PENN TWP — A little bit of aviation history flew into the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport Thursday afternoon.

A vintage Ford Tri-Motor 5-AT-B, serial No. 8, will be at the airport through Sunday, available for people to view and to purchase short 25-minute flights in what has been called the world’s first metal aircraft.

Butler County’s Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 857 is hosting the Tri-Motor’s visit.

Pat Polehla, tour coordinator with national EAA, said flight reservations have already been capped at 66 but flights are still available on a walk-up basis from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The cost is $85 for an adult and $50 for children. The plane holds 10 passengers, she said, but for $200 an 11th passenger can ride in the co-pilot’s seat.

The money goes to support the EAA and maintenance of the Tri-Motor.

“All the passengers will get either a window or aisle seat,” said Polehla. “A lot of the interior has been modified since the 5-AT-B took its first flight on Dec. 1, 1928.”

She said 199 of the Tri-Motor craft were built by the Stout Metal Aircraft Co., a subsidiary of Ford Motor Co.

5-AT-B, “City of Wichita/City of Port Clinton,” is one of only 18 Tri-Motors still in existence and one of eight with an FAA airworthiness certificate. It is owned by the Liberty Aviation Museum and based at the Erie-Ottawa International Airport in Port Clinton, Ohio.

Polehla said the museum permits the Tri-Motor to visit airports around the country offering flights from spring until the end of October.

“It will go to different local chapters (of the EAA) and different local chapters of the EAA will sponsor the visits,” said Polehla.

5-AT-B’s pilot, Ed Kornfield, a float plane pilot from Alaska, made the two-hour flight from Elmira, N.Y., to Butler Thursday and will fly the Tri-Motor to Chillicothe, Ohio, on Sunday when its visit to the county ends.

Kornfield said he had to pass certain requirements, such as making 100 landings judged acceptable in the Tri-Motor, before he qualified as one of 10 pilots to fly the plane around the country.

“It’s an interesting plane to fly,” Kornfield said. “It takes an honest effort to move the controls. You have to remember this is using 1928-era technology. It was built just 18 months after Lindbergh flew the Atlantic.”

After Kornfield landed in Butler County, a group of volunteers helped him unload the plane. The volunteers hauled out boxes of spare parts, a starter and ticket-taking supplies.

Then, Kornfield led the volunteers on a short safety lecture about loading and unloading passengers. Shortly after, he was ready to take his first set of passengers on a trip he planned to take over the city of Butler.

“We can do 20 flights a day. It makes for a very long day in the summer, when we can go past 5 p.m.,” Polehla said. “Sometimes, it’s people bringing their grandkids or their kids. Sometimes it’s not even aviation people, it’s history people. To a certain extent, it’s like a flying museum.”

5-AT-B was sold to Transcontinental Air Transport in January 1929, where it became NC9645 and was named “City of Wichita.” It inaugurated westbound transcontinental commercial air service on July 7, 1929, with sister ship “City of Columbus.”

In April 1931, ownership of the aircraft was transferred to Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA). Here the aircraft helped in the development of TWA’s route system.

In the following decades, the plane was sold again and again, flying over the Grand Canyon and later in Honduras and Mexico. At one point, its corrugated metal skin was replaced with smooth metal.

It spent long periods in storage.

In July 1964, when it was purchased by Nevada’s William F. Harrah of Harrah’s Hotel and Casinos. Harrah returned the plane’s registration to NC9645 and began an extensive seven-year renovation, bringing the aircraft back to airworthy status and restoring the corrugated skin.

The revamped Tri-Motor had its first post-restoration flight in 1971 and flew in Reno several times before being moved to static display as part of Harrah’s impressive automobile collection. After Harrah’s death, parts of his collection, including NC9645, were auctioned off in June 1986 to high bidder Gary Norton of Athol, Idaho.

In February 1990, the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Ore., acquired the aircraft. It remained in storage there until 1996 when another restoration of the aircraft started, returning it to flying condition once again.

In 2014, the aircraft was acquired by the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton, Ohio.

Gary Marsico, an EAA 857 chapter member, said he rode the Tri-Motor during its last visit to Butler County in 2015 and hopes to do so again this year.

“We use the money raised to send kids to aviation camp in Oshkosh, Wis., and we send one or two kids a year to that camp,” said Marsico.

“I joined because I like giving Young Eagle rides. I’m an airplane owner, not an aircraft builder,” said Marsico, referring to Chapter 857’s tradition of giving youngsters between 8 and 17 free airplane rides at the airport three times a year.

The next Young Eagles session is slated for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 9. To make a reservation, visit eaa357.org.

He wasn’t a Young Eagle, but Gregory Ferdinandsen of West Sunbury was at the airport Thursday hoping for a ride in the vintage aircraft.

He had a reservation for a Sunday flight but hoped to be able to get a walk-on flight Thursday instead.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the Ford Tri-Motor,” he said. “It’s a different kind of plane."