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LOCKHEED VEGA Model 5B NC49M
A LONG LIFE ENDED BY HEAT IN SITKA, ALASKA
This airplane is a Lockheed Vega Model 5B (S/N 101; ATC
#227) manufactured during October 1929 by Lockheed Aircraft
Corporation, Burbank,
CA. It left the factory with
a Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine (S/N 2097) of unspecified
HP. It was a seven-place airplane.
There is no record of its use during the next four months. But,
we do know that it landed at Tucson on 2/12/1930 flown by
Wiley Post. He carried a plane full of five unidentified
passengers. They were eastbound from Burbank to St.
Louis, MO.
A couple of weeks later, NC49M sold on March 1, 1930 to
Asa Candler, Jr.*, Atlanta, GA. While still owned
by Candler, NC49M was modified by having its baggage compartment
sealed off under ATC memo 2-274 of September 29, 1930.
NC49M then began a series of transfers and accidents that
led eventually to its demise. On July 1, 1931 it was
sold to Detroit Aircraft Corporation, Detroit, MI, who transferred
it on July 5, 1932 to Hanford’s Tri-State Airlines,
Inc., Sioux City, IA.
NC49M While in the Hands of Detroit Aircraft Corporation, October 21, 1931
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Below, the annotation from the back of the image above. The airplane was used by Charles Lindbergh, as noted, flown to meet him at Victoria, B.C., Canada by Register pilot Vance Breese.
NC49M While in the Hands of Detroit Aircraft Corporation, Annotation
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NC49M suffered an accident at Minneapolis,
MN on September 7, 1934 and was repaired. Below, another image of the airplane with wheel pants and a different paint scheme.
NC49M, Date Unknown, Location is Lockheed Factory, Burbank, CA
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It was transferred (change in name only) to Hanford Airlines,
Inc. on July 16, 1936 and suffered another accident at Ellendale,
ND on August 1, 1937. It was repaired again, only to
be sold again eight months later to aircraft broker and dealer
Charles H. Babb, Glendale, CA.
Babb sold it to Alaska Air Transport, Inc., Juneau, AK on
April 17, 1941. There it was converted to a Vega 5C
and flown on floats with Wasp engine S/N 4528. AAT
became part of Alaska Coastal Airlines and the airplane was
transferred to their name as of January 26, 1942.
It flew the next decade in Alaska. It was destroyed
by fire at Sitka, AK on November 14, 1952.
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*A DIGRESSION…
Asa G. Candler, Jr., with his partner Frank
Robinson, was founder and owner of the Coca-Cola Company. He
was, as it were, “keeper of the special formula”. Refer
to the following quote from Business Week magazine at this
link,
which has everything you’ll ever want to know
about Coke and Pepsi:
| "Much has been said of the "magic
formula" for
the syrup, especially about the ingredient known as Merchandise
7X. Charles Howard Candler, son of Asa Griggs Candler …,
wrote in 1950 that for some years the syrup was made
only by Asa Candler and his partner Frank Robinson. The
formula was later transmitted to a few trusted employees,
but only "by word of mouth." "[O]ne
of the proudest moments of my life," the younger Candler recalled, came
when my father, shortly after the turn of the century, initiated me into the
mysteries of the secret flavoring formula, inducting me as it were, into the "Holy
of Holies." No written memorandum was permitted, no written formulae were
shown. Containers of ingredients, from which the labels had been removed, were
identified only by sight, smell, and remembering where each was put on the shelf....
To be safe, father stood by me several times to insure the integrity of the batches
and to satisfy himself that his youthful son had learned his lesson and could
be depended upon." |
Despite his key role in the American refreshment
tradition, “Asa
G. Candler, Jr.” has only a modest web presence (18 Google
hits as of the upload date below). Besides being the keeper
of the Coke formula, he was an aircraft owner and supporter
of early aviation. Most significantly, Candler allowed
the center of the oval race track at his home in Atlanta to
be used as a landing field for aircraft. Consequently, the
City of Atlanta purchased this area in 1929 and founded its
municipal airport, which eventually became the world’s
busiest: Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. And
his Coca-Cola stands today as the second most widely understood
term in the world, after "okay".
Interestingly, Candler has another link to one of our Davis-Monthan
pilots,
Ruth Nichols. Nichols
flew a Lockheed Orion 9, registration number NC988Y (not
cited in our Register), owned by Candler Jr. in the Bendix
race in 1933. However,
you will find no mention of her in the Bendix race results,
as it took her 3 days to get to Los Angeles. For an
image of Ruth in the Candler Orion, see this link.
---o0o---
UPLOADED: 06/06/06 REVISED: 07/29/08
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