It is very rare when you can find a motion picture of one of the aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield. In this film we can see clearly how the airplane moved in the air and how it behaved when taxied. For a brief second, as it sits in profile and the camera pans through, we can see that it has a "US MAIL" marking on the vertical stabilizer, the registration number and a few other numbers, including 218, and what looks like AM 12 and AM 33.

As it moves, we see the paint finish gleam in the sun. We see a few bystanders keeping their distance. We see the people involved with loading the aircraft, probably with a bundle of mail. We see the location of the cargo door. We see the good-humored, uniformed pilot in command. There is a general spirit of relaxed urgency in the footage that gives us a feeling of how it must have been to greet a Golden Age airliner. The shiny automobile is a model A Ford. Site visitor Lt. Col. Alan Thomas says, "In the Fokker clip, the car is a model A Ford.  Cannot see the body type but the headlights and engine cover are dead give-aways.  I owned one in high school days.  It cost me $35 dollars down and five a month til paid."

How did we come by this footage? The sharp eye of one site visitor noted the registration number of this airplane caught on film by his grandfather over 75 years ago. It appeared on old family 16-mm movies which were in the process of being transferred to videotape. He "Googled" the registration number, and came up with this website. In fact, as of the upload date of this page, this website is the ONLY hit you'll get if you Google "NC126M".

What we know about the airplane is limited so far to the records of aircraft registrations maintained at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC (see the image of typical NASM aircraft registration information at the end of this page). It is clear that NC126M was manufactured in September 1929 by the Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America (S/N 865; ATC 52), based at Teterboro Airport in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ.

NC126M came from the factory with a Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine (S/N 1391) of 410HP. It was certified as a seven- place airplane, weighing 5,150 pounds. It sold on 10/7/29 to Aero Corporation of California, Inc., a brokerage and air transport company operated by Jack Frye. The airplane had been under contract to Aero for this sale since 7/22/29.

Now the Market Crash of October 1929 occurred, and Aero sold the airplane to Mid Continent Air Express, Inc. of Los Angeles a few months later on 4/20/30. Mid Continent flew it for two years. It sold again on 4/16/32 to Western Air Express, Inc. of United Airport, Burbank, CA. Western Air Express operated it for another two years. There were no monetary values given for these sales. Likewise, although it is common among the NASM documentation of many other aircraft, there is no record that NC126M ever suffered any accidents, or underwent engine changes or repairs.

So when was this footage taken by Mr. Parker? If you look closely at the film, you'll notice NC126M was in the distinctive Western Air Express livery when it was filmed by Mr. Parker. Therefore, he probably filmed it sometime during the two-year period between April 16, 1932 when Western Air bought it, and June 25, 1934 when it was again sold to a private owner, G.J. Atwater of Phoenix, AZ.

All totaled, NC126M led a fairly "clean" life for a transport aircraft of the era. It had only four owners, and there were no recorded accidents or repairs (although it probably did have some; they just weren't recorded). There is no record of total flight hours.

The airplane was about six-years old when it landed at Tucson on March 9, 1935. It was piloted to the Davis-Monthan Airfield by C.E. Powell. He carried two passengers, identified simply as Middleton and Williams. Based in Los Angeles, they arrived at Tucson from Phoenix and their destination was El Paso, TX. Soon the airplane would be in Mexico, never to be seen again in the U.S.

According to the records from the National Air and Space Museum (paperwork for NC126M, below), on 6/18/35 the owner advised the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Authority (precursor of the FAA) that the airplane was sent to Mexico to be used on an airline based at Chihuahua. The owner requested cancellation of its U.S. license so that a Mexican license could be issued. That's all that is known about the final disposition of this beautiful, workhorse airplane.

---o0o---

One last note. According to the film archivist at the National Air & Space Museum, this film is a rare animal indeed. Although there are, in the National Archives and other databases that we checked, references to moving pictures of Fokker Universals and Super Universals, you can count their numbers on one hand. Most examples are news films; none are of the "amateur photography" type.

You better go back up to the top of this page and enjoy the film clip again; you are seeing one of the very few examples in the world of this aircraft type in action, and perhaps the only one filmed on 16mm by an amateur photographer.

---o0o---

Another last note. Below is an image from the San Diego Aerospace Museum (reference in left sidebar). Although the date ot this image is unknown, it is probably between 1932 and 1935 while it was flying for Western Air Express. Note the WAE livery.

---o0o---

And another last note. The images below are from the Saturday Evening Post of September 7, 1929. They depict a double-wide magazine advertisement for Parker Duofold Pens. Note the aviation connection featuring Michigan's "Lady Lindy" Bertha Flo standing in front of an Arrow Sport. This advertising could be the influence of Kenneth Parker, who, in 1928, developed an advertising program for the company that was based on aviation.

The facing page, below, features a fountain pen as a productivity tool, saving motion and time by not having to dip!

Interestingly, the month this magazine ad appeared is the same month that NC126M was manufactured (September 1929).

UPLOADED: 10/19/05 REVISED: 12/22/05, 03/23/06, 04/20/06, 06/15/06, 04/04/07, 1/9/08