Fairchild 24 equipped with floats.
East Boston airport, July 21, 1936
in front of Shobe Airlines hangar.
The Fairchild Model 24, a four-seat, single-engine monoplane, was in production from 1932 - 1946; altogether 2,232 were built. As a light transport aircraft used by the US Army Air Corps, it was designated UC-61. The Model 24 was itself a development of the earlier Fairchild Model 22.
Fairchild Aircraft was hit hard by the Great Depression as airline purchases of larger aircraft dried up, so the company developed a reliable and rugged small plane for personal and business use. The model 22 sold well and evolved into the new, improved Model 24, whose easy handling and roomy interior helped it gain popularity in the 1930s. Using many automobile components (expansion-shoe brakes and roll-down cabin windows), the aircraft was also affordable and easy to maintain. For its 15-year production life, the aircraft remained essentially unchanged aerodynamically and internally. The first models were equipped with only two seats, but in 1933 a third seat was installed and by 1938 a fourth was added.
You can read more at the Fairchild 24 site.
From Aero Digest, April, 1935:
Fairchild Aircraft Corporation, Hagerstown, Maryland
• Three-place high-wing monoplane. (Models C8-C and C8-D respectively; data on C8-D indicated in brackets.) Warner Super Scarab engine, 145 horsepower. (Ranger R-690 engine, 145 horsepower) ATC 535.
Span 36 feet 4 inches. Length overall 23 feet 9 inches (24 feet 6 inches). Height overall 7 feet 3 inches. Wing area 186 square feet. Power loading 16.6 pounds per horsepower. Wing loading 12.09 pounds per square foot.
Empty weight 1390 (1440) pounds. Useful load 1010 (960) pounds. Payload 577 (527) pounds. Gross weight 2400 pounds. Fuel capacity 40 gallons. Oil capacity 3 gallons.
Maximum speed 133 miles per hour. Cruising speed 118 (120) miles per hour. Landing speed 49 miles per hour. Service ceiling 15,500 feet. Rate of climb 700 feet per minute. Cruising range 490 (525) miles.
Fuselage: fabric covered; welded steel tubing, truss type; tandem seating arrangement, two seats forward with dual controls; rear seat folds. Wing: fabric covered; 1 section spruce spars; truss-type spruce ribs; internal bracing with steel .tie rods; wing in two sections each attached to top fuselage longerons and braced to bottom longerons with streamline steel struts which taper in plan and section where they join the fuselage. Tail group: fabric covered; welded steel tubing; braced externally with steel streamline struts and wires; adjustable stabilizer. Fixed divided-type landing gear equipped with Goodrich 6.50 X 10 tires, Warner wheels and brakes, oil and spring shock absorbers. Plane and engine controls are equipped with and operate over, ball bearings. Adaptable for float installation.
Standard equipment includes electric starter, navigation lights, Exide battery, Hartzell wood propeller.
Instruments: compass, altimeter, tachometer, air speed indicator, oil pressure gauge, oil temperature gauge. Also see data in May, 1934, AERO DIGEST.