Built Ford Tough

The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), in 2023, will continue its annual tradition of touring a vintage Ford Tri-Motor aircraft across the United States for purpose of providing contemporary Americans glimpses of the bawdy, jazzy, roaring ‘20s; the 1920s, not the 2020s—the latter of which have, on occasion roared, albeit in alternating registers of chaos, abject terror, and outrage.

As part of an agreement with Port Clinton, Ohio’s Liberty Aviation Museum, the EAA will operate the museum’s 1928 Ford Tri-Motor 5-AT-B on a national tour with stops currently scheduled in nine U.S. states.

The grand old airplane’s first stop will be a 06 through 09 April dalliance in lovely Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. Additional stops include Evansville, Indiana, from 13-16 April, and Columbia, South Carolina, from 11-14 May.

The Tri-Motor will return to its Port Clinton digs for two stops on 30 June through 02 July, and 01 through 03 September. Throughout the entirety of EAA’s AirVenture—24 through 30 July—the Tri-Motor will nest in Oshkosh, where event attendees will be afforded opportunity to enjoy once-in-a-lifetime rides aboard the historic machine. Additional stops will be added to the Tri-Motor’s tour schedule as they are finalized.

Tickets to go aloft in the historic Tri-Motor are a very reasonable $65 for children 17-and-under, $85 for adult EAA members, and $95 for adult nonmembers. Every seat in the aircraft is a window seat offering superb views of the vistas beneath. Each flight will span approximately thirty sublime minutes, of which about half will be in the air—as the business of safety is, as ever, foremost in the minds and operational practices of the EAA and its members.

Based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and comprising some 270,000 members and nine-hundred local chapters, the Experimental Aircraft Association embodies The Spirit of Aviation through the camaraderie of building, restoring, and flying recreational and vintage aircraft.

FMI: www.eaa.org, www.FlyTheFord.org