This airplane is a Travel Air A-4000, S/N 818. It landed at Tuscon Monday, January 28, 1929 at 12:00 PM. Newman Wadlow was flying, with M.J. Parker as passenger. They were based at Wichita, KS and westbound from El Paso, TX to Los Ageles, CA.

There was no data card for this airplane at the NASM, so its ownership and work with Axelson Airplane Motors is undocumented so far.

The image below, courtesy of friend of dmairfield.org Tim Kalina, comes from the October 1929 issue of the Air Travel magazine rotogravure section. Not only do we see a spectacularly clear image of NC9017 (bottom photo), but the background pattern of repeating biplanes is very creative and attractive. The people are unidentified.

Travel Air, NX9107, ca. 1929

The Bellancas in the top photograph are unidentifiable by registration number, but one of them might be NC224E, which was operated by the Chicago Daily News. Compare, at the link, the airplanes as well as the two gentlemen in white jump suits. From them, and the position of shadows on the ground, it is not too much of a stretch to guess that the photos were taken at about the same time, but from opposite directions on the ramp. If that is so, then the taller gentleman on the left of the top photo is Cliff Condit, Editor of the Chicago Daily News.

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UPLOADED: 02/27/08 REVISED: