This airplane was manufactured during 1931 by the Waco Aircraft Company, Troy, OH. It was delivered new on April 22, 1931 to the Dennison Airplane Sales Company, Atlantic, MA. Dennison immediately sold it on May 21, 1931 to Archibald M. Brown, Jr., 23 Standish Hall, Cambridge, MA.

NC11251 landed once at Tucson, Monday, July 27, 1931 at 2:15PM. It was flown by A.M. Brown carrying his wife as his single passenger. Based in New York, NY, they were eastbound from Yuma, AZ to El Paso, TX. They had been all the way to the west coast, because NC11251 was logged twice in the Register of the Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, CA, on July 24th and 25th.

Waco RNF NC11251, Date & Location (Cleveland?) Unknown (Source: Heins)

Given Mr. Brown's address, we might guess that he was a student. Standish Hall was freshman housing at Harvard University at the time. This guess is corroborated at U.S. Census data exhibited at his biography page linked above. We might also guess that he and Mrs. Brown enjoyed a spring wedding and they were on a cross-country, aviation honeymoon adventure. I have no proof of this, however, having found no information regarding their wedding date at his biography page.

The photograph of the airplane, right, is courtesy of Andy Heins of the National Waco Club (left sidebar). The date and location of the photograph are unknown, but the lettering on the hangar in the background looks like "Cleveland Airport."

Below is the factory delivery information for NC11251, courtesy of Andy Heins.

Specification Sheet, Waco NC12151, April 22, 1931 (Source: Heins)

Note that the airplane was completed on April 21st and delivered on the 22nd. It was clearly sold while "in the pipeline." It was painted with Berry Brothers vermillion and silver dopes: a beautiful airplane. Notice the number of coats of these pigments that were applied. Painting a fabric covered aircraft was an exacting and time consuming process; still is. This airplane was delivered with basic instrumentation.

Specification Sheet, Waco NC12151, April 22, 1931 (Source: Heins)

It appears from the information above that Brown gave up the airplane on July 1, 1937 to Walter Hildebrandt of New Jersey. It then went to Joseph Alevoli of Brooklyn, NY. After that, during WWII, it resided at Boulevard Airport in Philadelphia, PA. I am not certain what its job was during the war: training, liaison? There is no record of it in the FAA database today, so we can assume it no longer exists. I do not know its fate.

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