Spartan Executive s/n 26

C170BDan · **Posted:** Thu Mar 26, 2009 7:52 pm

Made a visit to Addison airport today North of Dallas. Was able to arrange a visit to see Spartan Executive s/n 26. Very clean, very nice. The Des Moines Register newspaper was its first owner. Flew in the USAAC as 42-38266 from 1943-1945. Its current owner is the 11th owner. 26 is well taken care of!

retroaviation · **Posted:** Thu Mar 26, 2009 7:57 pm

Mmmm, Mmmm.....those Spartans sure are good lookin' machines. I have a question though...what did they use it for in the Army Air Corps?
Thanks for posting those pictures.

Gary

C170BDan · **Posted:** Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:17 pm

Digging into the military history of some of the ships has them as executive transport for high ranking officers and instrument trainers.

Roger Cain · **Posted:** Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:42 pm

Very nice, I once saw an abandon Spartan trailer that had the same logo in Chrome, wish I had grabbed that logo.........

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:46 pm

I believe the Spartans were designated UC-71. They were used for hack duty transportation.
Interesting seeing the dual yoke. Most had a single wheel mount to the center and it would throw over to the other seat.
Jerry

Roger Cain · **Posted:** Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:59 pm

Jerry O'Neill wrote:

I believe the Spartans were designated UC-71. They were used for hack duty transportation.
Interesting seeing the dual yoke. Most had a single wheel mount to the center and it would throw over to the other seat.
Jerry

Yup,

Sixteen Spartan 7W's were impressed into service as Staff transports as UC-71-SP. Factory serial numbers were 10 through 15, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31, 33,

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:31 am

What's funny is I've actually flown Serial # 25, the sister ship on the line to the one in this thread. It was one of the UC-71's impressed into service. I believe it was stationed at Pearl Harbor during the war.

S/N 25, N47W (NC17656) - Built 10/31/1939. First sold to Luziers of MS. Registered to Lawrence Smith of Collinsville, Connecticut. AAF serial number 42-38288 worn during war time service.

Jerry

JBSavage · **Posted:** Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:22 am

I'm aware of four Spartan Executives with dual yokes. They include s/n 6 (N17601), s/n 14 (N17615), s/n 15 (N17616) and s/n 26 (N5053). There may be others that I'm not aware of.

JBSavage · **Posted:** Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:29 am

In addition to the Spartan Executives that served with the US military during WW2, three additional served with the RAF. These were s/n's 9, 16, and 17. S/N 9 was destroyed, but s/n's 16 and 17 were eventually returned to the civilian registry.

tulsaboy · **Posted:** Fri Mar 27, 2009 9:07 am

Gary-

The UC-71 aircraft were painted in at least two different paint schemes, that I know of. Some got the OD job, and others were NMF. After the war, those that weren't wrecked went back to Spartan to be reconfigured/reconditioned into civilian garb. Below are photos of two of the military paint schemes. The NMF photo shows one of the military ones in Spartan's hangars post war. If anyone else has such photos, I know that Messrs Savage, Dann and I would love to see them!

kevin

retroaviation · **Posted:** Fri Mar 27, 2009 9:24 am

Cool. Thanks for that info, y'all.

Gary

K5DH · **Posted:** Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:49 pm

What a stunning beauty! The Spartan Executive is one of the most beautiful civil airplanes ever built. I just love 'em!

Cheers!

A36pilot · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 4:04 pm

Jerry O'Neill wrote:

What's funny is I've actually flown Serial # 25, the sister ship on the line to the one in this thread. It was one of the UC-71's impressed into service. I believe it was stationed at Pearl Harbor during the war.

S/N 25, N47W (NC17656) - Built 10/31/1939. First sold to Luziers of MS. Registered to Lawrence Smith of Collinsville, Connecticut. AAF serial number 42-38288 worn during war time service.

Jerry

Small world. I too have flown this Spartan and used to work on it!

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 4:29 pm

A36pilot wrote:

Jerry O'Neill wrote:

What's funny is I've actually flown Serial # 25, the sister ship on the line to the one in this thread. It was one of the UC-71's impressed into service. I believe it was stationed at Pearl Harbor during the war.

S/N 25, N47W (NC17656) - Built 10/31/1939. First sold to Luziers of MS. Registered to Lawrence Smith of Collinsville, Connecticut. AAF serial number 42-38288 worn during war time service.

Jerry

Small world. I too have flown this Spartan and used to work on it!

That's pretty funny!
I use to be the VP of the Antique Aeroplane Club of Connecticut and we'd always have a meeting or two at Canaan. Back in the late-80's, Doug invited a bunch of us for a little run and I got picked to ride co-pilot. Boy, was it a great handling aircraft! As a matter of fact, there is a photo of me flying the Spartan on that very flight that was printed in the EAA's Vintage Airplane Magazine.
Another time Doug and I went for a hop in the BT-13. The club's gone now, but I met a lot of great people and really miss those days!
Jerry

JBSavage · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2009 6:42 pm

Jerry and A36Pilot

Does this look familiar?

Jim

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Spartan Executive s/n 26

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