Vintage Airplane - Jan 1978

8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jan 1978

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Restorer'sCornery I R .NIELAI\EEJ JRNew Year's Resolutions are the vogue at this time ofyear, so it is appropriate that we whom you haveentrusted to guide the destiny of your EAA Antique/Classic Division should make a few resolutions on itsbehalf.First, we have resolved to produce a high qualitycolor brochure similar to those presently available fromEAA and the other two Divisions. These brochures willtell the story of your Division and will enable you tobetter acquaint your friends with the Division and itsobjectives. They will be sent to all of those interestedpersons who write to Headquarters inquiring about the

Division, as well as to all members requesting them.Additionally, they will be available for distribution atfly -ins and other aviation events where EAA merchandise and publications are on sale . The availability ofthese brochures will be duly noted in a later issue ofTHE VINTAGE AIRPLANE as soon as Headquartersreceives a sufficient supply from the printer.Our second New Year's Resolution for the Divisionconcerns inaugurating a membership drive complete withpri zes for all those members who sign up specific numbers of new members, as well as a grand pri ze for themember who signs up the greatest number of new

'o.

Florida, during the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In. The Florida SportAviation Antique and Classic Association, an EAAAntique/Classic Division chapter, is one of the cosponsors of the Sun 'n Fun. Its president, Bob White,accepted the Board's invitation to become a member ofthe Board of Advisors some time ago.The fourth of the Division's New Year's Resolutions

is one which can not be accomplished by your Headquarters sta ff alone. I requires the help and cooperationof each one of you. It concerns the contents of th ismagazine and your input into it Ideally each issu eshould be an interesting mix of stories about restorations(both antique and classic), flight experiences with theolder aircraft, pilot reports on handl.ing characteristics,and aviation history. Additionally, news of chapteractivities and fly-ins, interesting anecdotes from the typeclubs, and a calendar of coming events could be regularfeatures. However, all of these items must originate withyou, the member. Your editor can not write them foryou. So please help your elected officers fulfill theirNew Year's Resolution to bring you an even bettermagazine by taking the time to provide your editor withmaterial which will be of general interest and enjoymentto your fellow members.

Editor's Note:Due to the almost two month's lead time, andthe fact that David Gustafson our new Editor,reports for work January 1 st, the January andFebruary 1978 issues will be done by usHappy New Year to all . Lois and AI Kelch

members during 1978. Full details of this membershipcontest will be forthcoming in a later issue, but you canstart in right now signing up new members, and they willcount toward your prize even though the details of thecontest have not been published. You have been receiving membership applications along with each copy ofTHE VINTAGE AIRPLANE for most of the past year.Remove these applications from your magazines, and usethem to sign up your interested friends. All you have todo to have your friend's new membership count towardyour prize-winning total in the membership contest isprint y our full name followed by your Antique/ClassicDivision membership number on the back (blank) side ofthe application form which you give to him. Simple,isn't it? When his application is received at Headquarters,you will be given contest cred it for h s new membersh ip

For the third Division New Year's Resolution, yourofficers, directors and advisors have resolved to developcloser working ties with the present Antique/ClassicDivision ch apters and have gone on record as encouraging the formation of additional Antique/Classic chapters.A new How to Form an Antique/Classic Chap ter Kithas just been put together and is presently available fromEAA Headquarters by writing to the Antique/ClassicDivision in care of the Division Executive Secretary. Thepresidents of all of the Antique/Classic chapters areinvited to become members of the Division's Board ofAdvisors and to participate in the management of theDivision. Additionally, the officers, directors and advisors have resolved to do their utmost to have Head quarters representation at each of the fly-ins sponsoredby the Antique/Classic Division chapters during 1978.They are getting off to a good start by scheduling thenext Division Board of Directors meeting at Lakeland,


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ditorialtaff

Paul H. Poberezny EditorAI KelchAssistant EditorLois Kelch

Associate EditorH. Glenn Buffington818 W. Crockett St. No. 201Seattle, Washington 98119

Associate Ed i or Associate EditorEdward D. Willi ams713 Eastman Dr.Mt. Prospect , Illinois 60056Robert G. Elliott1227 Oakwood Ave.Da ytona Beach, Florida 32014

Associate Editors are c redi ted in the T abl e of Contents fo r a rt icles which theyhave submit ted as well as f o r articles wh i c h th ey have autho red. Associate Edito r shi p s fo r the fOllowing ca len da r year are ass ign ed to thos e wri te r s who submit f i veor more a rt icles which are pu b li shed in THE V IN T A G E AIRPLANE du r i n g th ecu rr en t year . Associate Ed i to rs r ece iv e a f ree o ne y ear memb e rshi p in the Di v i sionfor each year tha t they ho ld th e ir o ff i c e and a b ound vo lu m e o f THE VINTAGEAI RPLANE fo r each year th a t they earn th e ir o ff i c e.

D irectorsANTIQUE AND CLASSICDIVISIONOFFICERSWil iam J EhlenRoute 8 Box 506

Tampa, Flo r da 33618A I K elch

7018 W. Bonniwel l RoadMequon, Wisconsin 53092

Claude L. Gray, Jr . Mo r ton W. L esterPRESIDENT 9635 Sylvia Avenue Box 37 4 7J .R . NIELANDER, JR. No rt h r idge, Cal i fo r nia 9 1 32 4 Martinsvi l le, Vi rginia 241 12P.O . BOX 2464FT . LAUDERDALE , FL 33303 Dale A. Gusta son Ar thu r R .772 4 Shady H i l l Drive 513 No rt h 91 st StreetInd i anapolis, Ino iana 4 627 4 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226VICE-PRESIDENT

JACK WINTHROP Richa rd Wagr le r M.e . K e l l y VietsRT . 1, BOX 111 P O Box 18 1 R R 1 , B o x 1 5 1ALLEN, TX 75002 Lyons, Wisconsin 53 14 8 Stilwell, Kansas 66085

Advi sor sSECRETARY Ronald F r i t z Stan G om o llW. BRAD THOMAS, JR . 1989 Wilson, N W 10 4 2 9 0 th L ane, N.E.301 DODSON MILL ROAD G rand Rapids, Mich i gan 4 95 04 Minneapol is, Minnesota 5543 4PILOT MOUNTAIN, NC 27041R oge r J . She r ron Robe rt E. Kese l

4 4 6-C Las Casi t as 44 5 Oa k r idge Dr i veTREASURER Santa R osa. Ca l i f orn i a 95 401 Roches t e r , N ew Yo r k 14 6 1 7E.E . "BUCK" HILBERT Rob e rt A. Whi t e8102 LEECH RD. 1207 Falcon D r iveUNION. IL 60180 O rl ando, Flo r da 328 0 3THE V IN TA G E AI RP L A N E is owned p x c lusi ve ly by EAA Antique / Classic. Di viSion . Inc .. and is publishedmo mh lv a t H ales Co rn er s, W iscon sin 53130. Second class Postage p,l lcl at H ales Corners Post Off ic I ' , HalesC o rn e r s, W isconsin 53 13 0 , and additiOr1 . 1 ri1.'.ldlng offrces. e , n j e s l l t ~ r f o r the publ iCat ion of THE VINT AG E AIRPLANE.Me m be rshi p is op e n t o a ll who a re in te rested In aV ia t ion .

OFFICIAL MAGAZINENTIQUE / CLASSIC

DIVISIONof

TH EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

P.O_Box 229 Hales Corners, Wis 53130JANUARY 1978 VOLUME 6 NUMBER 1

Restorer s Corner . . 1Restoring an 88 Day Wonder . . . . . 3The Life and Times of Waco NC13072 4Bleriot XI 911 ) . . . . 9Vintage Album . . . . 11Terminal "Qu eens" , Ed Williams, Assoc. Ed. 13The Spirit o f American Youth, Glenn Buffington, Assoc . Ed . 16Air Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Officers and Directors Nom nations 21

EAA ANTIQUE/CLASSIC DIVISION MEMBERSHIPo NON-EAA MEMBER - $20.00. Includes one year membership in the EAA Antique / Classic Division , 12 monthly issues of TH E V INT AG E A I RPLAN E; one year membership in the Experime nt alAircra ft Association and separate membership cards. SPORT AVIATION not included.

o EAA MEMBER - $14.00 , Incl udes one year membership in the EAA Antique/ Classic Di vis ion, 12monthly issues of THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE and membership card. (Applicant must be currentEAA member and must give EAA membership number.)

PICTURE BOXON THE COVE R (Back Cover)

The beginning a Legend7977 Bteriot X I

Cole Palen s Cole Palen

Copyright C 1978 Antiqu e Classic Aircra ft , Inc . All R ights Rese rved .
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Restoring an Day WonderBy: j L jenkins569 Moose Hill Road

Monroe, CT 06468My Vagabond came into my hands back in 1970which my dad bought for us as our first restoration project when I was sixteen. We found the Vag in a garagewith cracked landing gear fittings, along with bent lowerlongerons within the gear fittings area, many of the smallparts such as fairings, gas tank, shock struts and miscellaneous things were missing or just plain unuseable as wewanted everything in nice shape so we could do a realnice job. A Continental C85 was in the Vag for power atthe time of its last flight, but the owner removed it for

his own Vag, which he was restoring at the time.After bringing the plane home we decided on installing the 65 Lycoming that came with the plane to see ifwe could get it to run. After some coaxing, it finally didrun only finding later a two inch crack in one of thecylinders and with this engine this becomes a problem asthe cylinders are cast integral with the crankcase, onlythe heads being removeable. So we bought anotherengine and my dad, having an A P, did a completemajor on it. To this day it has been a terrific little en

gine, and exceptionally smooth and quiet. Next camethe fuselage, sanding, stripping, then welding fittings andthe lower longerons into place bringing the fuselage upto the fabric and interior stage. I chose a more deluxeinterior than what the Vag originally came with, mymom made up tuck and roll seats, wall panels in darkblue trimmed in an off-white and vinyl headliner. I evenbrought home a tropy for best interior from one antiqucfly-in.With the interior dctails taken care of, we covered thefuselage with ceconite, using nitrate and butyrate dope,finishing with daytona white with bahama blue trim.With Spring in the air we moved the wings from thebasement to the garage so we could get them coveredand up to the color stage, while I finished the trim colorson the wing's leading edge, my father made up all newcowli ng forward of the door except for the nose cowlwhich was taken to an auto body shop for some straightening.

By June we had all the missing parts located or madeup new and installed, I even found a pair of originalmetal wheel pants (a RARE item). Living only 1500from the airport we assembled the Vag in the front yardand rigged it, followed by our A I's inspection, thenclosing up all the fairings and giving the finish a realgood rub-out and a few coats of wax. The next day wepushed the Vag up to the airport and had a fellow Vagowner fly it. Seeing it fly after 14 months of nonstopwork was a real pleasure.After being checked out by my instructor I went andhad a ball, with its nearly full span ailerons the roll ratewas something else, all controls were much more sensitive than the Cub and Aeronca Champ I had been flying before, it was also much faster, cruising at a quick 95mph. To date I have flown the Vag 530.0 hours and justlove it, I'll never sell it. I attend all the antique EAAmeets I can get to, and it has brought home manytrophies, I am real proud of this little airplane. I alsohave another Vag that I am restoring, it is the trainerversion of the PA-15, this one being a PA-17 and havinga Continental engine, shock struts, dual controls and autility flight envelope, unlike the PA-15, which has just anormal flight category envelope. When not restoring thisVag, my dad and I are busy restoring a 1940 Warnerpowered Fairchild 24-W40 which I bought last year. Icouldn't pass it up as they are beautiful. I really loveantique airplanes, the only problem being that thedisease gets worse instead of better.


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By: Clark G SeabornR. R. 9Calgary, Alberta CanadaT J T9

As if in one fell swoop, all these improvementswere incorporated into one airplane, and it emerged asthe remarkable UIC of 1933. From perhaps any anglethe new UIC was a beauty, the longer fuselage now hadsoft rounded lines, the rear view windows were redesigned for a more graceful contour and the larger cabin inte rior promised much more stretch room. The front end ofthe airplane was its crowning glory; the 210 HP Continental engine was now tightly shrouded in a deep

This picture ispainting commissioned y Mr. B. P.first owner of NC! 3072.

chord NACA cowling, a cowling that sported fancy looking bliste rs over the rocker arm boxes to hold downthe overall diameter. It was not surprising that the UICsold faster than it could be built, and some owners ofthe earlier cabin Waco got quickly in line for the newmodel. At least 70 of the UIC were built and sold in1933, and the owners names sounded like a who's whoof big names and dignitaries .from Joseph Juptner's U.s . Civil Aircraft

My first contact with the 1933 Waco NC13072 was inMarch 1974. Its tattered and ripped fabric fluttered inthe cold winter breezes as it sat in an oilfield storageyard near the Calgary Airport. The dope finish no longerhad a new lustre. Many of the window panes had beensmashed by vandals. Inside the cockpit the winter windswere only slightly less strong as they entered through thebroken windows and roof skylight. A bird's nest in theinstrument panel hole indicated that it had been exposedto the wilds of nature for some time. Some of its interiorfurnishings provided a hint of its former elegance; withpolished wood frames surrounding the automobile typeroll down windows and burnished aluminum strips separating the woodwork from the upholstered side panels.Four layers of upholstery material had been consecutively applied to the seats over the years - and all were inan advanced state of decay. The tires were flat, framework tubing colored with rust, wood rotted and instruments missing. It seemed like a moment of weakness inme at that point but I purchased the remains less logs,engine, propeller and a number of small parts. The onlyhistory I knew of its past was that it had been wreckedup north some years previously.With so many hours of flying and years of life showing on this airplane remains, it seemed a shame not toknow a little about her past, to find out who had enjoyed her in the previous 41 years and what she lookedlike when new. Any airplane with four layers of seatcovers has most certainly had to have a number of happyand proud owners. My first step in digging into this pastwas to join the National Waco Club - an organizationdevoted to the preservation and restoration of th is particular breed of old aircraft. Mr Ray Brandly, the clubpresident, was able to locate and copy the factory salesfile-containing among other things a partial listing of thefirst ten years owners. As expected, after a 43 year lapse,

telephone enquiries into the listed names yieldednothing of the early owners.About a year and a half following my purchase of theaircraft one of the previous owners of the wreckage,living some 200 miles north of me unearthed a file ofpaperwork on the airplane, including a mostly illegiblelogbook dating back to 1952. Among the other items inthe file was a Waco Pilot owners newsletter circa1940. This contained testimonial adverisements showingseveral notables who had purchased the then new ModelE Waco: among them William P Lear of Learadio. Pondering this several weeks later, I noticed that a Mr


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arch 1974 - Waco NCI 3 72 comes to its present owner - the flowers being held by the owner s wifewere purchased at the same time as the airplane, in order to smooth over the few anxious momentsfollowing the unveiling of the new acquisition.

Barron P. Lambert was pictured in front of his Waco the caption indication that he was a Baltimore banker....THAT NAME SEEMED FAMILlAR ... like I had seen itsomewhere in some other Waco papers. Sure enough the factory sales file on my airplane I sted that name asthe original purchaser of my airplane. A quick check ofthe Baltimore phone directory in the library indicatedthat a person of that name still lived there 36 years afterthe article was printed. A cautious letter to Mr. Lambertand the story started unfolding ....

Barron P. Lambert of 480 Park Avenue, New Yorktook delivery of his Waco NC13072 in April of 1933.She was delivered with a vermilion fuselage and DianaCream wings with black and gold pinstriping. As a purchaser of the 1933 Waco cabin he was in the company ofsuch industrialists as Powell Crosley Jr. and Henry B.

DuPont and such fast company as speedboat racer GarWood and aircraft racer J acquiline Cochran.Mr. Lambert recalled recently how NC13072 was hisfirst new airplane, and what an exciting business it wasto discuss the building and instrument layout with thefactory in Troy, Ohio and finally to get it .Mr. Lambert also recalled his cross country trip inthis plane - my greatest trip (in all my flying) was inth is plane in the su mmer of 1934. With a friend I tookoff for Jackson Hole, Wyoming (Rand McNally maps,each state being a different scale). Landed at Dubois,Table Top Mountain - altitude 8100 feet, being secondplane to land there. By car and horse we entered JacksonHole and for $5 per day each had the best trout fishingI'll ever see, all with air mattresses, guides, steaks, horses,for one week. On leaving, crossed the rockies further

7943 Seventeen year old Billie Coving-ton put 200 hours on NC13072 whileworking to get in ferry command.

south and went to Salt Lake City, then to Los Angeles.On a southern route home flew over the Grand Canyonfor an hour. Only trouble besides a touch of bad weatherwas a flat tire in Kingman, Arizona.While Mr. Lambert lived in New York he used to flyin and out of North Beach - now La Guardia. He recalled- Lindbergh was training there for his South AmericanFlight - Post and Gatty, Rosco Turner, the great AIWilliams - all people I called 51 R were coming in andout. The enormous DOX was parked there .In August, 1933, Mr. Lambert moved to Eccleston,Md. outside of Baltimore. NC13072 was kept at CurtissWright Airport. He recalled - one eve ning after movingfrom NY to Baltimore, when the moon was coming upfull, I said to my wife and a friend ' It would be a lov elyevening to fly up to NY for dinner'. 'Why don't you]'

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7933 Mr Lambert and Mrs Lambert deceased)pose beside NCl 3072. The jaeger chronographbarely visible in the photo at the right side ofthe instrument panel was used in a successionof aircraft owned y Mr Lambert. It was re-cently contributed to the restoration projectand as it happens - it still fits in the hole cut forit 4 years ear/ier

said my wife. So I wired North Beach (now La Guardia)- WI LL BUZZ FI ELD ABOUT 8 P.M. PLEASE PUT ONFLOOD LIGHTS', which they did. Im agine doing thattoday. We got home at 4 A.M., after a great evening .In 1935 NC130n was traded by Mr. Lambert for a1935 Waco after 371 hours flying time. This in turn hetraded for the fastest of the Wacos, a Model E boughtnew from the factory in May, 1939. (This was the ma-chine pictured in the Waco testimonial mentioned earlier). In this last Waco he was practicing night landing atSea Island, Ga . on January 14, 1941 Did not notice awind shift, made soft 3 point landings but went slowlyoff runway hitting soft sand and going over on my back(my only outside loop). I was drowning my sorrows in anearby tavern while darkness and fog set in and an armybomber landed and hit my plane, for which I had insur

ance .

7933 Waco NC73072 new from factory with proud owner Mr Barron P Lambert.Photo taken at the Curtiss-Wright Airport near Baltimore.

An interesting sidelight - Mr. Lambert's uncle wasMajor Albert B. Lambert - who learned to fly fromOrville Wright and who was one of Lindbergh's firstbackers. Lambert Field in St. Louis is named after thisgentleman.The Waco factory records indicate NC130n was usedby Viair Lines Inco in East Orange, NJ during 1935.In 1936 NC130n was traded to the New York Wacodealer and resold to Mr. James S. Sammon of Baltimorewho used it for his personal pleasure and transport. Mr.Sammon recently recalled, She was a stout little shipand I never hesitated to loop her when the opportunitypermitted. In 1936 I won the Washington Air DerbyBalloon Bursting contest and still have a silver cup forthe event. Some of the highlights of my ownership werecross country trips and weekend jaunts, such as the GoldCup Steeple Chase in Warrington when we landed in anearby cow pasture and after attending the ball whichlasted until morning, we flew back to Baltimore deplaning about 10 A.M. still dressed in white ties andtails. Once I flew out to the Kentucky Derby, landed onour host's lawn and parked beside his house. On week

ends we would com mute to Ocean City and upon arrivaldive on the local cab stand which was a signal for him topick us up at a nearby potato patch. The longest trip wasfrom Baltimore to Los Angeles out the southern routeand back over the Rockies through canyons and at timesin the laps of the gods, but we made it .

Mr. Sammon sold NC130n in 1937 and a few yearslater joined the Air Force, spending 4 years in Africa,Europe and the Pacific. In this service he met Mr.Lambert, neither one knowing that each other had abond in common. After that he joined National Airlines,retiring recently with 25000 logged flying hours. Re-cently, after being to ld that a Mr. Sammon had onceowned NC130n Mr. Lambert, through the help andrecollections of friends, located Mr. Sammon in Miami,35 years later.As records indicate, NC130n was traded to CliftonAirport, Clifton, NY in 1938 then to Vinton A. Smithand Wilson P. Porch of Plainville, Conn. in 1939. Notrace of these men.Early 1943 saw NC130n owned by Howard Dutton

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Above: 7958: By this time many of the distinctive origi-nal fittings on NC73072 had disappeared and the paint.scheme had changed. Note absence of triangular rearwindow.Below: 7936 or 7937: The Waco Mr. James Sammonand two other cowboys just passing through EI PasoTexas.

Below: 7963: NC73072 as she looked after last rebuildin Minot, ND. By a coincidence, paint scheme hadchanged back to almost the original one.

in Semburg, Conn. She was then purchased by the own ers of the Martinsville Virginia Airport - Messrs Arthur B.Via and J G. Covington. Mr. L R. (Bob) Pettus, the airport manager and instructor, and Mr. Covington's 17year old son, Billie Covington were sent to Semburg toferry NC130n back. After 2 weeks of bad weather,Billie Covington had to take the train home to continuehis school. Mr. Pettus finally made it back after 3 weekswith the Waco.In Martinsville, NC13072 was used for charter serviceand by Mr. Billie Covington to build up his flying timeto get 200 hours in an aircraft of 200 HP or more so thathe could join the air force ferry command as a ferrypilot. One of his flight instructors who encouraged himin this venture was Mr. Sanford Gilley - who became oneof the founders and Vice President of Piedmont Airlines.

Mr. Covington flew her more than 200 hours. He re-called, I flew this old airplane back in 1943 with a lotof enthusiasm and I enjoyed the way she flew. I got lostdown in North Carolina back in 1943 when at the timewith no radio equipment, the only way of navigating wasby compass and watch, strictly contact navigation. Thecompass on the old girl worked for going south, butwas quite a few degrees off going north. I was lost forabout an hour when I finally saw Pilot Mountain inNorth Carolina - a very historical mountain. I got a compass heading back home and when I landed the oldgirl , the gas tank was empty.Mr. Pettus also flew her considerably during this ownership and his log book indicated a forced landing 15miles from the airport on April 11, 1943. Mr. Pettus leftMartinsville to work for the CAA in January, 1944 andNC130n was sold. Mr. Pettus passed away in March,1976, a few days after being contacted, and unfortunately was not able to provide further information. Hiswife kindly helped with a number of the details).As recollected by Mr. Covington, NC130n was soldto a Mr. Johnnie P. Jones, an airforce instructor based atGreensboro, North Carolina. No contact has been madewith Mr. Jones and nothing is known of the whereaboutsor the travels of NC130n until 1956.In this period, between 1943 and 1956, NC130nchanged considerably in appearance. As the factory in-stalled engine became due for a major overhaul it wasreplaced with a slightly modified war surplus version.This later version with forced lubrication rockers andslightly larger outside diameter forced the need for alarger cowling. At this point the once stylish Bump

Cowling was discarded in favor of an easily availableand easily installed war surpl us Cessna BambooBomber cowling. The distinctive triangular shaped rearwindow was covered in fabric; as were later Wacos fromthe factory as a cost cutting measure. (It is also interesting to note that the Cessna Aircraft Company reintroduced a very similar rear window in the mid sixties as anew feature , called omnivision.)In 1956 the NC130n was based in Roanoke, Va.,being owned by Irving E. Craig and Joe Woodard. It wassubsequently sold to Mr. J R. Holt in Indianapolis, Ind .in March, 1957 and then to Edward Frost in Le SueurMinnesota in August, 1958. Slight damage was incurredin 1958 and the right lower wing and landing gear werereplaced with new units ordered from the Waco factory.

NC130n was then traded through Robert Hansen ofMinneapolis and Wokal Flying Service of Bowman N.D.and ended up in the hands of Mr. Foe Kasper in MinotN.D. in 1961. By this time age and moisture deterioration had the upper hand on the fuselage woodwork andMr. Kasper found himself soon engulfed in a major re-build of the structure. Following this, Mr. Kasper loggedquite a number of hours on NC130n - some on civil airpatrol missions.Early in 1964, Joe Kasper sold NC130n sight un-seen, to a buyer in Fairbanks, Alaska. Despite the airplane being 31 years old at this time and considered avintage airplane, it was being purchased for use as a personal transport in the harshest climate in North America- certainly indicative of the usefulness and longevity ofthe basic design. The gentleman from Alaska came downto Minot to take delivery and to ferry his Waco back upto Fairbanks. For several thousand miles he travellednorthward - hopping from Minot on March 30, 1964 forLloydminister, Edmonton, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson

and finally to Watson Lake in the Yukon Territories.Here he was held up for two days during a snowstorm.On April 6th, while attempting to take off (with the tailwheel lock not down) following the snowstorm, the aircraft ground looped and cartwheeled onto its back - itsoccupant narrowly escaping injury in the tumble - withjerry cans of gas and other heavy items of baggage in theback seat. Having to get back to work and faced with thebureaucratic problem of leaving his newly purchasedpossession in a foreign country, he removed the landinggear and engine and instruments from NC130n andcarried them to Alaska with him - by truck. The rest ofthe airframe was left at Watson Lake for (hopefully) a


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Above: November 7976 Maybe some day she /I fly again

buyer.Some months later a group in Canada boughtNC13 n and drove to Alaska to retrieve the landinggear. For the next ten years its possession passedthrough the hands of 5 owners each one intending torebuild and fly it. The damage caused in the WatsonLake accident was nothing compared to the deterioration vandalism and shipping damage suffered as theframe and wings were trucked 2 000 miles down theAlaska Highway first to Whitehorse then to Edmontonand then finally to Calgary.Today it has been al most 1 3 years si nce WacoNC13 n has last flown. Hopefully some day in the nottoo distant future she may fly again - in the condition inwhich she first left the factory. It is my hope that whenthis happens that we the owners and past owners of thishard working old airplane may meet and once again flyin her. But that may be another story

Below: April 7964 Watson Lake Yukon Territories Canada

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Editor s Note:Cole Palen, a legend in his time, with the ableassistance of his wife Rita, have the Old RhinebeckAerodrome in Rhinebeck, New York. Shows are everyweekend all summer. For many years I have made apilgrimage to his shrine to see and enjoy the works ofa master. For any true antiquer, it has to be the mark

of fulfillment, as is the annual Fly-In t Oshkosh. Tosay th t you have been to both will tell your peersthat you have truly reached th t height of fulfillment.In the winter, when Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome isclosed, Cole packs up his crew and goes to Florida,

HIeriot l (1911)By: Cole PalenOld Rhinebeck AerodromeRhinebeck, NY. 72572

The Bleriot type monoplane first made its mark inthe world by flying across the English Channel in July1909. The type enjoyed a large production life evolvingthrough numerous improved models.The subject of this article is the famous cross-countrytype of 1911. Bleriots of th is model won races in theCircuit of Europe and Circuit of Britain and races fromParis to Madrid and Paris to Rome. Many of these flightswere as far as 1,000 miles and over such mountains asthe Pyrenees and the Alps. This model with its comparatively reliable Gnome engines of 50 and 70 HPcombined with its long-range gas tank slung beneath thefuselage, indeed continued to make history and burnished the name of Louis Bleriot, its designer and manufacturer.Many pilots of this famous historic aircraft gainedfame and fortune flying it. The Frenchman, AndreBeaumont, who using his naval navigation techniques,won the Paris to Rome Race of 1911 and chalked upvictories in the Circuit of Europe and Circuit of Britaincross-country flights. Georges Chavez, the Peruvian, whofirst crossed the Alps. The British entrepreneur, Claude Above: Note the small wheel and control leversGraham White, who won so many prizes in the United mounted on either side of control column. TheStates at the Boston and Bel mont Park Air Meets and electric Tachometer was a standard item. Dial isonly instrument in front ofpilot.taking along one or two projects every year. The Below: Some employee was no doubt inking hisBleriot was one winter s project, and the pictures tell rubber stamp and tried it ut on this spar severalthe story of its restoration. As far as I know, there is times - it survived time and fire.only one o ther original Bleriot flying in the world.Cole is a master with the WW I Rotary engines andhas flown theirs every weekend for years, as wewould fly a 65 Continental.If you can find any excuse to travel East, do so,and visit Old Rhinebeck . There is no place in theworld th t you can see pre-World War I planes inaction.

AI Kelch, Editor

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Above: From these sad rema s emerged a complete and original Bleriot.

the American, Harriet Quimby, the first woman pilot tocross the English Channel, flew this model Bleriot.In this count ry at that time there was talk of theGreat American Circuit Race, and l eriot machin es werebeing built by different manufacturers . The aircraft Iactually restored is an American-built, cross-countryBleriot powered with wh at wa s probably the bes t ae r-onautical engine of that period - the record-break ing 5

HP Gnome rotary of French manufacture. The airframewas built by the American Aeroplane Supply House,Hempstead, L.I . N.Y. It was built in July or August of1911 and crashed some time prior to 1915 wh en it wasstored by its last owner, James McGrath, in a barn nearBoston.About 1964 the barn ca ught fire, the loca l f ire com-pany extingu ished it, looked in the barn and saw aslightly singed, o ld aeroplane. The word was out and,eventua ll y, Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome was ab le toprocure this original aircraft and now fl ies it in a limi tedand safe as possib le manner for the continued entertai n-ment of attendants at the Old Rhinebeck Sh ow in NewYork any summer Sunday .The structure of this aircraft is 98 pure 1911; wood,wire and accessories. Of course, it has a new cloth covering and its original Gnome rotary engine. For those ofyou who are technica l minded, and it amazed us, it is

eq uipped with an electr ic tachometer.In America s first a ir ma il del ivery, on Sept. 23, 1911 ,pilot Earle Ovington carried a cargo of 19 letters andpostcards .between Na ssa u Boul eva rd and Min eola, L.I., adistance of three mil es, and dropped the pouch of mailat the feet of the waiting Postmaster. This demonstration flight wa s made at the Nassau Boul evard Air Meet.MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ON THEBLERIOT XI (1911)1. Note the charred tail skid and rear section of thefuselage which we felt must have been stored upsidedown with the skid close to the burning roof.2. We dated the time the aircraft was in storage by awadded-up newspaper dat ed Nov. 1915 which was stuffed in the hollow crankshaft of the engine to keep outdirt, etc .3. A very interesting thing that we found when weremoved the origi nal fabric from the wings was a rubberstamping adverti si ng Bleriots. (See picture page 9)4. In the crash of the l eriot, the body was broken inhalf just after the cockpit. Four new sections oflongerons had to be sp liced in, averaging 4 ft. in lengtheach. The bottom horizontal land ing gear strut (bedstead) was replaced. Both wheels were replaced but wehave one of the original damaged wheels. Anotheroriginal 50 HP Gnome propeller was installed.

Above: Wesley Cullen poses with scorched wingbefore and after clean-up.Below: Engine before Mike Lockhart took theelbow grease after t.


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i n t a g ~en and Thei" -Above: The engine after a thorough cleaning waslike new unharmed by time and fire. r ~

Right: A cosmeticly clean and gorgeous engine installation. Those magnificent men n their lyirdowndidi down down, up, down andthe g r o u ~

Above: Sweet Music to Mike Lockhart first run upand a smile tell the story.

Below:

Above: ndy Keefe clowning il up. Is it 976 or ,


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Albumage Machines

hines they go upp ty up up they goaround looping the loop nd defying

Above: The reason for the tape on the tire is obviousto me. I was standing back to it the first time the tubecrept out around the rim and went bang.

light: ere we go gathering Nuts in May Mike Lockhart at the Podium) .

Above: Note the simple control system the metal bell has 4wires coming through the floor boards and connecting to itsedge. Movement in any direction accomplish proportionateattitude.Below: Tired but on the final stretch the crew that helped inthe restoration. Left to right: Mike Lockhart, CarlSchupe, Wes-ley Cullen, Herb Eisen, Andy Keefe.

Left: Quadruplane replica on display in LeeTerminal at Standiford Field, Louisville, Ky.


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TERMIN L Q u e e n s ~By: Edward D. WilliamsAssociate Editor773 Eastman DriveMt. Prospect, IL. 60056

There is a pleasant trend at airline terminals at thenation's airports to spotlight the pioneer days of aviationhistory, and it is a big boost for antique airplane enthusiasts.The trend is to put on permanent or temporary display in the terminal lobby a replica or an authentic antique, which draws the ultimate in contrast with the largejet transports awaiting passengers at the terminal gates.Just a few of these are the replica of the Sellersquadruplane on display in Lee Terminal at StandifordField a t Louisville, Ky.; the authen tic Curtiss Pusher inthe Will Rogers World Airport terminal at OklahomaCity, Okla.; the original Curtiss JN4 Jenny at Stapleton I nternational Airport at Denver, Colo. , and the RyanNYP replica at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport

at St . Louis, Mo.And the trend continues, as illustrated by the factthat there has been a request for the permanent displayat San Francisco I nternational Airport of the Swallowrestored by E. E. Buck Hilbert, Antique/Classic Division treasurer.Perhaps the most popular, and most easily recognizable of the aircraft on exhibit in the air terminals is thefull-size replica of Charles A. Lindbergh's Spirit of St.Louis which is on permanent display in the two-storylobby of the new International Wing of Lambert-St.Louis I nternational Airport.Although the original Spiri t of St. Louis is permanently housed in the Smithsonian Institution's NationalAir and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., the copy inSt. Louis draws considerable interest from passengerspassing through every day and has a bit of fame foritself; it was used in the 1957 motion picture biographyof Colonel Lindbergh. The Smithsonian has owned the

Original quadruplane, built y Matthew B.Sellers in 7908, was the first airplane built inKentucky. (Photo Courtesy of Louisville andjefferson County Ai r Board)original Spirit since 1928.The replica, a Ryan B-1 was built in September,1929, by Ryan Aircraft of San Diego and is very similarto the original Ryan NYP Lindbergh flew on May 20-21,1927, from New York to Paris. It incorporates thechanges that Lindbergh had made for him for the historic transatlantic flight.Lindbergh's plane had no forward-looking windows,and he could see the ground only from a periscope andfrom door windows on the side of the fuselage.To provide additional space for fuel tanks, Lindberghhad the plane built with a 46-foot wing span (the B-1 'swings were 42-feet wide).In front of the pilot's seat (which was made out ofwicker) were an 89-gallon oil tank and a 201-gallon gastank. Including three wing tanks, there was a total gasoline capacity of 451 gallons. Lindbergh landed in Pariswith 85 gallons of gas left (enough for nine more hoursin the air), and had used only 5 gallons of oil.The oval-shaped instrument panel held only a turnand bank indicator, a bubble-type inclinometer, standardair speed altimeter, clock, tachometer, oil pressure andtemperatu re gauges and an earth indicator c o m p a s ~ Withthe instrument panel starting at the cockpit roofline anddropping below the pilot's knees, Lindbergh had to use aperiscope with a miniature screen to see forward.The St. Louis replica is owned by the Missouri Historical Society and is on permanent loan to the airport.It bought the plane in 1963 after a successful driveheaded by the late Louis Werner, chairman of theMissouri Historical Society Airplane Committee. Theplane was purchased from Paul Mantz, a movie stuntman and collector of old planes for use in motion pictures. The society spent $8,000 refurbishing the plane tofly. The replica was flown by Albert W. Lowe, chieftransport pilot for McDonnell-Douglas Corp., at a specialceremony in St. Louis on May 21, 1967, commemorating the 40th anniversary of Lindbergh's epoch flight.The replica was stored in an aircraft-assembly building at McDonnell-Douglas Corp. until its installation atthe St. Louis airport and is in perfect shape due to thepreventive maintenance performed there.

13

The quadruplane (four wing) aircraft was the fi rst


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airplane built in Kentucky and was designed and constructed by aviation pioneer Matthew B. Sellers, Jr . in1908. The replica on display in the main concourse ofLee Terminal at Standifor d Field, Louisville, was built asa Bicentennial project by students of the Carter CountyVocational School at Olive Hill, Ky., near the site wherethe original quadruplane was constructed and flown.Sellers is one of the lesser known but still importantaviat ion figures of hi s time. He was born in Baltimore in1869 and from an early age showed an interest in flight,experimenti ng with kites and hot air balloons. He got alaw degree from Harvard University in 1892 and for thenext two years studied chemistry physics and mechanical arts at Harvard and at the Drexe l In stitute in Phil a-delphia.

By the time he was 24 he was experi menting withmodels of heavier-than-air flying machines, about thesame time that his family moved to Kentucky. In 1897,he developed a blower to study air resistance to variousshapes and later built a wind tunnel on his property nearGrahn, Ky. In 1903, he built the first of a number ofgliders, but the first one proved a failure. Sellers, whohad inherited a sizable fortune, was deeply interestedmore in theories of flight rather than flying, himself, andmuch of his work was done in his own laboratory, wherehe studied designs of wings and propellers.By 1907, he was building and flying full-size gliders,and in 1908 he modified one of these four-wingedgliders with a small, French-made two-cylinder engineand a three-wheel chassis. This a ircraft was flown successfully on Dec. 28 1908 from a hillside in CarterCounty , Ky.Sellers worked for several more years in Kentucky onaeronautical projects and was awarded patents o n hisplane's mechanical innovations. However, he left Ken-

tucky in grief in 1911 after an assistant was struck onthe head by the plane's propeller and was killedinstantly.Sellers served as technical editor of a leading aviationmagazine and, in 1912, was appointed by President Taftto the Aerodynamic Laboratory Commission, and laterto the National Advisory Committ ee for Aeronautics.The committee later was reorganized and is known today as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Sellers continued to work in the fie ld ofaeronautics until he died in 1932. In 1974, the airport atOlive Hill. Ky., was named in his honor.

Below: Photo showing Ryan NYP replica in processof being installed in the uncompleted wing of Lam-bert St. Louis Airport. Photo by McDonnell DouglasCorp

Above: Photo of Ryan NYP replica being installed atSt. Louis airport note tail skid not yet installed onreplica). Photo by McDonnell Douglas Corp

The replica was built by the vocational school stu


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Above: jN-4D in the Denver Stapleton Airport.

Below: EE Buck Hilbert s Swallow, now owned byUnited Airlines, is being sought for permanent display atSdn Francisco International Airport. Being shown herewith the British-French Concorde at Dulles InternationalAirport, it illustrates the contrast of antiques and replic s inside ir terminals and the l rge airliners outside theterminals. Photo by United Airlines

Members of the Antique/Classic Division whoknow of other antiques or replicas on displaythroughout the world might want to let us knowabout it at the Vintage Airplane. We wouldappreciate short articles telling about them andglossy prints showing them on display for futureissues of this magazine.

AI Kelch, Editor

dents from Seller's original plans, and they used bambooin its construction, like with the original. The replica hasnever been flown. It was installed in Lee Terminal inSeptember, 1976, and tentative plans call for it to beeventually displayed in a museum dedicated to Sellers.The Curtiss Pusher displayed in the main lobby of theterminal at Oklahoma City was formally dedicated onJuly 20, 1970, and has been hanging in the main lobbyof Will Rogers World Airport terminal ever since. Participating in the dedication was Billy Parker, who built andflew the plane in 1914 while a high school student at Ft.Collins, CO.The plane, which has a wingspan of 30 feet and ispowered by a 90 horsepower OX-5 engine, was donatedto the City of Oklahoma City by the Phillips PetroleumCompany.Parker built his own plane and taught himself to flyit in 1912 and the Curtiss Pusher, N66U, was one of twoowned by Parker. He held pilot's license number 44, inhis early years was a barnstormer, received a commissionin the Royal Flying Corps and instructed at a flyingschool at Dewey, Okla. Later, he became manager ofaviation for the Phillips Petroleum Company. He alsoserved as president of the Early Birds, whose memberswere pilots who flew before Dec 17, 1916. The Pusherwas no hangar queen, and Parker flew the Curtiss atmany events, including the 50th Anniversary of theWright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk.

The Curtiss IN-4 Jenny on display on the lowerlevel of the terminal at Denver's Stapleton InternationalAirport, is on temporary loan by the Colorado Chapterof the Antique Airplane Association.No decision has been made yet on the i nal restingplace of Buck Hilbert's Swallow, which was boughtfrom him by United Airlines, but it seems a good betthat it will wind up in San Francisco, either in theterminal or in United's Maintenance Operations Centerthere.Antiques and replicas make interesting drawing cardsfor commercial air terminals. The quadruplane replicaoriginally was scheduled to be removed from theterminal at Louisville this spring, but the Louisville andJefferson County Air Board found it such a big attraction that it asked the vocational school to extend itsdisplay in the terminal, and the request was granted. Inone way, at least, some of the old planes will continue tobe in the air, if only with the help of w i r s


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The SpiritOfADlerican Youth

17 Year Old New YorkerFlies Solo From San FranciscoTo New York, Winter of 1928

By: H Glenn BuffingtonAssociate EditorSky View Apt. No 207878 West Crockett Street

Seattle, WA 98779

Once upon a time the President of the AmericanSociety for the Promotion of Aviation spoke to themembers of the Flying Club of Flushing (NY) HighSchool and told of a prize of one thousand dollars thatwas being offered to the first boy or girl under eighteento fly solo from San Francisco to New York. For DickJames the adrenalin flowed as he realized such a flightwas the challenge he wanted to accept. All he neededwas parental approval and backing It took a bit of salesmanship in convincing his Dad, but he was finally wonover when Dick showed him how the experience wouldbe beneficial in later years.Over four decades ago, Dick wrote me regarding theflight, I started for California to make the flight onAugust 2, 1928 and landed back in New York on Dec-ember 15, 1928; spent quite a bit of time in Wichita,Kansas and two months in San Francisco in preparation.I flew a Travel Air with a Seimens-Halske radial, 9 cylinder motor, made in Germany and producing 125horsepower; covered about four thousand miles on theflight with an elapsed flying time of 40 hrs. and 52

A boy and his love . . . "The Spirit of American Youth and her proud pilot, Richard E James.minutes."Here, then, is a more detailed account -Westward HoDick had taken his early dual and advanced trainingfrom Capt. Fred Becker at Curtiss Field in Garden City,however it was Oliver Young, another New York pilot,who accompanied the youth westward, via train, leavingAugust 2nd. They arrived in Wichita and at the TravelAir factory three days later and when Walter Beechshowed them the new airplane the senior James hadbought, Dick compared the experience to taking a rideon the shoots at Coney Island, a real joyous occasionThe finishing touches on the plane required anothercouple of days and then James and Young flew in theWichita area a few more days, practicing short landings and getting acquainted with the Travel Air Spiritbefore heading west for the higher altitudes and themountaineous terrain.The hops westward were accomplished with notrouble as far as Reno, as the fledgling acquired moreflying experience. However, from Reno they neglected

to reach sufficient altitude and found it necessary to dosome hedge-hopping through the railroad cuts in themountains before reaching Sacramento. They continuedto Oakland the next day where they found the fieldcrowded with spectators. The word was out of theproposed solo fl ght by a junior pilot and "people wanted to see the fool who was going to do it, etc .The airplane was ferried over to San Francisco a fewdays later and Di ck met Frank Flynn, who was to be hisguardian until the start of the flight, as Oliver Young hadto return to the east. Frank advised there had been acancellation of the letter of authority from the Dept. ofCommerce in Washington, D.C., so it was necessary forthe aspiring pilot to satisfy the Commerce Inspector onthe West Coast that he could make the long flight without killing himself or any other person. This was finallyaccomplished as the fall season came to a close. Thedelay in starting led to some trials and tribuations forthe young flier la ter on as he encountered inclement,wintry weather, especially in crossing the Rockies andAlleghenies.

Meandering in the Mid-West


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Enroute North Platte to Omaha, the "Spirit" wasforced down at Grand Island with a broken oil line,which was easily fixed. A very strong headwind prolonged the flight to Kansas City, and being tired, Dick failedto exercise the necessary precautions in landing, resultin g in a blown tire. The usual number of pessimists werearound at most of the enroute stops, but Dick finallybecame accustomed to them and paid little attention totheir comments. He chose to do h s best and let it go atthat.The next day, the eager pilot headed for St. Louiswhere he stayed over night to attend a theatre partygiven by the boys at the field. Early the ne xt morning heflew to Peo ria, where he was forced to stay a week aswinter storms moved through the area.

Jam es had planned to fly to Chicago and attend theAviation Show, but he rece ived a telegram from his Dadadvising the lower, or southern route, as there wereseveral storms north which would delay the flight foranother week or two. Therefore, Dick headed forColumbus, Ohio, after being forced down at Oakwood,Illinois, out of gas .Aloha to the RescueAnother telegram advised Dick his parents wouldmeet him in Columbus, and the next day they arrivedwith Martin Jen sen in the Breese monoplane, "Aloha",the plane which had placed second in the famed DoleDerby to Hawaii the previous year. The following daythe planes became separated flying out of Columbus andDick returned to the airport. Here is his account ofensu ing events:

At nine o'clock I started out again, but had to turnback on account of low fog over the mountains. At noonDad called and said they had landed at Bellefonte,Pennsylvania, and for me to come through right away viaCleveland. I went up to the Cleveland airport and hadthe ship checked, but it was pretty late by the time Iwas ready to go, so I called Dad and told him that Iwould stay there over night. He did not like the idea,and said to come through to Clarion, Pa., where theywould meet me and show me the way to Bellefonte.Orders were orders, so I started out, but had to land atMercer, as it was getting dark. In the se mi-d ar kness Ipicked out what I thought was a good field. I preparedto land, cutting the speed as much as possibl e by "fishtailing" and "slipping". When I got all set to land I level

.........

East from the Golden GateIt was October 30th when Dick left the Bay Area forhis twenty-four stop journey to return to his homeport .His suit coat and sweater, a pair of flying boots andbreeches, in the open cockpit, were adequate in theCalifornia climate, however the garb left plenty to bedesired in the higher altitudes and in the winter season.He was to experience many, many cold days enroute.

The first night was spent in Sacramento where he wasdelayed because of weather cond itions. He wanted tomake the flight to Reno as early in the day as possible totake advantage of the calm morning air, and started outwith thirty gallons of gas and some candy to eat on theway, in case of hunger pains. From warnings, he hadexpected the flight to be cold and lonesome, however headmits to that leg as being the nicest part of the wholetrip. After a night in Reno, he proceeded to Elko andthen Salt Lake City, where he was forced to stay a

Thrill of a LifetimeDick james gets acquainted with the new Travel Air at the Wichita factory.(A brand n w Travel Air at age 77 WOW )

couple of days because of storms. Finally getting a goodweather report, he flew to Rock Springs and thenRawlins, Wyoming, where again he was held up ninedays because of snow storms. During this delay, and onhis own volition, Dick took the bus to Lander, Wyomingto visit relatives. Finally his Dad located him by phone,telling him in no uncertain terms to return to the airplane and stay with the project . The plane had beenpractically covered with snow as it was left out duringthe storms as there was no hangar.With the help of a good Samaritan, he was able to getthe cold Travel Air start ed and took off for Cheyenne.However, he did some "lazy navigating" and decided tofollow the iron-beam only to take the wrong spur out ofLaramie and located himself over Fort Collins, Colorado ,from where he proceeded to Denver, arriving with verylittle gas to spare From the Mile High City he continuedto North Platte, Nebraska.

7

ed out and waited fo r it to hit the ground and stop. Th e


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wh eel s hit th e ground before the tal and sa nk to thehub s in the soft dir t. I had pi cked out a pl owed field anddidn 't know it Wh en the wh ee ls stuck th e tal went upin the air and over before I kn ew it. I hung head downfor a seco nd or two, thinkin g, and OH wh at I thoughtAfter I figured it a ll out , I bega n to rea ze that I wasupside down and that the gas was beg innin g to leak outin front of me, so I released the safety belt and "fell"out. By this time th ere were quite a few peopl e aroundasking if I wa s hurt. Wh en they found I was a lright , Iasked th em to help turn th e ship back to its properposition. I go t t o a teleph o ne and called Dad and Motherat Cl arion, telling them wh at had happened . They to ldme to stay there and they would be right down to help .Th ey borrowed a ca r and ca me to the fi eld , wh ere wework ed all ni ght fix ing up the ship. It had a brok enpropeller and a bent stru t, but by noon the next day, Iwas ready to continue. I was in such a rush to ge t away,that again I neglected to ch eck the ship, as I should havedone, so an hour after starting, while in a snowstormover one of the worst spots in the Alleghenies, the motorstopped dead. Naturally the first thing I thought aboutwas a place to land. In that country it was like trying tofind a needle in a haystack.

The BIG Crack-up"I had had plenty of sensations during my previousflying, but I had more thrills in the five minutes it tookme to land than all the time before. I immediately nosedthe ship down to keep up flying speed and then lookedfor a possible place to land. Right below I saw a fieldthat, though it did not look big enough to land in, wasthe largest one within gliding distance. It was up to meto maneuver the plane with dead motor to the field. Iwent out over the trees as far as I dared, then cut backto the field, "fish-tailing" and "slipping" again to lose allspeed gained on the glide. I just cleared the trees at theend and was just leveling off for my landing when Inoticed a fence and a ditch in front of me, so I had tobounce the wheels on the ground to clear them, all thetime taking a chance of nosi ng over as I had done before.I didn t quite clear the fence, as the tail-skid caug ht andbroke. I again tried to level off without the motor andswung to the right to avoid a sink hole that had been leftfrom mining operations. In swinging, one wing caught inthe line of trees on th e right, and was pulled into them. Ifinally managed to get my safety-belt loose and got outof the sh ip to see what damage had been done, and

SPECIAL THANKS TO -Dick James for past and present correspondenceand pictures, and his account of the flight inAERO MECHANICS, December 1929.Vio la Gentry's HANGAR FLYING and heraccount of the flight.Kenn Rust for the Frank Goldsborough picture.

Glenn Buffingtonday."The next day we sent four men to the sh ip to tear itapart and bring it back to town, where we were staying.Martin and I then started for Hagerstown, Md., in hissh ip to get the necessary parts to fix mine up. When wegot back that night the men had the ship in one of thegarages in the little town of Kylertown, where we couldfix it." We spent a whole week there, working night andday. Finally it was all set to go again. I took it up for ashort flight and it flew a lot different than the last tim e Ihad flown it. We could not find a German propell er forit, so had to put on an old OX-S prop. It was turning up1400 revolutions wh en it should have turned up at least1800, but it flew, and th at was all I cared about at th etim e. "The engine stopp age had be en caused by a malfun c

8

Above: Frank Goldsborough, and the American Boy of whom Dick wrote, We were inHigh School together, belonged to the sameFlying Club and were almost as brothers forabout three year s. Frank set the first juniorround-trip transcontinental record in May 7930

34 hrs. 3 min., NY to LA, and28 hrs. 78 min., LA to NY.

believe me, it looked like a total wreck. The wings hadall been broken somewhat by the trees, the propeller wasbroken, and also the motor mount and tail-skid."Martin had been flying alongside up to this time, buthad gotten a little ahead of me, and had not noticed Iwas missing until he landed at Bellefonte. I tried to finda phone to let them know what had happened, but aftertrying for about three hours I gave up, to wait until theycame back for me. Finally th ey located the wreck andbe gan to circl e around to find a fi eld in which to land.They located a small spot fifteen miles away and land edthere. Then, they too k an hour trying to get to me witha car, because th ose mountains sure look alike. Whenthey located me they as ked if I was hurt , and again I waslucky to be able to say " No " . Martin mad e a list of thethings he needed to fix up th e ship and we a ll left fo r th enea rest town, pl annin g to go back after the ship th e next

tioning wind-driven fuel pump damaged during theprevious forced landing. On Page 15, left column, top paragraph, it says -"The heavy wooden legs" to which the landing


20/24

Home with VictoryThe Sprirt was flown to Sunbury, Pa., followed bya hop over New Jersey and then across Staten Island tothe homeport, Curtiss Field. Dick landed amidst a greattumult of well-wishers, was picked up by the countypolice and driven to New York in an open car for areception with the then-Mayor, Jimmy Walker. Howeve r,it was Charley Hand who greeted the young hero asWalker had a previous engagement as Dick had kept himwaiting too long!Dick was given the keys to the City and the tickertape ride from the Battery and everything that goes withit." Subsequently, he was presented the $1,000 check byThomas L. Hill, President of the American Society forthe Promotion of Aviation, at a luncheon at theRoosevelt Hotel; also a loving cup by Dr. K.G. Frank ofthe SiemensHalske Motor Company. A few days later hewas flown by Martin Jensen in the Aloha to Washington, D.C. and was presented to President CalvinCoolidge at the White House. It was a fitting climax to aflight which had taken much ingenuity and fortitude.The historic flight was the culmination of an ambitionby one of the early-on junior pilots of America.EpilogueDick James' flight helped to inspire other youthfulpilots and subsequent round-trip, coast-to-coast recordflights were made by a close friend, Frank Goldsboroughin a Kinner Fleet; Eddie Schneider, Cessna AW; RobertN. Buck, J-5 Pitcairn; and Stanley Boynton, CessnaDC-6B. All these flights were flown during the year of1930.Dick worked five years at Grumman (1940-45) asChief Flight Inspector; he was the last one to okay airplanes for flight and delivery to the Navy physicalcheck, not flight. He spent six years with Coil Winders,I nc., electron ics manufacturers, as Sales Manager andVice-President of Sales and another ten years withNorthfield Precision I nstrument Corp., as salesman, SalesManager, and finally last six years as Vice-PresidentSales. Retiring in '71, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona in'73. Present hobbies are ceramics, photography andbowling, and just recently he came out of retirement toestablish a mail order business to help combat somerising family medical expenses. We certainly wish himwell with this new venture.

( )

irmailAugust 15, 1977J.R. Nielander, Jr., PresidentAntique/Classic Division ofThe Experimental Aircraft AssociationP.O. Box 229Hales Corners, Wisconsin 53130Dear Mr. Nielander:Several copies of the Lindbergh Commemorative issueof your publication, The Vintage Airplane", weregiven to me when I was attending the Oshkosh E.A.A.meeting last week.In reading the article entitled "Lindbergh's GreatPartner" by Frank Parker Stockbridge, I was surprised at three quite ridiculous errors. On Page 12, farright column, second paragraph, first sentence, says- The fuselage, or body, of the plane is suspendedfrom the wi ngs by wooden struts. The facts arc - thestruts were steel, round in cross section, faired withbalsa, making a streamlined shape.On the eleventh line of that same paragraph, referringto the elevators and rudder, it says -- "are of woodcovered with fabric." The facts are those surfaceswere of steel tubing frame construction with fabriccovering.

wheels are attached. The facts are the landing gearstruts (or legs) were of steel.Very truly yours,RYSON AVIATION CORP.T. Claude RyanPresidentTCR:jbecc: Dave Fox

October 14, 1977Mr. T. Claude Ryan, PresidentRYSON Aviation Corp.548 San Fernando StreetSan Diego, California 92106Dear Mr. Ryan:

With reference to the article in the July issue ofTHE VINTAGE AI RPLANE titled, "Lindbergh'sGreat Partner," I am in complete agreement with youthat the errors there are ridiculous, and, in fact, oureditor was quite aware of these errors when heprinted the article. However, he felt that the historical signifiance of the article far outweighed any inaccuracy.

If you will re-check page 3 of the July edition ofTHE VINTAGE AI RPLANE, you will note in thebox an editor's note which states that the articles inthis particular issue came from POPULAR SCIENCEMONTHL Y magazine and were originally printed in1927 and 1928. That article on page 3, from thecaption at the top, was in the April, 1928, edition.All of the other articles in that July edition are alsofrom POPULAR SCI ENCE MONTHL,( with the exception of the article starting on page 21 which wasreprinted from the SMITHSONIAN magazine, soactually these errors were made by Mr. Stockbridgeshortly after the time that Lindbergh made the flight.I n fact, I imagine if you probe way back in yourmemory, sir, you will remember that you probablyread POPULAR SCI ENCE MONTHLY in those days .You probably read Mr. Stockbridge's article that

19

originally was printed, and you probably had the P.O. Box 57, This year the pace has been on. Four Foxmoth


21/24

same dismay at the thought of the errors back then.Mr. Ryan, it certainly is a pleasure to hear from.you, and I certa inly did enjoy the opportunity ofmeeting you again at the convent ion this year andhaving an opportunity to talk with you for a fewminutes. I hope you'll be able to make our convention again next year. If so, I'll look forward to seeingyou and I hope that maybe, if we reprint any morearticles on Lindbergh, we'll be able to find some thatare technically correct. I know we would all preferthat, and I know it }, ould make you much happier.Again, thanks for writing.

Sincerely,J.R. Nielander, Jr.,President

RN/swAugust 8, 1977Mr. J .R. Nielanderc/o Antique/Classic Div. E.A.A.Hales Corners, Wisconsin 53130Dear Mr. Nielander,Congatulations on a most successful Oshkosh '77!You and your colleagues are certainly to be commended for the generosity shown in inviti ng ourCessna 120/140 Association and the West Coast Clubto participate in our type forums.The tent, seating, P.A. system, and especially, theE.A.A. officer in charge, all combined for excellentfacilities and management of the meetings.Although the West Coast representative was unable tocome to Oshkosh, we got an alternate from our ranks,so the time was well spent on the intended type.Thanks again for your cooperation, generosity, andefficient planning. We are already looking forward toOshkosh '78.Yours truly,Tom Teegarden (No. 2540)Director, Past PresidentCessna 120/1 40 Assoc.Box 92Richardson, TX 75080

Melbourne Airport,TULLAMARINE, VIC. 304522nd September, 1 977.

Mr. J. R. Nielander Jr.,P.O. Box 2464,FT LAUDERDALE, FLA. 33303, U.S.A.Dear Mr. Nielander,

The above Association has been following, withinterest, the discussions that have been conducted in"The Vintage Airplane" about the scarcity of oldaeroplanes for restoration.Please don't come to Austral ia and try to takeours, the few we have are now on the prohibited export list. The Commonwealth Government at our in-stigation and pressure has stopped the outflow of oldaircra ft.Don't think too badly of us for this action, but weneed all the old planes we have still got. Our motto is

"Keep the Old Birds Flying" and that is what we aretrying to do.Enclosed is a copy of our latest newsletter whichmight interest you.

Kind regards,W. Baker,Honorary Secreta ry

Valda RobertsonAuckland, New Zealand20th September 1977Dear J R. ,Myles always seems to be racking the clock, so hehad delegated me a pi Ie of overdue letters to write!!

A lot of progress has been made since you weredown our way. Possibly you have heard bits andpieces, so I'll fil l in the details briefly. After completing BFP (Moth Minor under construction whileyou were here), Myles did'a repeat performance onAKM. She was completed late in February. Prior toreb uilding the latter, we sloshed in mud, wind andrain building a hangar at Dairy Flat Airfield - 20 minutes North and much handier than Ardmore.

fuselages are underway - at present they are ready forassembly. Our No.1 hangar was looking more like anaircraft factory geared up with machines, jigs, etc., soa diversion from operation Foxmoths was made tobuild a similar hangar next door. Stan Smith has alsobuilt a hangar next door, so things are really happening. Now that construction work is over, the hangarshave been cleared out ready for action.Our Air Department has settled down, and they

are far more co-operative. Stan and Myles are workingwell together, which also helps progress.We did have a slight diversion - 2nd July we weremarried and had an informal, friendly wedding with aminimum of hustles - a lot of fun. Myles was pleased

that it didn't interrupt too much. He came away on aHong Kong flight with me the next week. I was working, but we have four days off up there, so we had apleasant break.Odd snippets of news reach us from time to time

of the Antique scene in U.S.A. - hope you all had asuccessful season . Perhaps Myles will make Oshkoshnext year.Well, J R., this will catch you up briefly on ournews. You must be due for another visit down underto see what it is like when it isn't raining!! We areslightly more organized these days - would love youto visit.

Kindest regards,Valda & Myles RobertsonAuckland, New Zealand

Roy Oberg8040 Shadybrook S. E.Ada, Mich. 49301No. 5000

Dear Mr. Nielander:Please find my enclosed dues for another year to

The Vintage News",. I certainly have enjoyed themagazine and like the new format, my hat is off toyou and all the others that make it possib le.

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I have had many a chuckle from your Oct. '76 October 4, 1977 a recent photograph of the candidate and shall contain abrief resume of his background and experience. Candi


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Article and subsequent letters as to the "intenders"and the "doers". I can only comment that therewould be one hell of a lot less doers if it were notfor the intenders, locating, dismantling and storingthe old goodies. Just ask the Wegners, Williams et alwhere they got their pride and joys. Just some foodfor thought.Sincerely,

Roy ObergP.s. Iv'e been in both camps.

June 15, 1977Dear Sir:

The Seminole Air Force is collecting PrayersPoems for Airmen. The collection will be compiledinto a booklet and presented to the Experimental Air-craft Association for printing and subsequent sale bythem. The profit from the booklet sale will be usedby the E.A.A. for the E.A.A. Museum and otherE.A.A. educational projects.

The Seminole Air Force is writing all those with aninterest in aviation for any material they might havethat could be used in the booklet.As far as we know, no publication of PrayersPoems for Airmen exists and the E.A.A. Booklet willcontain, in one collection, some very beautifulPrayers Poems for Airmen written for and by thosewho love flying and the Aviation world.Proper credits will be given in the booklet andreleases for original works are solicited.I am a Princess in the mythical Seminole Air Force(We are Chapter 565 E.A.A.) and would appreciateyour help in this project. All material will be ac-knowledged by return mail.Thank you.

Sincerely,Mrs. Ruth Jobes25 Estate DriveNorth Fort MyersFlorida 33903

Mr. J.R. Nielander, Jr.EAA Antique Classic DivisionP.O. Box 229Hales Corners, WI 53120Dear Mr. Nielander:Received your letter of September 23, thanking mefor my efforts during the EAA Convention.Certainly, no thanks is needed in this instance, since Ipersonally was happy to do it and, quite frankly, itmade the convention more meaningful to me being amore active part of it.

Sincerely,Ed Swearingen

EOS:pk

NOMINATIONS FOREAA ANTIQUE/CLASSIC DIVISIONOFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

In accordance with the Division By-Laws, as amended, the terms of two officers and four directors willexpire at the 1978 EAA Antique/Classic Division AnnualBusiness Meeting to be held on August 5, 1978, at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, during the 26th EAA InternationalFly-In Convention. Those offices which will expire are:PRESIDENT J. R. N elander, Jr.SECRETARY W. Brad Thomas, Jr.DIRECTORS AI Kelch

Morton W. LesterArthur R. Morgan

M.e. "Kelly" VietsAll of the incumbents have indicated that they will becandidates for reelection. Additional nominations forthese offices shall be made on official nomination formsobtainable from the headquarters of the ExperimentalAircraft Association, Inc., P.O. Box 229, Hales Corners,Wisconsin 53130. The nominating petition shall include

dates must have been members of the EAA Antique/Classic Division in good standing for the previous twoconsecutive years. Each petition requires a minimum often (10) signatures of EAA Antique/Classic Divisionmembers in good standing with their Division membership number and expiration date.Nominating petitions must be submitted to the Chairman of the Nominating Committee, EAA Antique/Classic Division, c/o EAA Headquarters no later thanMarch 8, 1978. Voting instructions and procedures willbe published in a later issue of THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE.

Calendar of Events

January 23-29, 1978 Sun 'n Fun Fly-In, Lakeland, FloridaMay 26-29, 1978 Monocoupe Club andRyan Club Fly-In, DacyAirport, Harvard, IllinoisJune 23-25, 1978 National Waco Club Fly

In, Hamilton Airport,Hamilton, OhioJuly 8-9, 1978 National Stinson Club

Fly-In, Minden, NebraskaJuly 29-Aug. 5, 1978 - Experimental Aircraft As-sociation Convention andFly-I n, Wittman Field,Oshkosh, WisconsinAug. 27 -Sept. 4, 1978 - Antique Airplane Association Convention, AntiqueAirfield, Blakesburg, Iowa

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Vintage Airplane - Jan 1978

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