Stuart Wright landed once at Tucson. He arrived at noon, Wednesday, March 18, 1931, solo in the Boeing P-12-C that he identified as 31-225. Based at Detroit, MI Selfridge Field, he arrived at Tucson from Riverside, CA March Field. He was a relatively experienced pilot at the time, having received his wings in 1928. He was assigned to the First Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field, MI, and his duty there is what brought him through Tucson.

He appears to have been accompanied by sister P-12-Cs, 31-224 and 31-226 flown by pilots George Brett and Victor Strahm, respectively. They, too, shared the same home base and initial destination as Wright. Given the similar itineraries and the sequential run of airplane numbers, these pilots were clearly ferrying new P-12-Cs from the Boeing factory to Detroit. If you follow Brett's link, you'll find an itinerary plotted on a chart that shows the approximate path of their trip from the Boeing factory back to Michigan.

Wright, Brett and Strahm identified their aircraft as P-12-Ds, using ditto marks to carry down from two P-12-Ds landed the day before by Harry A. Johnson and N.B. Harbold. However, Joe Baugher's site identifies 31-224 through 31-226 as P-12-Cs. The airplanes landed by Johnson and Harbold, however, were, indeed, D models. Regardless of the details, all five of these pilots went on to enjoy prestigious careers with the Army.

Wright's official Air Force biography is at the link. During WWII, he followed an interesting career with heavy bombers. In 1942, he trained ten crews in the B-24 model SB-24 at Langley Field, Virginia. These were radar-equipped B-24s used for low-level, nighttime interdiction of shipping. The crews arrived at Guadalcanal on August 19, 1943.

Back in the U.S., he was assigned several administrative positions before going to Clovis, NM to assume command of the 497th Bombardment Group from April 26, 1944 to February 26, 1945. He brought the Group's B-29s to Saipan where they participated in the final aerial assaults on Okinawa airfields, strategic industrial centers on the Japan mainland, and with low-level incendiary raids on Tokyo and elsewhere.

Wright has a small Web presence, appearing in references to his experiences in command of various bombardment groups, as best man for a fellow pilot's wedding in The New York Times of February 25, 1933, and on November 18, 1956 as a supporter of an inflatable radar antenna, "the key to the large and truly mobile radar set."

Wright retired June 30, 1957. He lived a long retirement and died April 18, 1982.

---o0o---

THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 05/16/12 REVISED: