This airplane is an Alexander Short-Wing Eaglerock, S/N 125. The Alexander Aircraft Co., Denver, CO manufactured it in 1926 with a 90 HP Curtiss OX-5 engine, S/N 5513, built in 1918. It weighed 2,230 pounds and was named “Miss Visalia”. It is unusual in that it landed twice at the Davis-Monthan Airfield, flown by two different pilots, who show up in the records as individual owners of the plane.

It was purchased from W.L. Lamkin, Porterville, CA on 4/21/1927 by a company with the improbable name of Sweet-Deeds Aircrafters (Solomon Sweet/Ed. F.M. Deeds), 508 Bank of Italy Bldg., Visalia, CA. It had flown 40 hours.

“Miss Visalia” landed first at the Davis-Monthan Airfield on 8/28/1927 at 1:20 PM. Mr. Deeds was the pilot, and Mr. Solomon was his passenger. They arrived from Lordsburg, NM on their way to Visalia, CA. Their airplane was inspected by the U.S. Border Patrol while it was on the ground at Tucson.

In a letter of 11/28/1927 Sweet-Deed Aircrafters was dissolved, with ownership of the airplane going to the S. Sweet Co., Visalia, CA. The airplane was overhauled in December, 1928. On 1/23/1929, it was purchased by American Aircraft Corp., 3809 Angeles Mesa Drive, Los Angeles, CA. It was sold again on 2/4/1929 for $1,300.00 to Lewis S. McClain, Workman Rd., Covina, CA. A little over a year later on 3/18/1930 it was bought for $750.00 by Lloyd Downs, 216 East 2nd St., Pomona, CA.

“Miss Visalia” landed the second time at the Davis-Monthan Airfield on 8/16/30 at 11:30 AM, it. Lloyd Downs was the pilot, and he was inbound from Lordsburg, NM headed for Pomona, CA. The plane suffered an accident in Pomona, CA on 11/30/1930. The airplane was repaired. It had another accident on 7/27/1931 and the airplane was “demolished”. Its license was cancelled on 8/19/1931. Mr. Downs (transport license # 13746) moved to Glendale, CA in June, 1936. He was reported as deceased on 5/8/1938.

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UPLOADED: 6/9/05 REVISED: 11/18/08