Help Identifying some planes

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Rick Showalter said:
Thanks so much!....Here's a few more....
Thanks for info on Randolph as well
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Welcome, Rick- I also live in the "Land of Lincoln"-- but not in the NW suburbs of Chicago-- (Hate the "Dyin' Ryan" X-way and traffic around O'Hare. We are just South of Cairo--slower paced than where you are-possibly. If you have even the slightest interest in aircraft- this is the right Forum to join. Many well informed members with good attention to detail, very friendly and willing to share info with "rookies" such as you and I. No question goes unanswered, and the members are polite- no "micturation contests" develop-which makes this forum stand way above others, IMO. Enjoy!! Hansie
 
Since you liked the picture... a few more, with both Army and Navy color schemes. WW2 and P-47 veteran Ed Lopez flew in that morning on the Navy version:














Source for all: self
 
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That L-19/O-1 looks like the one owned by my late friend. It was imported to Dallas from France. It had been originally supplied to France under MAP { military assistance program} and they were returned or surplussed. If it has a repaired bullet hole in the left L/E. it's the one. He kept the French markings and restored those defaced because of hes French ancestry. He went to extremes to restore the interior and exterior equipment. He found the original interior mil stuff that had been removed, gutted the boxes and reinstalled them. I well remember comments after he put on the rocket rails. He put on the bullet style stab antennas and the dorsal whip antenna. I don't see either of these so only the s/n or log book will tell.
 
It likely is your late friend's airplane, as it served in the French Army. S/N is 112129.

If you'd like better pictures of it, let me know.
 
THX TGBSM
I have tried to enclose a shot of Frank's L-19 that I hang in my shop. I couldn't scan it because the printer refuses to scan so I photoed it. Please excuse the condition as it was water damaged in Katrina. I should have other pix in the uncataloged boxes of the photo collection.
 
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Unfortunately the pic you tried to attach couldn't be displayed beacuse the URL address was incorrect. Please use the Upload File button for enclosing the pic from your HDD directly to our pic server. Just edit your post above and re-attach the image again.
 
Not being conversant in Geek speak and brought kicking and screaming into windows 10, yesterday I stopped at Best Buy for a translation. Their suggestion {there were four of them} was to bring in the tower so they could sort it out. At 77 I'm not going to fall for that. The last Windows system I fully understood was 98SE and was ok with XP. So the photo will have to wait until decendents stop by.
 
special ed said:
Armed with instructions from David I will try again. Frank and his expensive toy December 1984.
View attachment 504329
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Thanks for sharing the picture! Since there is a high likelihood that we've found your friend's O-1/L-19, I took some better pictures today. The construction number is 22443 and the aircraft today operates under the registration N305TA. I didn't get a close-up picture of it, but there is also some damage to the port wing leading edge right above the rocket rails. It is visible in the first two pictures.











Source: self
 
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THX SM
It is a really great paint job. The French scheme got lots of comment especially from French and Canadian visitors at airshows. Behind the rear seat are attachments for two M-1 carbines. The non firing replicas were nearly as expensive as the actual rifles, but we decided flying into an airshow with guns, fake or real, might spoil the day.
ed
 
The Air Corps blue and yellow and the Navy yellow Stearman paint schemes were actually prewar markings. During the war the USN and USAAF both standardized on all-over silver.

My high school physics teacher said that he and some other Navy pilots were sent to the factory to pick up some new Stearman aircraft and bring them back to their base in Texas. They decided to get an early start and arrived at the factory the afternoon before the pick-up date. He was told, "The airplanes have not been built yet." That night he followed the production of the Stearman that he was to fly through the factory, starting with one small part, as parts were added to it, on down the production line. The next morning it rolled out of the factory and he flew it down to Texas..
 

How sure are you that we found your friend's plane? A small part of me wanted to peek inside the logbook, but I won't touch anything without permission as a rule. I can make enquiries at the museum if needed.

If you have any other pictures and it's not too much hassle, I'd love to see them!
 

That must've been a sight to see. Nothing like your own life on the line as an incentive to help out with quality assurance!
 
I'm looking. Most of my prints were lost in Katrina but negs are safe, as are slides. Frank and I Photoed airshows, airports, and museums since the 1950's. I cataloged and indexed my collection till about 81 or 82 and then did not transcribe my notes,so trying to find info from my notes will take time. What museum are you located? I thought Frank's regn was N305FL but Faa search says that is now a flying parachute. By the way, the L-19 is excellent for air to air photos as the rear windows fold in and fasten at the overhead. Slipstream isn't felt until about two inches out. I tried to tell him he could also fly with front windows open. They swing out and latch under wing. There is about 4 inch space for boundary layer and had seen pics of O-1's in Nam with them open in flight.. Frank was a very cautious flyer and safe, so he wouldn't try it until one hot day while taxiing he forgot to close it. I was in back and decided not to tell him, but I was ready to reach out and close it if needed. We were climbing out at about two thousand before he noticed, loosened his belt and closed it. The window was rock steady when open, but he still kept them closed in flight.
 
The photos were taken at Planes of Fame at Chino Airport (KCNO) in Southern California.

I think I've discovered that they are different aircraft which share a similar history. According to this website, the L-19 under registration N305FL was construction number 24700 built 1959. The one at Planes of Fame is construction number 22443 built 1951 and also was assigned to the French Army.

N305FL is now registered in Indiana as N3305.




Source for both: John2031.com
 
Good detective work. Frank,s was mfg 1959. How do you use the FAA site to find old regn info? I can see the tag on the panel. Frank was the first to register it civil in the US. He sold it to a pilot who had been an instructor stateside in WW2. He told us they had a few early P-38s at his field, one of which was a YP-38 he hated to fly because the panel was non-std and all the switches were toggle switches. It made him nervous.
 
The John2031.com website was where I found the new registry number - I wasn't able to "connect the dots" with FAA records available online:



I wonder what became of those YP-38s - they'd be worth a fortune today given their low production numbers and the fact the XP-38 didn't survive its cross-country flight.
 
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