This airplane (S/N 2006-57) was manufactured during October 1929 under ATC# 239 by the Brunner-Winkle Aircraft Corp., Brooklyn, NY. It left the factory with a Kinner engine (S/N 592) of (probably) 100HP. It was a three-place biplane.
NC48K was initially listed as S/N 2010, but this was crossed out and 2006-57 penned in. The manufacturer's model, 59, was amended to read "Bird Model K".
NC48K arrived at Tucson on Tuesday, November 12, 1929 flown by J.F. Hoffman. He carried a single passenger identified as Ted Mitchell. Based in Brooklyn, NY where their airplane was made, they were westbound from El Paso, TX to Los Angeles, CA. This was probably the ferry flight from New York to the Bird distributor on the west coast.
NC48K sold initially to G.A. Day of Long Beach, CA on February 25, 1930. It suffered an accident on July 8, 1930 at Long Beach, CA. It was repaired and given a Kinner K-5 engine (S/N 218) by August 29, 1930. It suffered two additional accidents on May 10, 1931 and on October 11, 1931.
It was sold on March 26, 1932 to Milo Burcham of Long Beach, CA. You can see photographs of the airplane here with Burcham. Please read the information around the images and you'll see that it was Burcham who crashed the airplane on October 11, 1931. The gentleman at right in the photograph is Russell Gerow, the person who restored NC48K, and who collected the photographs and documents exhibited on this web site under the title of The Russell T. Gerow Photograph and Document Collection. Please follow the link to discover that rich collection, all of which is relevant to the pilots, places, events and airplanes recorded in the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register.
Burcham kept the airplane for about three years, selling it on March 8, 1935 to Kenneth R. Brooks of Alhambra, CA. It had a Fahlin wooden propeller (S/N 1379) and Kinner K-5 (S/N 936) installed. It is not clear if these were the engine and propeller installed by Gerow during the earlier rebuild.
The airplane went through four more California owners up to February 10, 1940. The registration was cancelled upon expiration of the airworthiness certificate on June 1, 1941. As with many Davis-Monthan Register craft, the ultimate fate of NC48K is unknown.
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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 01/18/08 REVISED:
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