Addison Pemberton Archives - Stuck at the Airport

Visiting the oldest flying Boeing airplane

Friday morning I had the extreme pleasure of spending some time with Addison Pemberton and his wife,Wendy, at Pemberton & Sons Aviation headquarters at Spokane, Washington’s Felts Field.

Pemberton & Sons Aviation headquarters - photo: Harriet Baskas

Using many parts from the original aircraft, Pemberton, his family and more than 60 volunteers completely restored a 1928 Boeing 40C airplane that crashed into a mountainside in Canyonville, OR..

(Photo courtesy Addison Pemberton)

That restored plane took its first test flight on February 17, 2008 – Addison Pemberton’s birthday – and it is now the oldest flying Boeing airplane and the only flying Boeing 40.

(Photo courtesy Addison Pemberton)

When I arrived at the company’s hangar, Pemberton was just finishing up his lunch and making final arrangements to fly the plane to Concrete, WA to attend the North Cascades Fly-In. Yet he and Wendy were kind enough to show me around and then sit down and tell me about the history of the airplane, the details they’d discovered about the 1928 crash, the story of how the airplane’s remains were found, and how those remains were turned into the shiny, fly-able airplane out in the hangar.

Remains of the Boeing Model 40 crashed in 1928

The story is quite amazing. And it is well-documented on the Pemberton’s website and in a variety of videos, including this Northwest Profiles feature from Spokane’s KSPS TV

At 1 pm, it was time for Pemberton to head off for the fly-in. But before he took off, he and Wendy let me climb up a ladder, look in the cockpit and sit in the passenger cabin, which has a telephone, a small desk and four seats.

(Photo: Harriet Baskas)

Thanks, Pembertons, for saving this historic plane and for your generosity in sharing it with others.

(Photo by Pam Scott)

In Spokane: the world’s oldest flying Boeing airplane

I’ve been touring Spokane, WA and the surrounding countryside this week in search of unusual people, places and events to include in the 3rd edition of Washington Curiosities, one of the books I write for Globe Pequot Press.

The week will end with a visit to Felts Field to meet Addison Pemberton, who found and rebuilt (with the help of more than 60 people) the oldest Boeing airplane still flying.

I’ll report back on my visit with Pemberton and his airplane, but in the meantime, take a look at my new Spokane buddy. I found him while touring Marvin Carr’s One of a kind in the world museum, which is filled with wonders ranging from the oldest typewriter in the world to a taxidermied giraffe and Elvis Presley’s 1973 Lincoln Mark IV.