09/30/2014. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "The pictured aircraft is not original, it was built as a two-seat Sperry Sport Plane. It was owned by a number of people, including Charles Lawrance, the originator of the radial engine in the USA and designer of the L-3 engine. The last owner was American WW I ace and Eastern Airlines President Edward V. Rickenbacker, who donated it to the NASM in September 1957. In the early 1960s the NASM started conversion of the two-seat Sport Plane to the single-seat Messenger configuration. It was fitted with a skyhook and finished in the colors and markings of the Messenger (serial 68533, McCook Field Project Number P-306) that made the first successful airship hook on and release in the air. In the summer of 1968 the aircraft was loaned to the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, where the aircraft was finished. Since it has been on display at the NASM."

Read the type remarks on page 8904.