Smiling Thru replica stops for quick visit in Newton

A Travel Air 6000B, similar to the Smiling Thru airplane of Harry Ogg and the Automatic Washer Co., sits outside the restored Smiling Thru hangar Monday morning. The owner of the plane, Hank Galpin of Missoula, Mont., was in Ames on the American Barnstormers Tour and made a trip to Newton to view the hangar. John Jennings/Daily News

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Members of the Experimental Aircraft Association Local Chapter 456 gathered at the Smiling Thru hangar at the Newton Airport on short notice Monday morning to see a restored version of the Travel Air 6000B, similar to the original Smiling Thru. Built in December 1928 by the Travel Air company, the plane had been used by smoke-jumpers in McCall, Idaho. When Hank Galpin of Missoula, Mont., found it, it was in rather rugged condition. “It was a pile of junk, really,” Galpin said. He had it delivered to Kalispell, Mont., on a flatbed truck. “I bought it in 1992 and restored it in 2002,” spending an estimated 10,000 hours working on the project. “Eighty percent of the frame is original,” he said. Galpin is touring with the American Barnstormers Tour and was scheduled to make a stop in Iowa City, but due to the flooding, will spend an extra day in Ames, the next scheduled stop on the tour. He took the opportunity to make a visit to the Smiling Thru hangar at the Newton Airport. Rich Hornbeck, of Bowdoinham, Maine, made the trip with Gilpin in his 1929 Waco bi-plane, which features a Texaco theme. Hornbeck said he spent 15 years restoring his plane, which he bought in 1985. It features the original paint scheme, which Texaco used as a promotional tool, traveling the country with a glider in tow.