Edwin Law
Pensacola, FL | First flight was with Chamberlain in his Condor on a barnstorming stop in Tyler, TX about 1936-7. Mother bought me a ticket for $1.50, I think. I was an avid model builder .. the 10 balsa, glue, tissue paper and dope kits of every WWI and later plane to that date. Every dime I earned delivering papers went for 'Flying Aces' or 'G-8 and His Battle Aces' plus the models.
1942 left Texas A&M, Junior, entered Navy V-5. Piper J-3, Stearman, SNV, SNJ and the F4U-1 Corsair as a Marine. Temp duty VRF-1 NY, F4U, F4F, F6F, TBM, F8F ferrying NY > San Diego or Alameda. F7F back in squadron VMF 911. Reserves SNB. Recalled Korean: F4U-4, TV-2 jet, FAC 1stBn/9th Marines.
Later, as head of construction company in Wichita, KS owned and flew Cessna 320A, and C with Radar. Cessna 421 A and C both fully equipped. Retired 1994. Happy old man.
12/26/2009 @ 12:29 [ref: 25478] |
John A. MacFadden
Dewey, AZ | My father flew a Curtiss Jenny at Langley Field, Virginia and Kelly Field, Texas in WW1 while serving in the Aviation Branch of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He never saw combat duty but the flying 'bug' remained with him. Sometime in the period 1936-38 we drove to Murchio's Field in Preakness, New Jersey where Clarence Chamberlain was offering flights in a Curtiss Condor -- Dad and I went up for a ride, and that was my first airplane experience. As we took off, I noticed a Kellett Autogiro sitting on the field. Altho I don't remember Dad ever saying it, he undoubtedly met Clarence when they were pilots in the Aviation Branchof the Signal Corps. My next flight with Dad was in 1939 on a charter flight in a beautiful Gullwing Stinson Reliant at the Hagerstown, Maryland airport. I'll turn into an octogenarian next February and love old airplanes -- still building scale flying models.
07/14/2008 @ 11:19 [ref: 22129] |
