OTHER RESOURCES
Some of this information comes from the listings of Non-Prefixed and Non-Suffixed aircraft reviewed by me in the archives of the National Air & Space Museum (NASM), Washington, DC.
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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 It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders.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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OTHER RESOURCES
Very readable volumes about the Grand Central Air Terminal are these books:
Underwood, John. 1984. Madcaps, Millionaires and 'Mose'. Heritage Press, Glendale, CA. 144pp.
And...
Underwood, John. 2007. Grand Central Air Terminal. Arcadia Publishing. Charleston, SC. 127pp.
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A very readable, and brief, online history of the Grand Central Air Terminal by Ron DIckson is at the link.
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YOU CAN HELP
I'm looking for information and photographs of this airplane to include on this page. If you have some you'd like to share, please click this FORM to contact me.
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EMSCO B-4/B-7-C NC869N
This airplane is recorded once in the Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT) Register. Unfortunately, it was the only time, and its presence on Sunday, March 22, 1931 at 12:50PM represents the last time it ever flew.
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NC869N was an attractive new model, the B-4, serial number 5. It was a low-wing, open cockpit monoplane manufactured October, 1929 by the Emsco Aircraft Corporation, Downey, CA. At left, from Popular Aviation (PA) magazine, June, 1931, is the airplane in starboard profile in an advertisement. It left the factory with an Aperican Cirrus Mark III engine, serial number 72. Note that each cockpit had separate controls, a factor that led to the problems described below.
After its manufacture, it went through an engine change on January 2, 1930 to a 165HP Wright R-540-A, serial number 11509. On February 28, 1930 it was changed from a Model B-4 to a Model B-7 with a new serial number, 1, and an NX license was issued.
A year later, on February 6, 1931, after tests and approvals, an NC registration was approved and the Model 7-C type certificate, ATC 403, was issued, making it a "certified" airplane. The Emsco company's demonstration pilot was Aline Miller, one of the more competent aviators on the west coast scene at the time. Miller was the fiance of Davis-Monthan Register pilot Cecil Allen.
Miller was killed in the crash of NC869N, at GCAT on March 22, 1931, early in the afternoon of the day it landed here. The accident was logged tersely in the Register by the tower operator as, "File #4 Washout." Does anyone KNOW the whereabouts of "File #4"? The crash also killed Miller's passenger, who was named Ivan DeVilliers.
Miller took DeVilliers and the plane up for a demonstration ride. It was DeVilliers who caused the accident in what was a senseless act of masculine low self-esteem trying to show a "young lady" how to really fly an airplane. Extensive details about the crash and its aftermath are at Allen's link, above. Miller held transport pilot certificate number T12400.
Curiously, the pilot name written in the Register is "R. Williams." This was Roger Q. Williams, who also was an Emsco pilot at the time. He must have brought the airplane to GCAT, which was then flown and crashed by Miller after lunch.
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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 07/31/14 REVISED: