Warbird Information Exchange

Does anyone have leads on the "Iowa Airplane Company" of Des Moines, Iowa during WWII??? I'm doing research on the Luscombe I'm now the care-taker of and it appears that it was flying with this outfit pretty heavily during the war years. It looks like it had something close to 1800 hours put on it during the WWII years and I've found a reference or two that leads to me to believe they used Luscombe and Aeronca aircraft to train pilots who went on to fly in combat.

https://books.google.com/books?id=v0tSA ... be&f=false

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
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The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

Here's a couple of articles I found on Newspapers.com:




I don't have time to screenshot and paste the rest, but there's a bunch more there - including a mention of an airplane crash on 20 June 1941, a note that the company received a contract to train glider pilots, and a report that training for instructors started in May 1941.

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

The ad from October 1944 (above) seems odd.
Presumably civil pilot training during the war?
I thought all non essential private flying had stopped?
I can understand some charter work for business (especially war industry or agriculture) but private training?
Possible typo in the date?

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
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I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

Not a typo, 25 October 1944 is the correct date.

It might be a the company trying to spin the Civilian Pilot Training Program, since even though it was ostensibly done for military service it was still civilian training under private contractors.

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

A very good resource for this type of research is the annual Aircraft Year Book published by the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America. Lots of obscure manufacturers and operators listed on the pages. I'd look in the 1942-1945 versions. You had to pay to be in the book, but lots of operators and manufacturers did back in the day.

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