This aircraft was a Waco 10 (GXE) with original manufacturer’s serial number 893. The Advance Aircraft Company, Troy, OH built it on September 2, 1927. It left the factory at 2,050 lbs., with a 90 HP Curtiss OX-5 engine S/N 5172. For its short life, it had an inordinate number of different engines (five), and was owned by a well-known airplane manufacturer.

It was sold to the T.C. Ryan Aeronautical Corporation (builder of the “Spirit of St. Louis”), 413 Union Bldg., San Diego, CA on September 2, 1928. This date is just shy of four months after Charles Lindbergh made his trans-Atlantic flight.

The airplane landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield on September 13, 1927. It arrived at 4:15 PM and departed at 7:30 AM the next day. Mr. Ryan was the pilot, and a Mr. John R. Conway was the passenger. They were inbound from Troy, OH (the location of the Waco factory) on their way to San Diego.

Coincidentally, Waco 10, registry number 1443, logged in and out at the same time, coming from Troy, but headed for Los Angeles. It was flown by J.B. Alexander. This was, no doubt, a flight of two factory-fresh Wacos to new homes on the west coast. Both of them were inspected by the U.S. Border Patrol while on the ground at Tucson.

Ryan’s Waco was soon, on September 27, 1927, resold to the B.F. Mahoney Aircraft Corp., San Diego, CA. It was purchased without its engine for $2,145.00. A Curtiss OX-5, c/n 5410 was installed. Later, on April 20, 1928, another OX-5 c/n 5943 was installed and the c/n of the aircraft was changed to 893A by the Department of Commerce.

It was sold on March 7, 1929 to C.C. Edgington, 3200 Barnett Ave., San Diego, CA. It was re-covered with fabric (presumably by its previous owner) at 405 hours, and was reported with 512 hours total time on March 12, 1929 (about 250 hours per year average usage to-date).

It was sold on April 10, 1929 again to the T.C. Ryan Aeronautical Corp., 3300 Barnett Ave., San Diego, CA. It had OX-5 engine c/n 4294 installed. About a year later, in what looks like an internal asset shuffle, the plane was resold to the T.C. Ryan Aeronautical Company, licensed as a Waco GXE, and fitted with OX-5 c/n 4691.

It was then sold to James D. Irick, Gamerco, NM on Devember 29, 1930. It suffered an accident at Clayton, NM a month later on January 27, 1931 and sold to L.C. Woods, Box 157, Winslow, AZ on July 14, 1931. It was reported as dismantled as of December, 1932. Its license was cancelled on December 20, 1932.

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UPLOADED: 6/9/05 REVISED: 01/23/06, 10/08/07, 06/11/23