On Saturday, March 24, 2012 11:48:55 AM UTC-5, Burt Compton - Marfa wrote:
I wonder where the Minimoa that was owned by EAL Captain Shelley
Charles is located?

My father, Captain Fritz Compton, flew it several times in the late
1940's and loved it.

Eastern Air Lines let Captain Charles store it in one of the EAL
hangars at Atlanta Airport.

Burt Compton
Marfa, Texas USA

Capt. Charles bought his Minimoa from Chet Decker in late 1939 (Soaring Dec.. 1939) He set a national altitude record in it (Soaring Sept/Oct 1943)

Decker bought his from Barringer in late 1937, which had been damaged in the 1937 Nationals. (Soaring Jan. 1938) The damage was from another plane that stalled on approach (Soaring August 1937)

Barringer ordered his new from the factory for the 1937 Nationals (Soaring Feb. 1937)

Can't find any definitive evidence with brief searches to determine what the registration number was for this ship. It is definitely not DuPont's N16923 or N2664B (November 1983 Soaring). I'm curious what the registration was on N37JK before it was presumably changed by John Karlovich. It is a 1937 model, which makes it possible it was the one that Barringer ordered, but there was at least one more ordered that year. The November 1983 Soaring claims there were 6 in the US at that time but the locations of only 2 were known at that time.

Gosh I love the SSA's online Soaring archive!