Just so you guy know the MGC hasn't thrown me off

TR4A IRS is almost ready for her rebuilt engine and O/D transmission;



OK, maybe not <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">that</span></span> close, but still making progress;




These came out of the hanger two doors down today for a quick flight around Riverside;







I was really taken with the orange one (1943 Boeing trainer), metal tube frame with fabric over the body and wings. Very. very cool.

Old aircraft like those...with the possible exception of old cars, there's almost nothing any cooler!

Yeah, I don't think I'd get too much work done if my workshop was a door or two down from those - they are beautiful.

Skip, can you tell me the registration number (Nxxx number) on the polished aluminum airplane? It should be on the tail.

It looks like a Luscombe Silvaire. Most Silvaires have a horizontally-opposed engine, but this one has a radial engine. A few Luscombe 4s were made with Warner Scarab radials. According to Aerofiles, only one 4 survives and it's being restored in California. The photo of a 4 on Aerofiles shows a plain cowling, but yours shows a bump cowling.

Of course, someone may have installed a radial and bump cowling on an originally opposed-engine Silvaire.

My old roommate had a Luscombe 8A, with a Continental A-65 opposed engine. He took the engine out and you could see that the firewall was perfectly round! A carry over from the radial-engined ships?

Thanks!

Dr. Herrera,

I was with Tom that day and took a pic of the plane with my cellphone as it was on the taxi out. The reg numbers are actually on the fuselage and are hidden by the open door in Tom's pic. If you PM me, I'll email you the picture but the tail number looks to be N399LS.

Well I just Googled the tail number and sure enough, this is the plane

https://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/305416L.html

I like the bump cowling better: a cleaner lool IMO.
Both are very nice restorations.
My uncle learned to fly in the Stearman basic trainer in WWII. KIA, 1944, Holland.

"Verrrry interesting", as Arte Johnson used to say.

Well, interesting to me at least. But I'm an Aircraft Identification Guy.

That ship is a <span style="font-style: italic">brand new</span> (2008) manufacture Luscombe Silvaire 8R, not a Luscombe 4.

Seems that Luscombe Silvaire Aircraft Corporation has bought the rights to the 8-series Luscombes and has made new ones. The originals have not been made since the early fifties.

They are available with a radial of unknown make (amateur/experimental, which means it's not type-certificated and is probably from The Czech Republic or somewhere).

The 8R (R is probably for Radial) is not type-certificated either. Maybe Luscombe Silvaire Aircraft Corporation is still in the process of obtaining a certificate for the 8R model.

Now that I think about it, I do remember something about Luscombes being manufactured again with new engines, but my poor old brain forgot it.

I'm a bump cowling fan, too.

Thanks for the info!

If you look at the 2 photos the front cowling is different now then it was in the shot taken on 2009-03-28.

Neat planes though.

You folks have made me realize that I'm loooooong overdue for another visit to <span style="font-style: italic">Cole Palen's Flying Circus</span>, a.k.a The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome!