Fernic T.10 Cruisaire

(Johan Visschedijk Collection)

Making use of the same "tandem-wing" concept of the T.9, this time Fernic placed a 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) auxiliary wing in a parasol position ahead of the cockpit. Powered by a 75 hp Michigan Rover engine, the aircraft was first flown on July 11, 1930. To promote the concept of the auxiliary wing and to gain orders for his designs, as well as to raise money for the intended New York, USA to Bucharest, Rumania record flight, Fernic toured with several states.

However, disaster struck the following month as transcribed from the Saturday, August 30, 1930 edition of the Milwaukee Sentinel newspaper":

CURTISS-REYNOLDS AIRPORT, CHICAGO, Aug. 29.

     A crowd of 40,000 horror-stricken spectators saw the small "home-made" plane of George Fernic, St. George, Staten Island, N.Y., rise from the field, pause in mid-air, then plunge downward into a parked plane at the national air races Friday.
     Fernic, a Roumanian, was dead when pulled from the cockpit. His plane demolished a ship in which Miss Martie Bowman of Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y., had just completed a closed circuit race. The famous aviatrix missed death by inches as the falling plane cleft through the fuselage of her ship.
     It was the second major crash witnessed by air race fans since the beginning of the meet, and brought the total fatalities to three. Fernic's craft, of radical design, had taken off successfully. As it soared to the north end of the field at a low altitude it nosed skywards, made one backward loop, then fell.
     Screaming, thousands of spectators made a concerted rush on the field, adding to the confusion.
     Fernic had flown his plane to the air races, arriving Tuesday. He had designed and built the craft himself, placing on it an auxiliary wing, which he believed gave it additional stability.
     The accident occurred about an hour after Col. and Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh left the races for Detroit to visit Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh Sr.
     Lindbergh arrived Thursday afternoon, spent the night in Chicago and returned to the races Friday shortly before noon, seeing more than four hours of the program.