H74.130.48

Reprint. Description: Tri State Airlines entrant, 1927. Reprints of original by Jackson Welsh. Preparations for the Dole flight to Hawaii. (Diane Curry, June 18, 1996) Believe this to be the rebuilt "Pabco Pacific Flyer." Although the negative was flipped in this print, the number on the plane's tail is "646" which was the number of the Pabco. Livingston Rebuilt the "Pabco" as a passenger plane called the "Redwing." On the tail of this plane, above the numbers, are a pair of wings. See below. The "Pabco Pacific Flyer" was piloted by Livingston Irving of Berkeley. The plane was a Breese one of three such planes built in by the San Francisco base company. It was designed by John K. Northrop. The plane was a conventional high wing monoplane with a deep-bellied fuselage to make it faster that other planes. The plane was painted a vivid orange so that it could be seen easily. The planes was sponsered by "The Parafine Companies" which was where Irving worked. The "Pabco Pacific" was the third plane to take off in the race. The plane accelerated slowly and could not get off the ground before running out of runway. The plane coasted off the runway and was towed in by a tractor back to the starting line. A little after 1:00 the plane was refueld and made another attempt. It made it into the air, then stalled and crashed to the ground making it slightly un-flyable thereafter. Irving said the crash was his fault due to overeagerness, nervousness, and lack of experience with a plane as loaded as his was. He later rebuilt the plane as a seven passenger plane and called it the "Redwing". He retired from the Army Air Force as a colonel.