As different organizations continue to digitize their history archives, more and more information becomes available. A great example is this picture.
Pulled from the online archives of Historic Pittsburgh, I originally published this picture on my blog in May 2018 in the F. Laklia article. Originally, I was drawn to the tiny building behind the horses. I mostly ignored the context of this picture because there was no information included. When I first used this picture it was titled Martin Bomber with a date range of 1920 – 1930. That isn’t much to go on and with no local paper I figured this was a dead-end.
In January 2019, a reader pointed out that on the Historic Pittsburgh website there was a description about a plane crash and the horses will pulling the pieces of the plane. The following is the description currently available for the picture (April 2019):
“During its first flight, a WWI era Martin Bomber biplane crash landed in a field off Wexford -Bayne Road in Marshall Township, Allegheny County, PA. The crew lived with local families while attempting to repair the plane, but repairs were unsuccessful and the plane was returned by rail to its base near Cleveland. The image shows the wreckage being hauled by horse-drawn wagon over what was then a muddy Perry Highway (now Church Road) through the village of Wexford in Pine Township, Allegheny County, PA. Cole’s Hotel and Stable are seen in the background.”
Martin Bombers is a term used to describe an entire collection of planes not one specific plane and as of now, I do not have the information as to what the exact plane was. Regardless, to novice aviation historians like ourselves, this is a good general picture of what the plane probably looked like.
Martin MB-1. Wikipedia. 13 Apr 2019. Listed as public domain.
The Martin Bomber crash in Wexford happened on January 20, 1921 (the article was published January 21, 1921 so I’m just assuming). The only newspaper to report the crash was the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette which was not the major newspaper at the time. Nothing appeared in the Pittsburgh Press which I think is odd.
The plane was on its maiden voyage from the factory in Cleveland to Washington and carried a crew of four. With one engine dead the crew chose the farm fields of Ed Shenot rather than risking to continue the flight. Lt. Melville, the officer in charge of the flight sent word to Cleveland. Repairs were attempted but additional parts were needed.
The crew stayed with M.P. Sullivan of Bradfordwoods for least one night but a few nights seems more likely especially since the picture description says the crew lived with local families.
One correction to the newspaper article: the location was described as the farm of Ed Shenot with the crew staying in Bradfordwoods but then said it was near the Butler Short Line. Ed Shenot’s farm and Bradfordwood is near the old Harmony Line.
Looking at the Pictures
The horses are carrying what I would call the body of the plan. This is the middle section of the plane where the crew would have sat.
This is one of the engines with what I am calling the brackets that attached the bottom wing and the top plane. The Martin Bomber that crashed was a biplane. Another section containing the other engine was definitely moved but there is no picture of it.
Read it. Love it. Share it.
_______________________________________________________________________
Make sure you are following the blog! Either directly with your email address or on Facebook!
Pine History Blog is on Instagram. If you are too, please make sure to follow me. #pinehistoryblog
_______________________________________________________________________
If you liked this then maybe you’d enjoy:
Pine History Blog 