BARLING BOMBER 1922-23 Collection of Frank Schober Courtesy of Margaret Schober Seaman, 3-23-06 Transcribed by Ralph Cooper

New Jersey's Famous Aircraft BARLING NBL-1 BOMBER Designed by Walter H. Barling. Built by Wittemann Aircraft Corp., Teterboro Airport, N.J. - 1922. Largest aircraft in the world at that time - three wings, eight wheels, six engines. Test flown Dayton, Ohio. from the Aviation Hall of Fame & Museum of New Jersey Courtesy of H. V. Pat Reilly, 7-18-05

 

Barling Bomber Crew Left to right: Frank Schober, Vincent Burnelli, Lee Allison, Harry Graulich, Lee Wallice Collection of Frank Schober Courtesy of Margaret Schober Seaman, 3-23-06

One day I got a call from Hasbrough Heights, N.J. from John Carisi who was super on the Barling bomber job, to take charge of the wing building job, which I did and in 1923 it was shipped to Dayton for assembly and fly. I was one of five sent to Dayton to assemble the Bomber and after several months of changes they flew it, but I left for Harbrough Heights before the flight and started to work for the Atlantic Aircaft Co. who had a contract to overhaul some 20 DH 4 airmail planes the Post Office asked for bids on cowl upholstery so I put in a bid and got the contract for the lowest bid for new bumpers laced around the cowling. I sublet the contract to make the bumpers under, but I installed them when they were finished. When that job was finished I was out of work again but soon found another with Clarence Chamberlain rebuilding some of his surplus planes he bought after the war. Sop. Camels and Spads which he used for photography work. While working there I met Red Noyes who was flying for Bill Davis some of the surplus DH.6 which were equipt with OX5 Curtiss Motors. He asked me one day if I ever flew and told I was an Early Bird, so he said come along on one of his joyride fees and he would let me fly the plane after we were in the air. But I was not acquainted with the tractor plane and kept climbing too much, flying around in circles, so when he came down he landed the plane and looked me over. Come to find out that the cloth covering started to come loose at the trailing edges which had pulled away from age. Well I worked for Chamberlain abut 8 months when things got slow so I quit airplane work for good and got into the auto work. Continued on Next Page

 

Working on Barling Bomber Collection of Frank Schober Courtesy of Margaret Schober Seaman, 3-23-06

 

Building the Barling Bomber Left to right: Lee Wallice, Frank Schober, Andy Surini, Vincent Burnelli, Lee Allison Collection of Frank Schober Courtesy of Margaret Schober Seaman, 3-23-06

 

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