Staggerwing

This Staggerwing came to us from the Beechcraft Heritage Museum in Tullahoma TN as N35JM. Prior to being donated in 2003 to the museum it was restored and owned by Jack Munroe. From the Beech Heritage Museum web site;
N35JM was built under a USAAF contract as Beech c/n 6914, and assigned AAF serial 44-76069. It was reallocated to the U.S. Navy as a GB-2 model with U.S. Navy BuNo 23737 and delivered to Station Operations Naval Air Station Seattle, WA on May 20, 1944. Subsequently stationed at NAS Pasco, WA and NAS Tillamook, OR, it was stricken from the Navy on July 31, 1946.
It was sold to a U. S. civilian as D17S NC67737 and was registered in Canada as CF-GLL in 1951. Based in Vancouver and Calgary until May 1975 when purchased by Jack H. Munroe of Brighton, CO and registered as N35JM.
Jack notes that “my interest in airplanes started in the mid-twenties with model-building. Then Lindbergh came to Denver and that was that. I was a kid with a bike and there were three airports within range of our house.” Jack completed an extensive restoration of N35JM with the first flight occurring in 1982. In the October of 2003 Jack donated his D17S to the Staggerwing Museum where he has been a trustee of the Foundation since 1981.
The current owner is based in Seattle so, once again this Staggerwing will end up where it did in 1944.

We found the airplane to be in pretty good shape overall. We fabricated a completely new instrument panel and returned it to original configuration however added dual controls with late style "bow-tie" yokes. A new period correct interior to round out the cabin.



The current owner decided to go with civilian paint and our favorite combination, red and black! The Beechcraft Heritage Museum was kind enough to loan us a original side panel with a perfect Beechcraft Bird on it for a pattern. A bit of a challenge to layout.

We're pretty happy with the paint. Getting the Staggerwing into the booth and being able to shoot the entire fuselage in one session was quite the challenge.


Numerous items were replaced or rebuilt during this restoration. The landing gear received lots of attention and is about as close to factory new as you can get. Once reinstalled the process of rigging and fitting began. Its quite a impressive system considering its age however, a bit complicated.
Were full steam ahead for final assembly phase this week and next and hope to be flying soon. We'll share some more progress photos soon that hopefully show some daylight between the tires and runway!

Oshkosh

Oshkosh 2010 was good, very good. We had three airplanes in the Antique-Classic area, all WACOs. EGC-8 N2279, UPF-7 N32133 and ZPF-7 N173E. We had our Top Cub and Carbon Cub present and, gained another UPF-7 during the week. A total of six airplanes at the show made for some work to and from but, it was worth it. We divided our time between Cub Crafters and the WACOs during the week and spent the evenings doing demo flights in the Carbon Cub. Talk about long days at the show! We attended the Waco dinner Thursday and had a great time catching up with several friends. On Saturday we had the unique opportunity to fly in the Goodyear Blimp. What a great ride and impressive flight department. Goodyear holds; the Type Certificate to the Blimp, a certified repair station certificate and has a complete flight department centered around the Blimps that run like an well oiled machine. The hour flight was one to remember and quite an education. It was like riding in a ship at sea. The week ended with many new friends, great face time with old friends and the awards ceremony. We spotted what we believed to be the Grand Champ the second it arrived, Engelskirgers UPF-7 what a beautiful restoration. They indeed took the honors of Grand Champion home that was much deserved. We really enjoyed looking at it. We were fortunate enough to bring some hardware home too! All three WACOs brought home trophies; N2279 Outstanding Closed Cokpit Biplane, N32133 Outstanding Open Cockpit Biplane, N173E Bronze Age Champion Bronze Lindy. We're proud to have earned these awards. Without the owners' vision for these airplanes we would not be here, thank you Mac, John & Lou. Coming soon; F-series comparison Staggerwing progress and ZQC-6 update.

N32133 Complete

Last week we completed UPF-7 N32133. It's first flight was last Friday. What a great flying airplane. A silk smooth W670 supplied by Air Repair Inc coupled with a light and fairly stock airframe make this bird an absoulute joy to fly. Only a minor rigging adjustment was required and so far there are no other squwaks. Yesterday we took it to Oshkosh along with N173E the ZPF-7 and N2279 the EGC-8. This is the first show for all three airplanes. We hope to see you there!

ZPF-7

Lou and John Nalbones ZPF-7 on a photo shoot over the Faribault MN area lakes. What a fun airplane to fly! Fuel injected Jacobs engine, great panel and tons of show smoke to play with. The team at the RARE shop did a great job on this one. Stay tuned to www.rareaircraft.com for more great photos, HD videos of the flight and a cockpit tour.

32133 Progress photos

The team is on the march to completion of N32133, our latest UPF-7. Here are some more photos. There has been some serious daily progress! Take a look.

Inside Out

We have added upholstery to our list of can do at RARE. Curt, our ace of the base when it comes to the stitch and hide game has been at it for 30+ years. He has masterfully created our interiors on several restorations as a subcontractor in years past. We are pleased to now have Curt as a member of the family working in house. If you would like to give the RARE Aircraft touch to your aircraft or auto restoration we are ready and willing. Complete and partial jobs, retro or modern style. Why put a production interior in your one of a kind restoration or cream puff contemporary when you can make it your own. Give us a call for a quote, you'll be suprsied at what we can do for you!

Tin Time.

We couldn't call our airplanes remanufactured to better than new standards without all new sheet metal! No stone has been left unturned on this restoration! Real history, real standards, all NEW!