When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Fokker F-10 Trimotor Western Air Express
NX5170 1928 Vintage Airplane Photo
LA to San Francisco Model Airway, tail number visibleDESCRIPTIONVintage black and white photograph of a Western Air Express Fokker F-10 trimotor on the ramp, the tail marked X-5170 (registration NX5170). The fuselage is lettered LOS ANGELES - SAN FRANCISCO, with the airline name and a painted Native American head emblem along the side, and the nose cowling reads Fokker F-TEN Trimotor. Passengers can be seen at the cabin windows, a man in a straw boater stands at the fuselage, bags are stacked beside the wheel, a wheeled support holds up the tail, and a period tow tractor waits across the ramp. A pencil note on the reverse reads Fokker F10 (1928) (Later modified to F-10A\'s). Images were scanned at 600 dpi.In May 1928 Western Air Express opened a passenger-only line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, run in cooperation with the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics as its \"Model Airway.\" Fokker trimotors carried twelve passengers in upholstered seats with electric dome lights, making the trip in about three hours for a $50 fare. Inaugural flights left both cities on May 26, 1928, and Charles Lindbergh flew one of the new Fokkers shortly before service opened, reportedly calling it \"a bird.\" The airway was also a test bed for radio weather reporting, an idea the U.S. Weather Bureau took over and expanded nationwide in July 1929. Its larger point was to show the public that regular passenger flying, separate from the mail, could be safe, dependable and comfortable. The airline\'s own 1928 report cited better than 99 percent on-time performance, 6,794 passengers carried and no injuries to passengers or employees.NX5170 was Fokker construction number 1001, one of seven basic F-10 airliners built (c/n 1000 through 1006) before the enlarged F-10A, and one of five delivered to Western Air Express. It was among three new Fokkers flown from Teterboro, New Jersey to the West Coast for the service. The Davis-Monthan Airfield Register records it landing at Tucson, Arizona on May 21, 1928, flown by Max Cornwell with five aboard, including pilot Norman Potter, who flew the inaugural northbound service days later, and newspaper reporter Florabel Muir, later widely known for covering Hollywood and the underworld.The F-10 family is also remembered for March 31, 1931, when a TWA Fokker trimotor of the type broke up in flight near Bazaar, Kansas, killing all eight aboard, including Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne. Investigators found that moisture had weakened the glue in the laminated wooden wing. Fokker trimotors were grounded and re-inspected, the Department of Commerce began releasing public accident reports, and the shift toward all-metal airliners such as the Boeing 247 and the Douglas DC-2 and DC-3 gained momentum. This photograph shows a different airplane, one of Western Air Express\'s own F-10s in the first year of the type, before any of that happened.Every effort is made toward fact checking and provenance, including background research through news and historical archives. If any listing is incorrect in any way and you\'re unsatisfied with the item, please connect with me and I\'ll make it right. Orders placed before Noon CDT ship same day via Ground Advantage with tracking. Returns accepted on all items exceeding $25 in cost. All shipments receive rigid, professional packaging, sealed and protected in acid free sleeves. Shipping is free and already built into the price, so the BIN price is exactly what you pay, no surprise shipping costs at checkout.CONDITIONVintage black and white photograph with good tonal contrast and a clear, legible tail number and fuselage lettering. The image is slightly soft and grainy, consistent with its age and the original negative. The cream margins show light handling wear, including a crease across one top corner and a few small dust specks. The reverse is clean aside from the pencil identification (Fokker F10 (1928) (Later modified to F-10A\'s)), a blue ink 1R in the lower right corner and a small graphite smudge along the left edge. No tears, stains, pinholes or missing paper. No tape or adhesive residue. Photographed and scanned at 600 dpi, so every mark shown is on the print itself.
