THANK YOU!
YOUR PURCHASE OF THESE BOOKS SUPPORTS THE WEB SITES THAT BRING TO YOU THE HISTORY BEHIND OLD AIRFIELD REGISTERS
Your copy of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register (available in paperback) with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. 375 pages with black & white photographs and extensive tables
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The Congress of Ghosts (available as Kindle Edition eBook) is an anniversary celebration for 2010. It is an historical biography, that celebrates the 5th year online of www.dmairfield.org and the 10th year of effort on the project dedicated to analyze and exhibit the history embodied in the Register of the Davis-Monthan Airfield, Tucson, AZ. This book includes over thirty people, aircraft and events that swirled through Tucson between 1925 and 1936. It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders. Order your copy at the link.
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Military Aircraft of the Davis Monthan Register, 1925-1936 (available in paperback) at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.
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Art Goebel's Own Story (available as free PDF download) by Art Goebel (edited by G.W. Hyatt) is written in language that expands for us his life as a Golden Age aviation entrepreneur, who used his aviation exploits to build a business around his passion. Available as a free download at the link.
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Winners' Viewpoints: The Great 1927 Trans-Pacific Dole Race (available as Kindle Edition eBook) is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.
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Clover Field: The first Century of Aviation in the Golden State (available in paperback & Kindle Edition) With the 100th anniversary in 2017 of the use of Clover Field as a place to land aircraft in Santa Monica, this book celebrates that use by exploring some of the people and aircraft that made the airport great. 281 pages, black & white photographs.
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FOKKER F-14 NC331N
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This airplane was a Fokker F-14, S/N 1411. It was a six-passenger monoplane manufactured during . It is signed in the Glendale Register three times, on July 12, 17 & 24, 1931. Tower operator A.J.Lygum did not enter the pilot's name in the Register, but it's safe to say the pilot was probably a Western Air Express (WAE) employee.
WAE operated four F-14s. The four were placed in service on February 15, 1930 on the Los Angeles to Salt Lake City route chiefly as mail and express carriers, and on other routes occasionally. WAE operated NC331N rigged as a mail and cargo plane. NC331N wore fleet number 402. In the photograph, right from the Web, NC331N wears "402" on the vertical stabilizer, and "TWA" in the shadow under the wing, thus dating the photo to after late 1930.
Another contemporary photo of NC331N is at Register pilot Silas Morehouse's Photograph & Document Collection. And, below, from the Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society photograph collection, is a painting of NC331N wearing the same livery as in the linked photo.
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All four F-14s were transferred to TWA in late 1930. They were withdrawn from TWA service on June 29, 1933.
The next record I have of the airplane shows its owner to be Richard E. Byrd, 9 Brimmer St., Boston, MA. The registration of NC331N was filed on April 27, 1933, probably before the transfer to Byrd.
Unfortunately, NC331N crashed during takeoff in Little America on March 19, 1934. while on the Byrd Antarctica Expedition. Byrd's pilot, Ike Schlossback, survived and there were no fatalities. The airplane's remains are still in Antarctica, unless they were carried out to sea on melting shelf ice. The Winter 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society said the following about NC331N:
| "NC331N was among the aircraft that Admiral Byrd took on his second expedition in 1933. Although said to have been loaned by General Motors, the airplane still carried TWA insignia when filmed during unloading operations at shipside in the Antarctic. On its first flight the following March, pilot Ike Schlossbach demolished it when he stalled on takeoff." |
The airworthiness certificate for NC331N was cancelled on October 15, 1934 after it was abandoned. Another Register Fokker, NC4453, was also destroyed while in Antarctica with Byrd.
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