You have it John.
The Thaden T-4-A was designed by Herbert Thaden, the husband of Louise Thaden. Louise was a very successful female aviatrix and air racer. The winner of the first Women’s Air Derby, as part of The National Ar Races, she set numerous aviation records and won some major air racs, including beating “all the boys” in the 1936 Bendix Trophy Race.
The Thaden T-4 was an ambitious design., featuring all metal monocoque, one piece wing construction, (claiming “This type of wing construction has never before been successfully used.” in April 1930) and monococoque metal fuselage. The press caption that came with this original 1930 8 x 10 photo, says “Mrs. Thaden expects to hang up a number of new records in this plane.” I thought you might find it in your “1931 Janes AWA” although not sure if that photo is the same as this one.
(This original photo comes from the Curtiss Wright archives, as they had it referenced due to using their 300hp Wright Whirlwind engine.)
Over to you, for the next one…
Finally got one!
It helped that I had a nearby friend in Southampton (NY, not UK)that owned a Pheasant H-10 plane and finally restored it to flying conditon over a 50 year period! Name was Bill Schwenk.
Here is the next one. The manufacturer’s last name is a well known name in the record books. I have removed the logo and registration #s from the image.
Well the photo is a bit fuzzy, but it looks just like Phillip Mann to me. Looks quite a bit heavier and a bit more hair than Ray Hanna. I’d be willing to bet a pint and I would yield to a decision by Tony Bianchi..
While we are suffering through this global cold spell, it reminds me of dismantling the Lysander that we sold to Phillip, during a Canadian February, while it was minus 26C! Could only work about 15 minutes at a time,before the fingers went numb.
It is quite a long story about how & why Phillip decided to part with it after the long years of restoration. He took great delight in his Yak and the Lysander. He also had a very rare Civilian Coupe. He also bought our Rearwin Cloudster 8135T ex-PanAm instrument trainer, and 90 hp Reawin Sportster, at a later date. Cannot recall if he was the one who bought our Travel Air 12Q/W biplane, but, it is likely..
This Lysander overturned in a farmers field on way back from the show the following day, it may be the one with Kermit Weeks now
The gentleman in the blue shirt, would be the owner, Phillip Mann, who had it restored at Personal Plane Services. Thank you for these wonderful photos!
Here is a clip of one brochure cover and inside mention. The same spelling is used throughout all the documents in the Company files on their Moth.. BUT* it appears that the commercial advertisements in the contemporary U.S. Magazines used the “Gipsy” spelling. So it gets pretty confusing. If you looked in the Curtiss Wright Company Files for “Gipsy” you would not find them…
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