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PRESS COVERAGE AND OTHER ITEMS
RELATED TO WWW.DMAIRFIELD
Occasional press coverage of this site and other project
activities is listed here.
THE 1928 FORD RELIABILITY TOUR
Of the 1928 Ford Reliability Tour pilots and aircraft, 14 of
25 landed at Tucson (see July 10-14, 1928 in the database).
You can find more information about all the Ford Tours at
National Air Tour.
There you'll find a photograph of Phoebe
Omlie in her first competition, as well as lists of pilots
and airplanes that competed in all the Tours through the years.
There are a couple of very interesting, downloadable PDF files,
too.
At the link cited, you'll learn that the Ford Tour was reenacted in September 2003. Interestingly, six of the aircraft that flew in Golden Age tours, and that landed at Tucson during that period, were still registered with the FAA in 2002. Refer to aircraft registrations 3947 (Travel Air), 5860 (Buhl), 6079 (Swallow), NC533W (Monocoupe), NC46V (Gee Bee, replica), and NC10402 (Laird).
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AVIATION EVENTS DURING THE GOLDEN AGE THAT
INVOLVED TUCSON
The Davis-Monthan Airfield Register gives us vignettes of
aviation events that swirled around the United States during
the Golden Age. Air races and tours, military logistical maneuvers
and aviation firsts passed through Tucson. The 1928 Ford Reliability
Tour and the 1928 National Air Races used Tucson as a stopping
place for rest and for fuel. National Air Races pilots checked
in with names like Wittman, Jeppesen and Clyde Cessna.
As well as routine training flights, mass aircraft movement
trials were carried out by the military, sometimes bringing
tens of aircraft in and out of Tucson in a very short period.
As you browse the register, you'll find on page
200 that the 20th Pursuit Group from Barksdale Field passed
through on May 5, 1933. They arrived from El Paso at 10:00AM,
but did not list individual pilots or aircraft.
Likewise in the lower third of page
62, thirteen members of the 1st Pursuit Group arrived
from Rockwell Field, CA on September 18, 1928 enroute to their
homebase of Selfridge Field in Michigan. They were flying
mostly Curtiss P-1's.
The Third Attack Group from Ft. Crockett, TX and the 2nd
Bombardment Group from Langley Field, VA also landed. The
latter, in one handwriting, listed names in the register of
26 lieutenant pilots. No aircraft types or numbers were specified,
or who was flying.
More to come as I get time. If you have information, especially
on military events that passed through Tucson, please use
this FORM to pass
it along.
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LINDBERGH GOODWILL TOUR
Charles Lindbergh visited the Davis-Monthan Airfield
in September 1927 just five months after his trans-Atlantic voyage.
He was on a nationwide goodwill mission sponsored by the Daniel
Guggenheim Foundation, to promote aviation. A Fairchild FC2, registration
number NS-7, was assigned by the U.S. Department of Commerce to
accompany him. Its pilot was "Red" Love, an old pilot
buddy of Lindbergh's from air mail days. Follow this link
for more information on Lindbergh's visit to Tucson, including a
transcript of the brief speech he gave while on the ground there.
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