Steve T wrote:
Hi all--
Noticed two things for different reasons and thought I'd ask...
1. BDK--you mention Bob Swanson's crashed '51 possibly surrendering its ID to another airframe. Presumably the crashed one was NX66111 "Full House", the ID of which survives (ex-Dominica); can you confirm the original NX66111 no longer exists? (Have seen a pic of it post-crash-landing, and it looked pretty good, but that's by 2005 standards...1946 standards would be less generous!)
2. Kenn--your mention of Texan dataplates being used to turn Harvards into T-6s (so to speak) clicks with Peter W's inquiry about the vanished ex-Age Of Flight Museum Harvard 4, 20300. Could that be how she disappeared...hiding in plain sight? I do know the Mk.4 Harvards were indeed Experimental rather than Normal (I forget why but it accounts for all the weird and wonderful replica configurations they've been converted to!)
S.
No I didn't!
The Harvard 4's were built in Canada postwar and therefore were never included in the type certificate because:
a) They were foreign built (and to quality standards not accepted by the FAA)
b) They were built after the type certificate was created for the NAA surplus aircraft and were never later added (see reason a)
What makes this sketchy is the fact that most of Harvard 4 parts were either new-old stock or refurbished T6 parts anyhow. Since they were assembled and became aircraft in Canada though, see reason a. Now if you disassembled that Harvard and threw away all the Canadian built parts, you could reassemble the plane as a legitimate T6- assuming you had some paperwork or registered the aircraft as being built from parts.
On the other hand, if you have the registration from a long since scrapped P-51 that had an airworthiness certificate, then you could build a replica out of papier mache with an auto engine and call it a real P-51 (assuming you can find an IA to sign off the annual inspection). Without the all-important airworthiness certificate you would need to go through a conformity inspection to verify that your parts collection met the requirements for the Limited Category (or Standard Category in the case of a T6).
At least that is how I understand it!