hallscottmotors

I can't see much resemblance to a DH-4 in this aircraft.. :-). It is a L.W.F. J-2 which was ordered by the US Post Office after the war. Twenty built and I believe this includes the 10 reported as built for the US Army as Twin DH-4. Those final contracts are very difficult to be sure about. Never seen any of these in anything but US Mail markings. Stig

This shot is fuzzy and is from a poor angle to show the similarities, but the wing was the same, but lengthened, the fuselage had a nose cone added in place of the Liberty, and the fin and rudder were the same, but had two additional rudders added, on each side on top of the elevators. It was initially flown with two Hispano-Suiza V-8 engines but these were quickly replaced with two Hall Scott L-6 inline engines of lower power.

The plane is a LWF J-2, without any doubts.

No, this is the Ansaldo A.1 Balilla serialnumber 16608 which was bought by Cliff Durant and handed over to Eddie Rickenbacker for him to set a San Francisco-Los Angeles speed record in 1920. I wonder if Durant owned the Sheridan Motor Co? He was after an auto magnat. Stig

Stig Jarlevik Thanks for the correction and additional info!

The Sheridan Motor Company of California Oakland was purchased by the head of General Motors in late 1919, beginning 1920. The head of General Motors was then Billy Durant. In December 1920, the Sheridan Motor Company of California was established with R.C. Durant, (Billy’s son), as President, C,M. Steves as Assistant Sales Manager and Captain Eddie Rickenbacker as Vice-President and General Manager. The California sales territory would prove to be the most aggressive in sales of the Sheridan. R.C. Durant was known for short as Cliff Durant. Rickenbacker worked out a plan to sell Sheridan by using aviation. He was the first sales manager to cover his area by plane. He would fly into a California community, land in a cow pasture near town, and be met by the Sheridan dealer driving a new Sheridan. Of course he got big write up in the paper in big black letters saying Sheridan is coming. Then everyone would be asking, “Who is Sheridan?” He would then take out a full page ad announcing that Sheridan is here, with a picture of the car. In a year Rickenbacker built up an organization of 27 dealers and sold more than 700 Sheridan. I think on this picture is the personal sales machine of the Sheridan sales manager Rickenbacker. The complete story of Sheridan is meticulously researched here www.geaaonline.org/sheridan.html There is another picture of the same machine with Rickenbacker, showing this time the hand luggage fastened against the side of the fuselage with the cord visible in this picture.