Patrick Dean’s new Carvair book
Just got mine and read it cover to cover. It is an EXCELLENT history of the type and a very detailed operational and ownership history of every one of the airframes.
We even learn a little about the proposed DC 6 and DC 7 (Dart powered) Carvair models, neither of which made it beyond the drawing board.
There are human interest stories in the book too. We follow Falcon Airways rise and fall and tag along with Ruth May as she buys, repairs and flies her Carvair to the US. Patrick’s attention to detail is extreme and we readers benefit greatly from it. We learn about ownership disputes, lawsuits, failed leases, engine changes and numerous other hurdles that Mrs. May faced during her stint as Carvair owner. My crazy daydreams about owning and trying to operate a propliner profitably will stay daydreams after reading about the harsh realities. Hats off to Carlos Gomez, Roger Brooks and others who can make it work.
Lots of research went into this work and it shows. This is not a Motorbooks format of color pix and some filler text. It is a serious aviation history book. In fact (and unfortunately) there are no color photos, but that minor shortcoming is completely overshadowed by the depth and volume of information presented. Lots of good BW photos grace its pages, most of which were new to my eye.
There is a ton of info in here, including a lot of engineering info and details of differences between various Carvairs. There were substantial differences between different ships including control cable routing and ceiling clearances. Do you have an interest in engine air intakes? They differed wildly on many DC 4 variants and to some degree on various Carvairs as well. Stripping DC 4 and C 54 Carvair conversion candidates revealed many things including unapproved spar mods, erroneous manufacturers drawings and evidence of major but unreported accident damage to certain airframes. Did you know that ADDING weight to the wings with removable “bob weights” could increase the Carvair load capacity? As an aircraft systems nut I just ate up these obscure but fascinating details.
Patrick knows Carvairs, every one of them, inside and out. This richly footnoted tome could easily have been a PhD dissertation in aviation history. It is up to date too with the recent Brooks Nixon Fork AK Carvair crash and N89FA’s brief stint as a skydiving jumpship in 2005 (I was incredibly lucky to have jumped from her).
There is a lot of interesting related info in here including C 54 guru Jim Blumenthal’s ownership of Carvairs as a followup to his unsuccessful efforts to get FAA approval for the use of surplus C 124s as oversized cargo haulers. I have jumped from several of Jim Blumenthal’s immaculate propliners and can attest to his obsessive attention to detail. Were it not for the fact that her once owned N89FA Fat Annie, she would have succumbed to corrosion long ago.
At $75 this book may seem overpriced to some, but I disagree. I’ll bet Patrick will be lucky to break even on this venture. The market is extremely limited and it costs a lot to publish a hardbound book. I believe in supporting authors like Patrick Dean and Cal Taylor who have the guts to publish in depth books about a relatively obscure single aircraft type. They fill in important gaps in aviation history. Everyone writes about B 17s, P 51s and DC 3s. Nobody besides Cal and Patrick show a similar interest in doing serious historical research on Cargomasters or Carvairs. Nobody is getting rich here, but they make aviation history so much richer from their commendable efforts as researchers and authors.
Hats off to Patrick for getting an excellent Carvair book to market. I highly recommend this book to propliner fans. I thought the market was just too small and that publication would never happen. I have rarely been so happy to be proven wrong.
Mark M
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