![]() ![]() Herrick’s 1931 Stinson Tri-motor, deep blue with varnished wooden trim, reminded me that moving people through the air was once an artform. What a difference between the aircraft inside the hangar and the 727 I’d flown on from Washington, D.C. I have never been so awed by the beauty of a practical object. When we swung into a parking lot next to a hangar, I spied a small sign over a side door-“Golden Wings Flying Museum.” We sped along the roads north of Minneapolis, passing miles of flat, brown landscape. For his new job, owner and chief operator of the Aviation Foundation of America, he keeps a simple office in a warehouse-like building near some railroad tracks. He drives a red Jeep with roll-up windows and a cracked windshield. Herrick’s boyish face, Eddie Bauer khakis, and plain cotton shirt hardly give him the look of the elite collector. With the $60 million he netted in 1994 from the sale of his mail-order computer business, Zeos International, he’s built one of the largest private holdings of airplanes in the United States-40 in all, worth an estimated $7 million. Herrick prides himself on knowing detailed histories for each of the airplanes in his collection, which resides at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport outside Minneapolis. Herrick’s K-84 spent its heyday working for small Alaskan airlines before winding up in Gene Frank’s field in 1954. When Loening opened his own company, he competed for Navy contracts (Leroy Grumman was one of his employees), but also built civil craft. It is one of the trademark biplane flying boats of Grover Loening, who designed the first short-hulled flying boat while working for the Wright brothers. The Keystone-Loening K-84, for example, is the last of its type. But many of the models introduced during that period are gone. In the 1920s and ’30s as many as 180 companies churned out airplanes. ![]() For Herrick, the airplanes represent an era in aviation history of unbounded energy and optimism. He understands why Frank was so attached to the airplanes collectors sometimes see a value in objects others miss. “Even though he thinks of me as a son, he wept when he sold them to me,” Herrick says. The rancher eventually sold him several airplanes, including a 1929 Keystone-Loening Commuter K-84 and a Cunningham-Hall PT-6F. Maybe Frank decided to take the dog’s placid reaction to Herrick as a good sign: After years of trying, Herrick finally got the Tri-motor. “I told him I’d won the dog over with crackers.” “I shouted at him to stop,” Herrick says. I was all set.”Īfter several years of phone calls and casual visits, Herrick had thought this time he might be able to convince the elderly cropduster and ranch owner, Gene Frank, to give up the beat-up jewel lying in the grass behind the wire fence, the “No Trespassing” signs, and the dog: the oldest Ford Tri-motor in existence.īut when Frank pulled up in his truck and saw his guard dog sitting down on the job, he reached for his shotgun. I got out of the car real slowly and said, ‘Sit!’ When the dog sat, I gave him some more crackers. “There was no way I was getting out of that car. “The dog jumped up against the car door,” he says. He puts his beer down, raises his hands like paws, and growls like the junkyard dog he found guarding an airplane stashed on a ranch in Caldwell, Idaho. It's also worth noting that some of these items were limited release menu items and are no longer available, or were just so dang bad that they were removed indefinitely.GREG HERRICK, A COLLECTOR OF AIRPLANES FROM THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS, HAS A STORY TO TELL. These items are either gross in taste, gross visually, gross in the way of unhealthiness, or all of the above. So how did we properly choose the worst menu items at various fast food restaurants? A lot was taken into consideration. We found twenty that are sure to make your stomach turn, or at the very least make your heart say "Please no, no more cholesterol, I can't take it." You might need to take an antacid after just reading this article, forewarning! Just about every fast food joint around has one such disgusting menu item. Feeling frisky and adventurous, we tried it. Just what a go-getter like you needs in the morning, or afternoon, or evening.īut lo, we've all encountered that one item at a fast food place. We're not saying fast food is particularly healthy, but it can be cheap and filling. In a relatively speedy fashion, you can order, pay for, and snatch up some hot and usually tasty food. You're late to work, but your stomach is growling. You manage to get dressed and snatch your wallet and keys. Fast food serves its purpose and does so well. ![]()
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