Boeing 40Y NC381
HAULING NEWSPAPERS TO SACRAMENTO
This airplane was a custom-built Boeing
40Y (S/N 1095; ATC #27) manufactured on December 1, 1928
by the Boeing Airplane Company, Seattle, WA. It left
the factory with a Pratt & Whitney Hornet CA engine (S/N
263) of 525 HP. It was a four-place airplane and weighed
6,079 pounds. It is one of two model 40s that signed the Davis-Monthan Register. The other is NC178E.
NC381 Boeing 40-BY
(Source: Check-Six.com)
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NC381 sold on December 11, 1928 for $25,000 to Standard
Oil Company of California, San Francisco, CA. It was
named “Standard
of California #2”. Image, above, shows it in Standard
Oil livery (painted on the front cowling, with "Zerolene
Aircraft Oil" logo on the vertical stabilizer).
Below is a photograph of NC381, from the link, that shows it on the manufacturing floor, ca. late 1928. NC381 is on the left. The number can be seen on the rudder.
Boeing NC381, Boeing Factory, Late 1928 (Source: Link)
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NC381 landed at Tucson three times, January 12th, March
17th, and December 12, 1929. All three visits, citing
San Francisco as home base, were with pilot Bernard M. Doolin at the controls. On
January 12th, Doolin carried two passengers, Sydney “Mike” S.
Chadderton and F.C. Paine. Mr. Chadderton was Manager
of the Aviation Division for Standard. They were flying a
round-robin from Phoenix, AZ. An image of NC381 is
available here.
Click the "Standard Oil of California #2" thumbnail on that page to see the airplane. Note
that Doolin and Chadderton are on board.
On March 17th, Doolin was solo. He noted in the Remarks
column of the Register, "Touring for Std. Oil Co. of
California". He was looping around from Phoenix, AZ
back to San
Francisco, CA. On December 12th, Doolin carried two passengers,
F.C. Paine and C.B.
Cosgrove. They were southbound from Phoenix,
then west bound to Los Angeles, CA.
NC381 flew with Standard Oil through June 1933. Along
the way it had minor changes and repairs made, such as new
exhaust stacks, the tail surfaces were replaced and a new
instrument board was installed. A new cowl ring and
flares were also installed.
On June 20, 1933, the airplane was sold to Thomas H. Slingsby
of Sacramento,
CA for $1,000. Do the math. That’s
an exhilarating depreciation over the airplane's short life
to-date. The
total flight time on the aircraft as of June 26, 1933 was
1,438 hours. It
was altered to conform with the 40Y model by removing one
set of the dual controls, and the “extra cockpit” was
made a compartment. Wheel pants, engine cowling, radio
and 60-gallon fuel tank were removed.
Slingsby used the airplane to fly passengers and newspapers
between San Francisco Airport, San Bruno, CA and Sacramento,
CA. His aircraft husbandry left something to be desired. On
October 14, 1933 NC381 was grounded with a leaking
fuel tank and other discrepancies. A violation was
filed against Slingsby for flying the airplane in an unairworthy
condition.
On August 3, 1934 the airplane suffered an accident with
minor damage to the lower rudder. As of March 1, 1935,
the airplane was overhauled, inspected and approved for flight. On
August 19, 1935 it was sold to F.W. Eilers of San Francisco. It
sold a couple of more times before coming into the hands
of Charles H. Babb of Glendale, CA. Babb transferred
it to Aircraft Brokerage Corporation of Jackson Heights,
NY, which, in turn, transferred it to the Guardia Nacional
of Nicaragua.
NC381 was transferred to Nicaragua through export license
E-3871. Ferry permission was granted through Aircraft
Brokerage Comporation, and the record is complete:
aircraft sold in Nicaragua.
The image below is from the Los Angeles Public Library. The image is unsourced and undated, but it shows the airplane in another paint scheme from the image above. The bird design is the Standard Oil ‘Stanavo’ logo on the rear fuselage. The LA Public Library Web site is a great source for photographs of Register aircraft and people. From the home page click "Browse the Photo Collection".
Boeing 40Y NC381, Date & Location Unknown (Source: LA Public Library)
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The image below, from Juptner Volume 1 (reference left sidebar),
shows a sister ship, model 40B-2. Compare the sizes of the people
to the size of the airplane. This was a large, single-engine,
open-cockpit airplane. Passengers sat in front of and below
the pilot (note the windows in this and the top image).
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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 03/28/06 REVISED: 04/27/04, 02/01/07, 07/01/08, 01/14/10, 03/22/14, 11/28/16
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