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An email came to me in response to my note about the governement use of civilian aircraft durning WW2. GREAT infomation! So thank you to Mr. Savage as he gave me permission to post this info. His study was of his Spartan Executive but as he states... might reflect what happen to the other types as well. Dan
I'm somewhat familiar with what happened to the Spartans and I assume it is similar for other makes as well. I have obtained copies of the data files from the FAA for a number of Spartans and the process seems to be the same for all of them.
Most of the Spartans impressed were first purchased from the owners by the Defense Supplies Corporation. Three were not, and I will explain their situation in the next paragraph. The price paid appears to be fair value, with amounts ranging from around $18,000 to $23,000. I say fair value since the cost new was in the $23,000 to $25,000 range and these were "used" airplanes at the time of purchase. Soon after purchase, the Defense Supplies Corporation "sold" the airplanes to the War Department for the same price they paid for them. At that moment, they disappear from the civilian records. After the war, the airplanes that survived were transferred to Defense Plant Corporation and were converted back to a civilian configuration by Spartan Aircraft Corporation. They were then offered back to the original owners, or if they were not interested, to other buyers. They were generally sold back to the original owners as less than half of what the government had paid for them. It is my understanding, none of these airplane left the USA and were generally used as transports for high ranking military officials and other "executive" type service. For example, I understand one was used in FDR's Infantile Paralysis (polio) fund raising campaign. Another (N17616) was used by Howard Hughes and other dignitaries in the War Bond campaign.
Three Spartans were "purchased/impressed" at the beginning of the war directly from the owners and went directly into the name of Polaris Flight Academy. This was a British flight training academy located in California. Fair value was paid for the airplanes and they were used as executive transports at that facility. Polaris used the normal complement of PT's, BT's and AT's for the actual training. While at Polaris, they retained their NC registration numbers. The airplanes were transferred to the United Kingdom Government (for use by RAF) in early 1943, at which time they were relocated to Montreal. S/N 9 became KD100, S/N 16 became KD101, and S/N 17 (my airplane) became KD102. I have nothing to indicate how they were used by the Royal Air Force. At the end of the war, the two surviving airplanes (S/N's 16 and 17) were transferred to War Assets Corporation (an entity in Montreal) and were subsequently sold back to civilian owners.
If my airplane is representative of the others that were impressed, they were flown a fair amount during the war. At the time S/N 17 was acquired by Polaris Flight Academy, it had a total of 442 hours. When returned to civilian use, it had a total time of 2350 hours. That's about 1900 hours during a period of slightly less than 4 years.
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