The Stinson SM-6000 Airliner was a 1930s three-engined (

trimotor A trimotor is an aircraft powered by three engines and represents a compromise between complexity and safety and was often a result of the limited power of the engines available to the designer. Many trimotors were designed and built in the 1920s ...

) ten-passenger airliner designed and built by the Stinson Aircraft Corporation. The SM-6000 was a high-wing braced monoplane with room for a pilot and a cabin for ten passengers. It was powered by three 215 hp (160 kW) Lycoming R-680 engines strut-mounted one each side above the main landing gear units and one in the nose. A number of variants were built mainly with improved interiors. In 1932 the Model U Airliner was produced which had low-set stub wings with an engine mounted at each wingtip.

Variants

;Corman 6000 :The initial prototypes produced by the Corman aircraft Co. as part of the E L Cord empire. ;SM-6000 Airliner :1930 initial production variant with three 215hp (160kW) Lycoming R-680 engines. ;SM-6000-A Airliner :1930 variant available with different interior configurations. Stinson Trimotor

;SM-6000-B1 Airliner :1931 all-passenger variant with better interior equipment. ;SM-6000-B2 Airliner :As the B1 but with a mixed mail/passenger interior. ;Model U Airliner :1932 improved model with three 240hp (179kW) Lycoming R-680-BA engines on stub wings. ;C-91 :United States military designation for one SM-6000-A (s/n 42-79547) impressed into service in 1942.

Survivors

Only two of these high-wing models are known to exist. One is owned and operated by Mid America Flight Museum in Mount Pleasant, TX, the other by

Kermit Weeks Kermit Weeks (born July 14, 1953 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American aviation enthusiast, pilot, and aircraft collector. He has competed in aerobatics, designed aircraft, and promoted aviation and vintage aircraft restoration. Oil and ...

and is maintained in airworthy condition at

Fantasy of Flight Fantasy of Flight is an aviation museum in Polk City, Florida. It opened in November 1995, to house Kermit Weeks' collection of aircraft that, until Hurricane Andrew damaged many in 1992, were housed at the Weeks Air Museum in Tamiami, Florid ...

Polk City, Florida Polk City is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. The population was 1,562 at the 2010 census. As of 2018, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 2,422. It is part of the Lakeland– Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistic ...

. As pictured on timetable, March 21, 1934, Boston Maine Airways Central Vermont Airways, and other schedules; pictured in Boston and Maine Airways employee magazine, "Boston-Maine Airways, Inc., Take Air Again in Year-Round Service;" circa 1933; discussed at length by Robert W. Mudge in Adventures of a Yellowbird: the biography of an airline, Branden Press, 1969.

Operators

; *

American Airways American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

* Boston-Maine Central Vermont Airways * Century Airlines * Chesapeake Airways * Chicago and Southern Airlines *

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline, along w ...

* National Airlines System * New York, Philadelphia and Washington Airway Corporation aka Ludington Airline * Rapid Air Lines ; * INAEC Iloilo Negros Air Express Company

Specifications (SM-6000-B)

Notes

References

* * *

External links

{{USAF transports 1930s United States airliners Airliner Trimotors High-wing aircraft