The Keystone K-47 Pathfinder was an airliner developed in the United States in the late 1920s, built only in prototype form.

Design and development

The Pathfinder was an attempt by the

Keystone Aircraft Corporation Keystone Aircraft Corporation was an early American airplane manufacturer. History Headquartered in Bristol, Pennsylvania, the company was formed as "Ogdensburg Aeroway Corp" in 1920 by Thomas Huff and Elliot Daland, but its name was quickly ...

to develop a civil transport version of the successful series of bombers that it was producing for the

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

as the

LB-5 The Keystone LB-5 (originally ordered under the Huff-Daland name) was a bomber aircraft produced in the United States in the late 1920s. Its manufacturer nicknamed it the Pirate, but this name was not officially adopted by the United States Army ...

and its derivatives. Like them, it was a conventional biplane design with engines mounted in nacelles on the lower wing, but also added a third engine, mounted on the nose (as the single engine of the

LB-1 LB-1 is a binary star system in the constellation Gemini. In 2019 a paper in ''Nature'' proposed the system contained an unusually massive stellar black hole outside of ordinary single stellar evolution parameters. However, analyses in 20 ...

had been). A passenger cabin with seating for ten was added to the fuselage. The first Pathfinder (registered NX179) was chosen by US Navy pilots

Noel Davis Noel Davis (born Edgar Davis; 1 March 1927 – 24 November 2002) was a British film and television actor; and latterly, a film and television casting director. Partial filmography * '' Darling'' (1965) - Shop Assistant (uncredited) * ''Fahren ...

and Stanton Wooster for their attempt at the

Orteig prize The Orteig Prize was a reward offered to the first Allied aviator(s) to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice versa.Bak. Pages 28 and 29. Several famous aviators made unsuccessful attempts at the New York–Paris flight before the rela ...

to cross the Atlantic. The standard Liberty engines were replaced by

Wright J-5 The Wright R-790 Whirlwind was a series of nine-cylinder air-cooled radial aircraft engines built by Wright Aeronautical Corporation, with a total displacement of about and around . These engines were the earliest members of the Wright Whirlwin ...

s of approximately half their power. Painted yellow, the aircraft was named ''American Legion'' after the sponsors of the attempt. On 26 April 1927, a week before their planned departure, the aircraft crashed during a heavily laden test flight from

Langley Field Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Elizabeth Langley (born 1933), Canadian perform ...

Hampton, Virginia Hampton () is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 137,148. It is the List ...

. Unable to climb quickly enough to clear a row of trees, Davis attempted to turn the aircraft, but lost height and was forced to land. Although he succeeded in bringing the aircraft down, he was unable to stop it as it skidded into a nearby bog and was wrecked. Davis and Wooster were both killed, the former's face crushed and the latter's neck broken. The remains of the aircraft were trucked back to Keystone, where it was rebuilt and re-registered (NC1612). It was purchased by

Basil Rowe Basil (, ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' , also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also kno ...

to use for his pioneering air service in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, West Indian Aerial Express, christened ''Santa Maria''. As

Pan American Pan-American, Pan American, Panamerican, Pan-America, Pan America or Panamerica may refer to: * Collectively, the Americas: North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean * Something of, from, or related to the Americas * Pan-Amer ...

expanded its operations into the area, ''Santa Maria'' was chartered to fly the first of the airline's mail flights from

Key West Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, before Pan Am purchased West Indian Aerial Express outright, and the Pathfinder along with it. The aircraft continued to fly freight for Pan Am for some years before being retired and burned at

Brownsville, Texas Brownsville () is a city in Cameron County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Mexico. The city covers , and has a population of 186,738 as of the 2020 census. It ...

. The second Pathfinder (NC5317) was fitted with extensions to its lower wing that was used to carry a neon sign advertising Silver Dust laundry soap through the skies of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

at night during 1928.

Variants

;K-47:initial version with

Liberty L-12 The Liberty L-12 is an American water-cooled 45° V-12 aircraft engine displacing and making designed for a high power-to-weight ratio and ease of mass production. It saw wide use in aero applications, and, once marinized Marinisation (also m ...

engines, modified for trans-atlantic attempt (1 built) ;K-47A: Keystone_K-47C_Sign_Carrier_Aero_Digest_November_1928

K-47 rebuilt after crash for use as commercial transport, fuselage and lower wingspan extended. Later repowered with

Wright Cyclone Wright Cyclone was the name given to a family of air-cooled radial piston engines designed by the Wright Aeronautical Corporation and used in numerous American aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s. Background The Wright Aeronautical Corporation was f ...

s for increase in top speed to 150 mph (240 km/h) ;K-47C:Advertising platform with further extended lower wingspan, 2 ×

engines and 1 ×

Pratt & Whitney Wasp The Pratt & Whitney Wasp was the civilian name of a family of air-cooled radial piston engines developed in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.Gunston 1989, p.114. The Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company (P&W) was founded in 1925 by Frederick B. Rentsch ...

Specifications (K-47A)

References

External links

aerofiles.com
{{Keystone aircraft

Pathfinder Pathfinder may refer to: Businesses * Pathfinder Energy Services, a division of Smith International * Pathfinder Press, a publisher of socialist literature Computing and information science * Path Finder, a Macintosh file browser * Pathfinder ( ...

1920s United States airliners Trimotors Biplanes

Design and development

Variants

Specifications (K-47A)

References

Further reading

External links