Viewing page 17 of 36
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
George Armistead Number 13 is "just another number" to George Armistead who has been assigned 13 in the Bendix Trophy Race. Flying a modified Gee Bee with a 920 horsepower, highly supercharged, Pratt Whitney Hornet motor, Armistead says that he will cruise at 250 miles per hour and maintain an altitude of 14,000 feet. The Gee Bee was built for Jackie Cochran's use in the London to Melbourne Air Race. She landed it in Bucharest when the cowling came loose. Vance Breese bought it from Miss Cochran and sold it to Charles H. Babb who own it at the present time. Armistead is a salesman and flyer for Charles H. Babb, who operates what is reputed to be the largest airplane brokerage company in the world. He started flying in 1927 at Clover Field, and in his first competitive flight, the Ruth Catterton Air Derby, he placed second. He later won first place [image] George Armistead, Charles Babb's Special (Gee Bee) in the 1937 Oregeon Air Tour, flying a Fairchild against a field of about twenty pilot. During the well-remembered flood in March of this year, Armistead flew over Camp Baldy and Crystal Lake and dropped food and provisions to those stranded by the high water. [image] Frank Cordova We re very grateful to Charles K. Dooley of the Burbank Review for the feature stories of the flyers which appear in this program. Frank Cordova Frank Cordova is piloting the only tri-motored ship used in the Bendix Trophy Race. It is a Bellanca special-built speed job and is powered by two Menasco motors and one Ranger, total horsepower 970. He is an independent airplane broker at Roosevelt Field, Mineola, Long Island, New York, operating in the Aircraft Sales Co., and is reported to be a crackerjack salesman, which with his flying, makes a happy combination. It was Cordova who negotiated the sale of Jacqueline Cochran's Northrop Gamma to Bernarr Macfadden, the publisher, who is using it in the race. Cordova started flying in 1923 and has used every kind of equipment since, with the exception of clipper ships and DC-3s. He started out in electrical engineering but his health became bad because of confinement. He welcomed the excuse to get outside. For a time he worked as Eastern representative for Lockheed. He had no idea of going into Bendix Trophy Race until he saw the Bellanca plane which was built about a year ago. he leased it from the Bellanca Company. He has done some closed course racing. In 1926 he won the American Legion race. 15
