fletcher aviation
fletcher aviation consulting is a premier international aviation, management, professional and technical consulting firm .
fletcher aviation lapel pin; one piece stamped brass aircraft depicted with red and blue enamel fletcher aviation globe logo depicted on center disc; embossed text
fletcher aviation
on wings of aircraft .
he brought one of his ideas developed during his lockheed time to fletcher aviation .
fletcher aviation’s first cougar – ga - 7. 1977 dealer’s meeting in tulsa, oklahoma
according to bob falcon, the fletcher aviation plant “ was built in the early 1950s .
fletcher aviation located off the south ramp on runway 12 - 30 at houston hobby airport .
fletcher aviation – moved from next to the main terminal at hobby airport to the south ramp in about 1979 .
one was the fd - 25 fletcher defender, and based upon it the fu - 24 fletcher utility agwagon .
wendell fletcher, born in illinois in 1899, had founded fletcher aviation with his brothers. wendell had worked as a design engineer for lockheed aircraft in burbank as they were moving into all - metal airplanes .
what scared him? i don’t know. just another day in aviation. ”
the new owner was james most of most aviation co. , los angeles .
the latest development for the fletcher family is a new 200 acre residential airpark for aviation enthusiasts. this community is on the fabulous guadalupe river in the middle of the beautiful texas hill country! fletcher airport will sport a 4500 foot runway and brings with it - - a long history in aviation !
in 1935, fletcher opened the fletcher school of aviation in burbank to teach metal aircraft construction practices. out of this came a manual, the “standard aircraft construction manual, ” which was revised and reprinted for many years .
these other sites are non - aviation related but are a part of my history .
there was no aviation traffic that i can recall; but the diner was in operation .
ross field was where aviation legend pancho barnes (see barnes airfield) learned to fly .
john thorp had traveled far and wide as an aeronautical engineer in the aviation back ground of california, with his associations with boeing and lockheed. he brought one of his ideas developed during his lockheed time to fletcher aviation. fletcher built two planes based upon thorps designs. one was the fd - 25, fletcher, “defender, ” and based upon it the fu - 24 fletcher utility, “agwagon. ” the planes were very similar having the same engine cowling, wing, and empennage .
fletcher sold the agwagon to cable price corporation, a new zealand company. ”
llloyd continued, “at this same show fletcher showed its' jeep' offering .
maybelle fletcher in front of a tri - gear beechcraft d - 18. 1965
fletcher has dealt exclusively with grumman aircraft and their parts for over 30 years .
this short - lived little general aviation airport was evidently established shortly after the end of ww2 .
these were 'drop tanks’ made by fletcher aviation corp. pictured here is the tank assembly line in pasadena, as shown in a hawkins photo from the pasadena museum of history collection .
just about the time fletcher bought the airport bill bought a beautiful beechcraft twin bonanza .
it depicted fletcher as a private airfield having a 2, 500' unpaved runway .
eben & edna montgomery agreed to first flight lessons for their youngest, maybelle fletcher .
the owners were 2 brothers, maurie & stan fletcher. they were nice people. ”
my brother ernie & i saw hardwick opening fletcher’s back entrance gate to their factory property .
according to lloyd duke, “fletcher wanted to get into the aircraft business with a passion .
larry and maybelle fletcher work on hangar repair at the new business. nov 5, 1945
in 1952, fletcher left pasadena to buy a large site in rosemead, with an airstrip near the rio hondo. this was known as the rosemead airport or the fletcher airport .
also in 2004 maybelle was presented with the lloyd p. nolen lifetime achievement in aviation award by wings over houston. this award is given to individuals, organizations or companies dedicating their efforts to the advancement of aviation .
david fletcher takes some instruction from his mother maybelle in a cessna 310. march 5, 1959
as of 2006, the sargent fletcher company was still located at the site of the former airport .
grandma montgomery with her two pilot son’s - in - law, larry fletcher and ernest maferd hunt .
fly - in breakfast on chincoteague island, va. 1948. maybelle and larry fletcher watch landings .
it is said that fletcher was the largest user in the country of a certain type of aluminum sheet metal. fletcher also designed airplanes, including the fu - 24, used for crop - dusting .
dick morris reported, “a november 1952 ad for j. l. most aviation, bellflower airport, 10451 e. center
the other was that crazy floating porsche jeep thing thing up top. called the fletcher flair, it was a response to an army desire for a new, floating jeep and wendell fletcher’s obsession with porsche .
after a move to houston, texas, in 1956, maybelle founded and promoted the southwest flying club at what was at the time hull field in sugarland (now sugarland regional airport). she took over a small flight school on that airport where she handled flight training for the va students and also started one of the early cessna pilot centers. and, fletcher aviation had begun! it was here that larry and maybelle' s son, david fletcher, soloed on his 16th birthday. this was the beginning of another career in aviation! maybelle formally founded fletcher aviation in 1968. in 1972 she relocated the business to hobby airport next to the west end of the main terminal .
lloyd recalled, “fletcher had a show & tell & flight demonstration that i was lucky enough to witness .
it depicted fletcher airport as having a paved northeast / southwest runway & a paved east / west taxiway .
located on the south ramp of hobby, the business included a flight school specializing in grumman american aircraft, parts department, maintenance department, aircraft storage, and fbo - chevron aviation fuel center, later an exxon avitat. they operated on 14 acres with over 140, 000 square feet of hangar space. fletcher aviation was sold to wilson air center in 2005 .
the fletcher brothers had a habit of creating great things that just didn’t quite work out. they formed their company, fletcher aviation, to try and win an army contract for a basic trainer aircraft in 1941. the army only showed brief interest in the plane, but their intention would be to use it as a target drone. insulting .
visit us in washington, dc and chantilly, va to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history .
the last aeronautical chart depiction which has been located of fletcher airport was on the 1960 la local aeronautical chart .
january 5, 1949 parksley, virginia - sandy fletcher is bundled up to assist her mother with flight instruction .
maybelle fletcher july 29, 1952 next to her aeronca champ. the door was removed for taking aerial photos .
fletcher started to produce the drop tanks in pasadena in 1945. a fletcher innovation was making tanks with a cylindrical center section so capacity could be increased by lengthening the tank although this type is not shown in the photograph .
* * * when fletcher aviation was located on the west end of hobby’s main terminal, sky king stopped by to visit in his famous cessna 310 - b, songbird n5348a which was made famous by the sky king tv show the late 1950’s .
maybelle is active in the ninety nines (a member since 1947), a women' s aviation group founded by amelia earhart as well as many other aviation related projects. she has participated in numerous air races including the powder puff derby (transcontinental race), air race classic, angel derby (international races), café 400 and other local races. during her 20 years of racing she placed first and second many times. she is sought after as a speaker encouraging young people in their pursuit of aviation careers - especially women in aviation .
a circa 1950s photo (courtesy of lloyd duke) of a fletcher fu - 25 defender prototype at rosemead airport .
the fletcher plant building was first built with the main entrance located on the south side which was the airfield side .
a 2017 aerial view looking north showed the fletcher airport site does not bear any recognizable traces as a former airport .
the heasleys sold the airport to fletcher aviation company. the company built droppable aircraft fuel tanks and napalm bombs for the fighter planes used in the korea war. the war was still going on and their products were in high demand and they needed more manufacturing space .
and there was quite an open space between hardwick’s, fletcher’s new factory construction & the west side of the airport apron .
larry fletcher on right, 1944 standing next to bevo howard’s vintage clipped wing cub. nx on wing means experimental airplane .
ron most recalled, “jimmy most was my uncle & owned j. l. most aviation company at the bellflower airport [ in ] 1950. ”
the 1962 aopa airport directory described
fletcher
airport as having a single 2, 500' turf runway 4 / 22 .
larry fletcher flys a 1946 beechcraft d - 18 for tuboscope. it was purchased from gulf oil for $ 20, 000 .
maybelle fletcher, sandy & student taking off in the new 1946 taylorcraft purchased for $ 2, 400 - 1947 parksley, virginia .
the last photo which has been located of fletcher airport was a 5 / 24 / 60 aerial view (from the ucsb library) .
was probably a fletcher aircraft crop duster of which they built a few in the early days & then went strictly to fuel tanks. ”
according to bob falcon, “the very last pilot to make a landing & takeoff [ at fletcher airport ] really was dick weis. ”
he was the owner of utility metal products in pasadena. at the time he had a contract to build the wings for north american aviation' s f - 100s .
fletcher aviation sold its houston fbo and flight school in 2005. this required fletchair to choose a new location from which to operate and it was decided to move out of the houston area into a more pleasant environment. after a long search, the perfect property was found nestled in the popular texas hill country .
i was there early on testing day. fletcher had set up a canapé tent & parked next to it was the instrument & communications truck .
larry fletcher had (at last count in 1955) 17, 000 + hours in various types of single and multi - engine aircraft and an atp rating. he has also participated with maybelle in cross country and international air races. larry fletcher is one of the longest standing members of the aircraft owner’s and pilot’s association (aopa) and sports a 60 year plus membership pin. in 1996 larry and maybelle were inducted into the international forest of friendship in atchison, kansas, a
living, growing memorial to the world history of aviation and aerospace
. both larry and maybelle have been champions of general aviation for decades .
dr. c. m. brackensick, who with fletcher delk & eugene lieppert, is drawing up plans for the port, accounced today. ”
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just looking thru old 8mm tape from my father on the fletcher racing team. this current video is i' m mexico. anyone have info and addil interest. would like to get some stories. father was a porsche factory rep. great images from fletcher race car # 55. including plane captures .
our team' s vast diversity as well as cumulative years of experience in managing various aviation specialties and functions are what make us the right experts to successfully address your organization' s needs. ﻿﻿
fletcher selected bob downey to be the experimental test pilot. there were two famous bob downey' s flying at the time in los angeles and both were experimental test pilots .
james lawrence
larry
fletcher and maybelle montgomery fletcher have been continually active in the general aviation community since the early 1940' s. larry received his pilot' s license in 1941 while training for the military in virginia. after submarine hunting on the eastern shore with the civil air patrol, he was later in the army air corps. maybelle, a native texan, learned to fly in 1941 and received her pilot' s license in 1943. they were married in 1945 and flew their first aircraft, a piper j - 3
cub
, on their honeymoon trip .
in the 1950' s the fletchers moved to waco, texas. larry began his career as a corporate pilot and maybelle became chief pilot at waco aviation. she worked at instructing, teaching acrobatics, and flying charters .
in the early 1950s, porsche had been working with us company fletcher aviation to develop and test a jet cooling system for porsche’s new 1952 356 cabriolet. the jet cooling was an interesting scheme that saved the power required to drive a cooling fan. porsche did a great deal of development work with the cooling system for several years, trying it out on the early 550 spyder before concluding that the exhaust noise was excessive and abandoned the program for jet cooling .
fletcher wanted to get into the aircraft business with a passion. there were several tries before my entry on the scene. in 1951 they had partnered with an aeronautical engineer by the name of john w. thorp .
the company changed ownership and is now known as sargent fletcher inc. , a subsidiary of cobham. el monte has annexed the site, and a variation of the company name is retained in flair park and flair drive .
fletcher' s future plans were to build a porsche powered jeep for the army, an agriculture plane and a spin - off of that plane as a small close ground support aircraft for the army, air force and marines. the owners were two brothers, maurie and stan fletcher. they each owned mercedes benz 300 - sl gull wing coupes as personal cars. they also owned a third gull wing that they raced in the mexican road race .
in 1951 larry and maybelle fletcher got their multi - engine ratings in this bamboo bomber at - 17, cessna uc - 78, t - 50. wwii trainer. could buy a nice one for $ 1, 500 .
the relationship between porsche and fletcher aviation, who manufactured porsche industrial engines under license from the stuttgart automaker, created a unique opportunity of company sponsorship in motorsport, something never considered or seen before. mexico’s carrera panamericana race in november 1954 saw the porsche factory enter two 550s – chassis 550 - 03 and 550 - 04 blazened with sponsor logos across the bonnet. additional sponsors castrol and telefunken radio, whose radios were fitted in the 356, also joined the support of the team with logos on display, which helped finance the expensive journeys off shore .
fletchair fleet support maintenance and modifications & technical support * (ts36) silver wings fly - in ranch 1409 aviation loop, fredericksburg, texas 78624. about 12 miles north of kerrville 265 degrees out of stonewall vor, 3 degrees out of centerpoint vor. n 30. 1294 w 99. 837 .
one of maybelle’s most significant contributions to aviation was her development of the plan for class b airspace for houston’s hobby airport which the faa accepted without revision. she drew up the plan and developed consensus among the operator’s at hobby before presenting it to the faa. her unique design has positively impacted all air traffic — vfr and ifr, private and commercial, arrivals and departures at hobby airport ever since. in 2001 she was inducted into the texas aviation hall of fame located in the lone star flight museum on galveston island, texas. in 2004 she was the first woman honored with the wright brother’s master pilot award .
i received an interesting email from a person who was researching an aviation project and stumbled across the newspaper accounts of the crash of the 4 aces. he did a
google
on the
4 aces
and came up with this site and forwarded me the information with some pictures of the crash site .
our extensive personnel are readily available to provide a wide range of expertise and support as needed in areas involving aviation research, training, airport executive requirements, airport operations, airport planning, project management, airspace design, air traffic management, uas integration, rpas pilot training, procedural design, regulatory compliance, etc .
flight testing day come, fortunately it was during summer vacation. i was there early on testing day. fletcher had set up a canopy tent and parked next to it was the instrument and communications truck. there were several of those folding directors’ chairs set around there .
of the two planes the agwagon was the most successful. the military apparently did not want a cheap, utility, close ground support spotter plane. in that i was disappointed. i thought it was a great idea. fletcher sold the agwagon to cable price corporation, a new zealand company .
fletchair, inc. is known worldwide as the single largest manufacturer and distributor of parts for american, american general, grumman - american, and gulfstream - american aircraft. david fletcher, president of fletchair, has grown up with the grumman family of aircraft and has been a stocking grumman dealer since 1974 .
their first aviation business was established on the eastern shore of virginia later that year. the operation, just outside the town of parksley, virginia, consisted of pilot training, area tours, crop dusting, and charter flights. the old photos show vintage aircraft lining the field! they started a family and soon their daughter sandy logged 200 hours before her second birthday .
fletchair fleet support llc provides maintenance, modifications, and repairs to all the grumman family of aircraft, from the aa - 1 to the twin cougar. located in houston, texas for 32 years, fletchair fleet support is now located at silver wings fly - in ranch 1409 aviation loop, fredericksburg, texas 78624 (ts36). if your aircraft is in need of maintenance and / or parts, our experienced staff is here to promptly serve you. we are labeled the “grumman specialists” with david fletcher being the on - site “grummanologist” to answer your technical inquiries. in addition to david, garner rice has over 24 years experience exclusively with grumman aircraft and can answer almost any question .
before getting started, i need to express my appreciation to wayman dunlap for running my little ad in pacific flyer for so many issues, all gratis. without that little ad asking for information about the old rosemead airport i never would have gotten the response that i did. i' m sure that we all miss getting the pacific flyer, the best aviation publication ever to exist .
it was just killing us to ask what happened, but knowing his disdain for kids, we just watched and wondered. hardwick buttoned up the cockpit, popped put the steps, climbed down, tucked up the steps, and replaced the chocks, giving each a good kick. he tied the plane down and drove away. what scared him? i don’t know. just another day in aviation .
the other was bob downey, the los angeles times aviation editor. i knew him from gus’ flying service he used to rent planes from gus. he was a tall lanky man, always came wearing a suit and flew in his white shirt and tie. he had a full head of hair and as i stated before, had heard rumors that flight testing would be done by bob downey but i did not know which one .
the ford gpas (aka “seep”) were becoming scarce by the early 1950s. probably because most of them were sitting at the bottom of canals, lakes, rivers, large puddles in the parking lot, etc. the army, obsessed with amphibious equipment at the time, wanted a replacement. the fletcher boys jumped at this chance to get a lucrative government contract and built the flair .
fletcher would also supply a 190 - mph, single - engine navion aircraft and pilot - journalist - photographer don downie to fly the plane and provide support for the race team. porsche racing director huschke von hanstein who was following the race from the air, called on the drivers to exercise prudence and avoid senseless duels that might send a potential one - two porsche victory up in smoke, especially since the engines on both lead cars were ailing .
it was a cold overcast blustery saturday morning. my brother ernie and i saw hardwick opening fletcher’s back entrance gate to their factory property. some of his planes that were flight worthy were inside the fenced area. he drove his chevy pickup to the p - 38 that was parked close to the east side of the fenced area. we knew this meant some excitement was to be had there. we went over to the fence and found some boxes to set on .
at this same show fletcher showed its “jeep” offering. it was an amphibious four place small car powered by a porsche engine. they built a muddy water pit for it to drive through, they ran it down the runway and turned it on a dime, and they ran it down in the river with generals riding to demonstrate its rough abilities. this was all to no avail. no jeeps were sold to the military. it was a neat combination in my opinion. would have been better than the humvee and a lot cheaper .
later on fletcher had a show and tell and flight demonstration that i was lucky enough to witness. there were a lot of military people in attendance. actually there were generals from the air force, army and the marines, as well as lower officers, all pilot or aviators as the case may be. the highest general was three stars. this picture was taken of that event at rosemead air port. the display was setup in front of the cap hut. in this picture at the background 1 / 3 from the left, is the agwagon next to a c - 47 to the right of it. some of the generals came in the c - 47 .
one other story that gets some confirmation is the one about 3 stearman' s pulling a single large banner. i was visiting a fellow banner tow competitor at torrance airport back when i was flying the stearman' s prior to 1980. at that time bob marks (marks aviation) told me that he was towing banners in a stearman out of rosemead airport on a new years day when an accident happened. i tried to contact bob marks at this time (september 2008) only to find out that he passed away last year. but his story as i recall it is that the three stearman' s were coming in for the banner drop when one of them did not
pickle
it exactly at the same time as the other two did. regardless of why the pilot did not accomplish the release, it would only take a nanosecond for a extra large load to immediately stall an airplane. i know this from flying the giant coors beer can coors we flew with the l19. any reduction in power was an immediate stall. the following pictures of the new years day crash were forwarded to me by dan rhinehart (nc14881). the pilot is identified as wayne clark .
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then in 1953 they had two breakthroughs. ok, really just one. that breakthrough was the fu - 24, which was primarily produced in new zealand as a crop duster. many are still in use today .
the flair used the mechanicals from a porsche 356. the flat - four engine, transmission and suspension were bolted to the aluminum tub. it was light enough, around 1, 490 pounds, to be air transportable. a transfer case and front differential were designed to make it four wheel drive. it seemed everything was working in their favor. until they used the aircraft engine cooling setup patented by otto koppen to try to propel the flair in the water. mr. koppen’s system used the exhaust gases to draw cooling air past the cylinder heads of an aircraft engine then out an exhaust exit. it was supposed to be much more efficient in aircraft applications since it did not require large cowl openings, and would work regardless of the forward windspeed. this was a seemingly genius system — it could cool the air - cooled porsche engine and propel the craft all at once !
unfortunately, it did not propel the flair very well. test drivers said you had better luck going anywhere in the water by turning the wheels. and with that, the project was sunk .
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i have written in my home page (first flight) about my first time up in an airplane and how significant that was to me. the fact that it was taken at the old rosemead airport has made that airport very special in my memory. and now some years later i have received pictures taken in that era that embellish my memories. on my home page i say that my first flight was in gus gehrig' s new luscombe silvaire that had
four aces
painted on both sides of the fuselage. i also mention that the
four aces
met up with the nearby krla radio towers one night, (i mistakenly identify them as the klac towers on my home page; actually on the 1950 map above they are listed as kxla). here are some before and after pictures of the
four aces
sent to me by dan rhinehart. pictured standing next to the
four aces
are bill berry and jim berry .
that airplane, the
four aces
and the one that was to be my second ride (a brand new 47 stinson) belonged to gus gehrig, the local fbo at rosemead. gus is working on the aircoupe victor vincent vurpilat iii and i took on a cross - country to mohave airport. the stinson is the one we flew to brackett to visit the pomona fair .
the banner operator was van noble and i am told that the caa banned flying a banner with multiple airplanes after that accident. i have a picture of the flight given to me many years ago by rod worthington, and if i ever find it i will get it on this page .
one of the notables when i was a fledgling was jack hardwick. i had the occasion to fly with him in his bonanza out of old el monte. he was quite a character to say the least. anyway he was one of the crowd at rosemead at the time, and here are some pix of his operation .
i flew with him several times in his bonanza out of el monte. i still remember that he flew it with everything
to the wall
; no reduction in power or propeller. later on in the 70' s i visited his place in south el monte and saw among other things, two me - 109 fuselages and wings. for some reason walt podolece had to do the importing because of some kind of block against hardwick. in the 60' s when i had my pt - 23 / 26 parked at brackett, hardwick had 3 all black p - 38' s on the ramp .
in the late 70' s i was in the habit of hiring very young kids to help me with the banners and maintenance. i am still in contact with several of them, and one, dan macpherson, helped me in rib stitching new fabric on my stearman. dan sent me some pictures taken in 1946 at rosemead by william t. larkins .
newscaster clete roberts flew into meadowlark for lunch one sunny day, and i got into a conversation with him about stearman' s. it ended up with him taking a flight in my two - holer after lunch. when he saw this picture he identified it as being his stearman at rosemead. dan rhinehart sent me the rest of these pictures. the l19 shown parked at rosemead was the very first one i ever flew in. in fact, the 2nd picture is one i took as my unit received the airplane at old camp cooke (now vandenberg afb) in 1951. i believe the pilot is lt. tucker eckenrode. a side note: i got stuck with guarding the airstrip on the weekend while everyone else got the weekend off. however, i made good use of my isolated position by taxiing the l19 back and forth on the airstrip. i do believe i actually got it a few feet off of the ground once .
` a side note: in the 80' s when i was running the banner towing operation out of meadowlark i used to start my day off with a donut and coffee at the little shop on the corner of warner and bolsa chica. on one morning i was reading the front page of the l. a. times which covered the story of a crash in which a twin beech hauling skydivers somewhere up near coalinga. apparently they lost one engine and the skydivers panicked and ran toward the open door at the rear. obviously the weight and balance shift was more than the pilot could handle. so this very well dressed guy looks over my shoulder and says
i used to fly those things
. my thoughtful and not said was
yeah, sure, we all did
. the very next day again at the donut shop the same guy was there and i got him into a conversation. one thing led to another and he told me that he once owned two airports in socal. i thought for sure that he was a bs' er. i pinned him down asking for
what
airports were they? and he answered
one was in rosemead and the other was in the high desert
. now he had my full attention. yes, this was the real guy, heasley (see the
h
on the cowl of the pt19 picture). he knew exactly every detail including the crash of the racer that left it' s imprint on the taxiway. unfortunately i did not follow up on this relationship as at that time we were sort of speaking in the present tense. the heasley brothers did own rosemead airport .
after running an ad in the pacific flyer, i received more stories to add to this site. garey wittich wrote :
when i was a kid around 6 years old (1947) we had family christmas reunions at my aunt' s house in rosemead. some relative of ours had a piper cub and offered to take me for a ride at rosemead. this too was my first airplane ride like yours. my dad had me sit on his lap and away we went. to this day i remember it well and it inspired me to get my private licence in 1972 and i have been flying ever since. now i am a cfi and mei and am building a rv - 8a in my garage. just a simple ride in 1947 changed my life. now i am
plane nuts
.
don fox and i flew model airplanes and rode motorcycles together in our teen years, but our paths didn' t cross when he learned to fly at rosemead and later on had an airplane at el monte at the same time that i did. now 60 years later we are in contact .
ross mayfield wrote :
my father, lowell mayfield, used to fly at gus' s at rosemead and has stories of his days there. he painted the 4 aces logo on the luscombe silvaire in your photos, and also the bugs bunny on another luscombe seen in the background of one of your photos. he also painted a cow jumping over the moon on another airplane. my father also painted the sign on top of gus' s building and also the sign for hardwick aircraft .
ross sent this nice picture taken by his father on march 21st, 1948 from navion n8906h .
the crash of the midget racer explained: although it has been over 60 years now, the one thing i remember is standing around with a bunch of older guys looking at this perfect imprint of an airplane on what i recall as being a taxiway. as mentioned earlier i did talk to bob heasley about the crash and he gave me some details most of which i have now forgotten, but i recall him saying that he and some others were standing there watching the airplane as it hit the deck. dan rhinehart recalled his older friend, joe white, telling him of a goodyear racer crashing at rosemead around 1948, and that the airplane was a v - tail design by art chester. dan further found that art chester' s
wimpy
crashed on july 25th 1948. a friend of dan' s verified that there was a fatal crash of an art chester racer in july 1948, and the pilot' s name was mike anrander .
ross mayfield wrote the following :
my dad was standing about 20 feet from the impact point when this crash occurred. the plane was a v - tailed art chester racer and had just been purchased by the pilot who was now doing a little showing off in it. my dad was going to give two of his brothers a ride and was starting a mag check when this guy flew across in front of them aligning himself with the taxiway (same heading as the p. e. tracks) and pulled up. my father said
we might as well get out and watch the show
so they shut down and got out to stand right next to his plane and watch. apparently on this art chester racer, at certain speeds the air over the wing would blank our the elevator / rudder v - tail. this is what happened in this case. as you state, the plane left it' s mark embedded in the tarmac. my dad said that you could see the imprint of each wing rib and the tires made 4
deep impressions. after witnessing this, one of my uncles announced that he didn' t really want to go flying that day .
the interesting fact to me here is that i have always made the statement that i got my first ride when i was 16, but other than my memory there has never been anything written to prove that fact. but now, knowing that the crash almost positively was the art chester racer that crashed in july 1948, and that i was there when the imprint was still fresh, then that dates my first ride as age 16 !
who gave me my first ride explained: lloyd duke, his younger brother ernie and family lived nearby the rosemead airport and both lloyd and ernie got their first ride there. it was a natural follow up that upon entering high school lloyd and his brother got into the
airplane washing
business and had a steady business all through the high school years keeping gus gehrig' s airplanes clean. lloyd told me a very interesting fact that i had no comprehension of. when the stranger asked me if i wanted to go for a ride i just guessed that he owned the airplane. as lloyd tells it, the 4 aces was gus' s personal airplane and not a rental, and he only let one other person fly it; the guy that gave me my first ride. i hope to find someone who will recall the fellows name .
gus loved his four aces. he kept it washed, waxed and wiped off. eventually that was my job. four aces was a shiny unpainted aluminum - skinned airplane with a big hand of the four aces painted on each side of the fuselage .
one afternoon a guy showed up with his girlfriend. he was a friend of gus. i listened to their conversation. the man worked at the los angeles police department as a radio repairman. he was also a pilot (the fellow who gave me my first ride wore a military shirt and officers cap; i presumed that he was an ex - military pilot). he wanted to take his girlfriend for a ride, and he was also the only one gus let fly the luscombe 4 aces beside himself .
he and gus did a preflight and when that was completed the man and the girlfriend got in. i noted that she was a small very pretty girl .
they took off and about an hour later gus got a phone call. he got very emotional. it was the police. his four aces had crashed .
without saying anything he locked up the business, got into his car and left the field. i waited for news, and was anxious to know what had happened. it was getting late and i had to go home .
there was some news on the radio that there had been a crash and two people were killed. there was no detailed information other than that they had hit a radio tower .
i spent a terrible night. the next morning, saturday, i was at the airport. a tow truck had just delivered the wreckage to the bone yard just south of the big quonset hut hanger. gus was there, not speaking to anyone, just quietly crying, a manly cry, no sniveling, just tears and rumpled chin .
there were a lot of other people there looking at the wreckage (see photos at beginning of site). the only thing i heard gus say before he left was ,
it' s only worth 26 bucks now .
he didn' t have hull insurance on the plane. only public liability and property damage that covered the farmers cabbage crop damage .
rosemead airport. there were three 415 - foot towers in a row there at that time. witnesses said they were seen to be weaving a sashay between the towers, when the plane collided with the third tower, about four feet from the top. the left wing sheared off at three feet from the cockpit. the wing piece fluttered to the ground, while the remainder of the plane spun violently into the ground. the engine was buried three feet deep .
i would have probably been crying too, but i was shocked at the condition of the plane, and the gore that remained after the bodies were removed. the plane did not burn, so every thing was quite vivid. the instrument panel was about 6 inches from the cabin rear bulkhead. all the instruments were broken. i guess the prettier the girl the more stupid a man acts. lloyd duke
i guess i was lucky as on my first ride the pilot also did some stunts, again just south of the airport, but didn' t tangle with the radio towers .
since lloyd spent his high school years at rosemead, he has lots of stories to tell, and some of them are already on paul franklin' s website, so i won' t duplicate them here. one story that sticks in my mind is one i recall reading about in the newspaper; an on - going story about two brothers, twins, who had this ex - military airplane with dubious ownership, and how they were hiding it from the government. this goes to show one how one can recall things incorrectly. i recall that the airplane was a c - 46 and that the brothers had an irish name. however i cannot quarrel with lloyd' s version because he was there. here is his story :
the heasleys were characters. they were twin brothers and it was fun to be close to them. they owned the airport. i experienced one intriguing afternoon there when one of the brothers flew in, in a c - 47 goony bird. he parked at the fuel pits and the brothers were jumping around hugging each other. the plane had been in litigation over the ownership. from the conversations going on there, this conflict had not been completed and the plane was going to be hidden some place in the desert. quickly after re - fueling, they departed for the mystery place in the desert
( remember, bob heasley had told me in my meeting him in the 80' s that the y owned 2 airports, rosemead and one in the high desert) .
i had never seen such a big plane up close. it was huge .
shortly thereafter the police showed up looking for them. of course nobody knew where they went. they made the front page news in the los angles times for this .
three or four days later the brothers, showed up at the los angles city hall and surrendered. they were arrested and put into jail for not telling the location of the gunny bird. they stayed there for forty eight days before they gave up the location of the bird .
termite snider was famous from the channel five television coverage of the saturday night jalopy races at ascot race track, in carson, california. he was a winner, and termite was also a pilot .
he owned the weather beaten bt - 13 that was tied down next to the big hanger. termite was a character. it was always an event when he showed up. he was a chunky, muscular man, who like hardwick always had a cigar chomped between his teeth and was always joking with the people around him .
one day he showed up with two five gallon buckets of black paint and a four inch paint brush. he began to paint the plane using the four - inch paintbrush. all the while he painted, everybody at the airport stopped by to comment. he had a continuous audience. the job was finished in about four hours .
it looked terrible. all black with deep brush strokes going every which way. the four hour old paint still being sticky, termite decided to complete the drying process by flying the plane .
i got the honor of climbing the ladder with the inertial starter crank handle, to assist with starting the engine. the starting procedure consists of engaging the crank handle to a shaft end in the starting compartment. turning the crank handle clockwise starts the fly wheel to turn. it turns hard at first, but as the rpm increases the turning becomes easier. as the fly wheel rpm increases a magic noise, or whine, with increasing pitch, is emitted. that sound is beyond description here. it is a sound that to me connotes an adventure is about to begin. a sound that, even now, just thinking about it, gives me goose pimples. i closed and latched the hatch shut, and climbed down the ladder, backed away to the wing tip, and gave the all clear ,
thumbs up .
when termite returned a half hour later, the paint was still tacky, but now had the added features of runs and smears. he complained he lost six miles an hour in cruise configuration .
what i remember back in the 50' s at el monte was talking to a friend of jerry curl who told of flying into rosemead with 13 bt - 13' s. he got anyone he could get that could fly to go with him to bring back his
fleet
, so yes, there should have been quite a few bt - 13' s at rosemead .
in writing this i have often asked myself
why was i flying with jack hardwick for some reason
? i think i can put 2 and 2 together now with lloyd' s help. lloyd wrote the following about jack and his temco buckaroo .
jack hardwick was a hot dog pilot, especially on this fine spring afternoon .
he owned a very rare temco swift. called the buckaroo it was built for training new military pilots. it was a globe swift with the fuselage slimmed down and tandem seating with a jet type canopy. the windshield of course was fixed, the forward access hatch slid back to a stop just behind the front seat. the aft hatch was hooked to the forward hatch, and unlatches from the forward hatch to slide on back to a stop just aft of the rear seat. i guess you would say it had a canopy consisting of three pieces, the windshield, forward hatch, and aft hatch to complete a jet type bubble canopy .
there is a safety placard restricting take off with the aft hatch open. jack taxied out in his beautiful buckaroo. it’s skin was polished aluminum with the standard red, white and blue military markings. real pretty .
it was warmish so jack had all the hatches open. i thought he would close the hatches after his before take off run - up. run - up completed, flaps at 10 o, he taxied onto the runway while adding take off power as he turned onto the runway centerline. next i am sure he hit the gear up switch. as long as there is pressure on the wheels they will not retract. it just looks good for a hot dog pilot for the wheels to retract as soon as you pop off the runway.
fletcher aviation corporation was an aircraft manufacturer founded by three brothers , wendell , frank , maurice fletcher , in pasadena , california in 1941 . the initial aim of the company was to produce a wooden basic trainer aircraft ( the fbt-2 ) that wendell had designed , but despite brief interest by the army in the type to use as a target drone , nothing came of this aircraft . after relocating to rosemead , california , later projects involved a family of related designs , including ( the fu-24 ) with 296 produced in new zealand as an agricultural aircraft with many still operating today . during the korean war the company purchased rosemead airport from bob and jack heasley . the roughly triangular property is located south of the 10 freeway , although the airport pre-dates the freeway . the property extended from rosemead boulevard on the west to the rio hondo river basin on the south and east . in 1953 , the same year the fu-24 debuted , they also produced a prototype amphibious vehicle known as the fletcher flair . the vehicle was powered by a 4-cylinder porsche 356 drivetrain , modified to make it a four-wheel drive . the company hoped to sell the vehicle to the us army but the vehicle performed poorly in the water and the army passed . purchased by aj industries , it changed its name to flair aviation in 1960 , and produced aircraft fuelling equipment , including drop tanks and hose reels for inflight refuelling . moved to el monte , california , its name was changed back to fletcher and then sargent fletcher in 1964 before abandoning aircraft manufacturing in 1966 , with rights to the fu-24 going to pacific aerospace . 
fletcher aviation corporation was an aircraft manufacturer founded by three brothers, wendell, frank, maurice fletcher, in pasadena, california in 1941. the initial aim of the company was to produce a wooden basic trainer aircraft (the fbt-2) that wendell had designed, but despite brief interest by the army in the type to use as a target drone, nothing came of this aircraft. after relocating to rosemead, california, later projects involved a family of related designs, including (the fu-24) with 296 produced in new zealand as an agricultural aircraft with many still operating today. during the korean war the company purchased rosemead airport from bob and jack heasley. the roughly triangular property is located south of the 10 freeway, although the airport pre-dates the freeway. the property extended from rosemead boulevard on the west to the rio hondo river basin on the south and east. in 1953, the same year the fu-24 debuted, they also produced a prototype amphibious vehicle known as the fletcher flair. the vehicle was powered by a 4-cylinder porsche 356 drivetrain, modified to make it a four-wheel drive. the company hoped to sell the vehicle to the us army but the vehicle performed poorly in the water and the army passed. purchased by aj industries, it changed its name to flair aviation in 1960, and produced aircraft fuelling equipment, including drop tanks and hose reels for inflight refuelling. moved to el monte, california, its name was changed back to fletcher and then sargent fletcher in 1964 before abandoning aircraft manufacturing in 1966, with rights to the fu-24 going to pacific aerospace.
fletcher aviation corporation was an aircraft manufacturer founded by three brothers, wendell, frank, maurice fletcher, in pasadena, california in 1941. the initial aim of the company was to produce a wooden basic trainer aircraft (the fbt-2) that wendell had designed, but despite brief interest by the army in the type to use as a target drone, nothing came of this aircraft. after relocating to rosemead, california, later projects involved a family of related designs, including (the fu-24) with 296 produced in new zealand as an agricultural aircraft with many still operating today. during the korean war the company purchased rosemead airport from bob and jack heasley. the roughly triangular property is located south of the 10 freeway, although the airport pre-dates the freeway. the property extended from rosemead boulevard on the west to the rio hondo river basin on the south and east. in 1953, the same year the fu-24 debuted, they also produced a prototype amphibious vehicle known as the fletcher flair. the vehicle was powered by a 4-cylinder porsche 356 drivetrain, modified to make it a four-wheel drive. the company hoped to sell the vehicle to the us army but the vehicle performed poorly in the water and the army passed. purchased by aj industries, it changed its name to flair aviation in 1960, and produced aircraft fuelling equipment, including drop tanks and hose reels for inflight refuelling. moved to el monte, california, its name was changed back to fletcher and then sargent fletcher in 1964 before abandoning aircraft manufacturing in 1966, with rights to the fu-24 going to pacific aerospace.