Air-to-Air Tri-Motors (Four of Them!)

Oh my…impressive aircraft and even more impressive capture of them in pictures.
 
...while making a 20th century racket! That must've been an awesome sight and sound from the ground.

I can promise one thing! The Bushmaster makes so much noise inside that you can’t even imagine how loud it is. You have three big round engines within about 6 feet of either position in the cockpit. There aren’t many high tech noise reducing engine mount techniques involved either. A good friend of mine was in the back and several times he had cause to walk up to the cockpit to ask or tell me something. Even after taking off my headset, and both of us yelling at the top of our lungs, we couldn’t understand each other.

I left town for Christmas early the morning after the photo shoot, so I have yet to hear any comments from friends in the community, but when I get home I fully expect to hear feedback about the sight and sound over Mount Pleasant and Lake Bob Sandlin.
 
My close encounter with a Ford Tri-Motor was circa fall 2014. I happened to land at Georgetown, TX during an EAA fly-in and ended up in the pattern with that old beauty. To see it sharing the air with me was one of my coolest aviation moments.
 
Are you talking about the two silver ones?

Assuming so, the Uncowled plane is. Stout Bushmaster which was revised version began being built in the sixties. It had modern engines, cowled in a more modern way and some different construction techniques. They intended to build 1,000 of them but ultimately on two were built.

The uncowled version is an original Ford Trimotor from the twenties or early thirties. Built from 1927 to 1933 I think.

Well, the Stinson Model B has no cowl on the center engine either. I didn't know if that was intentional in the design or due to just running without it for whatever reason. I would assume cooling would be more effective with it cowled as well as probably some tiny bit of drag reduction, but as you mentioned the Ford Trimotor doesn't have them at all.
 
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