Tri-State Warbird Museum Acquires TC-45G

[Noha307]

The Tri-State Warbird Museum has a new acquisition, a Beech TC-45G Expeditor, which arrived Wednesday (16 July) evening! It was bought with the help of one of our WWII veterans, Stan Cohen. It is painted as a SNB-2 serving with a unit out of Guantanamo Bay.

The basic history of the airframe is as follows:

It was built by Beech as a C-45F Air Force serial number 44-86905. It was then remanufactured by Beech to TC-45G configuration in 1952 with a new Air Force serial number of 51-11529 and Beech serial number AF-86. It was delivered to the USAF that same year. A letter dated 27 April 1992 from the Air Force Historical Research Agency in response to an inquiry states that the airframe served with the following units:

• Jul 1952 - To 3565th Training Wing (Air Training Command), Connally AFB TX
• Oct 1952 - To 3308th Pilot Training Wing (ATC), Kinston AFB NC
• Dec 1952 - To 3640th Pilot Training Wing (ATC), Laredo AFB TX
• Feb 1954 - To 3700th Military Training Wing (ATC), Lackland AFB RX
• Mar 1957 - To Aircraft Storage Branch (Air Materiel Command), Davis-Monthan AFB AZ
• Sep 1957 - To 3303rd Pilot Training Group (ATC), Bartow AFB FL (converted to TC-45H)
• Mar 1959 - To Aircraft Storage Branch (AMC), Davis-Monthan AFB AZ
• Sep 1960 - Dropped from USAF inventory by commercial sale

From there, the history of the airframe is somewhat unclear. What we do know is that it was owned by Virginia Tech for a time - hence the VT in it's former registration number, N272VT. Other former registries include: N9568Z, N807G, N567GP. It's current registry, for the time being, is N7826L. At some point, it was owned by Classic Wings of Canada. According to Courtesy Aircraft's page on the airframe, the "restoration [was] completed in 2007". Based on a sticker on the rear fuselage, this restoration was possibly carried out by Stiles Aircraft Restoration of Cartersville, Georgia. The previous owner/operator was listed as 7826L Enterprises Ltd.

Sources

• 1951 USAF Serial Numbers - Joe Baugher
• Air Force Historical Research Agency letter dated 27 April 1992
• Courtesy Aircraft - N7826L BEECH C-45
• 1952 Beech C-45 Expeditor - Classic Wings Canada

[k5083]

Congrats. Nice looking plane. Cozy looking cabin!

I see it has square wing tips. Did it pick those up in civil life? Thinking of restoring it to rounded ones?

August

[Taigh Ramey]

Don't forget to write Bob Parmerter for his information on your Beech. Bob is the leading Beech 18 historian by fat and he has a file and photos of pretty much every Beech 18 built. Bob is quite happy to share his information too. I'll send you his contact information if you like.

[Noha307]

I see it has square wing tips. Did it pick those up in civil life? Thinking of restoring it to rounded ones?

I don't know how it got the square wingtips. Honestly, I don't even know that much about Beech 18's, so I didn't even know that they were supposed to have rounded ones. I do know - because someone told me - that it's supposed to have twin bladed props instead of three bladed ones. One bit of information I forgot in my original post is that the category listed on the FAA Registry for the aircraft is "Agriculture and Pest Control". So it was a crop sprayer at some point.

That being said, I doubt they'll be restoring the rounded tips anytime soon. We have a couple of other restoration projects going on (read: P-40M & Fw 190), so I think they'll be busy for a while. One thing I do know they are looking into is changing the registration back to N272VT, because Stan Cohen has a personal connection with Virginia Tech. The most recent owner of that registry was an aircraft out of Alaska that I believe I was told crashed, so we're hoping it's open.

Don't forget to write Bob Parmerter for his information on your Beech. Bob is the leading Beech 18 historian by fat and he has a file and photos of pretty much every Beech 18 built. Bob is quite happy to share his information too. I'll send you his contact information if you like.

Thanks. I wasn't aware that such a person was around. I would very much appreciate having his contact information.

So far, I have only gotten a quick glance at the records that came with the aircraft - it's where I found the AFHRA letter. If I have more time, I'll try to take a more thorough look through them. Basically the only other source of information I have is Baugher's website.

[pjpahs]

Visited Tri-State in March and was impressed with your museum. The engine from the P-40 was a mess, liked it ate a grenade. When you run out of oil, according to my guide, things go bad quickly, and only one chance to land, aircraft can be fixed, the human part of flight is what we protect. I was kind of surprised of the switch from I think an ASH 82 to a R2800 in the Focke Wolf 190, but then I found that the Frasca FW 190 has a R2800 and raced at Reno, named I think "What the Focke Wolf" I imagine that you got the B-25 repaired, replacing a jug, if I remember correctly. Whenever I'm traveling I check my route and try to stop at a aircraft museum, haven't found a bad one yet. Did a European river cruise last month and had to stop in at Hanger 7 , Red Bull, Salzberg, Austria , what a place. Visited Kbely Air Museum in Prague, Czech Republic, just had to ,lots of Soviet stuff plus the single and dual seat copies of the ME262, and ME 109, spent all day there. Daughter is in Cincinatti and will try to see her and the TC-45G soon.

[Noha307]

I got a better look at the information that came with the aircraft today and I found a copy of the original bill of sale from the government to the first private owner. It was sold for $4190.10 in 1960 ($33,676.51 in 2014) to ... wait for it ... Busby's Bowling Lanes!

I searched the accompanying address on the form - 2208 E. 8th, Odessa Texas - and there is still a bowling alley located there. I've e-mailed them in the hope the manager might know something about it...

Visited Tri-State in March and was impressed with your museum. The engine from the P-40 was a mess, liked it ate a grenade. When you run out of oil, according to my guide, things go bad quickly, and only one chance to land, aircraft can be fixed, the human part of flight is what we protect. I was kind of surprised of the switch from I think an ASH 82 to a R2800 in the Focke Wolf 190, but then I found that the Frasca FW 190 has a R2800 and raced at Reno, named I think "What the Focke Wolf" I imagine that you got the B-25 repaired, replacing a jug, if I remember correctly. Whenever I'm traveling I check my route and try to stop at a aircraft museum, haven't found a bad one yet. Did a European river cruise last month and had to stop in at Hanger 7 , Red Bull, Salzberg, Austria , what a place. Visited Kbely Air Museum in Prague, Czech Republic, just had to ,lots of Soviet stuff plus the single and dual seat copies of the ME262, and ME 109, spent all day there. Daughter is in Cincinatti and will try to see her and the TC-45G soon.

Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I actually happened to get to visit the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow while I was in Russia this summer and it was quite interesting. I don't know what you're referring to about our B-25 having to be repaired, but I can say it's working fine now.

[Project Warbird]

Noha307,

I have round wing tips and other parts for sale or trade if you guy's are interested. http://projectwarbird.com/?page_id=1072&preview=true

I'm looking forward to coming up one of these days and checking out Tri-States collection.

[Noha307]

I'm coming closer to being able to write a full history on our TC-45G/H. I just recently came across an excellent list of Beech 18 histories that fills in some important gaps in my information. It apparently uses information from Bob Parmerter's book as well as consultation with him. Through a related source, I also found out that Busby's Bowling Lanes owned another ex-military Beech 18, a former AT-11, at one point.

I have round wing tips and other parts for sale or trade if you guy's are interested. http://projectwarbird.com/?page_id=1072&preview=true

I'm looking forward to coming up one of these days and checking out Tri-States collection.

Excellent. I happened to have overheard yesterday that the airplane came with basically zippo parts. However, I'm not the one who actually makes the decisions on what to buy, much less enough of a mechanic to know what they need, so I don't know whether they'd be interested.