Vintage Ford Ads: Tri-Motor, Lincoln-Zephyr V12, Mercury V8


GT38

GT38

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Jan 19, 2008
720
Glendale, Arizona
From the collection of a friend who recently passed away.
 

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  • 1928-08-25 Ford Tri-Motor ad.jpg
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  • 1929-07-20 Ford Tri-Motor ad.jpg
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  • 1937-11-20 1938 Lincoln-Zephyr V12 ad.jpg
    1937-11-20 1938 Lincoln-Zephyr V12 ad.jpg
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  • 1939-01-01 1939 Mercury V8 Type ad.jpg
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  • 1949-09-03 1949 Mercury V8 ad.jpg
    1949-09-03 1949 Mercury V8 ad.jpg
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:thumbsup
 
EAA still has a functioning tri-motor available for rides. I would highly recommend it. I took two of my kids to the Lansing, Ill. airport for a ride. After, they had me bring my 68 Shelby onto the tarmac for photos together. One was published in the 2012 Shelby American(pg. 261).

Steve
 
598 said:
EAA still has a functioning tri-motor available for rides. I would highly recommend it. I took two of my kids to the Lansing, Ill. airport for a ride. After, they had me bring my 68 Shelby onto the tarmac for photos together. One was published in the 2012 Shelby American(pg. 261).

Steve
Click to expand...

I grew up with the Ford Tri-Motor that's now owned by the EAA. In the 1950's it was owned by Rex Williams and based a few miles north of Tolleson, AZ, which was then a sparsely populated farming community. Rex's half-mile long dirt airstrip was at what's now the NE corner of 91st Ave & Campbell Ave on the west side of Phoenix (not far from the Cardinal's football stadium today).

In 1953 my Dad bought a Cessna 170, followed later by a succession of Skylanes, to commute between our farms west of Phoenix and those near Maricopa. Rex did our crop dusting and his strip was just a mile from our house, so we kept our planes there until the strip was closed in the 1970's. My Dad flew from Rex's strip almost daily and I was often with him on weekends and during summers. Besides his crop dusters and the Tri-Motor, Rex had a Boeing 247 and a Staggerwing Beech, and I often wandered around for a closer look when I could.

Those who know me will be surprised that I don't have a photo of the Tri-motor while Rex owned it. I was just a youngster without my own camera, but I literally saw these aircraft almost every day, even on the way to and from school. At that time people normally didn't take photos of what they thought would be there forever. Yes, I'm still kicking myself!

Popular Mechanics June 1953 ran an article about Bill Stout and the Tri-Motor, and it featured Rex and his particular aircraft. Scroll down to page 65 in this link to read more about the Tri-Motor and a bit about what Rex did with his. The "Air Force jet base in Arizona" they mention at the beginning of the article where Rex was doing Tri-Motor aerobatics, was Luke AFB. http://books.google.com/books?id=md...ce=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
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