Trimotor pics

[akradecki]

For those who love the old Ford Trimotors, this week's Vintage Air featured photos are both Trimotors, one Ford and one Stinson, and the story behind them. http://vintageairphotos.blogspot.com Oh, and next Friday's post will also feature a different Ford Trimotor.

Alan

[Josh]

For those who love the old Ford Trimotors, this week's Vintage Air featured photos are both Trimotors, one Ford and one Stinson, and the story behind them. http://vintageairphotos.blogspot.com Oh, and next Friday's post will also feature a different Ford Trimotor.

Alan

I enjoyed the article & Tex, had no idea... Great digging.

[akradecki]

.... Oh, and next Friday's post will also feature a different Ford Trimotor.

Alan

Ok...I misspoke. The next post isn't a Ford Trimotor, it's a frikker F.VII Trimotor...the mystery with this one is whose markings are on it. Thoughts anyone?

http://vintageairphotos.blogspot.com/

Alan

[GTagami]

In the Pan Am photo you can see part of the reg number under the wing which starts with "N". Back then it seems common for the first letter of the reg to be put on the tail. The mystery photo has the same nose design as the Pan Am F.VII and an "N" on the tail. So maybe it was the next operator?

[GTagami]

Check this out...

Taken from: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Pan-American-World-Airways-Inc-Company-History.html

The architect of Pan Am's prominence, and ironically of its later decline, was a man named Juan Terry Trippe. Upon graduation from Yale in 1920 Trippe worked for a year in his father's bank. Soon thereafter he left the bank in order to pursue a career in the airline business. When his father died suddenly, Trippe used his inheritance to purchase nine Navy "Jennys" for a new endeavor, Long Island Airways. Unable to generate enough business, the company failed.
Trippe and two wealthy friends from Yale then organized a second airline after the passage of the Kelly Air Mail Act. Their company, Colonial Air Transport, won the first airmail contract route between New York and Boston. They purchased two three-engine frikker airplanes the following year which enabled them to transport passengers as well as mail. A dispute among stockholders soon resulted in the sale of the company to what later became known as American Airlines. Trippe and his partners were excluded from both the decision and their airline.
Undaunted, Trippe's group purchased Aviation Corporation of the Americas with the intention of bidding on the Key West-Havana mail route. In 1928 the company merged with Pan American Airways and Atlantic, Gulf and Caribbean Airways. The new company retained the Pan American name and instituted the first scheduled international commercial destination, to Havana, Cuba.

Maybe Trippe kept those frikkers until they merged with Pan Am? Maybe the one in your photo was an original Colonial airplane that was eventually repainted and became the one Pan Am used on their inaugural flight to Cuba? That would explain the similar nose paint.

It's the best I could come up with.

[akradecki]

Glenn ,

Fabulous find/info. I'll update the blog later today or tomorrow to include what you dug up...

Alan