Warbird Information Exchange

I was just doing some research on Stinson 105's/108's and stumbled across a thread from around 1991 by someone named Larry Westin. Mr Weston related the story of the original Stinson Twin and how that aircraft, through accidents became a sort of bastardized compilation of the Twin Stinson and another oddball airframe named the Langley Pierce Arrow. As of the last entry in Mr. Westins blog, he had purchased the wrecked airframe from a beater car lot and was in the process of further screwing up history by trying to convert the Twin Stinson back into a beefed up bush version of a 105 because he couldn't figure out how the center section was built.
Does anyone know whats gone on in the ensuing 10 or so years to this airframe? i'd like to think that someone got it away from Mr. Westin and is attempting to put this piece of post war gen av back to right-

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You have bits and pieces of the story correct. The Langley Twin was an airplane with no Stinson connection at all. It was restored and flying until the late 1960's when it was involved in an accident. If I remember, one of the features of the Langley was that it was all wood. In the ensuing accident the fuselage was broken. This is where the Stinson 108 came in. The owner at the time then decided to use a 108 fuselage and rebuilt the airplane. It looked ok but not as pretty as the Langley.

Stinson did design a twin.....the Piper Apache. That is one of the reasons why Piper bought Stinson. Look at any Piper made in that time frame of 1948-55....they all use Stinson components....window trim, trim cranks, ashtrays, seats, control wheels, etc. I do not believe that Stinson actually made the twin. I have a Popular Mechanics from around 1947-48 describing this twin.

Here is what Aerofiles.com has to say:
Twin (2-4-65/90), NL-1 1942 (ATC 755) = 2-4pClwM; two 65hp Franklin 4AC; span: 35'2" length: 20'8" (?>20'6") load: 985# (?>890#) v: 135/120/50 (?>142/125/46) range: 400 (?>600) ceiling: 13,300' (?>15,000') (disparities are likely between preliminary estimates and actual flight test results, but which are which is unresolved). Arthur Draper, Martin Jensen. The name honored aviation pioneer Samuel P Langley for his early attempts at flight. Take-off in 200'. Second version (aka 29-90) had 90hp Franklin (v: 150/135/55 range: 450). Vidal plastic-bonded mahogany plywood construction. WW2 interrupted production. $8,500; POP: 2 [NX29099, NC/N51706]. The latter went to USN as XNL-1 [39056], then was sold as war surplus. After a crash-landing c.1965, its remains, along with parts of a Stinson Voyager, were rebuilt into an experimental aircraft and renamed Pierce Arrow [N6622A] (no relation to 1926 Pierce Arrow).

There are photos of the airplane on that website.

Andy

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Thanks for the prompt reply, Westins on line spiel is what I was quoting from and not being able to GOOGLE up a picture of the Langley (why do I keep having flashes of a houseboat on the Potomac?) just an inflight of a fairly neat looking taildragger twin and photos of a rusty Stinson bare fuselage and odd pictures here and there, I was under the assumption that this individual had at least the bare bones of the Twin Stinson in his possession.
I've been under the impression for years that STINSON actually did produce a flying twin tailed prototype and PIPER bought the design away from them to start the APACHE line. Thanks for the clarification-
BILL

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Go to Aerofiles, there are several pics under Langley.
http://www.aerofiles.com/_la.html

Nice joinery! The rebuild must have cleaned the original up a bit because it looks like the box a T-50 was shipped in, nice looking design, just too claustrophobic appearing. The photos also clear up the N# question I originally had, thnx so much!!

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-