Chris Brame wrote:
Any ID on the four-engined Grumman Goose?
I know that this is really reaching back into the old posts, but I just came across this thread during an unrelated search. Unfortunately, the photo links are no longer valid, but even without seeing them, I can definitely identify the ONLY 4-engine Goose that existed in 1959.
The very first McKinnon G-21C (s/n 1201) was built between 1957 and 1958 and it was flying by the time period this thread references. It started off as Grumman JRF-6B c/n 1147, but McKinnon Enterprises Inc. of Sandy, OR completely rebuilt it, zero-timed it, and converted it to have four Lycoming GSO-480 engines of 340 hp each. Its gross weight also went up to 12,499 lbs. It was registered as N150M and it was issued a new data tag and airworthiness certificate on Nov. 7, 1958.
In 1960, however, McKinnon continued to "tinker" on it and he stretched the nose and added 4 seats and some windows up there. In that configuration, it was recertified as the one and only ever McKinnon G-21D and its serial number was changed once more to 1251. (Maybe that'd be a good trivia question; how many other aircraft have there been in which the same airframe carried three different manufacturer's unique model numbers and serial numbers?)
In any case, McKinnon still wasn't completely satisfied with it and he KEPT tinkering. Between 1964 and 1966, in conjunction with Alaska Coastal Airlines, McKinnon developed his turbine conversion for the G-21 series airframes. N150M (G-21D s/n 1251) had its four Lycoming piston engines removed and two PT6A-20 series turboprops of 550 shp installed. It also got some really funky Calderon flaps installed, too. It became the prototype and test bed for all of his subsequent turbine Goose conversions under STC SA1589WE and SA1320WE, and the true McKinnon Turbo Gooses under TC 4A24 (That list is shorter than most Goose people think; it was only G-21G s/n 1205 N77AQ, G-21E s/n 1211 N121H, and G-21G s/n 1226 N60AL - which later became N70AL.)
There was a second G-21C built in the mid-1960's. Grumman G-21A/JRF-5 c/n B-78 became N3459C and it was converted by McKinnon to be G-21C (w/ 4x Lyc. GSO-480's) s/n 1202. It went to Pakistan as AP-AUY and ended up in Bangladesh, after it split from Pakistan, where it remains today as S2-AAD.
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