A trimotor is a propeller-driven aircraft powered by three internal combustion engines, characteristically one on the nose and one on each wing. A compromise between complexity and safety, such a configuration was typically a result of the limited power of the engines available to the designer. Many trimotors were designed and built in the 1920s and 1930s as the most effective means of maximizing payload.
Other - and uncommon - configurations include engines above the wing, as on seaplanes, including in pusher configuration, and an engine on each wing and one on the tail.
The best known trimotors are the Fokker F, Ford AT, and Junkers Ju series aircraft.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1930:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1931:
Nieuport, later Nieuport-Delage, was a French aeroplane company that primarily built racing aircraft before World War I and fighter aircraft during World War I and between the wars.
An aircraft constructed with a push-pull configuration has a combination of forward-mounted tractor (pull) propellers, and backward-mounted (pusher) propellers.
The Hispano-Suiza 8 was a water-cooled V8 SOHC aero engine introduced by Hispano-Suiza in 1914, and was the most commonly used liquid-cooled engine in the aircraft of the Entente Powers during the First World War. The original Hispano-Suiza 8A was rated at 140 hp (100 kW) and the later, larger displacement Hispano-Suiza 8F reached 330 hp (250 kW).
The Société des Avions Caudron was a French aircraft company founded in 1909 as the Association Aéroplanes Caudron Frères by brothers Gaston and René Caudron. It was one of the earliest aircraft manufacturers in France and produced planes for the military in both World War I and World War II. From 1933 onwards, it was a subsidiary of Renault.
A twin-boom aircraft has two longitudinal auxiliary booms. These may contain ancillary items such as fuel tanks and/or provide a supporting structure for other items. Typically, twin tailbooms support the tail surfaces, although on some types such as the Rutan Model 72 Grizzly the booms run forward of the wing. The twin-boom configuration is distinct from twin-fuselage designs in that it retains a central fuselage.
The Le Rhône 9C is a nine-cylinder rotary aircraft engine produced in France by Société des Moteurs Le Rhône / Gnome et Rhône. Also known as the Le Rhône 80 hp in a reference to its nominal power rating, the engine was fitted to many military aircraft types during the First World War. Le Rhône 9C engines were also produced under license in Great Britain, the United States and Sweden.
The Nieuport-Delage NiD.62 was a French sesquiplane fighter from the early 1930s. This machine was a descendant of a long line of Nieuport-Delage fighters that were designed and built during the years immediately after World War I. The NiD.62 was built in 1931 as a fighter for the Armée de l'Air. It served until the late 1930s, when it was replaced by more modern monoplane fighters. By the time of the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, all of the NiD.62s had been withdrawn from front-line fighter escadrilles but were used as trainers in French flight schools. A few aircraft were employed as target tugs. After the French German Armistice and German occupation of North and West part of France in June 1940, the German Luftwaffe had no interest in the NiD.62s and they were scrapped. None survived the war.
The Farman F.300 and F.310 were airliners built in France in the early 1930s. They were high-wing strut braced monoplanes with fixed tailskid undercarriage with a trimotor layout popular with several manufacturers of the time. The cockpit and passenger compartment were fully enclosed. Most saw service in Farman's own airline, whose twelve F.300 variants made up half its fleet in 1931.
The Fokker F.XIV was a cargo plane built in the Netherlands in the late 1920s by Fokker. It was a high-wing cantilever monoplane of conventional trimotor layout. The sole example was tested by KLM but never put into service.
The Stout 2-AT Pullman, or "Air Pullman", was a single engine all-metal monoplane that was used for early airline travel and air mail transport in America.
The Bach "Super Transport" was a design for a four-engined transport aircraft that was never built.
Émile Louis Letord, sometimes spelled Letort, (1880–1971) was a French industrialist and pioneer aeroplane manufacturer who founded the Société d'Aviation Letord from the Letord and Niepce workshops at Meudon, near Paris.
Fred Hise, a Detroit industrialist, saw a market for a small, high-quality tri-motor for business use.