Nashua, New Hampshire – September 5, 1938
On the evening of September 5, 1938, a private airplane pilot took off from Nashua in a “single-seat open cockpit Royal sport bi-plane”. The pilot had made several trips during the day in the same airplane without any problems. After being airborne for about ten minutes the pilot turned back towards the airfield. When he got within a mile of the field his plane was seen to go into a spin. The pilot managed to pull the plane out of the spin, but was now at tree-top level. The aircraft skimmed the tops of some trees before it crashed in the McDonald Brothers Lumber Yard. By pure chance, the plane hit between two stacked piles of lumber which tore the wings away but reduced the effects of the impact, and allowed the fuselage to skid to a stop. The pilot had cut the ignition prior to impact and there was no fire. The pilot was seriously injured but was expected to recover.
Source: The Nashua Telegraph, “Rapsis Is recovering From Airplane Crash”, September 6, 1938, page 1.
