1948 taxi incident with a civilian C-87

[Larry Kraus]

I ran across these pictures via Google Life images.From what I can gather,Milton Reynolds was a manufacturer of ball point pens and a bit of an eccentric.He apparently organized (if you could call it that) an expedition to find and photograph the highest peak in China.There was some speculation at the time that he thought that said peak would then be named after him.There was also some speculation that Reynolds might build a ball point pen factory in China.The airplane chosen for this expedition was an ex-Navy RY-1.A search indicates that it starteed out as USAAF C-87A-CF s/n 43-30570 and was accepted on January 13,1944.It became RY-1 Buno 67798 and served with NATS in VR-1/VRJ-1.

The airplane was sold and registered as NL5151L in 1948.It apparently survived the incident in the pictures as it became CB-75 with Boliviana Aviacion,but crashed at La Paz on July 10,1952.It was rebuilt as CP-575 but was written off at La Paz/El Alto on February 8,1964.

As to the accident in the pictures,the location was the Peping airport on March 31,1948.The crew was Bill Odom as pilot and Tex Sallee as c/p.Odom drifted off of the paved taxiway while on the way to the runway for take-off with the result in the pictures.It seems that the estimate to repair the damage was several weeks,so Reynolds announced that the expedition had been cancelled.The airplane made an unauthorized 3 engine flight to Shanghai the next morning and eventually ended up back in the US.It also seems that Reynolds went with the airplane leaving an unpaid hotel bill of 270 million yuan.

This whole expedition sounds worthy of W.C.Fields or the Marx Brothers.













This is Bill Odom on the left and Milton Reynolds on the right

[Second Air Force]

Thanks for putting those photos up, Larry.

Mr. Reynolds' original plan was for more complicated equipment--he had picked out a brand-new B-32 for the flight! The WAA evidently couldn't come to satisfactory terms with the expedition team and the deal never happened, hence the C-87 seen here. I've been told that the airplane he wanted was one of the Walnut Ridge machines with only acceptance and ferry time from Fort Worth on it. Would have been neat if he'd pulled off the trip and then kept the airplane in one piece, huh?

Scott

[T J Johansen]

The same trio had in 1947 flown Reynolds A-26 "Reynolds Bombshell" around the world, setting a new world record. Odom did it again later the same year, this time solo. He was then killed in racing Mustang "Beguine" in 1949.

T J

[Django]

Fascinating...