Reeve Airways  Fairchild 51   NC5364                        (c/n  102)

                                    

                                        This Fairchild was originally built as a Model FC-2 and converted to a Model 51 by the installation
                                        of a 300 h.p. Wright J6-9 engine.  The 1929 Civil Aircraft Register indicates it was originally sold
                                        to Pacific International Airways.  Presumably when Pan American formed Pacific Alaska Airways in
                                        1932 and PIA was absorbed, this machine, not being a model 71, was deemed surplus to needs and
                                        sold off.   Robert "Bob" Reeve acquired it in 1932 and it was one of the first, if not the first aircraft
                                        with which this illustrious aviation and entrepreneur began his flying service.   His airline (later to be
                                        known as Reeve Aleutian Airways) would go on for another 70 years, before folding in 2001.  The
                                        above illustration is courtesy of the archives of the Museum of Alaska Transportation & Industry
                                        (via Lars Opland).