FORD 4-AT-B NC7863

“REMAINS SOLD”

This airplane is a Ford 4-AT-B tri-motor (S/N 4-AT-48; ATC # 87) manufactured October 15, 1928 by the Stout Metal Airplane Company (Ford Motor Company), Dearborn, MI.  It came from the factory with three Wright Whirlwind J-5 engines (S/Ns 9263, 9248, 9311) of 220 HP each.

It sold on November 28, 1928 to Reid, Murdoch and Company of Chicago, IL. It was used as a "flyuing supermarket" for Reid, Murdoch's brand name foods (Monarch).  Image, below, shared with us by site visitor Bob Noramczyk. Thanks, Bob! Lettering on the fuselage, just behind the cabin windows, advertises the Chicago Air Races, which took place August 24-September 2, 1930. Image location unknown.

NC7863 ca. 1930

Reid, Murdoch flew it until 1931 when it was sold to Vernon N. Johns of Dearborn, MI.  It was flown by Johns before he owned it, however, because we find him at Tucson with it on Wednesday, January 15, 1930. Based at Chicago, IL, he was carrying two unidentified passengers westbound from El Paso, TX to Los Angeles, CA.

Johns brought the airplane to Tucson again on Monday, February 17, 1930 4:30 PM. Based now in San Diego, CA, he and his two uinidentified passengers were eastbound from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, FL. They remained in Tucson overnight, departing at 7:00AM the next day. No purpose was cited for the trip.

Below, another image of NC7863 taken on October 3, 1929 at a different location. In an interesting juxtaposition, the small aircraft nestled under the left wing of the giant trimotor is a Fleet, NC8600, which is not signed in the Register. Its sister ships, NC8601, NC8602, NC8610, NC8617, NC8622, NC8628 and NC8643 are.

NC7863, October 3, 1929

There was an accident in Gadsden, AL on April 28, 1935 in which the airplane was “washed out”. Its fuselage was salvaged in 1936 and “remains sold.”  It was Joe Musleh of Jacksonville, FL, who, on February 29, 1936, bought the remains.  In March 1937 Vernelle Irwin of Hallsville, IL bought the airwheels and aereol struts that came from the wreck of NC7863 and installed them on his airplane, NC5493.  Funny how the pilots and airplanes of the Davis-Monthan Register all interrelate…. No further information.

---o0o---

The image below, courtesy of friend of dmairfield.org Tim Kalina, comes from the October 1929 issue of the Air Travel magazine rotogravure section. Not only do we see a spectacularly clear image of NC7863, but the background pattern of repeating biplanes is very creative and attractive.

Ford NC7863, October 1929

The script on the fuselage regarding the Chicago Air Races is absent. At the bottom we see what the inside of this flying supermarket looked like.

---o0o---

UPLOADED: 03/29/06 REVISED: 04/25/07, 02/26/08