Colfax fly-in: Oldest Boeing plane still flying to be on hand for event

This Boeing 40C is the only 40C still flying and is also Boeing's oldest flying aircraft. The interior has been renovated to display all-wood paneling. The plane crashed in 1928 and was uncovered and removed 70 years later for restoration and took flight in 2008.

Gazette intern reporter

A Boeing 40C, the oldest Boeing airplane still flying, has been booked to make an appearance at the June 25 fly-in at the Colfax airport. Also, a Stearman Speedmail and a WACO EQC-6 are expected to join the collection of vintage planes to arrive at the airport, now known as the Port of Whitman Business Air Center, according to Barney Buckley, organizer of the event for the Lewiston chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association.

The public is encouraged to attend the fly-in as well as the pancake breakfast which will be served from 8-10 a.m. by the Colfax Rotary Club. The cost of the breakfast is $8.

The airplane displays will also begin at 8 a.m., and the awards will be given at 10:30 a.m.

Last June, pilots with 30 airplanes and 130 aviation enthusiasts attended. This year, Inter-State Aviation, Inc. will offer airplane rides at the event, along with the showing of planes from the '60s and more.

Pemberton and Sons is scheduled to arrive with the Boeing 40C at 10 a.m.

According to Buckley, the Boeing 40 series was designed in the 1920s to compete for mail contracts from the government. The design was updated to include better accommodations for passengers.

Pemberton’s Boeing 40C entered service in 1928, and in October 1928 had a fiery crash into a mountainside near Canyonville, Ore.

The pilot survived, but the passenger, carrying a satchel of diamonds, was killed. For several years, townspeople went to the crash site in search of diamonds. The crash site was forgotten for nearly 70 years, but was then uncovered and the remaining airplane parts were recovered from the mountain.

Addison Pemberton purchased the remains of the aircraft and started a restoration of the Boeing. More than 60 volunteers spent 18,000 man hours to bring the plane back to life. The first flight of the Boeing was in February 2008, 80 years after the crash on the Oregon mountain.

The airplane has won top awards at Experimental Aircraft Association and Antique Aircraft Association events and has participated in re-enactments of Air Mail route flights.

In 2010, the Boeing 40C flew high over the Puget Sound area and met up with a 2010 Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the old and the new of the Boeing Company in the air together.

“We are really looking forward to this year and are even hoping to get some boy scouts to come and attend and see how cool these planes really are,” said Buckley.