Spartan Executive- As a Warbird

[Swiss Mustangs]

don't forget the Spanish Civil War.....

http://usuarios.lycos.es/mrodval/GC258301.HTM

Martin

[Swiss Mustangs]

and one with No. 2 BFTS in California



source: http://www.aujs06.dsl.pipex.com/12squad ... /album.htm

Martin

[tulsaboy]

Wheels up-

Yeah! That's the Executive, s/n 19, that was built for the King of Iraq. It had completely custom interiors, supposedly with a "throne" in the back. It was flown to Great Britain during the run-up to WWII, but from what I understand never made it to Iraq and was used by the British as an instructional airframe. It apparently suffered some pretty big damage and was ultimately scrapped. Here is another shot of it in Tulsa. Iraqi number YI-SOF. How bout those markings?



Martin,

Those are great shots of the Spanish Execs! Does anyone have any more of them?

Also, Martin, do you have any idea what the N-number is on that BFTS Exec? I've seen that photo before, but haven't been able to read the number.

kevin

[Second Air Force]

and one with No. 2 BFTS in California



source: http://www.aujs06.dsl.pipex.com/12squad ... /album.htm

Martin

Kevin, that airplane is NC 17630, serial #17. She was sold to the Polaris Flight Academy by the Claude Drilling Company. Polaris Academy was the contractor that ran 2 BFTS for the RAF. She later became KD102 in RAF service. NC 17617 also served with 2 BFTS and became KD101.

Scott

[tulsaboy]

Thanks, Scott!

kevin

[Django]

I really like the first 2 pics. Neat plane. Are there any left, besides the crashed one?

[tulsaboy]

Django,

There are about 21 or 22 of the 35 or so originally constructed that still exist, with most of them flyable. The only one in a museum (other than the crashed one) is s/n 2, which is in the EAA museum. The others are all in private hands. There are about 3 for sale right now, with the average price being around $300,000-350,000. They're neat, they're relatively available, and from what I understand they fly pretty nicely. And there are some fun paint schemes to choose from, to boot!

kevin

[Second Air Force]

Chad,

Here is NC17616. I took these at the annual fall fly-in at Bartlesville, OK. (our airplane's current domicile is the "Phillips Aviation Services" hangar in the background of photo 3).





The owners also had a Spartan trailer that they had restored to a similar state.

Scott

[Django]

Nice!

Hmm, a cool "warbird" that I could potentially afford... assuming I continue (er... start over) with flying lessons. Boy my wife would just LOVE that!

[tulsaboy]

Django-

Don't tell your wife!



kevin

http://www.lpjetservices.com/for_sale.html

http://www.shermanaircraft.com/showspecs.php?ad=31

[Obergrafeter]

On the short list for sure. You win the Mega Millons, and whats it gonna be....................the Staggerwing or the Spartan. Oh well just get them both.

[C170BDan]

I really like the first 2 pics. Neat plane. Are there any left, besides the crashed one?

Django,

My page is in serious need of an update as several have changed hands recently... but here is a link to my Spartan web page. You can review how many are still around and where they are located.

http://www.dtlinn.com/spartanpage/spartanexecutive.html

I will update it in October after my wedding. After reading this thread I have some ideas to build another page that shows pictures of when they were pressed into military service. There are many aircraft that were built in limited numbers that need their story told. I hope to keep building web pages to tell their story!

[Second Air Force]

Dan,

Keep telling the story, it's much appreciated. These short-run aircraft types can sometimes be hard to find info on. That doesn't seem to be the case with the Exec, but the foreign military service and UC-71 side of the story isn't widely known.

A little side-note--the nose gear on the Model 12 is supposedly a surplus P-39 unit that Spartan utilized on the prototype.

Scott

[Django]

Thanks for the link Dan. I like the looks of it on the ground, but this shot is stellar...



So the NMF was the Navy bird? Did it survive or does anyone know?

You guys are a bad influence!

[BigGrey]

That is a pretty good ratio of survivors. It must fly pretty nice and I like the fairly wide gear. That is one darn attractive airplane.

Les