Fairchild 24 – Sean Neal pays tribute to history

Sean Neal taxiies his gorgeous 1940 Fairchild 24 wearing WW II Civil Air Patrol markings at Reading Regional Airport in Pennsylvania. The type was used extensively by the CAP along with a variety of other civilian aircraft pressed into service from early 1942 to late 1943 to patrol for submarines along America's Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

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“At the end of the War, there was an interview with a senior German U-boat commander asking why they pulled their submarines from the Atlantic coast in 1943,” American Airlines Boeing 737 captain Sean Neal recalls. “His reply was, ‘It was because of those damn little red and yellow airplanes!’” The little red and yellow airplanes the U-boat skipper was referring to were the general aviation aircraft pressed into service by the newly formed Civil...

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