Between the Covers

Hardcover. Quarto. Custom-made aluminum album measuring 9” x 11.5”. Contains 96 black and white gelatin silver photographs measuring between 4" x 5" and 8" x 10" with some captions. Additional included is a 8.5” x 11” color composite sheet with six images titled, “Remmert-Werner Executive Aircraft – Lambert Field, St. Louis, Mo.” Some photos bear stamps of two St. Louis photographers, Todd Studios and Edward H. Goldberger. Near fine album with near fine photographs.

An album documenting the building of a customized executive aircraft at Remmert-Werner in St. Louis, Missouri. It was likely used as a company show-book for potential clients and contains photos of seven custom-made executive aircraft rebuilt from older commercial and military planes, mostly DC-3s or C-47s, but also a PBY seaplane and what appears to be a C-45 troop transport. The photos include before and after images of some of the planes, a fleet of Shell fuel trucks, some of the planes in flight, workers refurbishing the planes, interior design plans, all manner of cabin furnishings, and people (maybe models or perhaps corporate purchasers) relaxing and working in the cabins. One of the photos shows a man who appears to be Bob Werner checking on work, and another shows a women who appears to be his wife, Betty (who was the company’s interior designer), escorting a customer through a cabin sitting room.

Bill Remmert started his business at the end of World War II when he cheaply acquired an old DC-3 aircraft, probably the safest airplane in the world, on a hunch that he could refurbish it with a luxury cabin and sell it to a company for executive travel. His idea worked and after partnering with Bob Werner, they began building customized executive airplanes for companies and millionaires around the world including Owens Corning, Parker Pen, 3M, Fruehauf Trailer, Olin-Mathieson, Grumman Aircraft, Hercules Powder, Owens-Illinois Glass, and many more. Remmert-Werner was also one of the largest distributors of aviation fuel in the country, and as noted in a 1957 advertisement, the “millions of gallons of Shell Aviation Fuel sold to satisfied customers . . . service[ed] a good number of America’s 28,000 corporate planes.” Photos of the 3M aircraft and a fleet of Shell fuel trucks are in this album.

At the beginning of the jet age in the late 1950s, Remmert convinced North American Aviation to market, in partnership with him, its T-39 military transport as a corporate airplane. North American built the basic airplane in pieces in Los Angeles and shipped them to St. Louis where Remmert-Werner assembled them, added business or customized interiors, performed all flight tests, and sold the sleek aircraft throughout the world as the Sabreliner. North American Aviation continued to grow and merge, becoming North American-Rockwell in 1967, after which it purchased Remmert-Warner in 1968. (The album predates the relationship with North American Aviation, so there are no photos of Sabreliners in the album.)

An excellent visual record of the private aviation industry from the originator and leader of the custom-built corporate aircraft industry.

Item #422984