What airplane is this?

[Warbirdnerd]

Sure am Fugly....

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

Conestoga by Budd !

[famvburg]

Nope. I wonder if it was some sort of prototype for it tho......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RB_Conestoga

Conestoga by Budd !

Last edited by famvburg on Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

The more I look at it , I don't think it is a Conestoga. HMMM!

Possibly a Monsted-Vincent Starflight MV-1 ?

[The Inspector]

The BUDD CONESTOGA was a double deck aircraft with the cockpit raised above the cabin and looked like the design inspiration for the Sikorksy CH-37 MOJAVE. The CONESTOGA was all spot welded stainless, FLYING TIGERS AIRLINES used a couple after the Navy dropped the type. I believe there's one under restoration @ Pima.

That's the Monsted-Vincent STARFLIGHT. The only 4 engined aircraft built in Lousiana. Built 1948, using 4 pusher CONTINENTAL C-85's
48 ft span, 35 ft. length w/ 1200 mi range & 1800 lb. load. Badly damaged in a wind storm and flipped over. Some parts were still around @ WEDELL-WILLIAMS Field in Patterson, LA as late as 1992

[RareBear]

Here's a link to some more photos of the Starflight:

http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/Shumaker/3084.htm


Walt

[Obergrafeter]

Whatever it is , it is fuguly!

[Clifford Bossie]

I kind of like it.

[Steve Nelson]

Looks the misbegotten byproduct of this star-crossed relationship.

SN

[old iron]

The Monsted-Vincent Starflight MV-1 has unfortunately had a star-crossed history.

I saw it briefly in a field north of Shreveport LA in 1978. It then went into the Wendell-Williams Museum in nearby Patterson LA but was badly damaged (flipped over) during Hurrican Andrew in 1992, and then was further damaged - destroyed during Hurrican Rita in 2005. From what I understand there is nothing left of it.

Very interesting design - four small pusher engines able to carry six people, but a one-off that had no later progeny that I know of.

[JohnB]

Looks a bit like an early Aero Commander (albeit with an ugly nose) or the fuselage of the channel-wing Custer from around the same time period.

[The Inspector]

If SPARTAN had only merged the airframe and travel trailer lines together, kinda looks like a new born LIBERATORLINER or baby B-36, bet the cabin was quiet