macready

Brig. Gen. William E. Gilmore (left), Charles Lindbergh (in cockpit), John Macready (center), and Orville Wright (right) at Dayton, Ohio. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macready en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers

The unidentified aviator is Lt. Oakley G. Kelly. Kelly and John A. Macready flew the first nonstop transcontinental flight across the United States. Taking off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island (NY) on May 2, 1923 in their US Army Air Service Fokker T-2, Oakley and Macready landed at Rockwell Field in San Diego little more than 26 hours and 50 minutes later. There, they were greeted by Rockwell Field's base commander, Major Henry "Hap" Arnold.

This is a highly interesting photo Just visible is the McCook Field test number P-144 which identifies the aircraft as AS.94102 on a master list prepared by Peter Bowers many years ago from a list issued by the Field in 1922 . The actual serial number on the fuselage looks like 9403 which of course is impossible. If we then look closer on the McCook master list we find that P-143 was AS.94103. Since we also know that this master list DO contain errors, it is highly possible that P-143 and P-144 should be switched and P-143 in fact was AS.94102 and P-144 should read AS.94103. A bit puzzling is the year 1918 written on the photo, since P-143/144 were issued in 1919. Stig

The signature on the photo on appears to read "Joe B. Clark," but this is almost certainly a photo of Army aviator and test pilot John A. Macready. For comparison, here are two other seemingly contemporaneous photos of Macready in the SDASM Flickr photostream:

Having looked at much more photos in your possession I now know that the serial on the fuselage reads 8403, which is the former German serial number assigned to the aircraft as 8403/18 Stig