Frank Hawks Texaco Ford 5-AT Tin Goose

Additional Information:

The Ford Tri-motor, nicknamed the “Tin Goose”, is an American three-engine transport aircraft. Production began in 1925 by the companies of Henry Ford and ended on June 7, 1933 after 199 aircraft were built. The aircraft was designed for the civil aviation market but also saw service with military units.

In 1925, Ford bought the Stout Metal Airplane Company and their aircraft designs. The single-engine Stout monoplane was turned into a trimotor and became the Stout 3-AT with three Curtiss-Wright air-cooled radial engines. After a prototype was built and test-flown with poor results, the “4-AT” and “5-AT” models then emerged.

The model 5-AT-B was a 5-AT-A model powered by larger 420 hp Wasp C-1 or SC-1 radial engines. It carried up to 15 passenger and 41 were eventually built.

Frank Hawks (March 28, 1897- August 23, 1938) was one of the aviation legends of the golden era of flight. Hawks gained fame as a member of the Gates Flying Circus wherein he was part of the team that performed the world’s first inflight refueling in 1921. Through his association with Texaco, he also contributed to the commercialization of aviation.

In February of 1929, Hawks set out on a goodwill tour of the United States with the Air Express aircraft. He visited 175 cities, carried 7,200 passengers and did 56,000 miles of cross-country flying, all without a single mishap to the plane and passengers. An estimated 500,000 people came and saw his aircraft, Texaco One, resulting in a boost to the popularity of flying.

In 1930, Hawks embarked on a series of exhibition flights and record-breaking flights across the United States including a new transcontinental west-to-east record on August 13, 1930 which included a refueling stop in Albuquerque.

As a famous racing pilot in the 1930s, Frank Hawks flew the Texaco Corporation aircraft. The aircraft were used for company business issues and special fuel tests. Their various types of aircraft visited Albuquerque for both missions starting in October 1928. This Ford Tri-motor number NC-3443-H was one of the many Texaco aircraft flown by Frank Hawks to land at Oxnard Field in Albuquerque New Mexico in 1930.

GALLERY: