In August 2011, private pilot and truck driver Ron Brown of Memphis, Missouri, discovered an ad in Trade-a-Plane for N5738B, a restored and airworthy 1928 OX-5-powered, three-place Pheasant H-10 biplane.
Immediately intrigued, Brown’s wheels started turning.
“Our generation heard the old timers talk about the Pheasant for years because the Pheasant Aircraft Company built 36 of the biplanes here,” said Brown.
He decided it would be great to be able to buy that Pheasant and bring it home to its birthplace in Memphis.
Brown talked with friends, and when local dentist, Dr. Harlo Donelson, happened to be in New York for Christmas, he went on a reconnaissance mission to Bayport Aerodrome in Long Island to have a look at the Pheasant. He was excited by what he saw, and in January 2012, the Pheasant Airplane Committee was organized as part of the local Scotland County Historical Society.
Small Town Legacy
It may have seemed a bit outlandish at the outset, maybe even preposterous, to ask the good people of Memphis (population about 1,800) for $75,000 in donations to bring the Pheasant home. But it wasn’t outlandish — no, not at all.
Memphisonians responded with enthusiastic generosity, and within three months the goal was attained — all through local fundraising efforts that ran the gamut from pledge cards and pork loin dinners to the sale of hats, buttons, and T-shirts. The outpouring of individual donations was often accompanied by personal cards and handwritten notes praising the efforts to bring the Pheasant home.
The Memphisonians, staunchly proud of their town’s history, pooled their resources and united themselves for a common cause. Why? Quite simply, because the Pheasant is their history. For many of them, it was a personal thing.
“That’s one of the reasons we got so much support,” said Fred Clapp, pilot and committee member. “I thought when we started trying to raise the money it would be mostly pilots, but it wasn’t necessarily, because it was family whose great uncles or grandfathers worked in the factory, and they grew up hearing Pheasant tales.”
The Pheasant Aircraft Company
Back in 1923, Memphis businessman Lee R. Briggs started flying, and in 1925, he established a flying school. In June 1927, Briggs founded the Pheasant Aircraft Company.
The company’s sales brochure boasted that Pheasant designer and company manager Orville H. Hickman of Lomax, Illinois, had “been studying and designing successful airplanes for over six years. His first efforts were with the Swallow at Wichita, Kansas. Later he designed the Air King, which has been so successful during the last year.”
Harold B. Phillips of Memphis was a “test pilot and general foreman of construction. He is a flyer of over 4 years experience and has rebuilt several war surplus jobs,” the brochure continued.
After the Pheasant’s first flight in August 1927, the local newspaper, the Memphis Reveille reported: “Its performance in the air and in taking off and landing indicates it is in a class by itself. Harold Phillips piloted the ship in an easy take off and soared over Memphis, giving it a thorough test. Later, Leslie Smith [of Springfield, Illinois] took up the plane and put it through the stunts. He pronounces the Pheasant as superior to any in this class. … Smith looped, rolled, tail spinned, and did all his stunts — the ship responding to every whim of the pilot. ….”
By early November, the company increased its work force to 25 men and was building a plane every week. The Memphis Reveille reported: “This is a factory Memphis should be proud of as few small cities can boast such a factory. H.E. Campbell left for Long Island Tuesday, flying his Pheasant — after leaving an order for four more planes.”
Lee and Mary Briggs personally flew another Pheasant to Hilaire E. Campbell at the end of November. The three remaining Pheasants were manufactured early the next year and shipped by train to Long Island. Serial No. 118 (originally C-5738) was one of those, and was the last Pheasant built before the company received Approved Type Certificate #36.
The Pheasant’s future seemed bright and promising until a tragic accident forever changed the trajectory of the fledgling company. On Dec. 5, 1927, 45-year-old Lee Briggs and 25-year-old student Otis Oliver were killed.
The Memphis Democrat reported: “Oliver banked the ship and it is supposed he banked it too sharply, and the plane hung as though suspended for a second and then suddenly turned completely over. Both men fell from the cockpits and came crashing to earth.”
A government inspection of the Pheasant reported that the “accident was no fault of the plane.”
The Memphis Democrat also reported: “Mr. Briggs was the prime mover and the dynamo behind the Pheasant Aircraft Company. When the first plane was designed, tested, and sold, he was highly elated and felt like his life ambition had been realized. It was a live, going concern in which all Memphis took an interest and gave it encouragement. The town and community will miss Lee Briggs. He had an enterprise that was a credit to the town and community. We believe we violate no truth when we say that he did more to put Memphis on the map than any other one citizen.”
Pheasant production resumed in January 1928. Later that year, Steve Wittman of Wisconsin, who was one of the test pilots for the company and its top salesman, garnered national attention when he flew his Pheasant in the 1928 transcontinental air race from New York to Los Angeles. Wittman finished 12th out of 38 entries, and then scored a 4th place finish in the return race from Los Angeles to Cincinnati.
But Pheasant Aircraft had been struggling against financial headwinds, and production ceased in May 1929 when an associate of Wittman, T.W. Meiklejohn of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, bought the company. The company’s assets, along with three finished Pheasants, were moved to Wisconsin just as the Great Depression loomed on the horizon.
A 70-Year Restoration
If it weren’t for William F. Schwenk of Southampton, New York, Serial No. 118 may not have survived. In 1931, this Pheasant was wind damaged and dismantled. Schwenk was just a teenager then, and acquired the aircraft in that condition directly from then-owner Hilaire Campbell for services rendered at his place of business in Riverhead, Long Island, New York.
Amazingly, Schwenk continued plugging away on the Pheasant’s restoration throughout the ensuing decades, and at age 94, realized his dream of flying it.
That’s when Tim Dahlen and Ed Katzen of Vintage Aero Collection of Westhampton Beach, New York, came into the picture. They facilitated the completion of N5738B, and in November 2007, happily took Schwenk up in the Pheasant and let him fly during its first flight in 77 years. Schwenk then sold the Pheasant to them.
Pheasant Fetching and Homecoming
“When we got the money together to buy Serial No. 118, I talked with owners Tim Dahlen and Ed Katzen and they knocked $5,000 off the price, so we paid $70,000,” Brown reported.
The team that traveled to fetch the Pheasant from Long Island included Ron Brown, Lew Prather, Stanley Myers, Fred Clapp, and Rodney Mulvania. Don and Mary Anna Troutman, owners of 5D Express of Keosauqua, Iowa, loaned one of their company’s tractor-trailers to retrieve the Pheasant.
Brown drove the semi, and shortly after arrival at Bayport Aerodrome, the team was all smiles as they worked to remove the Pheasant’s wings, stabilizers, and elevators. They carefully loaded everything, including associated historical documents, for the 1,145 mile drive west to Memphis.
It was a homecoming like no other. The heartwarming scene would have made a wonderful Norman Rockwell painting. On April 21, 2012, the good and loyal citizens of Memphis gathered at their town square to cheer the arrival of the Pheasant. A banner proudly proclaimed: “Welcome Back Where You Belong — Pheasant Airplane #118 Built In 1928.”
A police escort led the way as Brown drove the semi into the public square, threading the narrow roadway between a colorful mural of a Pheasant biplane (painted years ago by the high school art class) and the old building that originally housed the Pheasant factory.
“We unloaded it up on the square and we had about 500 people who showed up to see it,” Brown recalled.
It was a memorable moment, resplendent with local pride and marvel: A Pheasant H-10 had finally returned to the fold after 84 years!
And then, out of the attics, dresser drawers, and historical scrapbooks of the citizens of Memphis came a cascade of cherished Pheasant memorabilia that is now on display with Serial No. 118.
Into the Future
The Pheasant Aircraft Company, although short-lived, created its own niche in early American aviation, while also imparting a unique legacy to this small northeast Missouri town. Serial No. 118, one of only three Pheasants known to exist, is currently housed at the Wiggins Family Museum on Highway 136.
A colorful pheasant, painted by L. Hendrickson of Bridgehampton in 1993, adorns Serial No. 118’s rudder. 
Pheasant Aircraft Company logo on the vertical stabilizer . 
(L-R) Rob Brown, Neil Howard, and Fred Clapp with the Pheasant in November 2019. Note that the radiator is streamlined with the Pheasant’s cowling just above the propeller. 
Pheasant test pilot Harold B. Phillip’s aviator license, signed by Orville Wright. 
Pheasant test pilot Harold B. Phillip’s calendar-style “logbook” – note the highlighted entry for his test flight of New Yorker Hilaire Campbell’s Pheasant. 
Close up view of the Hamilton Aero Mfg. Co. logo on the prop. 
The Pheasant has split-type landing gear and Pheasant-type shock absorbers.
“We have a display board with everybody’s name on it who gave a dollar and I promised them when we got the Pheasant that we’d keep that with the airplane forever,” said Brown.
The Memphisonians, who had rallied together in a most unusual and uplifting way, continue their efforts.
“We’re trying to raise funds for a a 40×60 building to permanently display the Pheasant. We have a start — about $45,000 in the account — and we have the lot to build it on at the city square,” said Brown.
The local Farmers Elevator and Produce Company and CoBank donated $2,000 toward the fund as part of its “Sharing Success” program. The Pheasant Committee is gratefully accepting tax deductible donations, which may be mailed to: Scotland County Historical Society, Pheasant Airplane Committee, P. O. Box 263, Memphis, MO 63555.
For more information or to see the Pheasant in person, call Fred Clapp 660- 341-2307 or Ron Brown 660-328-6361.
Sparky wants to give special thanks to:
- Leo Brown’s 1978 transcription of Memphis Democrat and Memphis Reveille newspaper articles by permission of David Forsythe, Editor, and sponsored by the Scotland County Public Library.
- Carolyn Applegate of Queen City, Missouri, for her diligence in scanning and digitally preserving a large collection of Pheasant photos, articles, scrapbooks, and photo albums.
- Pheasant Airplane Committee for their enthusiasm and eagerness to share the Pheasant saga
- Robert L. Taylor of the Antique Airplane Association, Ottumwa, Iowa, for historical information.
My father, Milton Turner Sr. owned a Pheasant prior to WW II, he made some money crop dusting. He decided to take his Cousin for a ride, took off and was showing off, climbed too fast and the engine starved of fuel (I don’t think it had a fuel pump) and the engine quit. He managed to land it but had no control on speed, it hit a ditch and flipped forward wrecking the front of the plane. He later sold it to a restaurant in Natalia Texas and they put it on their roof for an advertising. I don’t know the eventual fate of the airplane. Our family has a picture of my father and his cousin (who broke her arm in the crash) standing next to the plane prior to their ill fated flight, but we can’t find it. When my mother passed the pictures went to several siblings and no one can find the picture…I wish I had it. I still have his leather tight fitting cap, has wool ear muffs. I used to wear it riding motorcycles in winter, worked great for cold.
Dad told me a story of when he joined the Army and went to Europe to fight in WW II. The Battalion had a muster for all troops and they were asked 3 questions to volunteer for needed skill jobs.
1. Pilots…My father said he almost raised his hands but quickly remembered the short life span they had so he didn’t raise his hand…that one thought is why I’m here, he most likely would have been killed in combat had he flown for the Army Air Core.
2. Welders, they needed welders to work on tanks etc…
3. People that could use a typewriter…my father volunteered for that and ended working inside in the rear the whole war as a personal assistant to commanders. He got out after the war and couldn’t find decent work so he rejoined the Army and stayed in 30 years then retired. He had the distinction of being the second person to achieve the rank of Sargent Major, E9. He passed in early 1990, I still miss him!
What a wonderful story of true civic pride! Welcome home, #118, and best wishes to Memphis on your building project for her new, forever home.
I remember well the Father’s Day fly-in at John Talmage’s farm on Long Island when the Pheasant was rolled out of the hangar where restoration work was being done. The OX-5 started right up and the sound of that engine … wow.