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Thanks to Guest Editor Bob Woodling for help researching this page.

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THANK YOU!

YOUR PURCHASE OF THESE BOOKS SUPPORTS THE WEB SITES THAT BRING TO YOU THE HISTORY BEHIND OLD AIRFIELD REGISTERS

Your copy of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register 1925-1936 with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. 375 pages with black & white photographs and extensive tables

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The Congress of Ghosts (available as eBook) is an anniversary celebration for 2010.  It is an historical biography, that celebrates the 5th year online of www.dmairfield.org and the 10th year of effort on the project dedicated to analyze and exhibit the history embodied in the Register of the Davis-Monthan Airfield, Tucson, AZ. This book includes over thirty people, aircraft and events that swirled through Tucson between 1925 and 1936. It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders. Order your copy at the link.

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Military Aircraft of the Davis Monthan Register 1925-1936 is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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Art Goebel's Own Story by Art Goebel (edited by G.W. Hyatt) is written in language that expands for us his life as a Golden Age aviation entrepreneur, who used his aviation exploits to build a business around his passion.  Available as a free download at the link.

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Winners' Viewpoints: The Great 1927 Trans-Pacific Dole Race (available as eBook) is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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Clover Field: The first Century of Aviation in the Golden State (available in paperback) With the 100th anniversary in 2017 of the use of Clover Field as a place to land aircraft in Santa Monica, this book celebrates that use by exploring some of the people and aircraft that made the airport great. 281 pages, black & white photographs.

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I'm looking for information and photographs of Collins and his airplanes to include on this page. If you have some you'd like to share, please click this FORM to contact me.

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HELP KEEP THESE WEB SITES ONLINE

 

FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE

You may NOW donate via PAYPAL by clicking the "Donate" icon below and using your credit card. You may use your card or your PAYPAL account. You are not required to have a PAYPAL account to donate.

 

When your donation clears the PAYPAL system, a certified receipt from Delta Mike Airfield, Inc. will be emailed to you for your tax purposes.

 

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PHILIP COGHLAN COLLINS

Philip Collins is signed in the Parks Airport Register nine times between July 28, 1930 and February 26, 1932. He flew mostly the Travel Air NC9872 and the Curtiss Robin NC9273 (neither of these airplanes appear in any other Registers). The majority of his visits came from his home base at St. James, MO. No purpose was given for any of his flights.

Collins was the new owner of NC9273 at the time of his visits at Parks Airport. He purchased it on July 2, 1931 from Parks Airlines in St. Louis. The application for the transfer of the license is below, dated July 2nd.

Application for Transfer of Travel Air NC9872 to P.C. Collins (Source: FunFlights)
Application for Transfer of Travel Air NC9872 to P.C. Collins (Source: FunFlights)

The reassignment of the airplane license is below, dated July 2, 1930. Notice that Collins was in partnership with Fred Seghi (not a Register pilot). Parks Air Lines had purchased it on August 8, 1929.

Record of License Transfer, Travel Air NC9872, P.C. Collins, July 2, 1929 (Source: FunFlights)
License of Travel Air NC9872, P.C. Collins, July 2, 1929 (Source: FunFlights)

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Collins was a St. Louis, MO area aviator. He was born January 21, 1900 so he just made the 1900 U.S. Census. He was four months old and living at St. Louis, MO with his parents Philip Collins and Rosalie Collins and a brother, Oliver, who was 2 years old. I could not find him in the 1910 Census. In the 1920 Census he is shown living with mother Rosalie and brother Oliver in St. Louis. I do not know what happened to his father. Two years before the 1920 Census, he registered for the draft. His registration card is below. He was 18 years old, medium height, medium build, black hair and hazel eyes. He was employed as a clerk in the Roberts-Johnson-Rand Shoe Company in St. Louis.

Philip C. Collins, Draft Registration, September 12, 1918 (Source: Woodling)
Philip C. Collins, Draft Registration, September 12, 1918 (Source: Woodling)

In the 1930 Census he is married to Mildred M. Collins and living in Webster Groves, MO. They had been married six years earlier.There was no record of children.

Monitor-Index, Moberly, MO, April 11, 1932 (Source: Woodling)
Monitor-Index, Moberly, MO, April 11, 1932 (Source: Woodling)

 

Collins was involved in two devastating accidents during the 1930s. The first is described on April 11, 1932 in the Monitor-Index and Democrat, Moberly, MO, left. Although he was not injured, the trauma of causing the death of another human being had to be overwhelming.

Airshows were "cozier" during the Golden Age. Crowd control was less strict then. The Federal Aviation Administration today specifies distances from active runways during air shows, and the sponsors have exact procedures that performers are expected to follow.

Joplin Globe, April 12, 1932 (Source: Woodling)
Joplin Globe, April 12, 1932 (Source: Woodling)

 

 

This accident was resolved relatively quickly and Collins was exonerated of blame as reported in the Joplin Globe, Tuesday, April 12, 1932, right. Whether absolution soothed his nightmares can only be guessed.

Arizona Republic, November 25, 1936 (Source: Woodling)
Arizona Republic, November 25, 1936 (Source: Woodling)

 

That he continued in the air show business was documented two months later in the Monitor-Index and Democrat, June 2, 1932 (not shown). The Night Hawks Flying Circus, for which Collins flew, planned a show at Moberly, MO the following Sunday. Five planes were used in the show. The managers (one of whom was Collins) of the circus also operated a flying school at St. James, MO, and, "There will be free passenger rides in connection with an altitude guessing contest." This article mentions that Collins was in the military during WWI. His draft card is below.

About four years later, Collins suffered another accident at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport that was reported in the Arizona Republic on November 25, 1936, left. He appears to have done a lot of barnstorming around Missouri, but the 1936 news article places him in Arizona.

This time it was he was the one injured. This is an accident that is the stuff of nightmares for pilots, especially those who operate vintage aircraft with engines that need to be started by spinning the propeller by hand, or, as in this case, with radial engines that need to be turned a few times by hand to clear the lower cylinders of oil before starting.

Yuma, Arizona, March 9, 1937 (Source: Woodling)
Yuma, Arizona, March 9, 1937 (Source: Woodling)

 

Collins' injuries were grave and he finally died from them three and a half months later, as reported in theThe Yuma Daily Sun and Yuma Arizona Sentinel of March 9, 1936, right. That he survived that long is a tribute to his strength and will.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday News & Tribune, Jefferson CIty, MO, March 14, 1937 (Source: Woodling)

 

His passing was also covered, right, by the November 14, 1937 Sunday News and Tribune, Jefferson City, MO. His affiliation with the St. James, MO airport explains his entries for home base and destination in the Register.

 

 

I have no photographs of Collins. If you can help with pictures or additional information, please let me KNOW.

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 11/07/15 REVISED: 11/12/15, 07/22/17