Martin:

I recently ran across your website and I truly appreciate your interest/love of the A26.

The reason I am writing is that I have a bit more information on one of the early trail blazers/survivors of the A26 world, N4852V.  The pilot/man responsible for the original modification was a good friend of my father and his “boss” during World War II.  When I get a chance I will see what I can dig up and write a bit of a historical summary of what I remember from my conversations with both my dad and his friend.

I can’t plug all of the holes, but I can possibly share a bit of insight into the making of this unique aircraft.

I have known this airplane form pictures and stories for about 40 years.  The plane was owned and operated by Lutcher Brown, and my dad's great friend form World War II, Walt Clark, flew it.  They were responsible for the the original modifications (airfoil, cabin, etc.).

I have some black and white photos of the plane during what I would assume was its flight test trials after the modification, then a black and white of the plane painted.  Black and white obviously did not do it justice, and I wondered for probably 40 years what the colors really looked like.

A few years ago, we discovers some color 35mm slides my father took of the plane when he visited Walt in San Antonio.

I am starting to collect what I have and see what else I can dig up.  Walt died in 2000 at the age of 93, and my mother (91) still has his obituary.  I am trying to see if I can make contact with one of this daughters to fill in some holes and maybe dig up some more info.

A few exterior shots…..and interior from the passenger compartment, and one of the instrument panel.  Most people would think it was a bunch of antique junk by today’s standards, but this was pretty smoking for the 60’s!  Anything look familiar?

Notice the reverser levers on the throttles.  I thought they took the props off of a DC-7, but it was more likely a DC-6 since they are 3-blade and sawed the off for clearance.