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Your copy of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. Or use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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http://www.cafepress.com/content/global/img/spacer.gifThe Congress of Ghosts is an anniversary celebration for 2010.  It is an historical biography, that celebrates the 5th year online of www.dmairfield.org and the 10th year of effort on the project dedicated to analyze and exhibit the history embodied in the Register of the Davis-Monthan Airfield, Tucson, AZ. This book includes over thirty people, aircraft and events that swirled through Tucson between 1925 and 1936. It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders. Order your copy at the link.

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Military Aircraft of the Davis Monthan Register, 1925-1936 is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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FORD Model 5-AT-A NX6926

 

NX6926 landed at Tucson Thursday, November 22, 1928 at 4:45PM. The pilot was Bernard L. Whelan, who carried two passengers, H.J. Weaver and G. Tanberry. Based at Hartford, CT, they arrived at Tucson from El Paso, TX. They remained overnight at Tucson, departing the next day at an unspecified time for Phoenix, AZ. He specifically identified the airplane's engine type as "Wasp." They mentioned no purpose for their flight through Tucson.

I searched this Pratt & Whitney (P&W) REFERENCE and found no mention of NX6926, of the Wasp engines that powered it west, or the passengers who flew with Whelan. However, one Wasp-engined flight that had passed through Tucson in 1926 was documented the P&W book. Please direct your browser to Register pilot R.A. Ofstie for discussion.

This airplane was a new Ford trimotor model 5-AT-A (S/N 5-AT-1), which first flew just four months earlier on July 21, 1928. It was delivered to the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Corporation (P&W) in Hartford for the purpose of installing the then new P&W "Wasp" engines. Pilot Whelan was a test pilot for P&W. Below, from this 1957 REFERENCE by Larkins, page 52, is a photograph and very sketchy history of NX6926.

Description and Photograph of Ford NX6926 (Source: Link)

Initially, the airplane appears to have been personal transport for C.W.Deeds, an early employee of P&W. The cited photograph in the 1931 Aircraft Year Book shows the Ford in what looks like P&W livery. Neither the Year Book or the Larkins piece document what the "plane as rebuilt" entailed. Nevertheless, NX6026 was exported to South America in 1934.

Regardless, about seven months after its Tucson visit, a photograph of NX6926 apeared in the Aeronautical industry magazine, Volume 8, June 1, 1929. Note in the caption that the engines are identified as P&W "Hornets," a more powerful engine than the Wasp.

Ford NX6926, Aeronautical industry, Volume 8, June 1, 1929 (Source: Aeronautical Industry)

If you have any information about this airplane, please let me KNOW.

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 10/04/20 REVISED:
 
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I'm looking for information and photographs of this airplane to include on this page. If you have some you'd like to share, please click this FORM to contact me.

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Art Goebel's Own Story by Art Goebel (edited by G.W. Hyatt) is written in language that expands for us his life as a Golden Age aviation entrepreneur, who used his aviation exploits to build a business around his passion.  Available as a free download at the link.

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Winners' Viewpoints: The Great 1927 Trans-Pacific Dole Race is available at the link. What was it like to fly from Oakland to Honolulu in a single-engine plane during August 1927? Was the 25,000 dollar prize worth it? Did the resulting fame balance the risk? For the first time ever, this book presents the pilot and navigator's stories written by them within days of their record-setting adventure. Pilot Art Goebel and navigator William V. Davis, Jr. take us with them on the Woolaroc, their orange and blue Travel Air monoplane (NX869) as they enter the hazardous world of Golden Age trans-oceanic air racing.

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Clover Field: The First Century of Aviation in the Golden State. With the 100th anniversary in 2017 of the use of Clover Field as a place to land aircraft in Santa Monica, this book celebrates that use by exploring some of the people and aircraft that made the airport great.

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