Aircraft: Return of the Tin Goose

Back in the days of flivvers and flappers, the Ford Tri-Motor transport was the workhorse of U.S. aviation. The "Tin Goose" was shaped like a slightly rhomboid crackerbox, sheathed in corrugated aluminum and equipped with engines slung under each wing and planted on its nose. It flew for every budding U.S. airline, for the Army, the Navy, the Marines. It hauled passengers and freight, landed on wheels, pontoons and skis. Nearly 200 Ford Tri-Motors were built between 1925 and 1932. Astonishingly, some 28 of these chicle, cattle, piping-and people-ferrying air craft are still flying between remote points round the globe.

Filling the Gaps. Last week a live ringer for the Tin Goose, Aircraft Hydroforming's newly refined Bushmaster 2000, trundled down a Long Beach, Calif., runway and took off over the Pacific on a test flight. The Bushmaster has the 77-ft. 10-in. wingspan, all the lifting power and durability of its venerable predecessor, and the basic structure of the aircraft remains virtually unchanged. "After all," says Hydroforming's president, Ralph P. Williams, "not one Tri-Motor in all these years has ever had a structural failure."

To bring it up to date, the Bushmaster will sport more powerful engines, enlarged cockpit windows, a lighter and stronger aluminum-alloy skin, a foot-operated hydraulic replacement of the old Tri-Motor's hand-operated "Johnny Brake," a larger stabilizer and a dorsal fin to reduce yaw, modern trim tabs, and interior rather than exterior control cables.

The Bushmaster got its start in 1954, when the Tri-Motor's original designer, William B. Stout, got the aircraft's design rights back from Ford, formed the Hayden Aircraft Corp., in Bellflower, Calif., with a group of Douglas engineers. Lack of money stalled them until Williams, another Douglas alumnus and the owner of Hydroforming, an aircraft-parts-making company, bought a controlling interest in Hayden in 1958. Williams was sure that "an updated version of the Tri-Motor was just the plane to fill the gaps" left in workaday air transport by the emphasis on faster jet aircraft. Williams ultimately absorbed the project into his own company and hatched the first Bushmaster 2000 in 1966. In November, the son of the Tin Goose made its first flight.

Dirt Cheap. Williams has five solid prospects waiting to sign up for his $175,000 anachronism, dozens of inquiries from prospective customers here and abroad. Dirt cheap to operate and maintain, the Bushmaster 2000 may well be used for years to come for short-haul cargo and passenger services, specialized operations such as crop spraying, fire fighting, timber dusting, exploratory and rescue work.