02/04/2025
Part 2 - Canyonville Pacific Air Transport Crash
Ninety-six years ago, mailplane #5339 plunged into the treetops over southern Oregon and burned, only to have its engine ripped out by a salvage team and then fall prey to the townspeople who pilfered its remains and amputated its tail. Steeped in mountain fog and wet Northwest weather for six decades, the Boeing 40C eroded until its remnants, looking like twisted bones of a great, primitive biplane, were scooped from the Willamette Valley and cached in a horse trailer in the backyard of a member of Oregon Aviation Historical Society.
Addison Pemberton, an engineer from Spokane, Washington, has been interested in restoring a Boeing 40 after seeing one at the Henry Ford Museum. He researched the fates of all 81 Model 40s built and in 1982 began a two-year hunt for the #5339's hulk. As luck would have it, an article printed in 1999, led him to the OAHS member and they struck a deal. He traded the society a propeller and $5,000 for the parts and promised to restore #5339 to its original livery and exhibit it to the public.
Though Pemberton had restored 18 aircraft, none had been as ravaged as the #5339. Perhaps only 50 original pieces were to be absorbed into a 30,000 part aircraft, making the effort more a cloning than a restoration. His projected budget for the project was $100,000. It will be the only airplane of its type flying. The Boeing 40C again took flight on February 17, 2007, for the first time since it crashed.
