Vintage airplane enthralls passengers
Visitors pay $70 for bumpy, cramped 20-minute flight in an aircraft built in 1928.
Bumpy, low, cramped, slow — that’s how the 10 passengers on the 1928-built Ford Tri-Motor aircraft described their 20-minute flight Thursday over northern Palm Beach County — and they loved every minute of it.
“You are really flying. Flying that aircraft is like driving an 18-wheeler. Today’s planes are like driving a Corvette,” said Ken Henshe, a Delray Beach pilot who has been flying since he was 15.
Dozens of flying fans paid about $70 Thursday and climbed into the 6ton aircraft for a spin at about 2,000 feet. Billed as the first commercial metal passenger plane, the craft with a 78-foot wingspan on the outside and wood paneling on the inside was the lap of luxury when it took flight the year after Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
Out of about 200 Ford Tri-Motors built, only about four fly today. Oshkosh, Wis.-based Experimental Aircraft Association pilots are barnstorming the nation, doing up to 30 flights a day in the plane. The most recent show was Sarasota. The next stop is Tamiami Airport in Miami.
Round-trip tickets in 1928 on the 52-foot-long craft were $242 between Port Columbus, Ohio, to Wichita, Kan. That’s about $3,300 in today’s dollars.
“There was even a bathroom in the back. With a sink. These flights were only for the affluent,” said pilot Dave Ross, 62, from Wakeman, Ohio.
Climbing into the pilot’s seat, Ross looked back over his right shoulder to the passengers — all had a window seat — and asked if all were strapped in. Getting an affirmative, he gave a thumbs up and revved up the left propeller. Then the right. Nine-foot aluminum propellers roared 10 feet from the passengers’ faces.
As the condominiums on Singer Island emerged in the eastern horizon, the plane slowly climbed and reached its top speed of about 90 miles per hour. Passengers shouted to make conversation. Occasional jolts brought raised eyebrows.
“I love these old-time planes. Now, it’s all computerized. If I had the option, I’d fly one of these,” said 16-year-old Oxbridge Academy sophomore Andres Garcia, a prospective pilot who expects to make his first solo flight this year.
A passion for flying was why most said they were on the plane built for about $55,000 by Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich.
“The smells, the sounds, the corrugated metal, it’s fantastic up there in those old planes,” said Roby Denman, a retired IBM employee who lives in Boca Raton and has flown a WW II P-51 Crazy Horse. “It’s like going up in your attic and finding pictures of your grandparents.”
Many said they were amazed at the effort it took for pilot Ross to take off, fly and land the craft.
“He’s looking at the instruments, moving the pedals, hitting the rudders — he’s doing something all the time,” said John Johnson, an auto dealer from Palm Beach Gardens.