Chris Brame wrote:
Thought you might find this interesting. I went through all the old Chicago Vocational High School yearbooks that were available online, and got every photo I could find of their UC-78:
There are at least two different UC-78s in those photos. Most are of N5013?, but the 1959 photo shows a different aircraft; note the large pitot/boom extending from the nose and the different color scheme trim.
I have examined all the Cessna T-50 files I could find in the FAA's Aircraft Registry, including many that had to be recalled from storage. I have recorded only three T-50 N-numbers that could be a possible match for N5013?, and there is no record of any of these as having been sold or donated to the Chicago school system:
N50136, c/n 5946. Reported scrapped by a Missouri owner, June 1949.
N50137, c/n 5075. Could be the aircraft shown in the 1959 photo, as records indicate it had an alternate pitot/static head installed at tip of nose in 1952, along with other mods. Its owner at the time was William Crawford Eddy, a collaborator with Philo Farnsworth in early television engineering and the developer of the first commercial TV station in Chicago. He sold the aircraft to his company, Television Associates Inc. of Michigan City, IN, in 1952. Registration was cancelled in 1965; at the time of cancellation, Television Associates claimed no knowledge of the aircraft. Was it donated to Chicago schools?
N50138, c/n 5824. Last owner Skymotive Sales, Inc., Park Ridge, IL. Reported dismantled/salvaged September 1948; reg’n. canc'd. 23 May 1955. Could Skymotive have possibly donated the aircraft to Chicago schools?
N25332 was never assigned to a T-50, based on my findings.
On my next visit to Oklahoma City (my mother is in a nursing home there), I'll arrange a visit to the Aircraft Registry and see if I can find anything further. I've contacted the Chicago school system in the past, but they could produce no info on any T-50s that they might have owned.