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"Midnight Sun"
by Priscilla Messner
The Fairchild F-24 is a truly classic aircraft in its field. Built in the 1930s and 1940s as an economical and easy-to-fly touring aircraft, the F-24 became the plane of choice for many Hollywood stars, including Robert Taylor, Tyrone Power, Mary Pickford, and Jimmy Stewart. A Fairchild F-24R cruises over the serene ruggedness of the Alaskan wilderness in this beautiful painting.
The Fairchild Airplane Manufacturing Corporation was established in 1925 to build airplanes purpose-designed for aerial survey work. These simple, reliable, capacious, airplanes were soon adapted to all manner of other uses and sold very well. Model followed model until 1932 when the first model F-24C8 flew. It began a series of which ultimately 1,983 would be built by the time TEMCO's licensed production ended in Dallas in 1947.
Fairchild’s protoype F-24 was built and flown in 1931. It was a two-seat aircraft. Additional seats were added to the design in 1934 and 1938, making it the four-place aircraft we think of today.
The distinctive two-tone color scheme was conceived by famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy (who is better know for designs for the GG-1 electric locomotive for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Studebaker automobile) in 1936.
The F-24 series was always available with the buyer's choice of either a Warner Scarab seven cylinder air-cooled radial or Fairchild's own six-cylinder in-line air-cooled Ranger engine. The power available from these engines increased over the production life of the F-24 from 95HP in 1932 to 200HP in 1947. In 1940 the model designation system was changed from sequential letters following "F-24" to the format of, F-24W-40 or F-24R-40; the middle "W" or "R" indicating Warner or Ranger engine and the last dash number indicating the year of production - in this example - 1940. Along with the designation system change, 1940 saw changes to the engine cowling, fitment of a larger fin and much smaller, simpler, fairings on the main landing gear struts.
Fairchild F-24W
Fairchild F-24RThe military also found the F-24 useful. Military models carried many designations, typically UC-61 and UC-86 for the Army and Air Force, GK-1 for the Navy, J2K-1 & -2 for the Coast Guard and Argus I, II and III for the RAF. In the US the F-24 was called "Forwarder". The entire F-24 series is much sought after by antique airplane enthusiasts.
Military version of the F-24R
2002 Wings Publishing
