Phillips 66 Co Ford 5-AT-C Tri-Motor Woolaroc II

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The Ford Tri-motor, nicknamed the “Tin Goose”, is an American three-engine transport aircraft. Production began in 1925 by the companies of Henry Ford and ended on June 7, 1933 after 199 aircraft were built. The aircraft was designed for the civil aviation market but also saw service with military units.

In 1925, Ford bought the Stout Metal Airplane Company and their aircraft designs. The single-engine Stout monoplane was turned into a trimotor and became the Stout 3-AT with three Curtiss-Wright air-cooled radial engines. After a prototype was built and test-flown with poor results, the “4-AT” and “5-AT” models then emerged.

The 5-AT-C was an improved version with engine cowlings and wheel pants, similar to the Ford 5-AT-A. The aircraft carried 17 passengers and 51 planes were built.

Frank Phillips (November 28, 1873 to August 23, 1950), founder of the Phillips Petroleum Company, was born near Scotia, Greeley County, Nebraska. The Ford Tri Motor airplane, owned by Frank Phillips when he lived in Bartlesville, Ok, named this aircraft the “Woolaroc II”, NC418H, after the nearby Woolaroc Ranch Phillips founded in 1925.

The aircraft had the name painted under each cockpit window; “Woolaroc II” private ship of “Wah-Shah-She Hluah-Ke-He-Kah” (Osage Eagle Chief) as a tribute to his fair dealings and interest in the Osage Indian welfare. The Osage adopted Frank Phillips into the tribe and made him a chief. Their “Uncle Frank” was the first white man ever to attain this high honor.

The Phillips 66 Company used this aircraft as a general company transport and for aviation fuel research operating in Albuquerque around 1935.

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