Beyond The Sprues
Modelling => Ideas & Inspiration => Aero-space => Topic started by: The Big Gimper on January 10, 2021, 11:01:34 PM
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Via the attached profiles dawn by John Lacey, I learned about the existence of the Ford 14-A /14-AT.
Source 1: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/ford-airliner-projects.21068/ (https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/ford-airliner-projects.21068/)
Source 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdWings/comments/bmdgzu/ford_14a_trimotor_a_1932_prototype_and_the/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdWings/comments/bmdgzu/ford_14a_trimotor_a_1932_prototype_and_the/)
One aircraft that probably should have remained a project was the Ford 14-AT (some say 14-A), the last of the Ford trimotors. Developed in relative secrecy, the blunt nosed Ford 14-A was an all metal monoplane built in 1932 by the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company. The aircraft had a wingspan of 110 ft (33.5 m), length of 80 ft (24.4 m), and was built to carry 40 passengers. Two 715 hp (533 kW) Hispano-Suiza 12Nc V-12 engines were buried in the wings, and a single 18Sbr W-18 was mounted on a pylon atop the aircraft.
The 14-AT tried numerous times to take flight, none of which brought success. Originally designed for Pratt & Whitney air-cooled radial engines (Henry Ford made the engine change), the heavy 14-AT would not leave the ground and was damaged in an attempt to pry it free from earth. Reportedly, Edsel Ford ordered the 14-AT quietly scrapped in 1933, without ever making a public appearance.
(https://i.imgur.com/lZkuE7v.jpg)
(http://www.aerofiles.com/ford14a.jpg)
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With suitably cowled Pratt & Whitney engines, it might have had a chance (as I remember, they definitely had more power than any of the engines fitted). Still, it strikes me as being somewhat underpowered with three engines.