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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 It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders.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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STEARMAN C-3B NR882N

This airplane was a Stearman C-3B, S/N 248. From 1930-1932 it made a well-documented flight around the world wearing the name "The Flying Carpet." The Flying Carpet had a scarlet fuselage with a gold stripe, black cowlings and gold wings and tail. It was a very attractive airplane, indeed.

NR882N landed once at the Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT), Sunday, December 21, 1930 at 11:07AM. It was flown by Moye W. Stephens. No passengers were identified, if he carried any at all. The tower operator identified the owner of the airplane as Richard Halliburton. We find NR882N at GCAT on the eve of its departure, on December 22nd, toward a globe-circling voyage that would bring them back to GCAT in June, 1932. It was flown on this journey by Stephens with Halliburton as passenger.

Below, a photograph of The Flying Carpet aloft over Samarra, Iraq, north of Baghdad, one of the places visited on the world tour.

Stearman NR882N Aloft Over Samarra, Ca. November, 1931 (Source: Halliburton)
Stearman NR882N Aloft Over Samarra, Ca. November, 1931 (Source: Halliburton)

Outside its fame for the world flight with Stephens and Halliburton, the history of the airplane is short and relatively simple (after their return to the United States, in June, 1932, Halliburton published a book about their adventure. Entitled "The Flying Carpet," it is a ripping yarn of Golden Age travel in a Golden Age airplane that just happened to be flown by a pilot signer of the GCAT Register, in an airplane that would live just one more year after its return to U.S. soil.

According to vintage records maintained by the FAA, NR882N was manufactured in 1929 and sold originally without an engine to Roy T. Minor of Van Nuys, CA on August 5, 1929. Although the paperwork is difficult to follow, it appears that Minor tried to equip it with a 200HP Apache motor, which caused some correspondence with the Department of Commerce (DOC) regarding licensing the airplane (many of the documents were signed by Register pilot Gilbert G. Budwig, who was then Director of Air Regulation).

The dialog seems to have proved too difficult and Minor sold the airplane to the Apache Motor Corporation, without an engine, on December 13, 1929. The Company applied for an experimental, "NX," license and stated the purpose for use of the airplane as, "Company use and motor testing." It was intended to be equipped with an Apache 200HP radial engine, S/N 21, manufactured November 29, 1929, turning a Hamilton type J-5 propeller. From the paperwork, it was subjected to an inspection for airworthiness and approved for flight on February 5, 1930 as NX882N until September 15, 1930.

However, a notation on a letter dated July 26, 1930 from the DOC stated, "...this airplane without motor and never in air." It was in this condition, and through a number of transactions and correspondences, that 882N was then sold to Aero Brokerage Service Company at Mines Field on November 18, 1930. Simultaneously, Aero Brokerage sold the airplane to Richard Halliburton, purchased a Wright J-5 engine (at the cost of $1,650) from Moreland Aircraft, Inc. and installed two 17-gallon auxilliary fuel tanks in the inboard leading edges of the top wings. The airplane was thus registered as NR882N, "Restricted" to carry two occupants with extra fuel.

Below, a letter from Register pilot Clarence M. Young, then Assistant Secretary of Commerce, to the U.S. Secretary of State (Henry Stimson in the Hoover administration) approving the airplane and its itinerary. Note the date of December 18th, just days before the planned departure from GCAT.

DOC Letter to Secretary of State, December 18, 1930 (Source: FAA)
DOC Letter to Secretary of State, December 18, 1930 (Source: FAA)

It is obvious from Halliburton's book the permissions were acquired and the trip was smoothly executed. The only "incarceration" involved a voluntary stay at a prison in Tehran that Halliburton arranged just for the experience (Chapter XX of "The Flying Carpet").

Fate of NR882N, Popular Aviation, December, 1934 (Source: PA)
Fate of NR882N, Popular Aviation, December, 1934 (Source: PA)

 

 

After the return of NR882N in June, 1932, Halliburton set about selling it. He sold it back to Aero Brokerage Service Company, who sold it again on September 24, 1932 to Stanley J. Jaros, who was in the U.S. Navy based in Honolulu, T.H. The fuel tank modifications had been removed, its fabric replaced and the airplane was re-registered NC882N. A handwritten notation in the FAA file dated March 1, 1933 cites, in Honolulu, "Damage: Complete washout with the exception of right upper and lower wings and tail surface." The license for NC882N was cancelled April 7, 1933 A follow up letter from the Assistant Director of Air Regulation on July 22, 1933 states, "We have been informed that Mr. Jaros is deceased." Whether he died in the crash is not clear from the record.

However, "The Flying Carpet" enjoyed an unpredicted, but not unprecedented, immortality. An article, right, left, appeared in the December, 1934 issue of Popular Aviation (PA) magazine that described the fates of some of the parts of the wrecked NR882N.

From Fairbanks to Honduras, and in other states, the wings, tail surfaces and other parts of NR882N soldiered on, not necessarily on the same make of airplane. This is a great example of Golden Age recycling.

 

 

 

 

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 11/15/13 REVISED: 06/26/14