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NC667K is signed into the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register three times. Each time it was piloted by Dudley M. Steele. The airplane was owned by the Richfield Oil Company and Steele was the company's chief pilot. Image, below, shows Steele on the left in a short jacket with the Richfield Oil Company logo patch on the left pocket. Both pilots hold helmet and goggles. This might have been a pre- or post-flight photo op.
FAA records show an engine change to the Pratt & Whitney in August 1931 and the airplane became a Model 4E.
Dating the airplane comes from the art deco eagle to the right of Dudley Steele. It is only pictured on the aircraft with a full NACA cowl and the NACA cowl had the Wright J-6 inside and the exhaust ring on the front of the engine. All pictures with other "eagles" (below, on the vertical stabilizer) have a speed ring and the exhaust in the rear for the Pratt & Whitney engine.
Owner Wilson is restoring the airplane to look like the image below. She says about this image, "The Jimmie Allen picture has to be between 1932 and 1934. ... I have to go by the livery changes to get a timeline."
NC667K, Probably After December, 1933, With Pratt & Whitney Engine
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Further to dating the image, on the original, visible just under the engine exhaust in the background is a billboard for "Rainier Beer". Although hard to tell at this distance, the billboard paint looks fairly fresh. If that is so, then the picture was probably snapped after December, 1933 when Prohibition was repealed in the U.S. The brewing of Rainier Beer began in 1935 after Prohibition was lifted, so the billboard may have been part of a pre-marketing or grand reopening advertising thrust. Since Rainier was a local Seattle brand, it's not too far a stretch to guess the image was taken somewhere in Washington State where the beer was referred to as "Vitamin R." After a series of transfers, mergers and buyouts, the brand ceased manufacture in 1999. There is probably a great vitamin deficiency in the northwest these days.
Dudley Steele as their chief pilot signed on all aircraft paperwork for the Richfield Oil Co. The aircraft was sold in October, 1937 to the State Division of Forestry. Afterward it became a crop-duster and met its demise at Carberry's. Carberry's (started by Mal Carberry) is now called Air-way Farms - it was a large crop-dusting company outside of Los Angeles.
NC667K arrived at Tucson the first time Wednesday, March 12, 1930 at 4:00 PM. Based at Los Angeles, CA, Steele was solo northwestbound from Douglas, AZ to Phoenix. On Thursday, June 25, 1931 at 9:30 AM he landed carrying a single passenger, Warren Knox. They were enroute from Phoenix to Douglas.
The final landing was on Saturday February 3, 1934 at 6:00 PM. He was solo eastbound from Los Angeles to New Orleans, LA. No purpose was listed in the Register for any of Steele's trips.
Below are three images shared by owner Wilson of the state of restoration at the time of upload of this page. The first photograph shows the robust fuselage of NC667K suspended overhead at the shop.
NC667K Fuselage, March 2008
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Below, flight control surfaces suspended similarly.
NC667K Flight Control Surfaces, March 2008
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Finally, wing rib jigs with ribs under construction awaiting gussets.
NC667K Wing Ribs in Jigs, March 2008
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I'll post updates as time goes on, with the understanding that a restoration can take a long time.
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UPLOADED: 03/05/08 REVISED:
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