buhlca5

Buhl CA-5 Air Sedan

Great photo, Thanks!

Pilots Loren W. Mendell and Roland B. Reinhart flew this Buhl for over 246 hours (over ten days) between July 2-12 1929, using 4085 gallons of fuel and 105 gallon of oil in 37 refuelings in flight by "aerial tanker" Curtiss Carrier Pigeon NR35Y c/n K-5015-9.

Both of these planes cannot be CA-3's. Perhaps neither is! This is a CA-5, the preceding photo has different lower wings, for sure, I believe making it a CA-6. I think the CA-3 was open cockpit. Double check everything you read, even this note! A link to info on this aircraft: home.earthlink.net/~ralphcooper/pimagi46.htm

Dennis Goodrich Thanks for the correction! Upon further review this airplane is the Buhl CA-5 Dole Air Race Plane!

This is a photo of Mildred Doran, of the ill-fated "Miss Doran," and Emory Bronte prior to the start of the Dole Air Race from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii on or about August 16, 1927. Bronte was the navigator for the Travel Air 5000 "City of Oakland" (piloted by Ernest Smith) which had taken off from Oakland for Honolulu on July 14, 1927. "City of Oakland" would ultimately exhaust its fuel and make a crash landing on Molokai on July 15th. While Smith and Bronte did not reach Honolulu, they did become the first civilian flight to reach Hawaii non-stop from California. For comparison purposes, below is a photo of Smith and Bronte. Note Bronte's jacket pants and socks - virtually identical to those in this photo. And another photo in this sequence: