KILLED AIRMAIL CRASH AVIATION PIONEER PILOT SIGNED COVER PORTLAND OREGON 1929 VF

Description

(1895 –
killed-in-Plane Crash
1933)
EARLY AIRMAIL AVIATION PIONEER FROM PORTLAND, OREGON,
PILOT WITH VARNEY AIR LINES 1929-1932,
WEST COAST AIR TRANSPORT PILOT FLYING THE PORTLAND-SEATTLE RUN 1929
&
KIA PILOT WITH UNITED AIR LINES FLYING THE SEATTLE-OAKLAND ROUTE
Al Davis was instantly killed in a crash while piloting a United Airlines Boeing 247 passenger plane over Portland Oregon on Nov. 9, 1933.
In Jan. 1931, Davis discovered the wreckage of his fellow Varney Airlines pilot, Walter Case.
After reporting his discovery, he picked up two observers and flew back to the area for further investigation. Varney officials later said that
Davis
had definitely identified the wreckage as that of pilot Walter Case's plane.
In 1930, it was reported that a group of children out in the central Washington sagebrush country wait every Sunday for the mail plane. Al Davis, Varney Air Lines pilot whose terminal is the Seattle municipal field flies low and tosses out a bundle of new comic supplements every Sunday.
Source: Santa Cruz Evening News, Vol. 46, No 42, June 18 1930
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Here’s an Air Mail Commemorative Flight Cover
Signed
by ‘
Al Davis’
The cover bears a cachet that reads, “
ARMISTACE DAY –NOV 11
th
1918-1929 – PORTLAND, OREGON”
The cover bears a Portland CDS Postmark and three early US Postage Stamps paying 5 cents postage.
The cover’s verso bears a ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING CDS receiving AIRMAIL postmark dated Nov. 13, 3 PM, 1929.
This cover commemorates the 10
th
anniversary of the end of the first World War, and celebration of the peace holiday of Veterans Day, originally known as “Armistice Day.”
The document cover measures
6½” x3-5/8” and is in very fine condition, complete with backflap.
A FINE ADDITION TO YOUR AVIATION HISTORY AUTOGRAPH, MANUSCRIPT, EPHEMERA & POSTAL HISTORY COLLECTION.
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THE DEATH CRASH OF PILOT AL DAVIS
Boeing 247 crash, Portland, Nov. 9, 1933
Boeing 247
Just 10 months after a Ford Tri-Motor crash in Oregon,
the airline business had changed a great deal. For one thing, the old, slow Ford Trimotors had been replaced at United Airlines by a new generation of sleek, silver aircraft that actually looked like airliners, albeit tiny ones. The first of these was built by United Air Lines’ sister company, Boeing, up in Seattle; it was called the Boeing 247, and it had two engines and carried up to 10 passengers at speeds of 200 miles an hour, which was faster than top-line fighter planes could go.
It was also capable of instrument flight and night flight. Both of these were involved in what happened shortly after takeoff at 10:50 p.m. on the cold, foggy night of Nov. 9.
The airplane was going to The Dalles, lined up on the runway to take off into the teeth of the usual wintertime wind that comes up from the south. But as it reached the midpoint, just as the tail wheel lifted off the turf, the big bird did a partial ground-loop.
A ground-loop is a hazard that many tail-dragging airplanes are particularly vulnerable to; it’s the same dynamic that makes badly loaded trailers start pitching and swaying from side to side. It happens because the center of gravity is behind the wheels, and if that center of gravity happens to move far enough to one side of the wheels it tries to pass them, spinning the aircraft around. This can cause serious damage.
In this case, though, pilot Al Davis apparently caught it in time, swinging the tail of the plane safely back behind the wheels and continuing the takeoff run. But the maneuver caused the plane to swerve off the edge of the runway. It shot across another runway, through a parking lot and out over the Willamette River, which it very nearly fell into; but instead, the engines roaring at full power, it slowly climbed off the river and gained altitude.
And this is the point at which pilot Al Davis, a Seattle native, made his real mistake. He apparently did not look at the compass. Assuming that the rough take-off had been more or less a normal one (remember, this was in heavy fog) he carried on climbing to altitude, assuming he was flying south, actually flying due west.
The first sign of trouble came when it was too late to do anything. Copilot H.B. Woodworth, an Oakland native, saw treetops looming out of the fog.
“Look out for the trees!” he shouted.
Pilot Davis, who was focusing on the instruments, looked up, tried to bank away, saw it was no use, and shouted, “Cut!” — meaning to cut power to the engines so that in the crash they would not ignite the fuel tanks.
The plane hit the hillside before Woodworth could reach the switch.
It must have been an unusually fortunate strike, because the majority of people on the airplane survived. The cockpit was demolished, and Davis was instantly killed; but somehow Woodworth was thrown clear through a hole torn in the hull, injuring him but saving his life in the process.
Back in the passenger cabin, the three passengers on the left-hand side were in the most trouble, as the wing had hit a tree and come through the side of the plane. Among these three was Robert C. Coffey, M.D., director of the Coffey Clinic in Portland and a world-famous cancer specialist, who was apparently killed instantly; his death was reported in newspapers nationwide and in Time Magazine. Two other passengers on the left side of the plane also died — either from the impact, or from the fire that quickly broke out.
Stewardess Libby Wurgaft quickly got the door open and started hustling the stunned survivors out before the flames could reach them. She had to go back into the burning plane four times before everyone who could be saved was out.
Then the survivors had to figure out what to do next. They had crashed in the middle of what is now Forest Park, a long way from anyone.
The survivors kindled a fire with the help of some papers one of them had in his pocket, and huddled around it while the two of them who could walk — copilot Woodwarth and Medford resident Floyd Hart — stumbled off in search of help. They finally found a camp of woodcutters, who directed them to a telephone; but it wasn’t until 4 a.m. that the survivors were safely rescued.
Ironically, the medical facility to which they were taken was the Robert C. Coffey Clinic and Hospital.
(Sources:
Portland Oregonian
archives, Jan. and Nov. 1933; Piasecki, Sara. “Coffey Crash,”
Historical Notes
(OHSU Historical Collections and Archives)
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Alfred W. Davis
Birth
1895, Illinois, USA
Death
1933 (aged 37–38)
, Multnomah, Multnomah County, Oregon
Burial
Terrace Heights Memorial Park
,
Yakima County, Washington
Plot
Blk 82.
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