i am still working on the family photo collection project, these are scanned from black & white prints, probably the medium format 620 pan film my grandfather shot so much of in the 20's and 30's, any of the flight fans want to take a stab at what airplane this is, suffolk airport 8/16/31 is all the info on the back, both prints,
Joe Crane, C-1, learned parachuting in the Army from 1921 – 1924 and became a stunt man with the Burns Flying Circus after leaving the service. In 1925, when most jumpers deployed immediately out of the aircraft, Joe Crane delayed deploying his canopy for 2,250 feet to disprove the theory that a man would lose consciousness in freefall. In 1933, he organized the National Parachute Jumpers Association, a precursor to USPA. Crane died in 1968.
That’s two different aircraft. The one with N51 under the wing and Ford on the tail is definitely a Fire Tri Motor. The one with Curtiss under the wing will take a little more digging. That’s some sort of Tri Motor but I am not familiar with Curtiss designs of that type.
I did the digging and sent the info to Gary two weeks ago. He must have fogotten to post it. They are both Ford Tri-Motors. I believe that the Curtiss on the first one refers to Compañía Nacional Cubana de Aviación Curtiss, a Cuban airline that leased at least one Ford in 1930. My source is History of the Ford 4-AT-E Tri-Motor on the EAA web site.
