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 It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders.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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FORD 4-AT-B NC5577

 

This airplane was one of the large, tri-motored Ford aircraft that served as the air transport workhorses of the late 1920s-30s. This one was manufactured May 30, 1928 (model 4-AT-B, S/N 4-AT23) by the Stout Metal Airplane Company (Ford Motor Company), Dearborn, MI. It sold on June 22, 1928 to Maddux Air Lines, Inc. of Los Angeles, CA. Interestingly, on June 25, 1928, we find the airplane signed in the Davis-Monthan Register at Tucson. Pilot Larry G. Fritz was Chief Pilot for Maddux at the time. This was probably the ferry flight west from the factory. Below, a photograph of the airplane from a little later in its life.

NC5577 in Inman Brothers Livery, Ca. 1934-1939 (Source: Radecki)
NC5577 in Inman Brothers Livery, Ca. 1934-1939 (Source: Radecki)

 

CWFS Souvenir Flight Ticket, Ca. 1930-31 (Source: Link)
CWFS Souvenir Flight Ticket, Ca. 1930-31 (Source: Link)

 

 

Maddux sold the airplane about a year later, on July 12, 1929, for $25,000 to the Curtiss Wright Flying Service (CWFS) of California. It is during its tenure with CWFS that we find it at the Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT). During 1931, NC5577 is recorded 60 times in the GCAT Register. About a third of the visits occurred on Sunday, January 11, 1931 and on Thursday, April 9, 1931. These flights were "scenic" excursions lasting about 8-10 minutes. The 21 flights on January 11th were performed between 11:32AM and 5:23PM, giving some idea of how busy the pilot and ground handlers were that day. Nine to eleven passengers were carried on each flight that day. They each probably held a ticket like the one at right from Flickr.

 

There were 25 "scenic" flights logged for April 9th. No passengers numbers were logged during these flights, however. The rest of the flights on different dates were also scenic trips, but they did not seem to be in an organized run like those of January 11th and April 9th. These scenic passenger "hops" were encouraged by the airport manager, C.C. Moseley. The article below describes Moseley's "showmanship" program to market the airport, and its relationship to "Sunday crowds."

 

 

The pilot for all but one of the flights at GCAT was identified as "Sweet." He was Harold A. Sweet, and he appears many times in the Register flying this airplane. The other single flight was flown by Clarence "Ace" Bragunier on Monday, April 13, 1931. Bragunier's flight was also identified as "scenic," and he carried 12 passengers. NC5577 operated with CWFS until February 1, 1933, when it was sold to Harold L. McAfee of Lamont Furnace, PA.

Besides its many landings at GCAT, NC5577 landed once at the Davis-Monthan Airfield, Tucson, AZ. The full technography for NC5577 is online at the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register Web site at the link. Please direct your browser there to view many more photographs and to learn about the chain of custody for the airplane, incuding the Inman Brothers Flying Circus.

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 07/05/13 REVISED: 02/19/14, 03/02/16, 05/25/17