Experimental aircraft tour coming to airport
DUNBAR TWP. — Historic aircraft will take flight for the next several days at the Joseph A. Hardy/Connellsville Airport when the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) arrives with one of the world’s first mass-produced airliners as part of a national tour.
The event will kick off starting at 2 p.m. Thursday and will feature a 1929 Ford tri-motor plane from the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, along with vintage Ford vehicles and food vendors.
Flights will continue from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
“They’re quite a draw. It’s not like you look up and see one flying over every day,” said John Warren, vice president of EAA Chapter 45.
The event is being sponsored in part by the EAA Chapter 45 in Rostraver Township and Davies Ford in Connellsville.
The tour is making the rounds at various airports throughout the country. The Fayette County Airport Authority agreed to have it debut locally.
According to Warren, the tour is geared to educate people about the roots of aviation.
As part of the tour, Warren said the EAA will offer plane rides in its tri-motor, with members of its local chapters supplying ground crew, passenger orientation and security.
The plane carries as many as nine passengers at a time and every seat on board has a window.
“These tours are how they keep the planes in existence,” said Warren.
The cost of the flight is $70 in advance or $75 at the gate for adults and $50 for children ages 17 and younger.
Children younger than age 2 can ride for free and would sit on an adult’s lap.
Anyone with a Buy Local card will receive a $5 discount on the cost of the flight at the gate or by downloading a coupon at www.buylocalfayette.org.
“It was a perfect fit for Buy Local to get involved because it’s a piece of history and educational for people, and at the same time they honor their Buy Local card,” said Bob Junk, local economy manager with Fay-Penn Economic Development Council.
The plane, nicknamed “The Tin Goose,” was one of 199 built by Ford Motor Co. from 1926 to 1930.
Warren said there are three active tri-motors operating today, with EAA Chapter 45 operating two of the planes.
“They’re historically significant,” said Warren.
The EAA, based in Osh Kosh, Wis., was founded on Jan. 26, 1953, in Milwaukee, Wis., as a local club for those who built and restored their own aircraft.
The Rostraver chapter was formed in 1958 by Pittsburgh residents.
Over the years, the nonprofit organization expanded its mission to include antiques, classics, war birds, aerobatic aircraft, ultralights, helicopters and contemporary manufactured aircraft.
The EAA has 176,000 aviation enthusiasts in more than 100 countries.
The tri-motor is a flying outreach component of the EAA Air Venture Museum based in Osh Kosh.
The EAA’s tri-motor 4-AT-E is the 146th plane that came off Ford’s assembly line and first flew on Aug. 21, 1929.
From 1930 to 1958, the tri-motor changed hands among several international airlines and was later used for barnstorming tours upon its return to the U.S.
After being fit with more powerful engines, the tri-motor was used as a crop duster and later modified for use in aerial fighting and smoke jumpers.
In the 1960s, the plane served as the primary setting for the Jerry Lewis comedy and barnstorming tours until 1973, when it became damaged by a severe thunderstorm.
The wreckage was purchased by the EAA for its Aviation Foundation as it underwent restoration for 12 years before taking to the air again in 1985 at a convention in Osh Kosh.