airplanecrash

Possibly the Reynolds Airways Fokker FVIIb-3m aircraft involved in the 17 Sep 1927 crash near Dunellen, NJ (just west of New York City).

The machine on the picture is not correctly identified. The crashed machine is a Standard JR-1B which can be easily identified by a different form of rudder, different wings and a headrest for the pilot. Standard made the machine in small numbers as a special single seat post plane, where the mail was carried in the department of the fuselage in front of the pilot. Cheers Kees

My Grandfather has a few more images from this crash. flic.kr/p/21MaHqo

This image has been used in the indicommons.org post: Just Plane Trouble

Like the image above, a very rare and famous stamp was issued in 1918 -- with the aircraft upside down -- as a result of an "accident" at the Post Office ;-) See the Inverted 1918 'Jenny' Airmail Stamp, Block of Four (National Postal Museum) here.

Lt. Torrey Webb at a happier event:

"First day of Airmail Service, May 15, 1918" by Smithsonian

According to the National Postal Museum, this is a description of this accident: "Although the JN-4 "Jenny" was most often used by the army airmail pilots, the service did experiment with another airplane. "Lieutenant Webb was asked to fly a Curtiss R-4 aircraft on June 6, 1918. Webb was to carry the mail from New York to Boston on a trial run to connect the two cities by air. Webb carried a passenger, mechanic Robert Heck, with him on the flight. "Lost because of bad weather during the trip, Lieutenant Webb landed in a pasture to get his bearings, then continued on to Franklin Park aviation field in Saugus, Massachusetts. On landing, the airplane hit a mudhole, flipping over. "Fortunately neither Webb nor his mechanic were injured. The airplane was repaired, and Webb returned to New York five days later with mail and another passenger, Boston's postmaster William Murray. Webb noted that weather wasn't much better on the way back. "Visibility was zero-zero, and I just skimmed over the telephone poles all the way." This airplane has been referred to as both a Curtiss R-4 and a Jenny JN-4 . I don't know if that is a contradiction or not.

I found this photo in a museum in Denver Colorado:


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