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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. 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 available as an e-book at the link. It 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 a 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 It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders.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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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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BOEING FB-1 A-6891

I don't have a lot of information about this airplane, but it does have a Hollywood credit, so we'll go with what we have. A-6891 is a Boeing FB-1. Joe Baugher's site identifies it as one of a series of Bureau numbers A-6884 through A-6893. It is probably serial number 745.

It landed twice at Tucson. The first landing was on Tuesday, December 14, 1926. The solo pilot was W.J. Wallace, who arrived from El Paso, TX and identified himself as a 1st Lieutenant. He landed at 4:30PM, remained overnight and departed at 12:45 the next afternoon westbound to San Diego, his home base. Wallace noted in the Remarks column of the Register, "Transcontinental flight".

The second landing came almost three years later on Thursday, August 22, 1929. The solo pilot, based at Washington, DC, was H.B. Pentland. He was eastbound from Yuma, AZ to El Paso, TX, probably returning to Washington. He noted in the Remarks column, "Department of Commerce". Pentland, indeed, was an officer with the DOC. You can see a photograph of him on Gilbert Budwig's page. The group photograph is keyed so that Pentland is easy to find at the lower right.

This second landing was as part of a flight of three Boeing FB-1 fighters. The other two aircraft were A-6885 and A-6890.

As far as Hollywood is concerned, this airplane appears in a motion picture from 1929 entitled simply, "Fighter". The film was directed by Frank Capra and stars Jack Holt and Ralph Graves. Cinematography was by Elmer Dyer, famous for his aerial films of the 20s and 30s, including "Hell's Angels." Dyer is cited in numerous places in the Wynne reference. Another film by Capra and Dyer starring the same people is cited, with a film clip, on Frederick Trapnell's page.

You see the airplane only briefly in the opening scene as it approaches for a landing. The nose-high attitude during the approach is evident, as is the flexion of the main gear when it lands, and the action of the tail skid digging into the ground. The number on the tail of the airplane is visible only briefly as the plane taxis to a stop. Its squadron number was 6-F-4 in the movie.

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 12/22/09 REVISED: 12/22/14, 11/13/17
 
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I'm looking for photographs of this airplane and its pilots to include on this page. If you have one or more you'd like to share, please use this FORM to contact me.

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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 as an e-book 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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