Vance Breese was born in Keystone, WA, April 20, 1904. He states his education as, "Various engineering extension courses." With those, he spent his life in aviation.

He landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield five times between July 10, 1928 and April 21, 1932, once as a passenger. His first landing as a pilot was July 10, 1928, he was part of the 1928 National Air Tour, which passed through Tucson that year. He was flying a Ryan B-1 Brougham, NC5553. Breese was accompanied during this leg of the Tour by passengers Larry Gunther and J.T. Hurst. They completed the Tour, and at the finish line they placed 9th.

His second visit was in NC288W, a Lockheed Vega DL-1B on February 27, 1931. Based in Detroit, he arrived from El Paso, TX westbound to Los Angeles, CA. He carried three passengers. One passenger, Peter Beasley, was president of Detroit Aircraft Co. Another W.A. Mankey, had been a colleague at Ryan Aircraft, and became chief engineer at Breese's Michigan Aircraft.

This flight correlates nicely with his resume, since between 1927-34 he was president of Breese Aircraft Company (which went through several iterations of geographic location, name and organizational structure during those years) and the Detroit Aircraft Company.

Two of his airplanes were famous. The Breese named "Aloha" (NX914, didn't land at Tucson) took 2nd place in the 1927 Dole Race from California to Hawaii. It was painted yellow and red. The "Pabco Pacific Flyer" (NX646; didn't land at Tucson) was also a participant in the Dole Race, but crashed upon takeoff. This PDF download (491KB) provides information on these two airplanes, as well as a peek into the Breese biographical file at the NASM. Please direct your browser to this link to learn more about the Dole Race.

Less than a year after the Dole, on April 16, 1928, Breese was involved in a nightmare of an accident. Below, shared with us by site contributor Andy Heins, is a photograph of Breese shaking hands with a person off the bottom of the photo. This photograph captures the aftermath of the in-flight departure of the entire engine from his airplane, the Breese 5 NC3817 (not a Register airplane), while flying over San Francisco, CA. Aerofiles.com cites the incident had a successful outcome by Breese, "... having his passengers move forward in the cabin to shift the c/g [center of gravity], Breese was able to maintain control and land safely on an open hillside." Note the bent engine mount tubes and torn cowling. We can wonder where the engine fell.

Vance Breese, Date & Location Unknown (Source: Heins)

His final two visits to Tucson as a pilot were in an unidentified Lockheed, and a Lockheed that he identified as NC237. There is no record that I've found that identifies a Lockheed with that number. At both times, however, he was based in Detroit, MI, and was eastbound from Los Angeles, CA to El Paso, TX.

His visit as a passenger was with pilot James V. Piersol on Friday, January 8, 1932 . They were flying in the Lockheed Vega NC32M. Please direct your browser to those links for details related to that landing at Tucson.

Popular Aviation, January, 1940 (Source: PA)

During 1933-34 he moved to California and worked for Northrop Corporation as test pilot. He demonstrated the Northrop Navy fighter, and performed test flights for Fokker. In 1937 he worked for Bennett Aircraft Corp. as VP and test pilot. Aerofiles.com has references to the aircraft that Breese test flew during the 30s.

He was the test pilot for Vultee, and helped develop an innovative method for recording test data. The article, right, from Popular Aviation (PA) magazine, January, 1940 documents the methodology.

Breese was also the test pilot at North American Aviation when the P-51 Mustang was developed. He was its first test pilot on October 26, 1940. Earlier in 1940 Breese interacted with another Davis-Monthan airplane. See Lockheed NC117W for that story. Vance Breese flew West June 26, 1973.

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Dossier 2.1.53

UPLOADED: 03/10/06 REVISED: 06/22/06, 07/12/06, 02/26/09, 03/07/09, 09/12/11, 05/23/12, 07/08/14, 12/15/21