Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is an outstanding artifact from one of the more well-known crashes in the history of early aviation. Charles Ames was born on February 2, 1894 in Jackson, Michigan. In 1917, he enlisted at Rockwell Field in San Diego, California and in the next year was in ground school at SMA in Berkley. He worked his way up to an instructor position at San Antonio, Texas, then at the Curtiss field in Kokomo, Indiana in 1920. He had over 700 flight hours before signing on with the Air Mail Service on December 8, 1920.

On October 1, 1925, Ames disappeared from sight in the mountains near Bellefonte, Pennsylvania while flying a de Havilland airplane on his portion of the Cleveland to New York run. Dozens of groups worked to find Ames over the next several days, including national guard troops. The 32-year old pilot was finally found in the wreckage of his airplane, where he had died on impact. During his years of airmail service, Ames flew 132,739 miles, logging 1,334 hours in the air.

This is a small fragment of aircraft fabric taken from the broken wing of Ames’ plane after he crashed and was found. The piece measures 1 ¼ x 2” and is attached to a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Highways “Tickler Sheet”, the back of which is inscribed:

Part of Broken wing of plane in which Chas. H. Ames
Was killed -
Lost Oct 1 - 1925
Found Oct 11 - 1925 near Hekla Park
by J. Dearmitt - 15 yrs old

This piece has outstanding provenance, and we certainly don’t expect to find another artifact of this niche part of aviation history.

Ready for display.