Warbird Information Exchange

Over the last several months in searching for an authentic Piper L-4 to buy. In the process, I went through every serial number that was delivered to the US military during WWII in the FAA data base starting with the O-59 (serial # 7842) through to the last L-4J delivered (serial # 14033).

I've compiled a complete list of every registered L-4 in the country based solely on their serial number and from this search I've found several interesting things:

-Over the years as aircraft were wrecked, there is no telling how many were rebuilt completely from J-3 parts but have L-4 paperwork.
-Interestingly enough you can see patterns of certain groups of serial numbers seem to have stayed in regions of the country where they were sold surplus.
-By searching strictly serial numbers only, I've found several L-4's even in driving distance that the owners had no clue were actual L-4's with military history. They were converted years ago to look like J-3's and painted yellow.
-There are quite a few mistakes as to registered type, for example there are aircraft registered as one model L-4 but are actually another
-There are a lot of incorrect manufactured years listed. (In my spread sheet I have the correct model and manufactured year listed as cross referenced from Piper documentation)
-There are 355 aircraft total on the spread sheet
-About 58 of them have dead registration that has not been touched since 1977. (For any Warbird barn hunters, there could be great projects waiting to be found out there.)
-This list does not include any L-4's that were noted to had been exported post WWII and this list doesn't include NE-1's or NE-2's.

I built this list solely in my pursuit to find an authentic L-4 and wanted to pass it along in case someone else can make use of it. All of the info is easily found in the FAA data base, I just took the time to query 6191 serial numbers and then organize it in an excel spread sheet.

I also have this in a .PDF for anyone who wants it, send me a PM.

KEY:
Green = L-4J's
Blue = L-4H's
All red = dead registration since or before January 1977
Some red = non stock engine or category
Yellow = non stock engine or missing info

Very nicely done and should be of assistance to anyone looking for an authentic L-4.

Having owned three L-4s during the past 40 years I would like to add that the definition of "authentic L-4" means different things to different people and what I have found over the years is that the majority of L-4s flying in the US do not meet the strict definition of authentic.

Many are ordinary J-3s flying with L-4 paperwork, some are J3s flying with L-4 fuselages and some are L-4s flying with J3 fuselages. You really need to do your homework before buying an L-4. What will further complicate your search is the fact that at the end of WW II Piper sold off a large number of L-4 fuselage frames unregistered that were bought up by flight schools and crop dusters to rebuild damaged aircraft. It is extremely rare to find an authentic and original L-4.

The number one thing to look for when buying an L-4 is to insure that the frame tag matches up with the Piper serial Number when you pull up the Piper build sheet. Please note that the frame # will never be the same as the serial #. In the past some dishonest people made their own frame tags and some made the mistake of making the numbers the same.

Here is the information on N57560, Serial # 10146. It is in fact an authentic L-4 and is highly documented.



FRAME TAG


Build Sheet

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Here is N51525 from your list, Piper serial # 10372. This is a picture of the L-4A when I bought it in 1976 from a farmer/crop duster in Cordele, Ga.. It was painted in civilian colors and all the correct documentation was there including original paperwork dating back to the day it was released from the Army along with the original 337 showing removal of the greenhouse.

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This is one of the "Mutt" L-4s I described earlier. I owned this aircraft back in the 1980's. It is Piper J-3L-65 N32759 Piper serial # 5594 built 10/23/1940. It was owned by a crop duster early on and was rebuilt at some point with an L-4 fuselage of unknown origin, possibly one of the surplus frames from Piper. The frame has L-4 identification characteristics.

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