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OTHER AIRCRAFT
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Registration Number: N3854A Serial Number: 15 Airframe Total Time: 1927 Logbooks: 5, complete since new Condition: disassembled for recovering Price: $5,000 USD Location: near Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA |
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DescriptionThis is a very early round tail 1-26A (number 15) with all aluminum wings, making it a very desirable 1-26. The ship was disassembled for a recover and the old fabric removed. It is complete and in very good condition. It has been continuously hangared since it's last flight. A straightforward recovering job will yield a very desirable 1-26. Some light woodwork is required on the wood turtledeck assembly.It was earlier reported that this ship had been updated with 1-26E wings. The current owner had erroneously been told that only 1-26E wings were completely aluminum. He has since learned that later 1-26A/B wings were completely skinned in alloy. This is now believed to be the case with this aircraft, that the original 1-26A wings were simply completely skinned in aluminum. This is confirmed by the lack of lower spoilers on the wings. Some FAA 337s which accompany the aircraft describe some major wing repairs involving rib and wing skin replacement. |
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This aircraft first flew in 1955 making it a very early 1-26A. The complete logbooks document a long and illustrious history, much if it spent in California. The logbooks make some pretty interesting reading, with numerous badge flights throughout the 60s and 70s at some of the West Coast Meccas of soaring. The aircraft later spent a lot of time in Texas. The next to the last flight in the logbook is a Diamond Goal flight in Texas. It last flew in 1984 and was then in storage for over a decade. It was purchased in the late ninties by a prior owner intending to do a recover. It was disassembled the old fabric removed. The owner then ran out of time/interest and the project sat.
