SNJ-4 Texan 27560 then & now ...

[Mark Allen M]

Below North American SNJ-4 Texan 27560 pictured at North American Aviation's Inglewood plant c 1944. This is the aircraft assigned to the General Inspector of Naval Aircraft at the time.



Below North American SNJ-4 Texan 27560 on civil registry as NX30CE and converted to look like a P-64 more recently. Now in Thailand.



Two more pics from Airlines.net

[Mark Allen M]

A bit more info in the link below.

http://aircraft-in-focus.com/north-american-p-64/

[Matt Gunsch]

Carl Schmieder, myself and the members of the Cactus Squadron built that. I still have all the drawings for it. When we bought it, it was a pile of parts and paperwork only.
It was more than a conversion, we installed a 1400hp 1820, had smoke and O2 systems, took 3ft off each wing, T-6G tanks and a functional belly tank. 2 oil coolers. It was a fire breathing monster, those that flew it said from a standing stop to 5000ft it would eat a Bearcat alive.


Just noticed this was my 3000th post on here, could not be on a more fitting subject, thanks for digging this up Mark

Attachments

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[Mark Allen M]

Very cool indeed Matt

Always interesting to hear from the guys who created these old flying things. Love to seee some of your drawings.

And Congrats on 3k ... I think! lol

[C VEICH]

I spent a bunch of time in Carl's hangar when this airplane was being built up. I was just a teeny bopper at the time and the guys were always very gracious with their time. Unfortunately I was never around to see it fly which bums me out but I still think that it is the best looking P-64/Na-50 representation out there. Good to see that it is well cared for and flown over in Thailand.