STINSON DETROITER NC9691

NC9691 is signed in the Register at Clover Field once, on Tuesday, March 12, 1929. It was flown by Charles V. Towns, carrying three passengers, one of whom was identified as George Perry. According to the Register, they departed the same day at 9:15AM eastbound to New York, NY. The owner of the aircraft was identified as Tanner, Inc. Tanner was an air charter operator ("Short Flights Anywhere") and Stinson aircraft distributor at Clover Field.

Stinson NC9691, Clover Field, Santa Monica, CA, 1929 (Source: USC Library)

At left, a photograph of NC9691 in front of the Tanner hangar at Clover Field, dated (December?) 1929. The source of the photograph is the University of Southern California (USC) Digital Library at the link. If you follow the link, you'll be able to magnify this high-quality image, you'll be able to read the registration number much more clearly, and explore the hangar behind the airplane as well.

Note, too, the tail of the airplane at the right edge of the photograph. It is Stinson NC8420, a SM-1F Detroiter, signed in the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register by Towns on Sunday, April 7, 1929. Keep this date in mind as you read below.

Significantly, by comparing the Santa Monica and Davis-Monthan Airfield Registers, we can track NC9691 on its eastward journey and return. To do this, we find that NC9691 appears in the Davis-Monthan Register twice, the first time on March 12, 1929 at 4:45PM. This visit was undoubtedly a stop in Towns' and Perry's eastbound itinerary. Their flight times, plus a couple of intermediate landings and refuelings probably occupied the 7.5 hours between their departure from Santa Monica and their landing at Tucson. Indeed, they arrived at Tucson from Phoenix, AZ, so they made at least one intermediate landing.

From the Tucson Register, we learn the names of the other two passengers who remained unidentified as Towns and Perry departed Santa Monica earliler in the day, above. They were Mr. & Mrs. Groves, who, along with Towns and Perry, remained overnight in Tucson, departing the next morning at 7:00AM, according to the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register.

Now we come to the second landing of NC9691 at Tucson. That visit occurred on Tuesday, April 9, 1929 at 6:00PM. This time the pilot was George Perry carrying one unidentified passenger. Based at Santa Monica and arriving from Philadelphia, PA, he remained on the ground only five minutes, departing at 6:05PM for Los Angeles, CA. Compare the date of Perry's landing at Tucson with NC9691 and Towns' landing with NC8420, above. They are only two days apart and headed in the same direction. I'd bet a week's pay that one of Towns' and Perry's eastbound stops a month earlier was Detroit, MI and NC8420 was a brand new airplane (the Stinson Aircraft Company was based in Detroit). My bet is supported by the fact that Towns recorded in the Register that he arrived at Tucson from Detroit.

Of further interest is a group of documents at the USC link the give context to the photograph of NC9691. Thumbnails of these documents are arrayed at the right of the USC Web page linked above. You may magnify each one for easy reading. USC summarizes these documents as follows. Go to the link to make better sense of them.

It seems that "Townes" [sic] ordered the photograph taken of NC9691, contracted for a couple of different size prints, then was not available when the prints were sent to him and the, "Pictures [were] returned unclaimed."

Someone in the company operated by the photographer saw fit to save the 5" x 7" negative, as well as the documents and the envelope (see them all at the USC link).

Whoever it was, we thank them for giving us the opportunity to view such a high-quality image of NC9691 and to lash together, here in the 21st century, an itinerary for the airplane, flown cross-country by two pilots, across two airfield Registers, during the early Spring of 1929.

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 08/08/13 REVISED: