EAA Warbirds Mourns the Loss of Logan Coombs
May 18,1920 - March 12, 2007
Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Coombs moved to Minnesota when hired by Northwest Airlines in 1942. Always interested in aviation, Coombs began in the field building model airplanes as a youngster. His first ride was in a Ford Tri-motor in 1928. He studied aviation mechanics at the Spartan School of Aeronautics at Tulsa, OK and at the same time, began a hobby of photography. As a Northwest Airlines mechanic, his drive for perfection led Coombs to be recognized by his fellow mechanics as one of the best. He took every chance he could get to photograph Northwest aircraft.
While working for Northwest in the Northern Region, Coombs enlisted in the Army Air Corps and took basic training at Great Falls, MT. He became assigned to the 1452nd USAAC Base Unit at Edmonton, Alberta, where he became a C-47 crew chief and the personal flight mechanic/flight engineer for Brigadier General D.V. Gaffney. He served two years in this role and while doing so, had the General’s approval to photograph aircraft on the line and the ramp whenever he chose. In 1945, Coombs was given a commendation for his efforts in the recovery of a C-47 that had made an emergency landing in the bush at Fox Lake, Alaska. Dropped off at the remote site with two other mechanics, they spent ten days repairing the damage while bulldozers labored to cut a path to the airplane. Two new engines and propellers were brought in, installed by the mechanics and the plane flown out successfully.
After discharge from the military in 1946, Coombs returned to Northwest to the engine overhaul shop at St. Paul. One of his most prized memories is being the crew chief for Lee Fairbrother’s racing P-51 when it was raced in the National Air Races in 1947, 1948, and 1949. At one point, when Fairbrother was discussing Logan, he commented, “I have never met a better mechanic in my whole life.”
Coombs retired in 1982 with a record 40 years with Northwest.
Coombs is better known perhaps for his photography. Due to his intensity, most of the classic Northwest airliner portraits from the 1950s to the present were taken by him. Using a large format camera, Coombs took portraits of every aircraft on the ramp at Tulsa during his schooling, in Alaska during his military time, and on airports across the country and at Minneapolis and St. Paul. His collection of negatives contains perfectly posed aircraft portraits covering the military, airline and general aviation subjects going back to the early 1940s. Coombs was a regular contributor to the EAA WARBIRDS magazine, and his pictures document aircraft visiting and stationed in the Twin Cities. When asked for a picture of nearly any type of aircraft, there was a very good chance that he had one.
Coombs was one of the four great Minnesota aviation photographers, which includes Mark Hurd and Joe Quigley of the 1930s, and Dick Palen of the 1960s.
A memorial service was held on March 17, 2007 at the Richfield United Methodist Church, in Richfield, MN, and was attended by hundreds of his friends and fellow retired Northwest Airlines employees.
