"United Airlines Collector Series/ Number Twelve... The "Swallow" C6 Mail Plane.

Wonder why it was labeled the Swallow!

Well, I don't have much information on Nixon Galloway's version of the Swallow, so I'll just type, verbatim, what was written about the plane from the card.

On April 26, 1926 the C.A.M. flight took place on a desolate northwest air mail route won the sole bidder,  a California air taxi and flying school operator, Walter T. Varney. From this austere beginning grew the major U.S. airlines of today with the Barney flight . In essence, being the origin of United Airlines.

The "Swallow Mailplane" was the first successful airplane that was a design advancement over the current crop of aircraft that were all patterned with the look of the World War One "Jenny" and the "Standard."

 It was powered by a Curtiss C-6 inline engine creating 160 horsepower and had a cruise speed of 118 mph with a flight endurance of five hours a full throttle. About 50 examples were produced with the  design was enhanced in 1926. The initial price was $3,500 reducing to $2,485 in late 1926.

Copyright 2013/ Ben Bensen III