The Tri-Motor reassured Americans it was safe to fly.

Commander Richard E. Byrd stared intently at the massive white form in front of him. Cresting at about 11,000 feet, Liv Glacier in Antarctica marked his gateway to the South Pole. On either side of the imposing ice formation stood the towering Queen Maud Mountains. At nearly 14,000 feet, the cliffs were too high for the U.S. Navy explorer’s Ford Tri-Motor 4-AT-B to fly over.

With the sound of three powerful radial engines roaring through the aircraft, Byrd and his crew flew the all-metal Tri-Motor toward the glacier. Four men were on board, along with extra fuel, a large camera, and emergency food stores—making their airplane too heavy to clear the “Hump,” as Byrd called the ice-covered pass through the mountains. 

Before proceeding over the glacier, Byrd made the difficult decision to jettison 250 pounds of food. If the Tri-Motor was forced to land on the Antarctic Plateau, they would likely starve before help could reach them—that is, if they didn’t first freeze to death in the sub-zero temperatures.

As two large bags of food fell from the Tri-Motor’s trap door, the airplane lurched upward. It leveled off in the clear blue sky and flew over the glacier with a few hundred feet to spare. Byrd felt a sense of relief and then shifted his focus to the matter at hand: becoming the first to fly over the South Pole. On November 28, 1929, at about 1 am in the bright sunshine of a polar spring night, he accomplished his goal.

Byrd’s Antarctic triumph dominated headlines late in 1929, further burnishing the reputation of the sturdy Tri-Motor, one of the first all-metal, multi-engine airplanes to take to the skies. The Tri-Motor had made its first successful flight just three years earlier, on June 11, 1926. Known affectionately as the “Tin Goose” and the “Flying Washboard,” it is remembered 100 years later as the embodiment of the new era in American aviation that began with the Air Commerce Act of 1926, which sought to advance the aviation industry by assuring the public that flying was a safe and reliable way to travel.

“One of the favorite airplanes early on was the Ford Tri-Motor,” says Bob van der Linden, who is the National Air and Space Museum’s curator of air transportation and special purpose aircraft. “Not only could it carry passengers, it also handled cargo all over the world. It’s a good, strong airplane with three engines for reliability. It was ideal for getting in and out of unprepared fields carrying oversized loads.”

A brazen request

While the world’s largest automobile manufacturer at the time was the driving force in bringing the Tri-Motor to market, the aircraft was actually the brainchild of William Bushnell Stout. The bushy-haired, bespectacled aviation and automobile engineer was a visionary (he is also credited with inventing the first minivan). Stout understood that the future of flight was in ferrying large groups of passengers, just like the railroad industry.

Stout had started out designing trucks and cars but switched to airplanes when he became chief engineer for the aviation division of the Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit. Three years later, he founded Stout Engineering Laboratories in Dearborn, Michigan, and began working on the Batwing Limousine passenger airplane (one of the first attempts at a blended-wing-body aircraft) and the Stout ST-1, a twin-engine, all-metal torpedo bomber for the U.S. Navy. Stout made prototypes of both aircraft, but neither were successful. Still, he became convinced that all-metal construction was the future of aviation.

When the Navy canceled its contract for the ST-1, Stout had considerable debt and was forced to come up with a bold fundraising plan. He started a letter-writing campaign, asking Detroit executives to donate $1,000 each while promising: “You will never get your money back.” His brazen assertion garnered $128,000 (nearly $2.5 million today), including donations from Henry Ford and his son Edsel, an aviation aficionado.

“You have to give credit to Edsel,” says Matt Anderson, curator of transportation at The Henry Ford—a museum in Dearborn that is dedicated to all things Ford. “Even though he was in his father’s shadow then and still now, Edsel was really the mover and shaker for Ford going into aviation.” 

The younger Ford was especially interested in Stout’s groundbreaking creations. His interest led to the automobile manufacturer acquiring Stout's engineering firm in 1925. Now an executive with the Ford Motor Company, Stout began designing all-metal aircraft, including the Stout 3-AT, which had three engines. This airplane, however, was underpowered and performed poorly during its first test flight in November 1925. 

Henry Ford was outraged by the results, especially after he had touted the 3-AT as the airplane of the future. He later reportedly told one of his executives: “This plane is a mechanical monstrosity and an aerodynamic absurdity. From now on keep Stout out of the design room.”

With that, Stout was relegated to promotional tours and speaking engagements. Ford’s chief propulsion engineer, William Mayo, took over the aviation division and used the 3-AT as a template for developing a new and improved model. When the 4-AT took off in 1926, the Ford company was well on its way to dominating commercial flight for the next seven years.

“Safest Airliner Around”

The Tri-Motor was clad in corrugated aluminum alloy at a time when most aircraft were still covered in fabric. “The Ford Tri-Motor was state of the art at that time,” says Anderson. “It represented the future of aviation.”

In the 1920s, aviation was still seen as a perilous proposition best left to barnstormers and daredevils. Crashes abounded in an era of biplanes with open cockpits, underpowered engines, and flimsy wings. Between 1926 and 1927, there were 24 fatal accidents; in 1929, the number increased to 51.

Perception began to change, however, with the advent of the Tri-Motor. “At that time, Ford had the reputation of being a great automobile manufacturer, building inexpensive and reliable cars,” says van der Linden. “The public was thinking, ‘If Henry Ford is now building airliners, it must be safe enough for me to fly.’ ”

The Ford Motor Company confronted public skepticism head on, urging Americans to ignore the headline-grabbing antics of the barnstormers, promising them that the days of daredevil aviation were in the past. “A new industrial and commercial era is commencing just as surely as new eras commenced with steamboats and the automobile,” declared a company advertisement. “The foolish adventures of unskilled fliers in obsolete machines have diverted public attention from what is going on in the solid safe development of air transportation.”

The Tri-Motor’s reputation for safety was buoyed by the Air Commerce Act, which provided federal oversight of commercial flights, including safety regulations and licensing. The Commerce Department and the Post Office also worked closely to create and expand the air mail industry. 

 “What really drove the rise of passengers on airlines was the government,” says van der Linden. “Through the Post Office and its contracts from 1926 onward, they set up the infrastructure and, more importantly, the method of payment. The government subsidized all sorts of industries, and the airlines was another one of them. Guess what? It worked very well.”

With the new act, safety became an essential priority as trunk routes sprang up across the country. Commercial aircraft were federally mandated to meet airworthiness requirements. The new aeronautics branch in the Department of Commerce—the precursor of the Federal Aviation Administration—required all newly built aircraft to be test flown by aeronautics inspectors.

Henry Ford was so concerned about safety that he established a school near his production plant in Dearborn so pilots could learn how to operate the Tri-Motor. He also took other steps to ensure his aircraft would be successful. “Henry Ford was a key figure in developing the infrastructure necessary for commercial aviation,” says Anderson. “He set up transmission poles, which sent out radio waves so pilots could locate Ford Airport (now the Ford Proving Grounds). It was one of the first modern airports in the world. It had concrete runways, which was a novelty back then. He even built a hotel across from the airport. These are all things we take for granted today but were out of the box in the 1920s.”

Because of its robust construction, the Tri-Motor was positioned to assume the role of a premiere air transport—especially when most early airfields were little more than converted pastures. The Tri‑Motor featured a cantilevered wing that was not braced externally and could support itself. The only struts connected the fixed landing gear to the wing and fuselage. 

The Tri-Motor’s biggest advantage, however, was its multiple engines. At a time when most aircraft had only one powerplant, the Tri-Motor had three 200-horsepower Wright J-5 Whirlwind radial engines. The redundancy in propulsion prompted Henry Ford to proclaim his airplane the “safest airliner around”—a huge selling point for convincing commercial operators to purchase his product and use it to transport passengers. 

“The Ford Tri-Motor had a reputation for being very durable and safe, able to fly perfectly fine on two of the three engines and well enough to land on just one engine,” says Anderson. And priced at $50,000 (nearly $1 million today), the Tri-Motor was within the means of most startup airlines.

Another advantage of the Tri-Motor was its all-metal construction. While the first production models of the Tri-Motor had wicker seats, virtually the rest of the aircraft was made of an aluminum alloy. Known as duralumin, this mixture of aluminum, copper, manganese, and magnesium was lightweight, yet strong. The crinkled appearance of the corrugated metal also added toughness, though it degraded aerodynamic performance. “The corrugation adds in the overall equation of drag,” says Sean Elliott, who flies a 96-year-old Tri-Motor 4-AT-E operated by Wisconsin’s Experimental Aircraft Association, where he is the vice president of advocacy and safety. “It’s got a lot of drag. You don’t go from power to idle unless you are in the flare (nose up and ready to land). It slows down, no problem.”

While the Tri-Motor’s reliability made it attractive to commercial airlines, the airplane provided a less-than-ideal customer experience. With little insulation and no soundproofing, passengers could barely hear the person sitting next to them. Indeed, flight attendants passed out cotton for people to stuff in their ears. “It was a very noisy airplane,” says van der Linden. “And it vibrated like crazy.”

The Tri-Motor reduced the duration required for transcontinental travel, though not substantially. In 1930, crossing the country by rail took three to four days and cost $150 (about $2,900 today). Transcontinental Air Transport offered two-day service from New York City to Los Angeles for $352 (around $6,600)—somewhat of a time savings but hardly cost competitive. And you didn’t fly all the way. Passengers left New York by train for Ohio, where they boarded a Tri-Motor and flew to Oklahoma, with refueling stops in Indianapolis and Kansas City. They then traveled by train again to New Mexico, where they caught another Tri-Motor to Arizona before crossing the Rocky Mountains and landing in Los Angeles in the early morning.

“It cost you more than $300 to fly across the country,” says van der Linden. “It doesn’t sound so bad today, but that money would buy you a new automobile back then. Not that many people were doing it because they couldn’t afford it.”

The numbers bear out. While the total passengers flying in airplanes increased from 6,000 in 1929 to 450,000 in 1934, that count was surpassed by the estimated 70 million Americans who rode the rails in 1930. Still, it was the start of a new era—one that was embraced by the wealthy and those who wanted to experience technological innovation.

Making headlines

The first 4-AT went into service with Ford Air Transport Service, later acquired by Stout Air Services, a passenger carrier started by William Stout in 1925. National Air Transport, which later became United Air Lines, was next to fly the Tri‑Motor. Soon, other airlines were clamoring for the airplane, which featured seating for 11 to 15 passengers (depending on the model) in relative comfort, along with a crew of three: pilot, copilot, and cabin attendant. The airplane had a wingspan of 74 feet and a maximum speed of 132 mph. Amenities included decorated interiors, food and refreshments, and a restroom equipped with running water. (“The Ford Tri-Motor is so well known in air circles that its plumbing arrangements are of extreme interest,” noted Domestic Engineer, a magazine that devoted an entire article to the design of the aircraft’s fold-down sink-toilet.) 

Even before Byrd’s expedition to the South Pole, the Tri-Motor was making headlines, such as in late 1927, when Charles Lindbergh’s mother flew on one to meet her son in Mexico City, seven months after Lindbergh’s solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. This particular aircraft—designated C-1077—was also flown by Amelia Earhart and was used by Floyd Bennett to rescue three German fliers in Canada in 1928. Still airworthy, C-1077, the oldest remaining Ford Tri-Motor, is on display at the Golden Wings Flying Museum in Blaine, Minnesota.

Lindbergh and Earhart weren’t the only famous figures to fly in the Tri-Motor. In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt climbed aboard one and traveled from Albany to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, making him the first U.S. presidential candidate to take to the skies. And future man-on-the-moon Neil Armstrong took his first flight in a Tri-Motor in 1936, when he was six years old.

Arguably, though, the most celebrated passenger was Elm Farm Ollie. In 1930, the 1,000-pound Guernsey became the first cow to fly after boarding a Tri-Motor in Bismarck, Missouri, and traveling 72 miles to the International Aircraft Exposition in St. Louis. She was also milked in the air, producing some 24 quarts that were stored in cartons intended for Lindbergh (he was believed to be attending the event but never made it).

“The Ford Tri-Motor was in a lot of newspaper and magazine stories in those days,” says Anderson. “It was a great kind of publicity coup for Ford Motor Company.”

In 1928, Ford introduced the larger and more powerful 5-AT, which could carry up to 17 passengers thanks to three 420-horsepower Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engines. Lindbergh was so impressed with this version of the Tri-Motor that he ordered a couple for Transcontinental Air Transport, which later merged with Western Air Express to become TWA. “It was no accident that the Ford 5-AT was chosen by Charles Lindbergh to be the primary passenger aircraft for Transcontinental Air Transport,” says van der Linden. “It was a very fine airplane for its time.”

Other airlines purchasing the Tri-Motor included American Airways, Pan American Airways, and Eastern Air Transport (later Eastern Air Lines). 

With sales taking off, Henry Ford hoped to introduce the Tri-Motor to markets in Europe. There was, however, a problem: the German aircraft manufacturer Junkers sued the Ford Motor Company for patent infringement, claiming that the Ford Tri-Motor had unlawfully copied its pioneering use of corrugated aluminum sheet metal and the construction techniques employed in the wing and fuselage. The courts ultimately ruled in Junkers’ favor, and Ford was prohibited from exporting the Tri-Motor to Europe.

In the 1930s, larger and more modern airplanes such as the Douglas DC-3 and Boeing 247 were becoming increasingly popular with airlines, but that wasn’t the reason Ford bowed out of the aviation business. He was shaken by the death of his friend Harry J. Brooks, a Ford test pilot who, in 1928, was killed in the crash of a single-seat Ford Flivver that the Ford Company was attempting to bring to the general aircraft market. After the tragedy, Ford had serious doubts about commercial aviation. And as the Great Depression cut into sales, the automobile patriarch shuttered his aviation operation, which ceased manufacturing in 1933.

The reign of the Tri-Motor was brief. Over a period of seven years, only 199 4-ATs and 5-ATs—along with a few custom versions for the military and other customers—were manufactured. Still, more than one hundred airlines flew the Ford in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Europe, Australia, and China. 

Ford’s abandonment of the Tri-Motor was not the end of the historic aircraft. It continued in service for decades, mostly as a freight hauler in Central and South America and the Caribbean, where unpaved dirt runways were more common.

Today, less than 20 remain: They belong to museums and private collections with only a handful that are still flyable.

A 5-AT Tri-Motor (designation NC9683) has the distinction of being the first aircraft to land at Washington Dulles International Airport for its grand opening on November 17, 1962. Manufactured in 1929, the airplane was acquired by Southwest Air Fast Express, which later merged into American Airways. It was then sold to TACA International Airlines in 1936, and operated in Nicaragua for several years. In 1946, NC9683 was sent to Mexico, where it was used for passenger and cargo hauling until 1954, when it was resold to a crop-dusting company in Montana. 

During its operations with the crop-dusting outfit, the airplane also flew a cargo route in Alaska until it was resold in Mexico. It finally ended up beside a small airfield in Oaxaca, where it had been converted to a house. A wood-burning stove had been installed, and a chimney stuck through the aluminum roof.

American Airlines then acquired the airplane and had it fully restored so that it could play its starring role on opening day at Dulles airport. The airline toured the aircraft around the country for several years. In 1973, American Airlines donated it to the National Air and Space Museum. It is now on display in the Museum’s America by Air gallery in Washington, D.C.

Remarkably, the Tri-Motor continued to serve as a passenger transport for nearly 60 years. The last recorded commercial flight was in 1983, with Island Airlines, which for 50 years had provided service from Port Clinton, Ohio, to several remote islands on Lake Erie. (In the winter, Island Airways was the only way for children on the islands to get to school on the mainland.)

The Tri-Motor has even taken a turn as a movie star, appearing in such films as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Untouchables, and Public Enemies.

Today, people can still fly aboard a Tri-Motor. A few museums and collectors offer local tours and flights at airshows. The Experimental Aircraft Association’s Sean Elliott, who has piloted several World War II airplanes and other historic aircraft, loves flying the beloved airplane. 

“I’ve flown some significant machines that are icons of history,” he says. “This one is right near the top. It’s such a special airplane. And I get to operate it from a 2,000-foot grass strip, which really brings you back to the days of long ago. It transports you back in time to a very, very special part of the golden era of aviation.” 

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David Kindy is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Smithsonian, National Geographic, Washington Post, and other publications. A fervent aviation aficionado, his goal now is to fly aboard a Ford Tri-Motor.

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This article, originally titled "Ford Tough," is from the Winter 2026 issue of Air & Space Quarterly, the National Air and Space Museum's signature magazine that explores topics in aviation and space, from the earliest moments of flight to today. Explore the full issue.

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