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There were an astonishing 717 landings by Douglas aircraft recorded at Tucson in the Davis-Monthan Register. Eight were civilian; the rest were military pilots flying everything from BTs to XO-22s. As you might imagine, the list of pilot names reads like a Who's Who of aviation leadership from that era and on into WWII and beyond.

All these Douglas military aircraft models are pictured and discussed in the context of the Davis-Monthan Airfield and its pilots in the books pictured, cited and made available through the top link in the left sidebar.

Company founder and owner Donald W. Douglas visited Tucson and signed the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register twice. Both times he was flying with Register pilot Victor E. Bertrandias. (Douglas founded the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1921. He was Company President 1921-1957, and Chairman of the Board from 1957-1967. At the upload date of this page there are over 1,000 Google hits for "Donald W. Douglas".)

Bertrandias and Douglas first landed and signed the Register on Thursday, March 17, 1927. Bertrandias, based at Dayton, OH McCook Field, was carrying Douglas (based at Santa Monica, CA) to their next stop, El Paso, TX, and then, noted in the destination column, to Dayton, OH. They were traveling in 26-423, a Douglas C-1C Transport. They stayed in Tucson overnight, continuing east the next morning at 8:40AM. This landing was about two years after the successful World Flight by Douglas aircraft.

Their second landing was on Thursday, August 25, 1927. They were again eastbound to El Paso, TX. Their airplane,27-228, was a Douglas O-2H.

Below, one of the Douglas World Cruisers as it lay at Port Moller, AK where it crashed on April 30, 1924.

Douglas World Cruiser "Seattle", 1924

Obviously, the "Seattle" never landed at Tucson, but its sister World Cruisers did on September 21-22, 1924. Note their visit was about a year before the Register was officially opened at the Airfield.They remained overnight in Tucson.

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Among the civilian Douglas aircraft to land, are NC14988 (DC-3) and NC16007 (Douglas Sleeper Transport).

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UPLOADED: 01/24/08 REVISED: 12/02/08