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Happy New Year
This aircraft was a Fokker Super Universal, S/N 830 (ATC
#52), manufactured in March 1929 by the Fokker Aircraft Corporation
of America, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. It left the factory
with a Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine (S/N 1150) of 410
HP.
NC9789 was purchased April 9, 1929 by the Aero Corporation
of California, Los Angeles, CA (Davis-Monthan pilots Jack
Frye and Paul
Richter were principals with the company, which
was a Fokker and Eaglerock distributor, as well as operators
of Standard Air Lines).
Aero transferred the airplane to its Standard Air Lines,
Los Angeles, CA on April 24, 1929. There is no indication
on the NASM record of what Standard did with the airplane
until it sold it four months later on August 31, 1929 to
Mid-Continent Air Express, Inc., Los Angeles.
NC9789 comes to Tucson on September 6, 1929 at 5:00 PM. It
was flown by Charles E. Widmer. He remained overnight
at Tucson and departed the next morning at 6:30 northwest
bound for Denver, CO. This flight was very likely the transfer of the airplane to Mid-Continent, since Widmer was employed by them at this time.
Mid-Continent used NC9789 for about two and a half years,
and then sold it to Western Air Express, Inc. (WAE), United
Airport, Burbank,
CA on April 16, 1932. It was based
at Denver, CO. WAE’s Fokker Super Universals
(S/Ns 812, 826, 830, 861, 862, 863, 864, 865) were all based
at Denver.
According to the NASM record, WAE expected to secure new
equipment in the fall of 1934, and hoped to be able to retire
all of the Super Universals of their fleet as, “the
maintenance load on the wood wings was very expensive.”
NC9789 suffered an accident at Las Vegas, NM on December
31, 1933. It was “washed out”. No
further information.
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UPLOADED: 07/07/06 REVISED: 07/21/14
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