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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 with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. Or use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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http://www.cafepress.com/content/global/img/spacer.gifThe Congress of Ghosts 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 It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders.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 is available at the link. What was it like to fly from Oakland to Honolulu in a single-engine plane during August 1927? Was the 25,000 dollar prize worth it? Did the resulting fame balance the risk? For the first time ever, this book presents the pilot and navigator's stories written by them within days of their record-setting adventure. Pilot Art Goebel and navigator William V. Davis, Jr. take us with them on the Woolaroc, their orange and blue Travel Air monoplane (NX869) as they enter the hazardous world of Golden Age trans-oceanic air racing.

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Clover Field: The First Century of Aviation in the Golden State. 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.

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C.W. Gilpin is cited on pp. 125 & 203 in Ruth M. Reinhold's 1982 book entitled, "Sky Pioneering: Arizona in Aviation History" (University of Arizona Press, Tucson. ISBN 0-8165-0737-6). Refer to pages 125 and 203 et seq. for information about Mr. Gilpin.

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Davis-Monthan Aviation Field Register
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THE CHARLES W. "BILL" GILPIN

IMAGE & DOCUMENT COLLECTION:

OBITUARY

Obituary, below, from the Los Angeles Times of July 14,1932. Note the error in his first name, "Carl".

Obituary, LA Times, July 14, 1932
Obituary, LA Times, July 14, 1932
Obituary, LA Times, July 14, 1932, P.2, Col. 2
Obituary, LA Times, July 14, 1932

Bill Gilpin and four other people were involved in a crash in Mexico on the night of Wednesday July 13, 1932. Whereas all four of his passengers survived with relatively minor injuries, Gilpin was killed instantly. There was considerable newsprint devoted to the accident, which occurred in the area of the Toluca mountain range, in bad weather, about 30 miles from Mexico City. Interestingly, another Register pilot and passenger, Sterling Rohlfs and Wallace Springer had lost their lives in a plane crash in the same mountains about four years earlier.

Curiously, a lot of the column inches were spent on conjecturing the alleged "honeymoon" status of two of Gilpin's VIP passengers. James Crofton was president of the Caliente Club in southern California, and his new wife, Mona Rico, was a Mexican starlet. His other two passengers were Carlos Verdugo, a Mexican official and translator, and Mrs. Raymond Allen.

Glendale News Press, July 14, 1932
Glendale News Press, July 14, 1932

 

Glendale News Press, July 14, 1932
Glendale News Press, July 14, 1932
Obituary, Undated
Obituary, Undated

The papers picked up on Gilpin's desire to be cremated and to have his ashes scattered along his last route of flight. This was not to be. Although he was cremated, he is buried in a mausoleum (see below from the Glendale News)

Funeral Notice, July 20, 1932
Funeral Notice, July 20, 1932

 

Obituary, July 16, 1932
Obituary, July 16, 1932

 

Wallet Theft, July 15, 1932
Wallet Theft, July 15, 1932

As happens sometimes in the confusion that surrounds an emergency, some people just can't avoid taking advantage of the situation. The news article, right, reports the theft of a wallet belonging to passenger Crofton. Cash was missing from the wallet of passenger Verdugo as well.

Mona Rico survived her injuries and maintained a low-luster career in films into the late 1930s ("Zorro Rides Again"). Her relationship with Crofton was rocky, ending in divorce in the mid-30s.

They didn't give up, though. The gossip column in the Fresno Bee of October 24, 1937 states, "Mona Rica [sic] in the hospital receiving messages every day from her estranged husband, Jim Crofton; their friends say there may be a reconciliation."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Image of Crash Site, July 16, 1932
First Image of Crash Site, July 16, 1932

 

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UPLOADED: August, 2008 REVISED:

 
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Thanks to Clarence B. Gilpin, nephew of C.W. Gilpin, and his family for sharing with us this Collection of images and documents.
 
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