George S. Armistead visited Tucson once on Tuesday, June 28, 1932 at 3:00 PM. He carried one passenger, Tom Ward, Jr. in Stinson NC460Y. Based at Santa Monica, CA, Clover Field, they were eastbound from Gila Bend, AZ to El Paso, TX. There was no purpose listed for their trip.

He was a pilot for the C.H. Babb Company.  This company was the largest international broker of airplanes prior to World War II, and handled everything from Lockheed Vegas to GeeBees. 

Armistead flew the GeeBee "QED" in the 1938 Bendix cross-country race, Burbank to Cleveland.  The airplane was equipped with a small tank for 100 octane gas for takeoff, and a main tank with lower octane.  On takeoff, the fuel handle broke off and Armistead couldn’t switch tanks, causing the engine to quit near Winslow, AZ where he made a good landing in the sagebrush, but was out of the race.  Another version of this story says he noticed high oil pressure over Kingman and landed at Winslow.  Regardless, there were three other competitors that did not finish the race; the cause listed was "mechanical problems."

Lockheed aficionado, Tim Kalina, points out that the GeeBee "QED", "...was restored and is on display in a small museum in Ciudad Lerdo, Mexico." This link has some photos of the restored plane, and this one describes the GeeBee line and mentions the "QED" near the bottom of the page.

Armistead does not have a biographical file at the National Air & Space Museum, Washington, DC. He has a very sparse web presence, with most of the information having to do with the 1938 Bendix Race. This PDF (529KB) article from Skyways Journal (April, 2006) describes the GeeBee "QED" and shows the airplane as Armistead flew it in the Bendix Race.

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UPLOADED: 04/24/08 REVISED: 05/05/08