Available on the web, there are dozens of glass plate photographs from the '20s and '30s from the old Saint Louis Globe-Democrat (owned by E. Lansing Ray one of Lindbergh's backers).
Three photos show a Fokker Tri-motor, with a bunch of men, including Tony Fokker:
http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?page=index;c=mercic
See images GDGPS0050, and 58, and 77.
The event appears to be a typical celebration-tour of aircraft & crew. Such tours were numerous during the '20's, often with a welcoming parade.
Can you recognize the men (crew), and can you please cite the record or flight they were celebrating??? (Judging from other photos, these were likely from late '20's or early '30's.)
Jhieminga
11th Jan 2008, 11:36
I have a feeling that it may be the Ford National Reliability Air Tour (see here on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_National_Reliability_Air_Tour) in 1925. Fokker basically thought up the F.VII/3m based on the single engined F.VII to compete in this tour and had it shipped over. This aircraft had the name Fokker stenciled all over it which is why I think this to be that event. (He won in that year by the way.)
Regarding the Glass Plate Photos from the Saint Louis Globe-Democrat,
images GDGPS0050, and 58, and 77 (showing Tony Fokker with a crew and a Fokker Trimotor):
" it may be the Ford National Reliability Air Tour ... in 1925...."
Thanks, that appears a likely connection.
But that Fokker aircraft must have stopped at Saint Louis Flying Field. The route of the 1925 Tour :
Aircraft Year Book 1926, pg 124:
“In 1925 Edsel Ford set up the Ford Trophy for a commercial airplane reliability tour … only bona fide aircraft manufacturers could compete…. The tour measured nearly 1900 miles and was divided into 10 legs as follows: Detroit to Ft Wayne to Chicago, to Omaha via Iowa City to St. Joseph to Kansas City to St. Louis to Indianapolis to Columbus to Cleveland to Detroit…. Started … September 28 …” Returned Detroit (Dearborn) on October 4th [1925] (15 of 17 starters).
With your lead about that 1925 Tour, maybe I’ll find that some of the Saint Louis newspapers captured the visit. Since the Globe-Democrat photo-library includes only (??) scenes (photos) from the Saint Louis area, it is likely that the G-D would have sent a photographer on or about October 1st, 2nd, 1925.
Sometime over the next few months maybe I’ll get into STL, and check some of the old newspapers from the early Oct' of 1925, and maybe find the exact date and place of the photographs (50, 58, & 77).
If anyone can ID any of the faces from ANY of those Globe-Democrat photos, please mention the name and photo #. ??Suspect some images show Moffet, "Billy" Mitchell , Byrd (??) [but I can't recognize these men's faces]. The images of Lindbergh (CAL and AML) are ID’d, as are the 20+ photos of 15May28 showing Baron von Huenefeld (a.k.a The Crazy Baron), Captain Hermann Koehl (Germany) and Major James C. Fitzmaurice (Ireland). The images showing the TAT-Maddox Trimotor were ID'd (25Oct30 all-air trans-con start-up), as are the images from the CAM#2 start-up (15Apr26) showing CAL, Phil Love, Tom Nelson, Frank Robertson.