June 1943. The Civil Air Patrol Base at Bar Harbor, Maine. Flying field of Coastal Patrol #20. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by John Collier.
Submitted by John Reed on Sun, 04/20/2008 - 3:39pm.
The plane on the far left is a Waco YKS-6 that I bought a few years ago as a restoration project. It is now complete and looks just as it did when it left the factory in 1936. I fly it regularly and enjoyed seeing this photo of the plane from many years ago.
Submitted by Arch Stanton on Sat, 02/09/2008 - 8:35pm.
Left to right: Waco YKS-7, Stinson SR-6A "Reliant", Fairchild 24. The tail of the plane in the foreground is also a Fairchild 24, much like the one in the background. The small windsock on the tail is a drogue for a retractable wire antenna that could be reeled out for transmitting and in landing. Many of these aircraft flew relatively long range patrol missions off the coast and HF radio was the standard type of radio used in those days. In the thirties and forties many civilian and military light aircraft were typically of the open cockpit model. In 1943 the Army Air Corps still used the open cockpit Boeing PT-13/17 for primary flight training. Obviously Bar Harbor pilots valued the feeling in their fingers and warmth in their cockpits for all these aircraft are of the cabin configuration with cockpit heat taken from a heat muff around the exhaust. Note also all these aircraft are powered by five or seven cylinder radial engines; fuel was cheap in those days. The CAP emblem is the old wartime style. The later emblem had a three bladed propeller inside the triangle and the colors are red white and blue (what else?)
