IT UNDOUBTEDLY HAD A GOOD PAINT JOB

This airplane is a Great Lakes Model 2T1, S/N 10 manufactured during 1929.  It came from the factory with a Cirrus III engine of 85HP.  It was a two-place biplane. It sold initially, date not specified, to Raymond A. Swenson of Williston, ND.

NC850H landed at Tucson November 12, 1929 flown solo by Thomas Colby.  Based in Detroit, MI, Colby was westbound from El Paso, TX to Los Angeles, CA.  He remained overnight in Tucson, continuing the next morning at 10:45AM.

Image, below, from the collection of Tim Kalina. His sources say, “It's not a Laird, but is DEFINITELY his Great Lakes. The give away is the left hand end of the picture, where the cowling starts falling away to the bullet nose, with the fairing over the Cirrus engine cylinders in the middle. Furthermore, there's a hint of an elliptical-shaped color demarcation just ahead of the large fuselage lettering [not clear in this Web-optimized image]. It's almost certainly in the standard GL orange and black color scheme."

Thomas Colby in Great Lakes NC840H, Date & Location Unknown

Please follow the link to Colby to learn more about his aviation paint business.  An image of this airplane on another Web site is available here. Note the advertising for Colby's business in both these images.

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UPLOADED: 12/23/07 REVISED: 10/30/08