SPONSORED LINKS

HELP KEEP THESE WEB SITES ONLINE

 

FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE

You may NOW donate via PAYPAL by clicking the "Donate" icon below and using your credit card. You may use your card or your PAYPAL account. You are not required to have a PAYPAL account to donate.

 

When your donation clears the PAYPAL system, a certified receipt from Delta Mike Airfield, Inc. will be emailed to you for your tax purposes.

 

---o0o---

home
the register
people
places
airplanes
events

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.

---o0o---

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 1925-1936 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

---o0o---

The Congress of Ghosts (available as 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 It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders.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.

---o0o---

Military Aircraft of the Davis Monthan Register 1925-1936 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.

---o0o---

Art Goebel's Own Story 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.

---o0o---

Winners' Viewpoints: The Great 1927 Trans-Pacific Dole Race (available as 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.

---o0o---

Clover Field: The first Century of Aviation in the Golden State (available in paperback) 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.

---o0o---

President (as of the upload date of this page) Andy Heins of the National Waco Club sent the images at left. Andy  runs the day to day business of the Club, and we should all thank him for the effort he expends to help us understand better the Waco aircraft that were signed so long ago in the Registers of Delta Mike Airfield, Inc.

---o0o---

 

WACO Model AGC-8 NC2284

This workhorse airplane landed once at Pitcairn Field, on Friday, April 26, 1940. It was flown solo by Duke Krantz, who recorded his home base as La Guardia Field, New York, NY. No purpose was cited for the visit. An undated photograph, courtesy of the National Waco Club online photo collection, is below.

Waco AGC-8 NC2284, Date Unknown (Source: Link)
Waco AGC-8 NC2284, Date Unknown (Source: Link)

The manufacturer's specification sheet is below. NC2284 (S/N 5061) left the factory on June 25, 1938. It was very-well equipped with navigation instruments and Lear radios. It left the factory with a Jacobs 300HP engine, S/N 1533. It was painted all over white, with green stripes edged in green and black. The dark panels on top of the upper wing were painted vermilion.

Manufacturer's Specification Sheet, Waco NC2284, June 25, 1938 (Source: Heins)
Manufacturer's Specification Sheet, Waco NC2284, June 25, 1938 (Source: Heins)

The airplane passed from the factory to the Waco sales office at Roosevelt Field, NY, which, in-turn, sold it to the New York Daily News on July 15, 1940 (note: nearly two months after Krantz flew it to Pitcairn Field). It appears to have suffered an accident (ground loop) near April 19, 1941, since the factory shipped a new left lower wing and other parts to the Daily News on that date. The Daily News flew it for about two years before transferring it back to a Waco broker, the Howard Ailor Sales Corporation in Bloomsburg, PA on June 2, 1942. WWII was ramping up.

It appears to have stayed with Ailor during WWII, although an aircraft this well-equipped most surely was taken over and flown by the military for courier or liaison work. I have no record of such military service. Regardless, it was transferred to "D.P.C." as of March 14, 1946, and then to Frank M. Severance as of May 28, 1952.

Manufacturer's Specification Sheet, Waco NC2284, June 25, 1938 (Source: Heins)
Manufacturer's Specification Sheet, Waco NC2284, June 25, 1938 (Source: Heins)

One data point about the use of NC2284 was published sixty years later in April, 1999 in the Dirigo Flyer, the magazine of the Maine Aviation Historical Society, below. The anecdote was written by an oberver of the June, 1939 incident. The Daily News crew flew into a small Maine airfield to cover a local murder story. Note mention of sister ship and Register airplane NC19354.

Waco NC2284 in Bangor, ME, June, 1939 (Source: Link)
Waco NC2284 in Bangor, ME, June, 1939 (Source: Link)

NC2284 appears in no other Registers. Information about the Waco company is at the link. It is not registered with the FAA today. I do not know its fate after its visit to Pitcairn Field. If you can help fill in the blanks, please let me KNOW.

---o0o---

SPONSORED LINKS

THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 11/20/16 REVISED: 07/15/16