Mind your huckleberries, August will be special
June 27, 2013
The only Boeing 40C, an aircraft of legend, is scheduled to land at the Boundary County Airport August 24. A legendary breakfast will be there for the pilot.
Every aviator in Boundary County, as well as many aviators from around the region and folks here who just like huckleberry pancakes for breakfast, well know that the Boundary County Airport is the place to go on the morning of the last Saturday of each summer month.

There'll be a lot of folks there this Saturday, between 8 and 10 a.m., enjoying their breakfast and swapping stories.

In August, though, they'll need to set their clocks back a week.

"I'm your huckleberry ... and mind you, you better set your watch."
Daniel Day-Lewis
"Abraham Lincoln" *
It takes a very special occasion to pull a trick like that, but this August, two such tricks happen to coincide. First, there are five Saturdays next month instead of the usual four.

More importantly, though, an aviation legend is scheduled to alight here on the morning of August 24, the fourth but not final Saturday of the month, and a legendary landing well deserves a legendary breakfast.

The Boeing Model 40 was a United States mail plane of the 1920s. It was a single-engine biplane that was widely used for airmail services in the United States in the 1920s and 30s, especially by airlines that later became part of United Airlines. It became the first aircraft built by the Boeing company to carry passengers (wikipedia).

Pemberton and Sons Aviation, Spokane, completed restoration of its 1928 Boeing 40C, and the aircraft was test flown for the first time on February 17, 2008. It was the aircraft that launched Boeing, and it's the only one of the series still flying.

Originally designed to win a contract to carry U.S. Mail, the aircraft was designed to carry 2,000 pounds of mail, along with something other planes couldn't, two passengers.

Able to fly the mail for a mere $3 a pound thanks to innovative design (still using wooden components), Boeing won the contract to carry mail from San Francisco to Chicago.

The modifications that made the 40C had an enlarged cabin that could accommodate four passengers, though wood was still a component, and with a few more modifications the Model 40 became the Boeing B series, the planes that played such a crucial role in winning World War II for the allies.

A few folks might be upset at having to reset their watch, and those who forget and show up at the airport August 31 will be doubly disappointed, hence the early warning.

This is a public service announcement.

It would be a tragedy to let anyone miss a huckleberry pancake breakfast.


* Just kidding.