It Carried 566 Pounds Of Radio Equipment

This aircraft is a Fairchild FC-2, S/N 118 (ATC# 10) manufactured in 1928 by the Fairchild Airplane Manufacturing Corp., Farmingdale, NY. It had a 220 HP Wright J-5AB engine installed, S/N 8515-B. It weighed 3,600 pounds equipped for land use; 4,000 pounds on floats.

It was sold for $13,950 on 7/2/28 to the B.F. Goodrich Rubber Company, Akron, OH. At the sale it had 40 flight hours on it, so it must have been used by the Fairchild Company, perhaps as a demonstrator.

It arrived at Tucson twice on 9/17/1928, departing the next day for an unidentified destination (probably Cleveland, OH). It was piloted by Cy Caldwell carrying Mrs. Caldwell and H. Wacker as passengers.

**** At the risk of digressing, Mr. Caldwell signed in earlier on 9/7/1928 westbound from El Paso headed for Los Angeles. He was carrying Mrs. Caldwell, Mr. Wacker and C. Gildersleeve. He was flying a Fairchild and identified the registration number as 7605. If you look at the Register page images, you’ll see very clearly that he signed one visit 6705 and the other 7605. Everything else being equal, including the passenger list, I believe he transposed digits at his first sign-in, especially since 7605 is identified as a Waco in NASM records (examined by me on 6/14/05). It is a safe bet that he didn't change airplanes during his 10 days in Los Angeles, so I have edited the registration number in the database for the 9/7 Fairchild flight to read NC6705 ****

During June 1929, the airplane was sold for $7000 to the Schlee-Brock Aircraft Corp., Detroit, MI. They had “presold” the airplane on 5/28/29 to Ohio Lockheed Sales Corp for $7,662.50. From the record, it appears this was a sale/trade for a Lockheed Vega (see that Lockheed at this link: 2875). Ohio Lockheed sold it to Middle States Air Lines, Inc on 6/25/29. The airplane had accumulated 275 flight hours.

In two more changes of ownership, it wound up on 12/24/31 with Livingston W. Stacey of Orlando, FL who, on 7/25/34, installed 566 pounds of radio broadcasting equipment. An “NR” registration was issued, limiting the airplane to radio broadcasting carrying no more than two passengers. On 10/29/31, the radio equipment was removed, the “NC” registration was restored, and the airplane was sold to Mathew Quag Swager of New Brighton, PA. There is no further information, except that the registration was cancelled 11/1/36.

UPLOADED: 07/09/05 REVISED: 03/13/06