Kreutzer trimotor NC-612A

Flight Journal, Jun 2000 by Underwood, John

Introduced by Gianni Caproni in 1914, the trimotor concept was not widely emulated until Tony Fokker developed the eminently successful F-7/3M for the 1926 Ford Reliability Tour. The Fokker trimotor and Henry Ford's all-metal rendition made passenger services a viable proposition for the nation's infant airline industry.

Within a short time, manufacturers were bidding for a share of a rapidly expanding worldwide market. This was mainly because of the perception that trimotors were safer than single-engine aircraft-a view that was not entirely valid until the advent of controllable-pitch propellers.

Joe Kreutzer had made a fortune in the automobile business in Los Angeles, and shortly after Lindbergh's flight to Paris, he moved into aviation. His first offering-a light trimotor called the "Air Coach"-targeted corporate users. But Kruetzer's plans were thwarted by miscalculations and plain bad luck: two prototypes proved unsatisfactory and the third, which appeared early in 1929, was destroyed by a fire.

When the Detroit Aircraft Show opened in April 1929, Kreutzer's company barely managed to have an airplane for display; but the X-612, bearing the Air Coach K-2 designation, proved to be a sensation. There was nothing like it on the market, and at $15,000, it was by far the least expensive mulit-engine aircraft available anywhere in the world.

The company's working capital had been drained, however, and sales expectations proved unrealistic. Fewer than a dozen Air Coaches were sold before the onset of the Great Depression. Early in 1930, the Joseph Kreutzer Corp. was bankrupt and out of business.

X-612, having served as prototype and demonstrator, became NC-612. It went to Mexico in 1933 and, following an accident in 1941, languished for four decades at an abandoned mine in the Western Sierras. It was salvaged in the early 80s and completely restored by Greg Herrick, a trimotor enthusiast, who owns many unique vintage aircraft. NC-612 is the sole survivor of its kind.