Warbird Information Exchange

Fans mourn rare plane's departure to museum
Martin 4-0-4 at Camarillo Airport once flew celebrities
By John Scheibe (Contact)
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Roger Brower stood next to the Camarillo Airport runway on Friday admiring a rare aircraft, the kind Indiana Jones might have hopped on for a ride to some spot on the other side of the world.

"This may well be a one-of-a-kind airplane," said the Santa Paula aviator as he gazed at the 28-foot-tall Martin 4-0-4, waiting for the morning fog to burn away and the aircraft to take off for an Arizona museum near the Grand Canyon.

The day was bittersweet for Brower and dozens of others who came to say goodbye to a piece of aviation history. The plane had been stationed at the Camarillo Airport for 11 years before Friday's departure.

In all, 103 Martins were manufactured, starting in the late 1940s and ending in the early 1950s. The one Brower and others admired at the Camarillo Airport is said to be the last airworthy Martin 4-0-4 in the nation.

With a Pratt & Whitney radial piston engine mounted on each wing and a curved, bulbous-shaped cabin, the Martin 4-0-4 is a classic. It was manufactured in 1952, years before U.S. airlines would be known for their fleets of sleek jets.

The plane was one of the first aircraft to contain a pressurized cabin, allowing the crew and passengers to comfortably travel at high cruising altitudes.

The Martin could cruise at 280 mph, some 100 mph faster than the Douglas DC-3. It also had a range of 1,080 miles, much longer than its predecessors.

This particular Martin went immediately into passenger service, becoming part of TWA's fleet. Then it was sold in 1960 to the E.F. MacDonald Corp., an Ohio company.

The plane's passenger seats were removed and replaced with large, luxurious seats during its conversion into a corporate aircraft. The renovated cabin looked like a large, comfortable living room, a place to while the hours away in red velvet chairs during long flights.

Owner Jeff Whitesell of Camarillo said his father, William, bought the Martin in 1969 and trained him to be an airline pilot.

The family then started a charter flying service. The Martin carried such notables as boxer Muhammad Ali and sports announcers Howard Cosell, Don Meredith and Frank Gifford.

But with the economy stalling in the 1970s, Whitesell's family decided to close the flying service and sell the plane.

Whitesell, who went on to fly for commercial airlines, founded Airliners of America in 1993 to preserve and show classic airliners. He wanted a flagship aircraft for the nonprofit organization. A year later, he chanced upon a Martin 4-0-4, the same aircraft his dad had owned years earlier.

The plane was in poor shape when Whitesell bought it in 1994, but he devoted cash and countless hours to restore it to its former grandeur.

Unfortunately, maintaining and operating such an aircraft became too costly over the years.

Rather than spend hundreds of thousands more dollars on the plane, Whitesell is now giving it to the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Valle, Ariz., south of the Grand Canyon National Park.

"It will have a good home there," said Whitesell, as he stood next to the Martin Friday afternoon.

Minutes later, Whitesell got into the cockpit, fired up the aircraft's engines and took off.

Anyone know if POF intends on flying the 404 at all, or it is just going to be parked?

Actually, I've never heard of the corrosion problem in regards to our airplane