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

trimotor 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 limit ...

) 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 The Lycoming R-680 is a nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, the first aero engine produced by Lycoming. The engine was produced in two types, the E and B series; both are essentially the same. The B4E was available in a trainer version wi ...

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 additional two engines mounted on each wing complementing the existing nose mounted center engine.

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)

engines. ;SM-6000-A Airliner :1930 variant available with different interior configurations. Stinson Trimotor

AL61A-051 Stinson U cn 9008 NC12120 Mayflower Airlines c37-38

;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 Mount Pleasant is the county seat of and largest city in Titus County, in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, Mount Pleasant's population was 16,047; it is situated in Northeast Texas. History Mount Pleasant was founded May 11, 18 ...

, the other by

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

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 Kendall-Tamiami E ...

Polk City, Florida Polk City is a city in Polk County, Florida, Polk County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Lakeland, Florida, Lakeland–Winter Haven, Florida, Winter Haven Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, metropolitan s ...

. 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, Inc. is a major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the largest airline in the world in terms of passengers carried and daily flights. American, ...

* Boston-Maine Central Vermont Airways *

Century Airlines The Century Air Lines Strike of 1932 was a strike of pilots from Chicago-based Century Air Lines following a proposal in early February by company owner Errett Lobban Cord to cut wages by up to 40%. The two-month strike was the first in the histo ...

* Chesapeake Airways *

Chicago and Southern Airlines Chicago and Southern Air Lines (C&S) was a United States trunk carrier, a scheduled airline that started life as Pacific Seaboard Air Lines in California and was organized on June 15, 1933. Following the move from California, the airline's hea ...

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

Mayflower Airlines Mayflower Airlines was a small United States scheduled airline founded June 22, 1935 that started operations on June 15, 1936 flying from Boston to Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard on a seasonal basis before World War II. Mayflower opera ...

* National Airlines System *

New York, Philadelphia and Washington Airway Corporation New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

aka

Ludington Airline Ludington Airline (also, Ludington Lines or Ludington Line) was an airline of northeastern United States started on an investment of at least $1,000,000 from Charles Townsend Ludington and his brother. Ludington brochures advertised "Plane Servi ...

Gradidge 1989, p. 18 *

Rapid Air Lines Mid-Continent Airlines was a trunk carrier, a scheduled airline which operated in the central United States from the 1930s until 1952 when it was acquired by and merged with Braniff International Airways. Mid-Continent Airlines was originally fo ...

; * INAEC Iloilo Negros Air Express Company

Specifications (SM-6000-B)

Notes

References

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External links

{{USAF transports 1930s United States airliners

Airliner An airliner is a type of airplane for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. The modern and most common variant of the airliner is a long, tube shaped, and jet powered aircraft. The largest ...

Trimotors High-wing aircraft