1935 - Richard Archibold's Fairchild 91 "Kono" aircraft at the Viking Airport along the Venetian Causeway photo


11-NOV-1935	Florida State Archives

Thank you to Mark Lincoln for properly identifying the aircraft and for the history of it in his comments below.

other sizes: small medium original auto

Unless otherwise noted under the right bottom of the photo, all images are copyrighted by Don Boyd

comment |

Mark Lincoln		03-Nov-2016 21:43
The airplane is Richard Archibold's Fairchild 91 built special for an expedition to New Guinea for the American Museum of Natural History. The airplane had a short career being accidentally sunk in a storm and eventually sunk again intentionally to avoid having to pay customs duties on it. "Kono" means Duck. Archibold named his next airplane , a PBY, after the type of storm which sunk Kono, "Guba." Fisher Island resident Gar Wood also owned a Fairchild 91 which he mainly used to fly to vacations in Canada. The Fairchild 91 was originally designed for Pan American which operated two in South America. I have seen pictures of one at Dinner Key. Alfred Gassner, the designer of the F-91 served as one of the initial designers of the Junkers Ju-88 bomber of WW II fame. He returned to Fairchild and did notable aeronautical engineering work into the late 1950s.

Mark Lincoln		25-Apr-2015 17:14
This is either the two Fairchild 91 Baby Clippers built for Pan Am for use in Brazil or the Fairchild 91B built for the NYC Museum of Natural History.

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