OTHER RESOURCES
Very readable volumes about the Grand Central Air Terminal are these books:
Underwood, John. 1984. Madcaps, Millionaires and 'Mose'. Heritage Press, Glendale, CA. 144pp.
And...
Underwood, John. 2007. Grand Central Air Terminal. Arcadia Publishing. Charleston, SC. 127pp.
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Everything you ever wanted to know about the Ford tri-motor series is in William L. Larkins' 1957 book, The Ford Story: A Pictorial History of the Ford Tri-Motor. Robert R. Longo Company. Wichita, KS. 178pp.
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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.
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FORD 4-AT-B NC7117
This airplane is a Ford 4-AT-B tri-motor (S/N 4-AT-31) manufactured August 11, 1928 by the Stout Metal Airplane Company (Division of Ford Motor Company), Dearborn, MI. It sold on August 17, 1928 to Maddux Air Lines, Inc., Los Angeles, CA. Its use by Maddux is what brought the airplane west. Maddux/T.W.A. sold the NC7117 to Blue Bird Air Transport, Inc. on December 15, 1933.
Between December 21, 1930 and May 11, 1931, NC7117 landed at least nine times at the Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT), Glendale, CA. Since Maddux sold the airplane to Western Air Express on April 21, 1931, its ownership changed before its last visit to GCAT. Below, from the Larkins reference in the left sidebar, are two photographs of NC7117.
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The top photograph, by the Ford Motor Company, is probably ca. 1928 when the airplane was brand new. The bottom photo, in Blue Bird Air Transport livery, is probably ca. 1933-1935.
None of the GCAT visits cite a pilot's name, although on May 9th the airplane arrived from San Francisco, CA. The remarks column on December 21, 1930 and May 4, 1931 includes "charter" as the purpose of those flights.
Besides its nine landings at GCAT, NC7117 landed and is signed into the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register two times during 1928-29. The full technography for NC7117 is online at the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register Web site at the link. Please direct your browser there to learn the full chain of custody. NC7117 was exported to Cuba in 1944.
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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 07/07/13 REVISED: 03/02/16