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Pilot E.W. "Pop" Cleveland brought this airplane through Tucson twice. On July 10, 1928, he was involved in the Ford
Reliability Tour that year. He was westbound from El Paso, TX and
carried three passengers, J.F. Wallace, Robert Nesbit and a Mr. Sagel, a member of the Cleveland
Press. They placed 20th.
The book by Forden in the REFERENCES tabulates the places earned by each participant in the 1928 Tour. Cleveland and NC1159 are listed in 20th place, but the airplane is assigned race number "9." At the Tour link above, you can see two images of 1159 with the race number "9."
Therefore, the photograph below, with the number "3," was not taken during the 1928 Tour. Rather, according to the Aircraft Year Book for 1928, it was taken during the 1927 National Air Races (NAR) when it did wear race #3. It was flown in 1927 NAR by Cleveland, who placed 8th out of the money in the New York to Spokane, WA Class "A" Race for civilian aircraft.
It's a long-shot guess, but we might have seen this airplane landing at Tucson a third time with Wallace as pilot and Cleveland as passenger. They brought a Ryan "M1" through Tucson Thursday, September 8, 1927. They did not identify it by registration number. They were eastbound from San Diego, CA to Cleveland. The NAR that year was held at Spokane, WA from September 21-27, so this was well before the races, and they might have had enough time to reach New York, turn the airplane around, and fly back west again to Spokane in the Class "A" event.
Below, the photograph of NC1159 with race #3 from the San Diego Aerospace Museum Flickr photostream.
Ryan NC1159, Date & Location Unknown (Source: SDAM)
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It is unclear what Cleveland was doing
a couple of months later on September 20th, when he visited
Tucson with L.H. Burr and J.F. Wallace (again) as passengers. They
were eastbound from San
Diego to Cleveland, OH.
I have no technical information regarding this airplane. Neither do I have the chain of custody or fate. If you have information in this regard, please let me KNOW.
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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 12/20/11 REVISED: 05/11/12
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