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HAMILTON METALPLANE H-45 NC134E
IMPRESSED AND CONDEMNED
This airplane is a Hamilton Metalplane H-45 (S/N 56; ATC
# 85) manufactured in November 1928 by the Hamilton Metalplane
Company, Milwaukee, WI. It came from the factory with a Pratt & Whitney
engine (S/N 831) of 400 HP. It
was a single pilot, seven-place airplane weighing 5,750 pounds
gross.
It sold on February 6, 1929 to Carl H. Keller of Detroit,
MI. Prior to the sale, Keller changed to Model H-47
with the installation of a Pratt & Whitney Hornet engine
S/N 259 under ATC #94.
NC134E landed at Tucson once on February 6, 1929, coincident
with completion of the final sales paperwork for the airplane.
It was piloted by Marion Sterling carrying four unidentified
passengers. Based in Detroit, they were westbound from El
Paso, TX to
Los Angeles,
CA. Chance is high that owner Keller was one
of the passengers. There was no reason given for the flight.
On February 4, 1930 Keller sold the airplane to Northwest
Airways, Inc., St. Paul, MN. It was modified as of
April 3, 1931 to carry a gross weight of 6,417 pounds under
ATC GR 2-329. It had “N.W.A. #23” painted
on the fuselage.
Northwest flew it for about seven years. Then, through
the Charles H.
Babb Company, it was exported and registered
in Panama as R-12. During WWII it was impressed into
service on August 14, 1942 by the U.S. Army Air Corps as
a Model C-89 (USAAC S/N 42-79546). It was assigned
to the Panama Air Depot and used for a year. On August
24, 1943 it was condemned by the USAAC and surveyed. No
further information.
There is one other Hamilton Metalplane, NC5562, that landed at Tucson.
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UPLOADED: 04/01/06 REVISED: 05/16/06, 11/15/08, 03/19/09
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