Viewing page 9 of 22

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

the heated cabin, without the need for clothing, able to carry on a normal conversation.  It made a great impression.  This time his plane was an immediate success and he was on his way toward bigger things.  In 1926 his new company built and sold ten of these plans, some to newly formed airways.

In March, 1927 three were sold to Northwest Airways for air-mail service, and that month he flew to Miami, Florida and returned on publicity trip.  Also that month two were sold to Hubert Wilkins for his projected Arctic Expedition, and on March 28th his first company advertisement was shown in Aviation Magazine.  On May 2nd he exhibited two planes at the All-American Aircraft Display at Belling Field, Washington, DC, one of his standard Detroiter Cabin Biplane and the other an all new 5-place cabin monoplane with Wright Whirlwind engine.  This was the first of his long line of monoplanes to follow.  On May 27th two Detroiters were sold to the well known Detroit oil man, Ed F. Schlee, who started an serial taxi route out of Detroit.  One each was sold to Horace and John Dodge, meter car manufacturers for executive use, one to Cliff Durant, auto race drive, one to the Detroit News, and several to others prominent in business.  By this time it was clearly evident that he was making his greatest production and sales record in history of commercial aviation.

On July 12, 1927 Eddie won first place in the Ford Reliability Tour, in a Detroiter.  He then began to receive orders for special planes for record flight attempts and late in July delivered one to Paul Redfern for a non-stop flight from Brunswick, Georgia to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in addition to one for Ed F. Schlee and William Breck, who intended to make a trip around the world.  Redfern started on August 25th from Brunswick but was lost and never found.  Between August 27th and September 14th Brock and Schlee flew from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland to Tokyo, Japan, 12,295 miles, in eighteen days.

By the end of August the factory had already delivered 35 planes that year.  In September two Canadians, Capt. Terry Tully and Lt. James Medcalf, took off from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland for London in a Detroiter but were lost at sea.  Later that month Eddie was a contestant in the New York-to-Spokane Air Derby, but was