Stout 3-AT

The Stout 3-AT was the first all-metal trimotor aircraft built in America. It was produced after Henry Ford took over William Stout's aircraft company, partly using the single-engined all-metal Stout 2-AT Pullman as a starting point. It had a blunt nose, a central radial engine mounted low in the nose and two uncowled radial engines at the front of wing-mounted nacelles, a large passenger and cargo compartment with semicircular windows, and an open cockpit high on the nose. Its original design called for three Liberty engines, which were quickly abandoned because of weight. Test flights showed it to be underpowered, barely able to hold altitude, and Henry Ford reassigned Stout away from engineering. A fire on 16 January 1926 destroyed the Stout factory and the 3-AT prototype with it. Its design was refined into the Ford Trimotor, the Tin Goose.