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
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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 It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders.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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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President (as of the upload date of this page) Andy Heins of the National Waco Club sent the image 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.
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WACO Model RNF NC663Y
NC663Y (S/N 3356) was manufactured April 15, 1931. It arrived at Pitcairn Field a month later on May 16, 1931. It was flown from Schenectady, NY (solo?) by Irving Langmuir. Langmuir would, a year after his landing, win the Nobel Prize for physics. He cited no destination or purpose for his flight.
NC663Y is still registered with the FAA, and is owned and flown by a private individual in Troy, OH. Its airworthiness certificate expires May 31, 2019. Undated photographs, courtesy of Andy Heins (right sidebar) and the National Waco Club online photo collection, are below. First is a historic view of the airplane.
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Next are two contemporary views of the airplane. The first shows the airplane on the ground. Note, compared to the photo above, the absence of the Townend Ring around the engine, and the difference in the landing gear fairings.
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Next, NC663Y aloft.
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The manufacturer's specification sheet is below. NC663Y left the factory on April 15, 1931. It was equipped with a Heywood starter and a metal propeller, but little more besides basic instrumentation. It left the factory with a Warner engine, S/N 847. It was painted all over blue, with silver wings.
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NC663Y was transferred to a distributor by the factory. There is a curious disagreement between its date of delivery in 1931 and the delivery of some parts documented in the second column, below. The sheet specifies that a tail wheel fork, carburetor heater and winter nose bowl were delivered late in 1930, some months before it apparently left the factory. Perhaps it was used as a factory demonstrator for six months before it was transferred to Inter-City Airways.
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Regardless, as best I can determine, it was transferred to its first owner, pilot Langmuir, on October 1, 1932. Since Langmuir brought it through Willow Grove 18-months earlier, perhaps he rented it from Inter-Cities for his flight. Other dates on this page include October 1, 1933, October 1, 1937, December 1, 1938, April 1, 1941, February 26, 1943, March 30, 1944 and December 1, 1945. It would be a guess to suggest what these dates represent (re-registration dates?). It does appear that at least one other person, H. Leslie Jones of Texas, owned the airplane.
I have no information about its chain of custody between 1945 and its current owner in Ohio. If you can help fill in the blanks, please let me KNOW. NC663Y appeared only once at Pitcairn Field and in no other Register.
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