STOUT BUSHMASTER 2000

WILLIAM BUSHNELL Stout designed the Ford Trimotor in the mid-1920s, but I doubt he imagined that—three decades later—he’d update his design and call it the Stout Bushmaster 2000. The story here is partly about engineering and partly about certification, with the personal touch that I’ve flown in this latter-day “Tin Goose.”

Only two Stout Bushmaster 2000 aircraft were produced.

The original Ford Trimotor first flew in 1926 and soon became the primary American airliner, 199 of the aircraft in service with 100 different airlines. As its name implies, the Transcontinental Air Transport, or TAT, initiated the country’s coast-to-coast service in 1929, albeit with rail stints included in the trip (www.wp.me/p2ETap-k6).

The latter-day livery identified N750RW as “Tri-Motor Air Tours,” not the historic “Transcontinental Air Transport.” Note the corrugated aluminum.

In 1954, Bill Stout bought the design rights to “his” Trimotor, with the intent of producing a relatively simple, rugged passenger aircraft. Modernizing its materials, power, instrumentation and other aspects were part of the engineering. A key point was the certification process, made rather more straightforward by the original Trimotor’s paperwork. It still took Stout and his associates 10 years before the Stout Bushmaster 2000 took to the air in 1964.

The Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior evolved from the original Trimotor’s Wasp C.

Identical to the Trimotor in many ways, the Bushmaster had latter-day Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior power, its trio of 9-cylinder air-cooled radials each displacing 985 cu. in. and producing 450 hp. The aircraft retained fuselage and wings of corrugated aluminum (lightweight, but with surfaces actually increasing drag).

Full modern avionics blend with classic controls.

The business plan was less than successful, with only two aircraft produced. One, N7501V, resides in the Golden Wings Museum at Anoka-Blaine Airport near Minneapolis, Minnesota. The other, N750RW, was based in Long Beach, California. It was destroyed in a takeoff crash near Fullerton Airport in 2004, its pilot perishing; its copilot seriously injured. The cause was identified as a tragic error in preflight inspection.

This latter Bushmaster 2000 was the aircraft in which I had my adventure, courtesy of Ford Motor Co., during the 2003 Monterey Weekend.

N750RW, me, Monterey Regional Airport, August 2003.

In its era, the Ford Trimotor could be configured for ten passengers together with its crew of three, pilot, copilot and flight attendant. N750RW was set up with rather more legroom and eight of us.

Seated immediately behind me was Keith Crain, of Crain Communications. Notice the large windows (indeed, larger than the Trimotor’s originals)—great for sightseeing.

Our flying tour of the Monterey Peninsula took us down the coast toward Big Sur and then back for a flyby of the Laguna Seca circuit. Though not oppressively noisy, the entire aircraft resonated with varying frequencies of its trio of 9-cylinder radials.

Turns 1, 2 and 3 of the Laguna Seca circuit, as seen from a banking Bushmaster 2000. It’s a great closeup of a Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior as well.

Earplugs were not obligatory, though I believe I would have advised them back during the TAT days of transcontinental travel. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2013