Universal Air Lines System  Fokker F-10  C5614                  (c/n  1003)         

                                   

                                     The Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America built some 65 F-10s in 1929/30.  The crash
                                     of the Transcontinental and Western Air's NC999E over Chase County Kansas on 31
                                     March 1931 killing noted Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne put a halt on prod-
                                     uction which never resumed. The investigation found that the wooden wing became moist
                                     over time, causing the glue connecting the wing to the body to weaken, allowing the wing
                                     to separate. We had that problem in Australia much later in the 1960s when all glued wing
                                     aircraft were no longer given C's of A.  Our problem was the drying out of the glue in the
                                     hot Australian sun.
                                     Anyway, back to Universal. As seen in the shot above, the airline was one of the first to
                                     provide on board meals, with a galley equipped with an electric stove prep area, folding
                                     tables, and a toilet.  F. Robert Van der Linden in his book Airlines and air mail: the
                                     post office and the birth of the commercial aviation industry. indicates that on some
                                     Cleveland to Kansas City routes, as many as three Fokker aircraft would fly in formation
                                     to the destination .   I cannot track just how many F-10s Universal had, but it was
                                     clearly a large fleet (by 1930 standards).    On 25 June 1930 there was a major fire at
                                     Chicago Municipal Airport destroying two hangars in which  27 aircraft were burned
                                     beyond recovery.   12 of them were Fokker F-10s of which C5614 was one..