Warbird Information Exchange

What are the differences between the civilian Navion and the L-17? Is there an easy way to tell the civilian and millitary Navions apart?

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Dan Johnson

It's not really possible from a distance to tell the difference between an L-17A, L-17B, or L-17C and a Navion A. Most of them have been modified so much that you really have to look at the serial number to know. Generally if you see a Navion with a big military pitot tube in the left wingtip, or one with a fuel filler cap on the left side of the fuselage, that's an L-17 (I think those are L-17B features, though).

Speaking of serial numbers, REAL L-17s have 47-xxxx or 48-xxxx serial numbers, just like any other USAAF or USAF aircraft. Civil Navions trying to pass themselves off as military birds display their NAA or Ryan serial numbers (my old airplane was NAV-4-1713, for example) as a substitute and are a dead giveaway.

The website www.l-17.org has a nice lowdown on the L-17 if you're interested. The webmaster is the owner of the my family's former L-17B, which I grew up flying for 20-some years, 48-1007/N77BH.

Thanks Randy. From the data at l-17,org it looks like the "L-17" I see around frequently is a Navion in L-17 paint.

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Dan Johnson

I would tend to agree with you, Dan. This is a Navion A in L-17 clothing.

Again, notice the 4-XXXX number on the cowling which -- via a Google search -- shows that's the factory serial number and not a USAF serial number.

Hello All,

I mentioned this in another post on another thread, but I will mention it again.

I am digging up the info on surviving L-17s for the registry for Scott. I am also looking for L-17 pics. Please let me know if you have any the registry can use. You can contact me at... mrhenniger@hotmail.com

Regards,

Mike

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Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

Actually, all of the North American and Ryan built Navions were given a factory (mc/n) and a military contract/serial number, so using the serial number won't tell you an L-17 from a civilian Navion, unless you know the matching numbers. Most of the true L-17's are registered with their mc/n and not their military serial number. As an example, NAV-4-1627 through NAV-4-1784 were military serials 48-921 through 48-1078.

For years I've been trying to locate a list matching the factory serial numbers with the military serial numbers, have yet to do so.............Roger