Are you excited to learn about a piece of local Ohio history? Are you an aviation buff? You will be after you see the Ford Tri-Motor airplane restoration at the Liberty Aviation Museum!
This restoration project is seriously cool. The Tri-Motor Heritage Foundation is working to preserve a 1929 Ford Tri-Motor airplane. Imagine seeing, up close, a real plane that was flown back then! The foundation is aiming to get the plane flying one day and take people on flights for education.
The Tri-Motor Heritage Foundation aims to preserve local history in Port Clinton, Ohio, through its restoration project. The foundation continues its work rebuilding and restoring a flying Tri-Motor plane. The goal of the restoration is to use the airplane for educational purposes and historical flight experiences.
Check out their website at https://www.restoretheford.org
The ongoing project connects the history of the Ford Tri-Motor plane with the local history of the Lake Erie Islands region in Ohio, highlighting the relationship between the plane and the development of society in the region.
The Ford Tri-Motor airplane is a three-engine airplane that was manufactured between 1925 and 1933. Due to its reliability and relative comfort for passengers, the Tri-Motor was able to be used in transcontinental and even international passenger flights. The Tri-Motor was the first plane to be flown over the geographic South Pole, and Franklin Roosevelt flew aboard one during his presidential campaign in 1932. The history-making plane continued to be flown well into the 1960s.
The Tri-Motor Heritage Foundation is restoring a 5-AT-B Ford Tri-Motor plane with tail number NC9684. It was built in 1929 and could transport 13-15 passengers. The plane is housed at the Liberty Aviation Museum, where a group of mostly volunteers work to restore the historic aircraft.
In the local Lake Erie Islands region, the Tri-Motor plane was integral to providing residents on the isolated islands with a means of travel between islands and to and from the mainland. Due to the plane’s ability to take off and land from short runways, Tri-Motors were able to be used as daily commuter planes, ambulances, and freight and cargo haulers for 50 years.
Imagine a world before airplanes. In order to travel long distances, you would have to take a days-long journey by foot, horse-drawn cart, or boat. Of course, cars came along, but have fun driving a car across an ocean or all the way to the South Pole. When Ford came out with their Tri-Motor airplanes, suddenly planes could be used in a variety of ways. These planes allowed passenger airlines to thrive, vastly improving intercontinental and international travel with new airlines. And even in a small region of Ohio, these planes improved life for everyone.
Tri-Motor Heritage Foundation’s restoration project aims to preserve this local history by providing you with the opportunity to see a genuine flying Ford Tri-Motor airplane. In addition to educating you about the local historical significance of the plane, the restoration will preserve an important piece of aviation history.
The restoration began in 2004 with just a few pieces of the 1929 Ford Tri-Motor plane. Since then, trained volunteers overseen by an airframe mechanic have been working to rebuild and refurbish the plane. You can observe the restoration project as it progresses at the Liberty Aviation Museum.
Go to https://www.restoretheford.org where you can learn more about this amazing restoration project!
