The Aeronca Chief project my mom brought home as wings and pieces in laundry baskets has been brought home in pieces again. I am going through records to find out not only what the Chief looked like coming out of the factory but what it’s life was like.
Since my last post, I looked through the documentation provided by the FAA and had a few moments of surprise.
The Chief’s airframe logs list about 800 hours of flight time since rolling off the assembly line in 1946. We know it has spent a lot of time in pieces but are hoping to pinpoint when it was last disassembled.
As a little kid, my uncle would tell me about the airplane mom brought home. My older cousins would fill in what they remember of playing in and around an airplane that was long gone by the time I was born.
Records from the FAA are as factual as it gets, the where and when of an aircraft’s life.
The pages from the Aeronca factory did not indicate any color information, but did provide it’s date off the assembly line as June 21, 1946.
It is not listed where the Chief was assembled but from what we have learned from the National Aeronca Association, the assembly line at their factory in Middletown, Ohio was at capacity with Champs at the time.
Chiefs were assembled at what is now Dayton International (DAY) in Vandalia, Ohio at what is known as hangar one, which was later the home of the Beechcraft service center where the restorer had worked.
The Chief headed out to Galesburg, Illinois (GBG) first as part of a flying service based there.
Its later owners were in and around Chicago with my mom and her friends buying in 1966, seeing another family connection with her uncle’s signature appearing as a notary for the transaction was a very happy surprise.
A later change in partners listed my uncle as a part-owner during its time in the basement and garage being brought back to flight. He never mentioned that tiny little piece of information, it was always mama’s airplane!
By the time the Chief was sold by mom and her friends in 1971, she was married to my dad and they had Sis, our 1947 Bonanza.
The Chief stayed around northern Illinois until 1989 when the new owner moved to Murphysboro, Illinois. It’s near where I went to school at Southern Illinois University, which was the next town over in Carbondale.
The address of the owner looked familiar.
It was just south of Southern Illinois Airport (MDH), several classmates had lived in the complex, selecting for its location close to their classes at the airport.
I arrived on campus several years later and was out at the airport as my schedule allowed during my time there, but never ran into the Chief or its owner, to my knowledge.
The Chief’s owner eventually moved from southern Illinois to suburban Indianapolis.
By the time he sold the Chief to the owner I bought it from, it was in pieces again. The wife remembers towing the trailer of wings and a body back to Iowa from Indiana.
Aviation is a small world. No, everything is a small world.
It’s funny to think of mama’s Chief being in the same area I was flying out of.
We might not know how the Chief looked when it left the factory, but we do know where it went along the way.
There are structural portions of the Chief that are visible from the cabin, planning the paint colors for the aircraft prior to jumping in allows for a more thought out design overall.
I have joined the National Aeronca Association and hope to find documentation of the Chief’s scheme within their system.
Chiefs left the factory as red and cream, green and cream or blue and yellow.
Considering some of the interior pieces are green we think it came from the factory as cream and green but would like confirmation.
Life doesn’t always give us what we want, but it would sure be nice to know how it looked then.
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