FORD 4-AT-B NC5493

SCENIC AIRWAYS TRI-MOTOR

This airplane is a Ford 4-AT-B tri-motor (S/N 4-AT-22; ATC # 87) manufactured May 23, 1928 by the Stout Metal Airplane Company (Ford Motor Company), Dearborn, MI.  It came from the factory with three Wright J-5C engines (S/Ns L 8446, R 8445, C 8965) of 220 HP each.  It was a twelve-place airplane, weighing 10,130 pounds.

It sold on June 4 1928 to Scenic Airways, Inc., Grand Canyon, AZ.  Register pilot J. Parker Van Zandt was founder of that company.  It operated with Scenic until November 8, 1929, when it was sold off as a response to the market crash of the previous month.  It sold to R. “Reg” L. Robbins of Ft. Worth, TX to be used for barnstorming.

Our airplane landed at Tucson once, on March 12, 1929, probably in Scenic Airways livery.  It was flown by P.D. Lucas carrying four passengers.  They were northwest bound from El Paso, TX.  They stayed overnight in Tucson, heading out the next morning at 8:30 to Phoenix, AZ. 

Below, two images of NC5493 in service to Scenic Airways. Dates and locations of the images are unknown.

FORD 4-AT-B NC5493 On the Ground With Service Vehicles & Onlookers

FORD 4-AT-B NC5493 ALOFT

Over the next six years the airplane changed hands three times, moving from Texas to Missouri to Illinois in the hands of Vernelle Irwin of Hallsville, IL.  In March 1937 Irwin had airwheels and aereol struts installed on NC5493 that came from the wreck of NC7863 owned by Vernon Johns.

It sold three more times, moving from Illinois to New York with Atlantic Airmotive Corp. in Mineola, LI (Roosevelt Field) on November 1, 1940.  It suffered an accident at West Orange, NJ on June 10, 1942.  The, “plane entered power dive from which it failed to recover.  Pilot Richard A. Behrens was killed.”  The airplane was totally destroyed by fire after the accident.

---o0o---

UPLOADED: 03/29/06 REVISED: 12/21/07