boeing40

As the handwritten caption on the photo notes, this is a photo of test pilot Ralph B. Virden (b. 1898 - d. 1941). Here he is standing next to a Boeing Model 40. Ralph Virden would ultimately perish while performing high-speed dive tests of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (Lockheed YP-38 Lightning, USAAF Serial No. 39-689) on November 4, 1941. See: www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/ralph-b-virden/

This is a photo of the first (and only Liberty Engine-powered) Boeing Model 40.

Boeing Model 40-Y, NC381 c/n 1095 (top) Boeing Model 95, C397E c/n 1057 (bottom) The sole Model 40-Y was a custom conversion of a 40-B airframe built for the Standard Oil Company of California. It had a cabin for two passengers and two open cockpits with dual controls. Powerplant was a 525 hp Pratt & Whitney Hornet radial engine, it had a balanced rudder and a tail-wheel. NC381 was turned over to the customer on December 9, 1928, and made its first flight the following day. For a series of endurance flights this Model 95 single-seat mailplane was later modified to a two-seater. For this special program it was given a restricted license and registered R397E it made several nonstop transcontinental flights being refueled from specially modified 40B-4s and an Army Douglas C-1. Its life ended when it crashed in a storm, the crew escaped injuries.