I had the pleasure of meeting Norm today, he is one of several aviation enthusiasts living in the air park here where Gar and Jan Winter. Norm owns a 1940 Beechcraft Staggerwing that he has owned for 40 years. He completely rebuilt this cadillac with wings, and it is beautiful. In it’s day the Staggerwing was the luxury aircraft of choice, similar to what a Gulfstream is today. It cruises at 200 mph at 75% power, and is pulled along by a 9 cylinder Pratt and Whittney with 450 horse power. The empty weight is right at 3000 pounds while it grosses out at 4250. It is a fabric aircraft with a steel under structure and wooden formers you can see in the photo above, the workmanship is incredible. It’s landing gear is fully retractable (including the tail wheel), the interior is leather, and both the pilot and co-pilot have roll-down windows!! It’s got a hand crank for the side window that looks similar to the one in my dads old Chevy pickup, but the chrome on this one is still shiny. It was a joy to walk around this old beauty and hear Norm talk about it.
I should mention here to that Norm and his son recently sold Super Cub serial number 1 … now that’s cool!