A bit more info on this particular aircraft, De Havilland DH-4M c/n 652
It is a Boeing-built DH-4M formerly used as an airmail aircraft. Declared surplus by the Postal Service in 1927, it was then used by the Department of Agriculture for studying flying insect migration at high altitudes. In 1937 it was bought by a private pilot and over the next years it passed through the ownership of several others. In 1944 it was flown to Detroit for a warbond drive and at the time the owner sold the aircraft to The Thompson Products Auto Album predecessor to the Crawford Museum.
Loaned to the US Air Force Museum in Dayton in 1965, the aircraft underwent a complete restoration in 1982 and was repainted to appear as a DH-4 used as a personal aircraft by the Commanding General of the US Air Service in 1923. The DH-4 returned to the Crawford Museum in 2001. In mid 2006 it was sold to the 1914-18 Heritage Trust based in New Zealand and is displayed at The Heritage Aviation Centre in Omaka, Blenheim.
The DH-4M was 1923 conversion of war-surplus American Liberty-engined DH-4 aircraft fitted characterised by a fuselage of fabric-covered steel tube in place of the original plywood structure. It was designed as a long-distance mail plane/messenger-transport. Boeing Company built 180 DH-4M-1s and later another 150, while Fokker American's Atlantic Aircraft Corp. built 130 DH-4M-2s
Cheers
James
