THANK YOU!

YOUR PURCHASE OF THESE BOOKS SUPPORTS THE WEB SITES THAT BRING TO YOU THE HISTORY BEHIND OLD AIRFIELD REGISTERS

Your copy of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register 1925-1936 with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. 375 pages with black & white photographs and extensive tables

---o0o---

The Congress of Ghosts (available as eBook) is an anniversary celebration for 2010.  It is an historical biography, that celebrates the 5th year online of www.dmairfield.org and the 10th year of effort on the project dedicated to analyze and exhibit the history embodied in the Register of the Davis-Monthan Airfield, Tucson, AZ. This book includes over thirty people, aircraft and events that swirled through Tucson between 1925 and 1936. It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders. Order your copy at the link.

---o0o---

Military Aircraft of the Davis Monthan Register 1925-1936 is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

---o0o---

Art Goebel's Own Story by Art Goebel (edited by G.W. Hyatt) is written in language that expands for us his life as a Golden Age aviation entrepreneur, who used his aviation exploits to build a business around his passion.  Available as a free download at the link.

---o0o---

Winners' Viewpoints: The Great 1927 Trans-Pacific Dole Race (available as eBook) is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

---o0o---

Clover Field: The first Century of Aviation in the Golden State (available in paperback) With the 100th anniversary in 2017 of the use of Clover Field as a place to land aircraft in Santa Monica, this book celebrates that use by exploring some of the people and aircraft that made the airport great. 281 pages, black & white photographs.

---o0o---

home
the register
people
places
airplanes
events

YOU CAN HELP

I'm looking for information and photographs of this airplane to include on this page. If you have some you'd like to share, please click this FORM to contact me.

---o0o---

SPONSORED LINKS

HELP KEEP THESE WEB SITES ONLINE

 

FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE

You may NOW donate via PAYPAL by clicking the "Donate" icon below and using your credit card. You may use your card or your PAYPAL account. You are not required to have a PAYPAL account to donate.

 

When your donation clears the PAYPAL system, a certified receipt from Delta Mike Airfield, Inc. will be emailed to you for your tax purposes.

 

---o0o---

GREAT LAKES 2T1A NX315Y

 

NX315Y landed once at Peterson Field, on Sunday, June 18, 1939. It was flown solo by Tex Rankin, well-known aerobatics champion and west coast dealer of Great Lakes aircraft. He arrived at Colorado Springs from Denver, CO. He did not enter a destination in the Register.

In the photograph below, from Popular Aviation (PA), December, 1938, Tex Rankin sits in the cockpit of his airplane. NX315Y was owned by Rankin and it was a highly modifed and stressed airplane, used by Rankin in aerobatics contests. Rankin bought the original airplane ca. 1931. He had it modified in 1936, according to PA, at a cost of $6,500 to have it built to his specifications.

Great Lakes NX315Y, Ca. 1938 (Source: PA)
Great Lakes NX315Y, Ca. 1938 (Source: PA)

Another photograph, below, appeared in the Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) in 2004.

Great Lakes NX315Y, Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, 2004 (Source: AAHS via Site Visitor)

The caption in the Journal identifies the date as November 16, 1939 and the location as Chino, CA.

I could find no information about NX315Y at the Smithsonian (because it's still in the FAA registry, although de-registered), so I know little of its chain of custody after Rankin. A site visitor states, "It was last owned by  Lcdr (?) Paul [H.] Maguire, USNR, and was totally destroyed in a fatal accident while practicing for an airshow at NADC Johnsville, PA circa 1969-70. Cause was structural failure during low altitude pullup into a square loop." Despite this, our site visitor states, "The wreckage of 315Y was at some point acquired by the Oregon Aviation Historical Society who are apparently restoring it. I would say they have a BIG job ahead of them, as I saw the wreckage immediately post crash and other than some wing ribs and some of the empennage there was virtually nothing left that looked identifiable as a 2T1A." You can view information about the restoration at the link.

Maguire's accident was captured in a naval history blog in 2016 as follows. It is unusual to read an account of an accident written by a witness to the accident. The date was May 14, 1968. Pilot Maguire was not a Register signer. I usually just provide a link to this kind of extended information, but blogs have a tendency to disappear over time, so here is the full text and image from the blog. Please let me KNOW if the link becomes inoperative.

Morning colors has just been played and Old Glory streams from the flagstaff. The morning muster formations are breaking up and the enlisted men and officers are heading for their duty stations. It’s Tuesday and I have a meeting with my boss to discuss a proposed air show that we are considering for Armed Forces Day. It is May 14, 1968, and the Vietnam War is raging in southeast Asia and enraging our nation. The consensus of the senior officers is that we should put on an aerial acrobatic display for the local community as part of the annual commemoration. We felt strongly at the time that we needed to re-instill some pride in our military.

Commander William Winfrey and I work on the military side of a larger facility called Naval Air Development Center Johnsville in Bucks County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a place rich with history. Purchased by the Navy in the 1940s, the facility built and modified military aircraft, including the famous Brewster Buccaneer dive bomber. At the time, it also housed the largest centrifuge, capable of spinning a man up to 16 Gs. Here, Project Mercury astronaut training took place. Commander Winfrey was charged with the responsibility of providing men and maintaining the equipment for this facility.

That morning, I meet with Commander Winfrey and the conversation turns from discussing the morning flight schedule to the proposed air show. He informed me that there would be two pilots coming to do a demonstration show for us that day. After lunch, we walk back over to the airfield just in time to see the second demonstration pilot perform his rehearsal. A bright yellow biplane completes its landing and taxis over to the parking area. A pilot climbs out wearing a Navy flight suit with a white silk scarf draped around his neck. He looks like he has just stepped out of a barnstorming magazine from the 1930s.

As we approach him, a black automobile pulls up in front of the hangar and two men get out. One is carrying a large television news camera and the other person looks familiar. As they approach, we immediately recognize one of the men as Tom Snyder from the local NBC affiliate, WCAU-TV. He does the nightly news in Philadelphia. He later became a national television personality, best known for hosting The Tomorrow Show and The Late, Late Show. Tom introduces his cameraman and Commander Winfrey introduces the pilot to all of us. He is Paul H. Maguire, a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve who lives in nearby Jenkentown. He flies a yellow 2T-1A Great Lakes Special: a biplane with an open cockpit that has been outfitted as a highly maneuverable aerobatic airplane. The instruments normally found on the flight panel directly in front of the pilot are embedded in the trailing edge of the upper wing so that the pilot can see them when his head is cocked back doing aerobatic maneuvers.

The pilot explains the complicated aerial maneuvers that he will perform for the demonstration. We are impressed. He climbs back into his aircraft and we walk to the corner of the hangar to watch the cameraman set up his equipment. As we watch the yellow plane taxi to the run-up area, we hear the throaty roar of the engine as Lieutenant Commander Maguire puts it through its pre-flight tests. And soon he is taking position on the runway.

With the tower’s permission to takeoff, he begins his roll, gaining speed and then quickly lifting the plane into the air. Racing down the runway about a hundred feet above the runway, he suddenly rolls the aircraft inverted and continues to fly upside down past us. The plane begins to climb, but it is upside down! He rolls upright and begins a series of spectacular maneuvers that make all of us stare in awe. Diving down towards the runway, he inverts again. Halfway down the runway, he rolls upright and increases his speed. And then he pulls back on the stick and it looks like the airplane has just made a ninety-degree turn straight up. It keeps climbing and falls over onto its back and continues to fly inverted. Then it makes a ninety-degree dive straight down pulling out at the last possible minute and touches his wheels to the ground. The tires smoke at impact and he slows the plane to a crawl! He quickly turns off the runway and taxis back to the hangar. We just stand there with our mouths wide open, still not believing what we had just witnessed. A Square Loop! It can’t be done, but we just saw it.

Tom Snyder is yelling at his cameraman. “Did you get that?”

“No!” he replies. “I ran out of film!”

“I am going to ask him to do it again so load your camera,” responds Snyder. And he walks over to the pilot and talks to him. The pilot nods and climbs back into the aircraft.

“He’s going to do that square thing again,” yells Snyder. Snyder, Commander Winfrey, the cameraman and I are standing on the crash pad. The camera is loaded and the operator is focusing on the approaching plane. Lieutenant Commander Maguire makes his roll and continues toward us inverted and then begins his climb out. Once past the end of the runway, he rolls over and continues his climb for altitude. He then turns down wind and flies back to the opposite end of the runway. Turning, he begins to dive for the deck and races towards us at about fifty feet off the concrete. Just as he approaches us he begins a rapid rate of climb to straight up but, as he does, the lower wing separates and folds back along the fuselage. Simultaneously, the upper wing fold backs over the cockpit. Pieces of debris are tumbling down towards us. We are running to avoid being hit and still looking up at the stricken plane. The momentum of the aircraft through the air continues, as it appears to continue to fly towards the end of the runway. It is coming down and fast.

We start to run after it. Men who had stopped work to watch are racing from the hangar in the same direction. The plane is falling as if in slow motion. It hits just inside the airfield perimeter fence and bounces back into the air. It flips and comes down again, only this time inverted. And then there is stillness, broken only by the screaming siren of the approaching crash vehicles. Men have reached the airplane and, in a Herculean show of strength, they lift and flip the plane right side up.

Commander Winfrey turns to the cameraman. “Stay right there, we will need to develop that film for a formal investigation.”

The ambulance rolls down the taxiway and pulls up by the crowd. It quickly opens as the paramedics run to the plane. They carefully extract the pilot and lay him on the grass. And then the lights are turned off and we know it is over.

Commander Winfrey turns to me and says, “Emil, call the chaplain. I am designating you CACO. I want the both of you to go and inform the widow of the tragedy and tend to her needs.”

“Aye Aye, Sir.” I replied. Geez, what the hell is a CACO? I wondered as I head back to the hangar. An abbreviation for a Casualty Assistance Calls Officer, the CACO is the title of the designated officer that works closely with a military chaplain to inform the family of a death and makes all of the arrangements if they need assistance.

What am I going to say to the pilot’s widow? His children? I have never done this before. I sank down into a chair, taking in the fact that I had just witnessed a violent death. I was numb, and I just didn’t know how to prepare myself for the task at hand.

A few minutes later the chaplain arrives and we speak. He offers to break the news to the family and we get into the car. This is the longest drive I will ever take. As we pull up in front of the pilot’s house, we see children playing in the back. The front door is open because the weather is warm. A lady wearing a house dress, her hair swept back comes to the door and freezes. She looks at us and lets out an unforgettable scream: “NO!!” It was chilling and echoed throughout the neighborhood.

Before we could say anything, she slumps back against the open door. She knows. She has heard on the radio there was an aircraft accident nearby and the two of us stepping out of that Navy car confirms her fears. I was sweating profusely as I introduced the chaplain. He guided her over to the couch and sat next to her as I scampered to a straight back chair and tried to compose myself before I blurted anything out. Calmly he delivered the message that I could not seem to let come out. I had experienced my share of near-death experiences as a test pilot, but this was different. I was picturing someone making the same call at my house and that was terrifying.

We call the funeral home and we wait until one of her family arrived. The sound of the children gleefully playing outside is unnerving. They are unaware of the tragic news. As we drive away, the chaplain pats my shoulder and says softly, “The first time is always the hardest.”

Later that night my wife and I are watching the evening news, waiting to see what Tom Snyder would say. He hurries through the local news and then he looks into the camera and there are tears in his eyes. He slowly tells the story as the film begins to appear on the screen. Dubbed into the tail end of the film is some additional footage taken by some observers at the air field that were filming from the roof of the main building. Their visual perspective is different than that of the cameraman shooting straight up at the crippled plane. You can see the pilot. He is holding up the upper wing with one hand as he attempts to steer the crippled plane. It falls behind another building and Tom continues his story: “This man knew what was about to happen to him but he also knew that there was a factory of people just off the end of the runway on one corner and a gas station on the other. When the crash crew got to the aircraft and looked inside, they found that the pilot had turned off the engine, and turned off the gas to prevent a fire in case he hit one of the buildings.” And then the screen went blank.

The air show was cancelled for Armed Forces Day that year and in its place a tribute was staged for the deceased pilot. I still dream about this pilot, his final flight, and his heroic efforts to avoid more casualties. Some nights I wake up with a jolt because I still hear his widow’s scream.

This is what I know about this airplane. If you can help fill in the blanks regarding its life during the 1940s and 50s, please let me KNOW.

---o0o---

SPONSORED LINKS

THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 07/17/14 REVISED: 01/04/16, 03/31/17