Hey Brad.........look what the cat drug in!!

Glenn Wegman · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2005 8:30 pm

It's the second one that's been here in the last six months! What's up with that? Should I move?

Left so fast he drove right out of the picture!!

I like the flex pipe under the belly! Is that an STC?

Glenn

P.S. I'll look for you at Reno. Going to try to catch up with JCW too. He's got my cell number.

http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-Fighter

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:23 pm

Quote:

like the flex pipe under the belly!

Relief tube???!!! Let's don't go there!
Any word on that paint scheme????

RMAllnutt · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:42 pm

Ummmm.... what is it?

Richard

Chad Veich · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:47 pm

Rawdon?

Glenn Wegman · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:35 pm

Hello Chad,

Yes, it's a Rawdon.

I saw it land and taxi up to the gas pump and about fifteen minutes later a guy stuck his head in my door and yelled "I need a prop". I said, excuse me? and he yelled "I need a prop", not hello or can you help me. I answered "on what the Rawdon?" He got a funny look on his face and said I was the first person that new what it was! I went out to it and sat in it for him while he tried repeatedly to prop it as the starter would not engage but it didn't look like he had ever propped an airplane before and I wanted no part of that so he fiddled with the starter and got it going.

If you like the outside you should have seen the inside!! It's a real cream puff!!

Glenn

airnutz · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:21 pm

A T-1 with a visible means of support, as a skywriter and banner-tow.
Kewwl... Glenn, has the backseat/hopper been replaced with an oil tank?

Tulio · **Joined:** Mon May 03, 2004 1:05 am **Posts:** 3236

Guys,

The first shot was taken by yours truly, at the Dauster Field, St. Louis (Creve Coeur) MO, during March of this year.

The second, was kindly provided to me by my friend and mentor, Dr. Gary Kuhn (S. St. Paul, MN)
and shows a Salvadorean-registered Rawdon. The location is very likely Wichita, KS prior to delivery as a crop-duster.

Other than these two, I have a couple of photos of the three Rawdon T-1s that were operated by the Colombian Air Force (FAC) during the late 1940s for a very brief period of time.

Looking for any aircraft that they could use to fight an insurgency (known as "La Violencia" or The Violence) the FAC experimented arming these trainers with .30cal machine guns. Problem was, once the weapons were fired, the airplane entered into a violent stall / spin, and according to the scarce records available, the aircraft were disposed of, but their fates are unknown.

Any leads will be appreciated. Brad Pilgrim already has all of the Rawdon data and photos that I have.

Saludos,

Tulio

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2005 7:14 am

Yep thats a Rawdon T-1, I dont rememeber if it was a official STC but the pipe is used for sky writing. The oil tank being behind the pilot. I used to work for a banner outfit that had one, and eventually he bought 2 more owning almost the whole fleet of existing T-1's. I would need to run the N, but this may be one of them. The one I worked on back in the early 90's was in a fatal accident while working.

Some where I have pics of it flying through the poles on a banner pick up. She did ok with a banner........having the 0-540 helped but was not nearly as good skywriting as the AG-cat that we later got.

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2005 7:17 am

Yep, thats one of them that they bought after I left. The other one is still a 2 seater.

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2005 7:18 am

Correction....................fatal crash was last yr, I worked on it in the early 90's

Forgotten Field · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:28 am

Can anybody post a synopsis of Rawdon's history? Specifically, when they were founded, who worked there, and what they did in WWII?

Amado Aguiluz F. · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:49 am

Forgotten Field:

Designed and flown in the USA during the early 1940s, the Rawdon T-1 was intended to serve primarly as a two-seat trainer, but USA involvement in WWII meant that its development was not resumed until after VJ-Day.
The T-1 was built only in small numbers as a result of the massive availability of low-cost US military surplus aircraft soon after the war.

Source: Barnes & Noble, "Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft"

Cheers,

Amado

Brad · **Joined:** Thu Apr 29, 2004 10:30 pm **Posts:** 1131

Glenn, thanks for the pictures! If Rawdons start to flock to your place, I'd advise you to leave! Or call me to retrieve them! I'll look for you at Reno. I'll be arriving on Thursday and pulling chocks on Monday.

The Rawdon T-1 that showed up at Glenn's place is #30 out of 36 that were built. I've never seen it personally as it is usually up in New Jersey. The company that operates it out of Ft. Lauderdale also has an operation up there. It is used for skywriting and that's the purpose of the reliefe tube. It's not an STC, at least not according to the paperwork I've seen. Everything seems to have been done under the same 337 that covers the other skywriting equipment. This particular plane is an "SD" model, meaning Sprayer/duster. The hopper was put in place of the rear seat and it had a different style of canopy. If you had all the canopy sections, the plane could easily be converted by to a two seat trainer in about 45 minutes or so.

There is a saying "If you've seen one Rawdon, you've seen one Rawdon". That is true. Very little is the same from one airframe to another. I'd like to see # 30, just to see how different it is from my first one, #29. The nose bowl in Glenn's picture is the fourth different design on the airplanes.

The Rawdon that N3NJeff is talking about is #26.

It did crash last year.

It's now mine and is being used for parts to complete the other two T-1's I have. #15 and #29.

Tulio mentioned the machine gun mounted on the T-1 down South of the Border. I recently got the blue prints for installation of the gun and ammo boxes. I also have the drawings for the two bomb racks that could be installed on the belly of the plane.

As for Rawdon's history, They produced their first airplane in 1938 and not too long before that, the Rawdon brothers worked for Beechcraft. So, the company must have been formed about that time. During WWII, they did a lot of contract work for Beechcraft and Cessna so I wouldn't think it would be too hard to find warbird parts made by them. They didn't produce many of their own airplanes because of material shortages and the fact that the plane wasn't essential to the war effort. The T-1 was introduced as competition for the PT- series trainers but wasn't purchased by the Army. The reason I've been told is that the Army purchasing officer showed up at the factory in Wichita and saw the facility the planes were being built in. He didn't think that the company could have kept up with the production so based on that, they lost the contract. After the war, between producing their own airplanes and spray equipment, I've been told that they built a bunch of the wings that ended up on L-19s.

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:53 am

Yep thats "ole smokey"..........before they painted purple on the tail. It used to be all yellow with the red, white, blue tail, much like a stearman army scheme. The white stripes were whats left of a flouresent green paint. She used to be really pretty. I'll try and hook up my scanner and post my pic when I rememeber her.

Glenn Wegman · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:39 am

I remember seeing an all white one some time in the 70's towing banners along the beach. Back when you could actually walk around on airports and look at airplanes I remember asking someone who was getting a banner ready for pick up what kind of airplane that was and he siad it was the only flying example of a Rawdon.

My guess is that it,s possibly either the crashed one that Brad has or the one that flew in yesterday. The other one that has flown in recently is the original looking yellow trainer version.

Any clues?

Glenn

http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-Fighter

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