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Well, I've finally got some answers to the immensely puzzling photo, thanks entirely to some extremely helpful and knowledgeable aviation experts whom I've been in contact with. I now know the identity of the aircraft, the Country in which it's in, the likely State in which the photo was taken, together with two possible locations and a time frame, given the build date of the Nippy.
Sorry to have to disappoint you Robert, but the Nippy was not about to be loaded onto this by then withdrawn from service passenger airliner.
The plane is an American 1929 Fokker F.32 airliner, the first four-engined aircraft to be designed and built in the USA. Only Seven or possibly Ten (no one seems to be absolutely sure) were built at Fokker's New Jersey factory, but they only entered limited commercial service, their high cost and problems with the cooling of the after engines proved prohibitive.
Only two of the planes were actually sold to a commercial airline, namely Western Air Express operating out of Alhambra Airport in Alhambra, California and later Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, California, flying to Oakland International Airport, Oakland, California and other West Coast destinations. The two dark stripes on the upper fuselage and the 'arrow tail' logo lower down, formed parts of the from 1930 onward livery of Western Air Express.
Incredibly the two aircraft were in commercial service for no more than two years before being phased out, with the first, NC333N being cut up in 1931, therefore the plane in the photo has to be NC334N. Given the build date of the Nippy, the aircraft by this time would have been withdrawn from service and in open storage - an interesting point worth noting is that the planes tail wheel is not on the ground as it should be, but at least a metre or more up in the air, also through the windscreen of the Nippy you can just about make out what appears to be a guy wearing dark glasses standing on a step ladder just in front of the tail wheel, obviously involved in some work on the aircraft.
As to the exact location, well, I think there can be only two possible contenders A) outside Western Air Express' operating base, said to be Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, California, showing the plane being dismantled for its next move or B) the most bizarre, the plane during re-assembly and installation in its final resting place at Bob's Air Mail Service Station, Wilshire Boulevard, Cochran, Los Angeles - interestingly near to Hollywood and Paramount Pictures. Both Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale and Alhambra Airport, Alhambra are roughly equidistant from Wilshire Boulevard, so it could have been dismantled and transported to Cochran from either airport I suppose.
The plane became a static attraction at Bob's Air Mail Service station in 1934 but was scrapped at the end of 1939. So my guess would be that the photo was taken in 1934, either at the Air Terminal, the plane being dismantled for the move to Bob's Service Station or having arrived at Bob's being re-assembled - personally I think the buildings in the background look more like the maintenance area of an airport than the surroundings of Bob's Service Station, so I'd plump for the Air Terminal.
As to who owned the car, well that's more difficult, particularly as we can't see any registration plates. I wonder if any of the original export Nippy's currently in the States have any connections to Los Angeles? Maybe the Nippy belonged to Bob Spencer himself, owner of the Service Station or someone connected to Western Air Express or even Hollywood?
Other possible owners of the Nippy may have been the pilots most closely associated with these two aircraft - Silas A. Morehouse and a very colourful larger than life character named Victor E. Bertrandias a one time racing driver, mechanic, pilot and handyman who'd spent time in England in 1928 inspecting aircraft factories - he later became Fokker Chief Test Pilot. Arthur S. Winton was the Western Air Express representative at the time.
Below - man wearing dark glasses standing on a pair of stepladders
Jeff.
Location: Almost but not quite, the far North East of England
Jeff.
Location: Almost but not quite, the far North East of England
All we need now is someone in Los Angeles to do some research to see if Bob Spencer did own a Nippy. Unfortunately Bob's Service Station is no more, this tower block, now numbered 5455 covers the site. An old school friend of mine did until recently live and work in Los Angeles but he's since moved elsewhere in the States.
Jeff.
Location: Almost but not quite, the far North East of England
