This weekend has turned out to be full of surprises! Thanks to a pilot friend over in Independence who posted about it on social media, a rare tri-motor aircraft flew into Independence State Airport yesterday. I just knew I had to go see it for myself, so I did just that this morning!
The aircraft in question was a Kreutzer K-5 Air Coach, a late 1920s-era light transport aircraft. A brainchild of Joseph Kreutzer, who developed a series of small high-winged trimotor light transport aircraft, naming each the Air Coach. Each had a fixed tailwheel undercarriage with the two outboard engines slung from the supporting bracing struts to the high wing. After Kreutzer formed the Joseph Kreutzer Corporation in 1928, he was joined by Lawrence Brown and Albin Peterson who had designed the Brown-Mercury C-2, which the K-series Air Coaches were designed from. The K-5 Air Coach I saw today was fitted with three 100 horsepower, five-cylinder Kinner K-5 engines. The K-5 variant becamse Kreutzer's standard aircraft model before his company suspended operations in 1931 with no further aircraft developments taking place, hence the extreme rarity of this particular aircraft.
Independence (7S5) 7
Preview:
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| Kreutzer K-5 Air Coach (NC612A) parked on the ramp. |
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| The Air Coach saw service with small air transport operators in the United States and in Mexico. |
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| As it turns out, this airframe is the sole-surviving example of the Air Coach family of aircraft. Fifteen examples were built. It was sold to Mexico in 1931 as XB-AHO and was flown by La Compania Aeronautica De La Sierra on routes from Parral to local silver and other mining operations in inaccessible territory, carrying equipment and personnel to the mines and valuable ores on the return journey. It was sold in 1939 for operations from Chihuahua. After becoming derelict, it was recovered and was maintained in airworthy condition by the Golden Wings Air Museum in Blaine, Minnesota until the museum unfortunately closed permanently. Thankfully, this plane (along with the rest of the former museum collection!) seems to have found a new home! |
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| Originally built as a K-2 model, it was upgraded to a K-3 and then a K-5 standard (the K-4 designation was never used). |
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| Face-to-face with this mini Tri-motor! |
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| The engine gauges for the two wing strut-mounted engines are actually on the inner cowling, perfectly in-view of the pilot from the cockpit! |
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| This airframe bears the colors of Navajo Airways, a former Arizona-based air transport company. Truly a relic of the early days of aviation! |
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