Skip to main content

READERS’ ALBUM

Nose Job

October 2024
1min read

1979_3_109

During the First World War, aircraft were still light enough for crashes to have occasionally comic overtones. Stanley M. Phillips, of Stratford, Connecticut, was serving with the Royal Flying Corps in Canada when he bought this picture in the RFC canteen. It shows an American-built Curtiss JN-4D—the ubiquitous “Jenny” of the postwar years—come to highly precarious rest atop a commercial building in an Ontario town. “Note,” says Phillips, “the pilot emerging from the front seat and gingerly making his way across the damaged bottom wing to safety.” Like the Jenny, Phillips himself did not get into the service in time to see action overseas. “I was retained as a Flying Instructor, but I have no medals—my wings came too late.”

We continue to ask our readers to send unusual, previously unpublished old photographs to Carla Davidson, American Heritage Publishing Co., 10 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020. Please send a copy of any irreplaceable material, and do not mail glass negatives. A MERICAN H ERITAGE will pay $50.00 for each entry run.

Enjoy our work? Help us keep going.

Now in its 75th year, American Heritage relies on contributions from readers like you to survive. You can support this magazine of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it by donating today.

Donate