DONALD EDWARD KEYHOE

Donald E. Keyhoe was born June 20, 1897 and died at 91 on November 29, 1988. He was a passenger who signed the Register twice.  But his pilots and the two flights he was affiliated with were bright aviation stars of the Golden Age. Photo, left, from his biographical file at the Smithsonian (cited, left sidebar).

Himself a pilot, Keyhoe flew in active service with the Marine Corps, managed the tour of the historic plane in which Bennett and Byrd made their North Pole flight (below), was aide to Charles Lindbergh after the famous Paris flight, and was chief of information for the Aeronautics Branch, Department of Commerce. He was a prolific writer, and this site (LINK REMOVED BECAUSE IT WAS CHANGED TO PRODUCE MALICIOUS RESULTS) gives you insight to his background, both civilian and military, and bibliography. Later in his life he became an expert on the "UFO" phenomenon.

His first visit was on November 9, 1926 as one of four passengers traveling in the Fokker F-VII “Josephine Ford” with Floyd Bennett as pilot and Bernt Balchen as copilot and navigator.  His fellow passengers, all of whom signed the Register, were Charles F. Kunkel, representative of the Guggenheim Fund, John McPhail, mechanic, and G.O. Noville, photographer.  Keyhoe was the resident writer for the crew.

The “Josephine Ford” was Richard Byrd’s North Pole expedition airplane.  Whether Byrd ever actually made it to the North Pole with the airplane is in doubt, but that’s another story.

When the airplane landed at Tucson carrying Keyhoe, it was in the mid-point of an 8,604 mile tour around the United States.  It had left Washington, DC on October 7th for the two-month tour.  The flight was organized and sponsored by the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, with the cooperation of the Department of Commerce.  The airplane was loaned by Byrd for the tour.

Keyhoe's second landing was on September 23,1927 as part of the Lindbergh U.S. tour entourage. An excellent summary of that tour can be found here. Keyhoe was the passenger aboard the Fairchild "red monoplane," NS-7, sponsored by the Guggenheim Foundation to accompany Lindbergh on his tour. He traveled with the Fairchild's pilot Philip Rockford Love, and his fellow passenger C.C. Maidment, a representative of the Wright Company and Whirlwind engine expert. Keyhoe's role, again, was as writer for the tour.

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Dossier 2.3.9

UPLOADED: 05/01/06 REVISED: 07/12/11