panamericanairways

Prestwick Airport, Scotland

Hmmm, somewhat unusual for this photo to be in this group of World War I-era photos from the Bain collection. As the reversed inscription in the lower left corner of the frame denotes, this photo was taken in April 1927. Pictured are the doomed aviators Noel Davis and Stanton Wooster, apparently standing on the wing of the ill-fated Keystone K-47 Pathfinder named "American Legion" (reg. N-X 179). Both Davis and Wooster were preparing to fly the American Legion across the Atlantic for the Orteig Prize (ultimately won by Charles Lindbergh flying the Ryan NYP "Spririt of St. Louis" from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Paris just weeks later) when this photo was taken. Davis and Wooster would perish in a crash landing of the American Legion on April 26, 1927. Ultimately, the aircraft would be salvaged and rebuilt into an airliner which would fly passengers and mail for West Indian Aerial Services and Pan American Airways (PAA "Pan Am"). See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooster_and_Davis en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Pathfinder

see also

TVL1970: Thanks for providing context for this photo. We'll add some of the information to the catalog record next time we update.

TVL1970 Any idea what those boxes he is standing in front of contain? Airplane parts?

Art Siegel Art, I am close to certain that those are fuel tanks for "American Legion."

This is c/n 8 NC864M after NYRBA Capt Herman Sewell lost both engines on 13 Aug 1930 while on his way to Havana from Cienfuegos. He made, as can be seen, a very credible landing with no injuries reported to anyone. Aircraft was repaired and survived all the way to Sep 1942 when it finally was destroyed in an accident. I was surprised about the name 'Porto Rico' since it has always been listed as named Puerto Rico! However my initial misgivings regarding the spelling capacity of NYRBA (Consolidated) staff I checked and found that Porto Rico was an old style spelling and can be found on for example older maps. Not a day without learning something new! Stig

Puerto became correct in 1932 apparently...so what language is Porto Rico...Portuguese? or Italian?