Delivered in September 1928. Crashed in Honduras in 1934, then operated by Morgan Air Lines. Photo from: The Henry Ford

'The first plane of the new transcontinental air line, of which Col. Lindbergh is one of the organizers, photographed at Boiling Fields [sic].' Bolling Field was the same runway as Anacostia until 1935, when the US Army moved to a new Bolling Field nearby. TAT offered the first coast-to-coast air service between New York and Los Angeles in 1929, although the 48-hour journey involved a night train between NY and Columbus, Ohio and another one between Waynoka, Oklahoma and Clovis, New Mexico. 'Take A Train' soon merged with Maddux Air Lines, and then with Western Air Express to form TWA in 1930. Photo from: Library of Congress

What a beautiful sight as it flies over Palm Springs.

The three R985 engines purring as it taxis back to the ramp at the Palm Springs Air Museum where it visited for a few days.

The logo on the fuselage is that of Phenick Flying Service, a small company formed in the 1930s by Herman Phenegar and Oscar Nichols. On 27 February 1939 they bought this 1928 Tri-Motor. They sold rides for 75 cents - note the company caravan equipped with megaphones. The aircraft was bought by the US government on 30 November 1942 to assist in the construction of the Pan American Highway in Costa Rica, where it later became TI-61. The old terminal and tower of then Port Columbus Airport are in the background. Photo from: Columbus Metropolitan Library

N9651 shown performing a fly by at the 1978 Watsonville Fly-in and Airshow. In 1978 N9671 was owned by Mr. Irv Perlich, and was based at his Flying Lady Ranch Museum in Morgan Hill, CA. Since 1993 it has been owned by Mr. Kermit Weeks of Polk City, FL.

N9651 was built in 1929 for Trans Continental Air Transport. At the time the slide was taken Mr. Irv Perlitch owned the aircraft. He also owned the Flying Lady Ranch Museum, and N9651 was maintained in flying condition, being exhibited at fly-ins and airshows often. Upon the closure of the museum in 1993 it was purchased by Mr. Kermit Weeks of Polk City, FL., where the a/c currently resides.

Although marked as RR-5 Bureau Number 9205, this is actually 4-AT-E N7861 which never was assigned to the US Navy. It was originally built in 1928 as a 4-AT-B and converted by the factory in 1929 to a 4-AT-E. N7861 spent most of its flying career with Johnson Flying Service, where it was used as an insect spray aircraft as well as under contract with the US Forest Service as a smoke jumper transport. It was donated to the museum in 1973. The US Navy and US Marine Corps had a total of 9 Ford Tri-Motors of various types in their inventory, all ordered between 1927-1931.

Alameda Island once boasted two airports: San Francisco Bay Airdrome and Alameda Airport / Benton Field. Maddux used the latter and Pan Am had a flying boat terminal here from 1935 until 1939. The site was then expanded as NAS Alameda and the Bay Airdrome was closed. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

Finish of the 1930 Ford Reliability Tour at Ford's own airport near Detroit. NC8485 / 6, piloted by Harry Russell, took first place. It appears that this plane was at this point the sole 7-AT, with one 420-hp P&W Wasp and two 300-hp Wright J-6 engines. NC401H / 5, a 5-AT-C, took fourth place. Note, centre right inside the hangar, the Fokker F.VIIa/3m Josephine Ford, which Richard Byrd flew over or near the North Pole in 1926. This historic aircraft was the very first Fokker trimotor, demonstrated by Tony Fokker in the 1925 Reliability Tour. It is preserved near here in the Henry Ford Museum. Photo from: Wayne State University

This Tri-Motor was used by Reid, Murdoch & Co to promote their Monarch Foods brand. Canned foodstuffs such as sweet pickles, peanut butter, popcorn, toffees, sardines, peas and asparagus were stocked on board. The Detroit News apparently published a photo of this plane in July 1931, claiming it carried gangsters Pizzino and Livecchi to Marquette Prison. Photo from: Wayne State University

Opening day of the Grand Central Air Terminal. Parked behind are NC7118 (fleet number 6), NC5577 (4) and probably NC7119 (7). Maddux Air Lines started operations in Sep 1927, and merged into Transcontinental Air Transport (T-A-T) in Nov 1929. Photo by: John Underwood / Glendale Public Library

Owned by Harold Cooper, Ford's British agent, the aircraft made a demonstration tour through the Netherlands although 5-AT-C NC8412 had already done so two years earlier. G-ABHF - a mark chosen to include Henry Ford's initials - to New Guinea as VH-UTB in 1934. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

Engines running and many people pushing to free a bogged VH-UDY. It did escape the mud and was impressed by the RAAF during World War II as A45-2. Peter N Johnston photo.

Maddux Air Lines was a well-known airline in California in the late 1920s. A November 1929 takeover by Transcontinental Air Transport resulted in TAT-Maddux, and then in 1930 a merger with Western Air Express led to what became known as TWA. Photo by: G Haven Bishop / The Huntington Library

Floatplane Ford on the Magdalena River. Photo by: Horst Martin / SLUB / Deutsche Fotothek