{"id":17152,"date":"2022-06-12T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-12T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=17152"},"modified":"2023-11-17T07:27:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T14:27:06","slug":"air-minded-the-curtiss-condor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=17152","title":{"rendered":"Air-Minded: the Curtiss Condor (Updated 6\/12\/22)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I added an update to this post from 2015. If you remember reading it and just want to check the update, scroll to the end of the post. If the post is new to you, I invite you to read the whole thing.
\u2014 Paul, June 12, 2022<\/em><\/p>\n

I loved flying fighters and trainers in the US Air Force. Unlike many of my peers, though, I didn’t want to fly for the airlines afterward. I chose\u00a0another post-USAF career path, training military pilots as a civilian contract ground instructor. Today, with the hassles of\u00a0airport security and the budget tour bus nature of\u00a0air travel, I won’t get on a passenger plane\u00a0unless it’s a matter of life or death, and even then I’d have to think about it.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean I’m not interested in air travel. I’m a volunteer docent at the Pima Air & Space Museum<\/a><\/strong> here in Tucson. Most of our exhibits are former military aircraft, but we have a number of historic and modern airliners as well, and I often talk about them with visitors. I grew up reading books about flying, and still read them from time to time. I just\u00a0finished a remarkably good\u00a0memoir\u00a0titled\u00a0Skyfaring: A Journey With A Pilot<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, written by\u00a0a British Airways Boeing 747 first officer named Mark Vanhoenaker. So I was thinking about airliners and history last week when I saw this old travel poster on an aviation nostalgia site:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I recognized the airplane in the poster right away, though most people today would not. It’s a Curtiss T-32 Condor II<\/strong><\/a>, introduced in 1933 and flown primarily by Eastern Air Transport (later to become Eastern Air Lines) and American Airways (today’s American Airlines).<\/p>\n

The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company built\u00a045 Condors. Most were for Eastern and American, but a few went to the US military, and eight were made as bombers and sold overseas. After their service with Eastern and American, some Condors were purchased by\u00a0airlines in Chile, China, the UK, and Switzerland.<\/p>\n

\"curtiss<\/a>
American Airways Curtiss Condor II in 1933 (Sweezey Pictures\/Ken Sweezey)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You probably couldn’t have picked a more economically-disadvantageous time than the early 1930s to introduce new airliners on domestic routes in the United States, but Europeans had enjoyed scheduled airline service for many years, and in the wake of Charles Lindbergh’s historic solo flight from New York City to Paris in 1927, American pride demanded an air travel network too. And believe it or not, even during the worst years of the Great Depression, Eastern and American found plenty of eager customers for their new Condors (though they probably lost money on them, and if it hadn’t been for their lucrative federal air mail contracts, would have quickly gone broke).<\/p>\n

The Condor replaced slower, shorter range aircraft like the Ford Trimotor<\/strong><\/a> and Stinson Airliner<\/strong><\/a>. It boasted a range in excess of 800 miles and a top speed of around\u00a0150 miles per hour (the airlines advertised 190 mph, but the Condor’s\u00a0actual top\u00a0speed was 176, and 150 was probably more like it). In spite of its longer range, the longest route segments<\/a><\/strong> were typically around 350 miles and followed existing air mail routes, marked\u00a0by regularly-spaced concrete arrows<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on the ground and, at night, by co-located\u00a05,000-candlepower light beacons.<\/p>\n

You could fly coast to coast in 1930, but your trip would entail a mix of short flights by day, overnight train rides, and occasional hotel stays when airline and train timetables didn’t mesh. Flying from New York City to Los Angeles might take four to five days. With the introduction of the Condor in 1933, you could do it in two days and all by air \u2014 the Condor’s 12 sleeper berths meant you could fly around the clock. Of course only the wealthy, untouched by the Depression, could afford air travel of any kind.<\/p>\n

Here’s a fabulous American Airways promotional film from 1933, featuring the Curtiss Condor and a cabin\u00a0full\u00a0of happy passengers bound\u00a0from Chicago to New York City\u00a0(I hope you’re not offended by casual racism, apparently a feature of everyday 1930s discourse):<\/p>\n