Ken Rearwin was the son of Rae Rearwin (1883-1969), brother of Royce (1910-2007), and the three of them were the prime movers of Rearwin Aircraft & Engines, Inc., Fairfax Airport, Kansas City, KS. Rae Rearwin founded the company in 1928 and built over 400 aircraft despite the Great Depression. Please follow the link to explore the company and find photographs and documents related to the Rearwin lines of aircraft.

Kenneth Rearwin, Date Unknown (Source: rearwin.com)

All three Rearwins are cited in this REFERENCE, page 349. Rae was educated at Kansas Wesleyan University, Salina, KS. He was president of the company. Royce was educated Kansas State College and the University of Kansas. He served as vice president. Ken attended Northwestern University and was secretary-treasurer of their company.

Kenneth Rearwin landed once at Tucson, Monday October 7, 1935 at 6:30PM. He flew an unidentified Rearwin Sportster. Based at Kansas City, KS, he was accompanied by his wife, whom he identified in the passenger column of the Register as "wife." They were westbound from El Paso, TX. They remained overnight, departing the next day to Yuma, AZ. He was 22 years old, with 100 flying hours, when he visited. They had been married about 11 months. Their Tucson stop was part of a 7-week sales/demo trip through the southwest and California.

Apropos his landing in Tucson, Rearwin wrote an article, "Aviation Advantages," about his trans-continental trip that appeared in a 1936 issue of Pilot magazine. He alludes to his Tucson landing on page one of the article, stating that he flew from El Paso, "... to Tucson before sunset." Note his arrival time cited above.

The link above yields a PDF download of the article (946kB, three pages). There are two photographs in the article, one of Rearwin and his wife standing in front of what is probably a Rearwin Sportster, and the other in profile of a Rearwin Sportster, NC14443, a model 7000, S/N 401. Because of differences in engine cowling (the unidentified airplane wears a Townend ring; the other does not) it is not clear which of the aircraft Rearwin brought through Tucson.

Besides his Sportster, two other Rearwins landed at Tucson. They were the Ken-Royce models, NC591H (photo at the link) and sister ship NC592H. Both were the Ken-Royce model 2000-C. NC592H is still registered with the FAA. It landed twice, each time flown by Jean LaRene. Photos of the airplane, and further information, are at her link.

Biographical information about Ken Rearwin is supplied in tabular fashion at the link. He was born July 13, 1913 at Salina, KS and passed away July 31, 2001 at San Diego, CA.

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Dossier 2.1.133

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