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DAVE DOTY
Asian Duty and Pioneer U.S. Commercial Transport Pilot
Pilot David Ellis Doty was born November 15, 1893 in Utah. He
first became interested in aviation in 1914, when, in Vancouver,
WA he persuaded a local pilot to let him wash his aircraft
once a week. He learned to fly in the military (soloed
March, 1918 at Park Field, TN). In April 1919, he was
with the U.S. Army in the Philippines, where he was detailed
to construct what is now Clark Field, near Manila.
He resigned from the U.S. Army in 1920, became an instructor
for the Philippine government (under the auspices of Curtiss-Wright)
and later for the Portuguese and Chinese governments. He
was the head of the Portuguese Air Service at Macao, and
in 1922 and 1923 was connected with the Cantonese government
as an instructor.
Back in the U.S. in 1923 he barnstormed until, in 1926,
he became a reserve air mail pilot at Concord near San Francisco. Later
he ran a flying school at Oakland,
CA. In September
1928 he went to work with Western Air Express as pilot on
the Los Angeles-Salt Lake and Los Angeles-San
Francisco runs. He
had accumulated 4,650 flight hours by November 1, 1930.
He had short biographies published in “The Pilot” magazine
of May 1931 (image), in their “Who’s Who” column,
as well as the Blue Book of Aviation, 1932.
On October 15, 1930 he became one of the four original pilots
on the Western Division of American Airlines. It was
probably during his tenure with American that Doty landed
at Tucson flying Douglas Sleeper Transport (DST-144) c/n
1549, NC16007. He did not cite the date of his landing,
but, based on dates entered nearby by other signers of the
Register, he visited sometime between September 1 and 6,
1936. He
carried two passengers, Johnnie Lee McKinney and Dorothy
Weaver (anyone know who these passengers were?). He
had flown over 11,000 hours as of 1936.
Dossier 2.1.82
UPLOADED: 07/11/06 REVISED:
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