W.S. MacLaren landed at Tucson once on Thursday, December 19, 1929 at 4:30PM. He was solo in Travel Air NC467M. Based at Newark, NJ he arrived from Kansas City, MO westbound to Los Angeles, CA.

Below is an important artifact of the Golden Age of Flight, a U.S. Airmail postal cachet shared with us by site visitor Jeff Staines. This cachet, dated July 5, 1930, commemorates the dedication of Charleston, WV's Wertz Field.

W.S. MacLaren, Signed U.S. Airmail Postal Cachet, July 5, 1930 (Source: Staines)

About six months later, on January 11, 1931, MacLaren was lost in flight from Bermuda to the Azores, with Mrs. Beryl Hart. Below, an unused postcard cachet which, because of fate, might have been on the MacLaren/Hart Bellanca. The cachet is shared with us by Mr. Staines.

Postal Cachet, MacLaren & Hart Flight, Ca. 1931 (Source: Staines)

Mr. Staines says about the image, "Found this tattered postcard which was supposed to be sent onboard the ill - fated Trans Atlantic Airmail flight from Newark, NJ by Hart and MacLaren in 1931. Good thing it missed the flight, or else it would be still be onboard the Bellanca CH 300 known as the 'Tradewind'. (Notice that MacLaren's name is misspelled!)." A photograph of MacLaren and Hart from January 10, 1931 is at the link, courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

The North Tonowanda (NY) Evening News, Tuesday January 6, 1931 (Source: Web)

MacLaren and Hart were delayed by a broken sextant, as cited in this brief news article, right, from The North Tonowanda (NY) Evening News of Tuesday January 6, 1931. A good-quality photograph of the Tradewind (NR766W not a Register airplane) is at the link, courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. The image is dated January 10, 1931, just a day before it was lost with all aboard.

Further to this cachet and others, Mr. Staines shares the undated letter below that forms an agreement with collector B.A. Brady and the "Tradewinds" enterprise.

Undated Letter/Receipt, Ca. 1931 (Source: Staines)

Mr. Staines says about the letter, "This is a form letter signed by William S. MacLaren of the ill-fated Tradewind flight of 1931. It was common for notable flights to raise money by charging collectors a fee to carry cachet airmail covers onboard. An additional fee was often charged to have the pilot or crew autograph the cover. This letter, charging $1.00 per cover supplied by the recipient, gives instructions as to the handling of these particular items. Unfortunately for this recipient, his cachet never made Paris. The Tradewind postcard displayed on the DM site is one example of the many types of cachets which would have been onboard that flight."

W.S. MacLaren, Date & Location Unknown (Source: Heins)

Regarding the airplane that should have carried the postal card, aerofiles.com has this to say: "J2 Tradewind Special 1930 = 2pChwMF; 300hp Wright R-985. POP: 1 [NR766W] s/n 3002, custom-built for William S MacLaren and Beryl Hart for a planned transatlantic flight; fuel capacity was 400 gallons—four wing tanks and one in the fuselage. However, MacLaren never paid for it! Bellanca filed suit, but MacLaren transferred title to Mrs. Hart, so they could not place a judgment on the plane. The two of them took off for Paris with scheduled stops in Bermuda and the Azores, but the last seen of the pair was departing Hamilton Harbor, Bermuda. Apparently they are still with their purloined plane somewhere on the bottom of the Atlantic."

At left, a photograph of MacLaren shared with us by site contributor Andy Heins.

In a coincidence common among Register pilots, MacLaren was part of the aerial search team that looked for the crash site when fellow pilot Frank Goldsborough crashed on July 15, 1930 near Bennington, VT. MacLaren is cited in a news article posted at the link.

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 03/03/11 REVISED: 07/07/11, 08/25/11, 09/27/11, 06/14/15