Border Plane

This aircraft was a Fleet Husky 1 with original manufacturer’s serial number 56. The Fleet Aircraft Company, Buffalo, NY built it in April 1929. It left the factory at 1,580 lbs., with a 110 HP Warner Scarab engine S/N 246. It was a two-passenger airplane. See its sister ships, NC8601, NC8602, NC8610, NC8617, NC8622 and NC8628. It landed at Tucson five times.

It sold on 4/20/29 to Garland Aircraft Corp. of Tulsa, OK for $5,500 plus a $200 transport charge, less 15%, for a total of $4,875. Then followed an exhilarating series of exchanges. Garland turned it over to Otis L. Williams of Amarillo, TX on 5/11/29. In July, Williams had the aircraft leased to Garland-Clevenger School of Aeronautics in Amarillo. Williams sold it to Garland-Clevenger on 8/9/29 with 56 total flight hours. They sold it on 9/4/29 to Aircraft Holdings, Inc. of Albuquerque, NM.

It suffered an accident at Albuquerque on 12/12/29 when the airplane was, “unbalanced due to heavy pilot in front seat and no compensating weight in back seat. Plane appeared to go out of control after recovering from a voluntary spin.” The heavyweight pilot, B.H. Holmes (transport license # 3700), was uninjured. The airplane’s wings were damaged beyond repair, propeller broken, and empennage/fuselage damaged slightly. The airplane was out of action for quite a while. Eventually it was rebuilt, inspected and returned to service as of 9/3/31.

It was sold on 2/2/32 to Becker-Peters Flying Service located at the International Airport, Douglas, AZ (owned by John W. Becker, Fyfe Peters and Charles C. Spencer, Jr.). We first see the airplane at Tucson piloted by Charles C. Spencer, Jr. sometime between 2/11 and 2/18/32. He had arrived from Douglas, AZ carrying C.H. Hogan as passenger, but they did not cite a destination.

We now see the airplane again at Tucson in quick succession on 2/20/1932, 2/23/1932 and 5/8/1932 piloted by L. Fyfe Peters. All visits were inbound from Douglas, AZ and return, except the first one, which gave Ajo, AZ as the destination. The airplane had accumulated 272:30 flight hours as of 4/30/32.

The airplane suffered an accident at Tombstone, AZ on 9/10/32. It sounds like it nosed over, since upper wings, rudder and vertical stabilizer were “washed out”. No record of pilot or passenger identity or injuries. The airplane had been used hard since April, however, because as of 10/22/32 it had accumulated 412:77 flight hours (about 140 hours in less than five months).

On 7/27/33 the airplane sold to Frank A. Gardanier of Douglas, AZ. He must have purchased it as a wreck, because he had the upper wing repaired and the entire airplane completely re-covered.

We find the airplane at Tucson for its fifth and final visit on 9/15/1933. It was piloted solo by L. Fyfe Peters on a round-robin trip to and from Douglas. It sold twice more, moving from Douglas to Los Angeles, then to Denver, CO. It suffered an accident in Denver on 4/18/34 and owner M.A. Marymee was fatally injured.

It sold finally on 6/26/34 to Alton H. Walker of Kansas City, MO as a “crack-up”. There was no application for registration received and the registration was cancelled 12/27/34.

UPLOADED: 08/08/05 REVISED: