Warbird Information Exchange

*(Sorry-Was following up on the mention in the current Howard thread..Probably needs to be moved to the VINTAGE aircraft section...)

So as not to hijack the Howard thread, with the (little known)Trojan sitting in the foreground.
It was an amazing aircraft, especially in view of cutting production costs, and time, by the duplication and multi-use of many components.


We owned one for about 30 years. I'll see if I can find a photo or two. It was supposed to be the last one or next to last one they built. When they gave up, there were still enough parts to assemble a few more, laying around in the storage building. I Let it go around 1993 (no damage, but had been sitting in back of the shop for decades-unflown, with the wings undeneath. I know I have some 16mm movie film I took of my Dad's first flight in it, trying to land at Flushing Airport NY, with a full tank of fuel. It dropped about 20 feet onto the runway, without damaging or bending a thing...Built like a brick-something or other...Some great manufacturing ideas..Left gear, right gear, and nose gear were all interchangeable. They slid into tubes. As you can see, there were no internal ribs. The ribs were external bulb extrusion. Strong enough that you could stand on outer wing without it flexing...Full length ailerons that I seem to recall, BOTH dropped to act as flaps, when you held both of the sticks together. Left elevator, right elevator and rudder were all interchangeable, (and VERY simple construction)with piano-hinge type mount. Left stabilzer, right stabilizer and fin were all interchangeable. Left and right wing were interchangeable. They could be bolted on or off in short time, as they were affixed to center section external butt rib wth a whole load of (I think they were 1/4") bolts & nuts. Easy disconnect of aileron cables etc. Great 125mph cruise speed on a 90 hp Continental. But the post WWII aircraft market was flooded with dirt-cheap surplus aircraft, so often competing with surplus planes that could often be bought for a hundred dollars or less. Would make sense today, I think.

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hundreds of images of aero art, memorabilia, photos and artifacts at;
www.memaerobilia.com

So that's what's sitting in the museum @ Pearson Air Park In Vancouver WA. another tiny corner filled in THANX!!

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

I thought that museum was now defunct.

There was a Trojan in the Hood River museum a few months back, I wonder if it is the same one?

Very well could be-since there weren't a lot of them built. I was sort of speaking past tense since the last time I was there was 5 or 6 years ago on a motorcycle camping trip to Newport OR.
There was some heavy duty back and forth between the USFS and the County government about a year ago, but that's 220 miles South of me.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

When I lived in the Phoenix are between 1989-91 there was an airworthy example listed for sale almost every week in the local newspaper.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

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45-47=-2

Thanks for that interesting list link, Mike.
But it begs the question: Where is our old 8353H that is not on the list? A lot could have happend in the 20 years since we sold it, or it could have had to re-register with a new N number after all those years in storage? I do not recall the MFR. serial number.
I have only see one flying one, in person, at Oshkosh about ten years ago..since then.

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hundreds of images of aero art, memorabilia, photos and artifacts at;
www.memaerobilia.com

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45-47=-2

Just as an aside, registrations must now be renewed every three years, and the FAA has started purging old registrations. I only have direct experience with one type (mine) but the number of ships registered has dropped almost 50%.

Thinking about it, this may be a bigger issue than it seems for some museums. I don't know if there might be any ramifications of displaying a static airplane with an N-number that has been reassigned to a current flying airplane.

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.