deHAVILLAND GIPSY MOTH NR9720

This airplane is a model DH60G Gipsy Moth. According to the record I examined at the Smithsonian (top, left sidebar), this airplane was manufactured ca. November 10, 1928 by the deHavilland Aircraft Co., Ltd., Edgware, England. It wore serial number 885. It left the factory with an 85HP deHaviland Gypsy engine, serial number 93. It was a two-place, open-cockpit, biplane that weighed 1,650lbs. I have no photographs of NR/NC9720. If you have any and would like to share them, please let me KNOW.

This airplane is signed once in the East St. Louis Register, on Tuesday, July 15, 1930 at 3:25PM. It was flown by Laura Ingalls (Transport pilot license T9330) who identified her home base as Lambert Field, St. Louis, MO, just west across the Mississippi River. Indeed, according to the 1930 U.S. Census, Ingalls lived at the time at 5316 Pershing Avenue, St. Louis. In May, about two months before she signed the Parks Airport Register, she used her Gypsy Moth to loop 344 consecutive times over Lambert Field. She would go on later in the year to perform 940 (one source claims 980) loops over Muskogee, OK to better her record. On top of that, on a separate flight, she performed 714 consecutive barrel rolls over St. Louis. Her visit at Parks Airport occurred between her 344 loop record and her barrel roll record.

It sold initially to the Moth Aircraft Corporation, Ltd. of New York on October 26, 1928 (before it was manufactured). Moth Aircraft, in turn, sold it on November 14, 1928 to the Heyer Products Co., Inc of Newark, NJ for $5,518.75. According to the record, it was kept at Hadley Field, South Plainfield, NJ. Two months later, for some unstated reason, Heyer sold it back to Moth Aircraft (now of Lowell, MA) for the same price on January 11, 1929. Moth Aircraft intended to use it as a "Demonstrator."

On March 2, 1929 it had Edo pontoons installed at the Edo plant on Long Island, NY, in order for the airplane to be, "used as model for design of float struts for future airplanes of this type." Testing must have gone quickly, because on March 29, 1929 it was converted back to conventional, wheel landing gear.

Six months later, Moth Aircraft sold NR9720 to the Curtiss Flying Service of the Middle West, Inc. at Chicago, IL. On October 26, 1929 it suffered an accident at Mercer Airport in Trenton, NJ. Pilot Russell W. Brown of Mineola, LI, NY (Transport pilot certificate T3899) was uninjured. But the airplane suffered "two right wings washed out." Curiously, the airplane was repaired with "two new left wings and Gypsy [sic] eng. S/N 608." It was inspected and approved for flight on November 24, 1929.

It was sold back to the Moth Aircraft Corporation on December 4, 1929 and flown to Lowell, MA from Camden, NJ. It was modified with "streamlining & made to have wings fold." The record states, "All external fuselage & wing fittings, fuselage, L/G [landing gear] & empennage streamlined [with glue and sawdust]." The airplane was inspected and approved for a NR registration, restricted "for racing."

On May 3, 1930 Laura Ingalls set a record by performing with NR9720 344 consecutive loops over St. Louis Lambert Field. On May 26th she broke her own record by flying 980 consecutive loops at Muskogee, OK. All her records are documented by her in a PDF download available at her biography page linked above. She bought the airplane on June 23, 1930.

A couple of months later, on August 13, 1930, Ingalls established the world barrel-roll record for men and women by flying 714 consecutive rolls over Lambert-St. Louis Field. On August 16th she applied for and received an NC registration and covered the front cockpit in preparation for the Women's Dixie Air Derby. She took 3rd place in the event, which ran from Washington, DC to Chicago, IL on August 26th. She won $800.

On October 1st, Ingalls applied for and received the NR registration again. On October 3rd, she flew NR9720 across the U.S. and established the first Women's Transcontinental round trip record between Roosevelt Field, NY and Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, CA and return. Time 30:25 to California; 25:20 on return flight to Roosevelt Field.

Ingalls then changed her address a couple of times and according to the record did not race the airplane. During her husbandry, it had a new lower left rear wing spar replaced as of May 15, 1932. She sold the airplane to Irwin L. Siemons of New Brunswick, NJ on February 24, 1933 and an NC registration was issued. It had accumulated 742 flight hours in less than three years, indicating it had been flown well and long by Ingalls.

After Siemons, NC9720 was sold into the midwest where it remained with three different owners. It went through routine maintenance, engine overhauls and re-covering. It also suffered a couple of minor accidents. It sold for the last time on September 26, 1939 to Herbert McCoy of Middletown, OH. On November 13, 1939 it suffered a hard landing from 15-18 feet in the air that required repairs to the landing gear, lower longerons of the fuselage and fittings. Neither pilot Charles R. Betzler or passenger Jerry Meehan were injured. NC9720 was repaired, inspected and returned to service as of April 2, 1940.

The last act for NC9720 was a undated pylon race flown by an unknown pilot. While bunched at a pylon, it collided with a Barling NB-3 flown by Paul Rizzo. I have no further information as to the fate of the airplane(s) or pilots. The airworthiness certificate and registration for 9720 were cancelled July 15, 1940.

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