Fairchild AT-21

[Elwyn]

The type sounded slightly familiar but I couldn't bring an image to mind at all. Had to do a quick search.

[Dan K]

Yes, Rob, significant remains do exist in private hands. The problem is I don't know where they are located now. About 3 years ago I recall reading that an A & P was beginning a rebuild, but I'm pretty sure he may have sold them to another party.

The previous owner (the A & P) was listed in a past issue of "Fairchild Flyer". Somebody like Steve Dennis might still have a copy of that issue if you really want to pursue it.

There is a project in the Fort Worth area. I am trying to set a date and check it out. I will post what I find.

Randy

[Steven M. Dennis]

Hi Rob,

Sorry for the delay in response. Yes, as Dan said, I do have contact info for the owners of the AT-21 project that he referred to.

I am sure they would be very excited to hear about the remains you may know about.

Give me a shout off board if you want their contact info.

Steve

[Cvairwerks]

Col. Rohr: I'd love to know what you find out there when you get a chance to go visit the site. I'm the guy with the project here in the Fort Worth area, and I'd be most interested in obtaining permission to recover what we could from the sight.
I recently moved and now have the space so that a decent workshop will be going up late this summer. Once I get everything moved to the new shop, we can get going on the rebuild.

For those that never saw the AT where I recovered it from, it is/was literally a basket case. It took boxes and boxes to recover all the little parts lying around. As to the bigger pieces, it took several trips with the pick-up and one with a 16' flatbed trailer to get it all home. I don't have any decent pictures handy that I could scan in, but I will shoot some as we begin to get things sorted and ready for the move. We also plan on setting up a website to show progress, but that is pretty far down the prioity list right now.

Feel free to drop me a note, but understand if I don't answer for a day or so. I work a 60+ hour week and am trying to do quite a bit on my mornings off.

Craig
cvairwerks@ev1.net

[Dan K]

Welcome to the WIX, Craig!

My hat is off to you for attempting such a project. Anyone who would try to rebuild a big hunk of Fairchild Duramold sandwiched between two V-770's has a pretty serious addiction.

Are there any bits and pieces we can keep an eye out for you?

Looking forward to photos and updates.

Dan

[Cvairwerks]

Hey Dan, too late for the addiction problem. Here is the current project list:

1. Build new shop
2. Recover A/C 680 project and get going on it
3. Build new left wing for Stinson L-5B and finish restoration.
4. Finish culling out AT drawings and start building tooling.
5. Convert certain P-66 drawings to AutoCad to prep for machining.
6. Anything else that shows up.....

Don't have any decent pictures of anything yet, but will try to get some over the next few months. Home projects are having to take a back seat to work stuff right now. I'm averaging a minimum 60+ hour week plus being the one day time first responder for our local fire department. Kinda makes it hard to get going when you get home at 2 am and are on call from 1am when I get back into the county on my commute home until I leave for work at 2 pm. Got to eat, sleep, do the honey-do's and play with the 3yr old in the remaining hours.

Col.: Hope that when you get a chance to go visit the wreckage, you will have a GPS unit so that finding it again would be much easier. If you come up with land ownership names, I'd be most happy to write letters requesting permission to remove whatever is left from the wreckage with as little mpact upon their operation as possible. I'd love to see any pictures or video that you can make when you are there.


As to parts....the engines were removed via blue wrench, so pretty much anything forward of the firewall is especially choice. Also, any turret parts and any of the versions of the nose glass would be fantastic finds. John Szabo has some control parts, but the ones that I have are in better shape than his. Other than what John has, I haven't seen any other parts advertised anywhere.

Craig
cvairwerks@ev1.net

[Dan K]

I hear you concerning the Fairchild addiction thing. I finally broke the habit by selling the last of my Cornell bits to Steve Dennis (who, by the way, is well beyond practical recovery...nothing personal there, Steve-o ).

Now I'm sure you sent a few fellows to the cardiac unit with your P-66 comment. Is there a project in the works (of whose intimate details you can share with the rest of us misfits) we're not aware of?

Dan

ps. Would that be Crocker-Wheeler turret stuff you're after? Nothing is stimulating my gray matter at the moment, but I do come across bits occasionally.

[Steven M. Dennis]

"I finally broke the habit by selling the last of my Cornell bits to Steve Dennis (who, by the way, is well beyond practical recovery...nothing personal there, Steve-o )."

Dan,

No offense taken my friend, you know me.

Craig,

Great to have another Fairchild fan on board! Make sure that little one of yours gets plenty of "hands on" banging around in the shop. My two little ones love "working on the airplanes". Ever since I showed my little girl how to tie down an airplane on the ramp, she has made sure that none of my fuselage frames are going to blow away in the shop. Every available rope, cord, or what have you, is tied around some fuselage tubing somewhere. ("Honey, can daddy borrow that extension cord for a few minutes please?")

Keep us posted on your projects.

Steve

[Cvairwerks]

Hey Dan, I wasn't trying to do any cardiac work with the P-66 blurb. I've long been interested in building one from scratch and many years ago, prior to all the legal crap becoming involved with NASM, obtained a complete set of the microfilm for the P-66. Had some interest from some west coast people, that if I got one fuselage on a centersection and gear, there would be some significant interest and commitment to producing several more. Right now, I take that with a considerable amount of salt......When I have one sitting on the hangar floor and someone starts handing me greenbacks, I'll be a bit less sceptical. Got one or two other a/c that I'd love to build too, but they have to wait for an opening.....

As to the AT turret, the only info that I have in my documentation file is that it is an A-8 type power turret. I wold surmise, that the turret would be the same as the one used in the AT-11, as they were both built with the same purpose at approximately the same time.

Steve: done the Fairchild thing with several PT-19's and 26's along with a -23 over the years. Tried to convince a friend that had a -19 project to let me go on and buidl it up as an Avenger Field WASP bird, as according to some of the cockpit coaming labels, it had been there prior to disposal. I'm slowly working on an article for the Fairchild Club on the AT and hope to have it in the newsletter early next year.

Mac (the 3yr old) will definately get all the shop time he wants when it get up and operating and he isn't afraid of the tool noise anymore. Right now, all I have to do is start the little air compressor or a skillsaw, and he's running for the house....

I hope that once I get the shop up and all moved into, that we can accomodate casual visitors. When I was on a bigger and more active field, it was tough to get much work done due the seemingly constant stream of visitors. I will try and put together a batch of pictures of everything that is going on and of all the projects.

Well, got to bail out here, it's garbage morning and I get the luxury of sleeping in until 9 AM......

[slinky]

Was this ever recovered?

[Cvairwerks]

Slinky: Rob had the property owner stuff, and was chasing the crash report data years ago. Since then he suffered some very serious health issues and the last I heard back in '16, he was on the mend, but things were pretty slow. I'll have to ping my contact for him and see if I can get a report on how he's doing and if he ever was able to chase down the accident reports.

[slinky]

Thanks! How's your project coming along? Seems like you were making some progress till the move....don't you have several engines now?

[Cvairwerks]

Slinky: No real visible progress, unless you count the growing piles of parts in the office and warehouse. I've spent a bunch of time over the last year or so, gathering up radio, electrical and oxygen system parts. I think I'm short one light fixture for the inside of the fuselage, and a couple of O2 blinker gauges. I haven't been able to identify the walk around bottles yet, but will at some point.

I know I don't have a landing light yet, but the one I need is pretty scarce and probably going to be pricey if I find one. Switches and breakers will end up being modern for the most part, for safety. As for the radio stuff, I've got everything but a couple of the mounts, and the base for the ADF football. I need to get it all in one place and take a full inventory one day.

Engines have turned into a real oddball situation. When I have $ and can spend it on them, everyone thinks they have a crate of platinum bars...When the $ aren't there, they come out of the woodwork for decent money. One of these days, I'll get it all coordinated and they will happen.

[slinky]

Best of luck, I wish you well!
I decided to hang on to my PT-23 and get it flying.
Tailwinds, Steve.