A slightly different version of this article was published in an issue of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Amateur Press Association a few years ago. It always amazed me that ERB rode horses, trains, automobiles, bicycles, buses, ocean liners, military ships of the line, and airplanes. I’ve done much the same, but it was easier for me that it was for him. He had to wait for the technology to be invented.

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born during the age of balloons, dirigibles, and bicycles. Cars and airplanes were somewhere in the future. Shortly after the Wright Brothers took to the air, Ed created his own version of flying machines for A Princess of Mars, aircraft that were a mashup of dirigibles, newly designed aeroplanes, and sailing ships. In the Pellucidar novels, Abner Perry tried to build his own airplane, but settled for building a balloon. The Venus novels were filled with aircraft and the skies of Poloda, beyond the farthest star, were filled with so many warbirds that they darkened the sun.

But his isn’t about Barsoomian aircraft, Abner Perry’s attempts to build and airplane, or the aircraft of Venus, or the warbirds beyond the farthest star. This is about Ed’s personal airplane.

As the story goes, Hulbert Burroughs was fascinated with becoming a pilot. In order to determine how safe flying would be, Ed decided to become a pilot himself – a decision he did not share with his wife.

Ed was successful in becoming a licensed pilot, but Hulbert crashed on his first solo attempt. Hulbert ultimately obtained a private pilot’s license. Ed’s son in law, James Pierce, Tarzan of screen and radio, did become a pilot and was active in the National Airmen’s Reserve, now known as the Air National Guard, during the second World War.
 

In any event, at age 58, Ed pursued his pilot license and bought an airplane, a Security Airster, NC 13746. He promptly named it the Doodad, after the symbol he put on the spine of his books.
 

I’m always fascinated when I remember that during his lifetime, Ed went from a horse soldier to an aircraft pilot. Along the way, he was a licensed bicyclist in Chicago and drove an early automobile at the Chicago World Exposition in. He owned several automobiles of increasing power, reliability and speed, before he climbed into an aircraft cockpit.

The Security Airster was designed by Bert Kinner who created the Security National Aircraft Corporation to build the aircraft. The two prototypes were the Airster-S1, which was powered by a 100 Horsepower engine designed by Kinner, the Kinner K-5.

After the prototypes, the production version was the Airster S-1-A. Only twelve of these were produced, although some sources claim that 15 were made, but my research indicates that the 15 number includes the two prototypes and one aircraft that was never finished. . Ed’s aircraft was of the 12 Airster S-1-A production models. Production stopped in 1935.

 In 1939, the company produce a revised version, a variant with a 125-horsepower engine, the Security S5-125. Only five of the new design were produced and in 1942, the factory and all assets were sold to the National Airplane and Motor Company.

The single-engine aircraft seated two, including the pilot. It was an inch short of 24 feet in length and had a 40-foot wingspan. Empty it weigh just short of 1200 pounds and had a maximum payload of 578 pounds, the maximum weight of the pilot, passenger, and their belongings. The payload would be reduced by altitude and temperature. The craft had a maximum speed of one hundred miles an hour and a 300-mile range. It wasn’t pressurized and the maximum flight ceiling was 14,000 feet. The rules today require that the pilot use oxygen if flying an unpressurized aircraft at that elevation.

Bert Kinner, who was born in Iowa, worked as a streetcar operator, a barber, a taxi driver and a car dealer before becoming an aircraft designer. Obvious qualifications. While managing Kinner Field, the first city owned airport in LA, he hired Anita ‘Neta” Snook.” Known as Snooky, she was a flight instructor, test pilot, and mechanic.

The preceding photograph is of Amelia Earhart’s crash, not Hulbert’s.

In December 1920, Kinner Field's most famous student, Amelia Earhart, arrived. She took her first flying lesson with Neta Snook. Earhart bought the first prototype Kinner Airster for $2,000. It was bright yellow and she named it the "The Canary." The prototype was considered very underpowered, but it provided Earhart with valuable flight time. Unfortunately, Amelia couldn’t raise the money to compete the purchase and never paid more than the initial deposit. She and Kinner made a deal to keep Airster on hand as a demonstration aircraft in exchange for upkeep and hangar fees.

Earhart soloed in the Airster, and after Neta left Kinner field to get married, Earhart stayed on, and continued flying. She did crash it once. In October 1922, the Kinner Airster was used to set a world high altitude record of 14,000 ft for women pilots, the first of the many records set by Earhart.

While there is no record of when Earhart actually completed the purchase, she must have, because she later sold "The Canary." Eventually she raised the money to purchase a second Airster. Three of the company’s aircraft were owned by Burroughs or Earhart.

Now, here’s the thing. Earhart’s Airster, the “Canary,” was the demo aircraft when ERB bought his airplane. Security did not stock airplanes like a car dealership. You ordered an aircraft and they built it. It’s almost inconceivable that ERB did not take his demo ride or rides in the “Canary.” Arguably the world’s most famous author and the world’s most famous pilot, both hanging out at Kinner Field and both probably flying the same aircraft.

I’ll close with the last verse of the Kinky Friedman song about Amelia Earhart;

There's a beautiful, beautiful field
Far away-ay-ay in a land that is fair
Happy landings to you, Amelia Earhart

REFERENCES
Enjoy a multitude of the Lupton features in ERBzine at:
www.ERBzine.com/lupton

The Fateful Flights of Edgar Rice Burroughs
https://www.erbzine.com/mag66/6620.html.

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