Hello Stunthanger members!
I have had a subscription to the Smithsonian Air and Space magazine for quite a while and probably many of you have also. I just got my current issue in the mail Saturday and they have announced that they are going quarterly now. Just another sign of the time I guess
But the exciting thing about this issue is what is on the last page! It is a picture of the Kennedy Family airplane, "The Caroline" sitting in their storage facility. JFK was the first presidential candidate to make extensive use of the airplane as a campaign tool, and Joe Kennedy purchased the Caroline specifically for this task and many experts credit this move with JFK to winning the election in 1960. My Uncle, Robert E. McEntee, was hired by the Kennedy family just before the Democratic National convention in Los Angeles in June or July of that year. JFK made a swing through the midwest in the fall of 1960 and being able to cover all that ground is what might have topped the scales of the election in his favor
JFK came through St. Louis in late September or early October and Uncle Bob arranged for us in his extended family to come out to the airport and tour the airplane. While entering the cockpit, Uncle Bob offer to let me sit n his First Officer's seat and I gladly accepted! I remember it all like it was yesterday and that is part of what made me the airplane nut that I am today! I wish I knew how to post picture, because after years of searching the internet, we finally found a photo of Uncle Bob with the airplane, and the bonus of it is JFK, Jackie and the kids coming down the front stairway!
The purpose of this post is to ask if there is anyone else out there that gets the magazine, and when they are finished with it, and don't care to keep it, I would gladly buy the magazine and pay postage for it to be mailed to me. I would like to get copies for other members of my family. It doesn't look like Air and Space will be available on the news stand any longer. I have sent the editor an email asking about getting some from them, but have not heard back from them yet. So if you have a copy you would part with, please let me know.
Thank you very much!
Dan McEntee