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Registration Number NC8893
Rising Sun
This aircraft is a Travel Air W-4000, S/N 1016.
The Travel Air Manufacturing Co., Wichita, KS, built it on
April 14, 1929. It was fitted with a Warner Scarab engine of 110
HP, S/N 199. It weighed 2,115 pounds as a three-place airplane.
It was sold on April 16, 1929 to San Diego Air Service Corp., San
Diego, CA.
NC8893 arrived in Tucson on 4/20/1929 piloted
by Douglas T. Kelley with passenger Ray Tucker. Mr. Kelley
was test pilot for Ryan at the time of construction of the
"Spirit of St. Louis". They stayed overnight in
Tucson. Based at San Diego, they were westbound from Lordsburg,
NM to Imperial, CA.
The airplane sold to Eddie Martin of Santa Ana,
CA on 11/23/29. He kept it for a few years, selling it on
2/15/33 to Jess B. Poor of Huntington Park, CA. The airplane
was remodeled, with a new motor mount, as a model U-4. Comet
engine S/N 559 was installed (165 HP).
Poor sold the airplane to Junko Kubota of Venice,
CA on 9/7/34. Kubota had the airplane converted to a Model
4000 with a Wright J-5 engine S/N 8467 (220 HP) installed.
It was reported by a government inspector on 10/5/34 that,
“plane and owner reported to have sailed for Japan.”
The aircraft was removed from the limits of the U.S. and the
registration was cancelled 10/25/34.
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UPLOADED: 08/08/05 REVISED: 02/16/09
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