Edwin Joseph Hefley, Sr., Early Portrait (Source: Woodling)

Eddie Hefley landed once at Tucson, Friday, November 7, 1930 at 6:00PM. He was solo in the Stinson he identified as NC460H (a Model SM-6B, S/N 2004). He arrived from El Paso, TX. He remained overnight and departed the next morning at 9:30 westbound to Los Angeles, CA.

Hefley was born July 26, 1908 in Emmetsburg, IA. He began his aviation career early at age 15 in St. Louis, MO, where he attended the Sweeney School of Aeronautics. He studied both mechanics and piloting, and earned his pilot license in Rapid City, SD. Hefley was a veteran pilot, with wide commercial experience. He and his employers were early adopters of aviation for business travel.

From the early 1930s on, Hefley was the corporate or personal pilot for, in chronological order, the O'Neil brothers, Cutbank, MT, Norris Cochran "N.C." McGowan, Sr. of the United Gas Corporation based at Shreveport, LA, Henry Ford II of the Ford Motor Company, and John D. Ewing, Sr. of the Shreveport Times (LA), for whom he worked ten years.

During World War II, Hefley was first a test pilot and then chief pilot at Ford's Willow Run factory, and as such he test-flew upon completion most of the B-24s built there.  Post-WWII Hefley continued with his executive flying.

A year before his Tuscon visit, Hefley landed at Clover Field, Santa Monica, CA on Friday, November 15, 1929. He flew the same airplane, carrying two unidentified passengers.

Hefley's complete biography, including many photographs and U.S. Census information, is over on his Santa Monica page at the link. Hefley died August 25, 1993 at Shreveport, LA. He flew West with Transport pilot certificate T2960.

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