.S. cruiser, so opted not to tour this ship. However, Wikipedia informed me that the ship is a New York class battleship that was commissioned in 1914. The USS Texas was involved in many actions during WWI, and again during WWII including support of Allied landings on North Africa, Normandy, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

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As I was leaving the Battleship Texas site, I noticed right ahead of me was a very tall monument. So I stopped to see what it was all about. I discovered it was the 567 foot high San Jacinto Monument, located on part of the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site. This impressive monument was built to commemorate the decisive 1836 Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution. It was completed in 1939 and is the world’s tallest masonry column (13 feet taller than the Washington Monument). Leave it to Texas to be and have not only the biggest, but also claim to have the tallest!

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Next it was over to the William P. Hobby Airport to see if Greta could find The 1940 Air Terminal Museum. And what do you know; she took me right to it! I was surprised to learn that according to Wikipedia, Houston’s Hobby Airport has been around since 1927, and has had several names; W. T. Carter Field, Houston Municipal Airport and Howard R. Hughes Airport, just to name a few. This building was the first airport passenger terminal built in Houston.

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Opened in 1940, this art deco structure served as the Houston Municipal Airport Terminal until 1954 when it was renamed Houston International Airport. As the air transportation business expanded across America, Houston’s airport expanded with it, and in 1967 it was renamed, again, to what we now know as the William P. Hobby Airport. Too bad the museum was closed, as I would like to have browsed through the history of this beautiful air terminal building.

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On the way to the motel, I asked Greta to see if she could direct me to the ArtCar Museum. As it turned out, this was a small museum that displays mostly post-modern age cars, modified by artists/owners to the specifications of their own idiosyncratic images and visions. I was sorry to find this museum closed for the day, since I would have loved to seen some of those “Artists” handy work.

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Dinner tonight was Baby Back Ribs, a sweet potato with cinnamon butter and cold slaw at Longhorn Steakhouse.  It was all wonderful, and put me in the mood to kick back with a relaxing TV show and a good night’s sleep. I couldn’t find any good TV shows, so I just checked out tomorrow’s weather and went to bed.

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—–To Be Continued—–

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My Western Trip Part~15

13 Aug

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill

 Heading back west from Meteor Crater, I passed signs for roads leading to some of the most unique sounding towns, such as Two Guns and Twin Arrows. Then a little ways farther down the road, I passed a man carrying a cross with wheels on the long end. What a sight that was. It reminded me of Arthur Blessitt, who carried a cross from the west coast to the east coast of the U.S. back in the late 1960s. When I got to Williams, AZ I took another little side trip, north on S.R. 64 to Valle, AZ to visit the Planes of Fame Air Museum. This museum has a couple of the planes that are special to me, one being General Douglas MacArthur’s Lockheed C-121A Constellation (N422NA) that he named “Bataan.” The other is a Pacific Air Lines Martin 4-0-4 (N636X) that I worked on at the Los Angeles International Airport in 1958-1960s while I was attending Northrop University.

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Next door to the POF Air Museum is the Grand Canyon Valle Airport, which has a very nice collection of vintage aircraft and vehicles. Their movie and airline famous1929 5-AT-C Ford Tri-motor (N414H) is painted in the colors of Scenic Airways (predecessor to Grand Canyon Airlines), and among its many other awards, won the National Aviation Heritage Invitational (NAHI) Howard Hughes Trophy at the 2012 Reno Air Races.

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Then I headed west on I-40 again, this time toward Las Vegas, my beginning and ending destination for this trip. I passed thru Ash Fork and Seligman before stopping at the Airport in Kingman, AZ to visit the Kingman Army Airfield Museum. But again, they were closed that day, so I continued on into Kingman to visit the Powerhouse Route 66 Museum and the Kingman Railroad Museum.

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Since time was beginning to get a little tight, I didn’t spend a lot of time in those two museums, but got back on the road for Las Vegas. I made it into town in time to visit the National Atomic Testing Museum, which documents the history of U.S. nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), which was originally called The Nevada Proving Grounds. The NTS is located in the desert only 65 miles north of Las Vegas, and has been the location for 928 nuclear tests of all types and sizes, since the first detonation on January 27, 1951. This includes above-ground, underground and atmospheric tests.

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I began the next morning by turning in the rental car (3356 miles), and then it was stand in line for baggage check-in, Security checks, and wait for my Southwest flight back to the “Green” of Orlando, FL and home. We had made arrangements for my sister Judy and her husband Fred to meet DiVoran and me at Sonny’s BBQ for dinner upon my arrival, so we had a great dinner of Baby Back Ribs, with all the trimmings. Then it was onto S.R. 528 and east to Titusville for a good night’s sleep in my own bed. Boy did that feel good! I really enjoyed this trip, and am looking forward to the next one, but DiVoran says I will need to cut back a little on that one. I hope you have enjoyed reading about “My Western Trip” as much as I have enjoyed writing about it.

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—–The End—–

 

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My Western Trip~Part 13

30 Jul

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Small Red Plane

I started out early the next day so I could stop at the Timpa R/C Model Airfield to see what kind of planes they might be flying. There was a small crowd as the winds had been blowing fairly hard the day before and the weather man had forecasted more of the same. The Timpa R/C site is located on 160 acres of unobstructed land for radio control airplane and helicopter flying, with a 750’ paved runway, paved run-up area and covered assembly area with tables. It was one of the nicest R/C sites I have seen in a long time. The club members were very cordial and I got some great photos of them and their planes.

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My next stop was to visit the CAF Arizona Airbase Museum in Mesa, AZ. This was a very enjoyable visit, as the museum had a great collection of well-restored aircraft including the only Grumman AF-2S Guardian I had ever seen. The Guardian was a huge aircraft and I couldn’t believe it was carrier rated back when U.S. carriers only had smaller straight flight decks. The plane was in their restoration hanger in the final stages of preparation for its first post restoration flight test.

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The Wings of Flight Museum was on the other side of the Falcon Field Airport, so I hitched a ride with one of the local FBO fueling employees in his electric cart. Wings of Flight turned out to be a private aerobatic team that hires out for airshows and other aviation events mainly in the immediate Arizona area. Two of the pilots were taking a break from an aircraft inspection and invited me to join them for a cup of coffee. They told me about how their eight-plane business had gotten started with just two of them, and how it just kept on growing. They didn’t seem to be in any kind of a hurry and could have talked to me all day if I had wanted to. They seemed like a really great bunch of guys, doing what they all loved to do – fly.

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Next, I headed to Peoria, AZ to visit the Challenger Space Center that actually turned out to be a children’s learning center. So I headed down the road to Chandler, AZ to visit the Rawhide Western Town. This was a smaller version of Tombstone, but was more about attractions and a Steakhouse than anything else. When the street barkers started calling for people to head for the O.K. Corral shootout show, the whole place became deserted, and I left. Somewhere on one of the smaller roads on my way to or from the Rawhide Western Town, a Roadrunner ran across the road in front of my car, and I was instantly transported back to when I was much younger, driving on a two-lane road somewhere in New Mexico, where it was a common sight to see Roadrunners run from one side of the road to the other. What a thrill that was!   By the time I got back into Phoenix, and found the Wingspan Air Museum, they were closed. So I stopped and had a delicious Fuddruckers ¼-pound BBQ Burger and Raspberry Ice Tea, after which i went to the motel for some rest and TV.

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

 

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TICO Airshow 2014~Part 2

2 Apr

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Lites

 

The weather was perfect, and we all enjoyed a great Airshow together. The Airmen were a little disappointed that there were no P- 39s, P-40s, or P-47s taking part, as they were some of the first fighter planes they had flown during the war. Then later, I met one of the young men (18 or 19) who will soon be going to college, aided by one of the many Tuskegee Airmen Scholarships, to study engineering or another aviation related field, and maybe even become a pilot. He reminded me so much of what the original Tuskegee Airmen must have looked like in the early days of WWII, when all they wanted, was to do their part towards helping protect America and other freedom-loving countries from foreign aggression.

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Overall, it was a great experience that I will treasure for years to come. Now as my “Two down and one to go” painting with its Tuskegee Airmen autographs hangs on my bedroom wall, it has more meaning than it ever did before. All I have to do is look at it and the memories will take me back to the day when I was in the presence of a group of special men who loved their country enough to put their lives on the line for us. Some of the airmen’s feats included; 15,000 combat sorties flown, 260 enemy aircraft destroyed, 150 Flying Crosses and Legions of Merit earned, along with more than 700 Air Medals and clusters earned by many of the 1,000 black pilots flying combat missions during WWII.

This included the Distinguished Unit Citation, which wasawarded to the 99th Fighter Squadron in July 1945 for its performance in combat over Sicily.

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However, the war was not over for the Tuskegee Airmen when they returned home to America. They had to face the many challenges of segregation that continued to rage in their own country. Then, after 60 years, in 2007, approximately 300 Tuskegee Airmen and their families were collectively awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush for their, bravery, outstanding performance and dedicated service to our country during WWII.

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Thank you Tuskegee Airmen for your service to our country.

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