I have been gathering information on the television series "Sky King" for about 15 years. I had wondered what had happened to the various Songbirds and where the exteriors of the Flying Crown Ranch were filmed. Here is some of what I have found:

CAA/FAA FILES

N-67832 Make Cessna Model (UC-78) T-50

manufactured 8/16/43 serial number 6117

registration no. N-67832 ident. no. 43-32179

Aircraft was sold by the war assets administration on November 18, 1946 to Robert C. Hall, 222 Roswell Ave., Long Beach, Ca. for $400.00. Mr. Hall applied for registration on Jan 22, 1947. Registration received on Feb. 20. 1947. Repaired 1/24/47 cylinders modified, props cleaned, assembled, and balanced. Props were manufactured by Hamelton Standard 2520-241 blade model 6135A-15. All mods to the aircraft were signed off by the CAA on March 3, 1947. Airworthiness certificate was issued on same date.

March 5, 1947 ac was sold to Garmon D. Simmons, 548 South Sparks, Burbank, Ca. for $2725.00 and was kept at the Metropolitan Airport in Van Nuys. Mortgage was held by the Bank of America NT & SA in Van Nuys.

The Mortgage was paid in full on March 26, 1948.

On Jun 25, 1948 the ac was sold to John K. Lewis, 11355 Penrose St., Roscoe Ca.

July 18, 1949, the ac was sold to George Varga Jr. 7760 Sancola, Sun Valley, Ca.

Aircraft was sold to Paul Mantz Air Services, Hanger #1, Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, Ca. on August 8, 1950. On November 11, 1951, the ac was completely recovered, all woodwork was repaired, all metal work was repaired, ADF and ADF Loop was installed. (Paul Mantz was listed as the aerial advisor to the series in 1951-1952)

1952 airworthy inspection total hours: 2039 during 1952: 403

1953 aircraft inspection report: total hours : 1998.50 during 1953: 356.45

April 15, 1954 ac sold to L. Lester Abel, P.O. Box 1531, Ventura, Ca. for $1800.00 mortgage held by Aircraft Sales & Brokerage

June 18, 1954 ac sold to Paul A. Young, 1225 Forest Drive, Santa Paula, Ca. for $1329.89. mortgage held by Aircraft Sales & Brokerage.

August 23, 1954 ac sold to Robert Bernard Holmes, South Orange Drive, LA, Ca. for $4120. mortgage held by Aircraft Sales & Brokerage

May 31, 1956 ac sold to Berton A. Webb and Manuel S. Gonzales, 2501 L. St. , Bakersfield, Ca. for $1350.00

July 28, 1957 ac sold to Charles Lynn Wells, 9068 E. Dinuba Ave, Selma, Ca.

February 24, 1958 ac sold to J.J. Wolohan, M.D., 1140 3rd St., Livingston, Ca.

July 17, 1958 ac sold to Vest Aircraft and Finance Co. (dealer), P.O. Box 5306, Denver 17, Colorado

August 12, 1958 ac sold to Robert J. Noland in Camdenton, Missouri

October 1, 1958 ac sold to Grace Cochrane Conway Camdenton, Missouri

April 1, 1960 ac sold to Lawrence Ferro, P.O. Box 261 Clinton Missouri who is the present owner of the aircraft. Mr. Ferro told me in a telephone conversation that the plane is currently in pieces at his hanger. He also related a couple of stories-he knew Paul Mantz who was the aerial advisor to the series when Jack Chertok Productions, Inc. was filming the series in 1951 and 1952. Mr. Ferro also told me that the FAA contacted him several years ago and asked if he still owned N-67832. He told them that he did and that he was looking at the carcass of the plane. They advised that someone was flying around the country to air shows in a T-50 with the tail number N-67832 and claiming that the plane was the original Songbird. That person had his license revoked by the FAA. He did not know what happened to the T-50 in question.

The second Songbird, a Cessna 310-B, has or had a more bizarre story. In the late 1970’s, General Aviation News did a story on famous aircraft and of course, the Songbirds were included in the series of articles. I had requested and received a file on N-5348A from the FAA in the mid 1980’s and discovered that the file suddenly stopped in 1970. The last owner of the ac was listed as Basil E. Cunningham of Cunningham Construction Company, 24453 Hawthorne Blvd., Torrance, Ca. On September 3, 1970, the FAA issued a notice of proposed certificate action to Cunningham Construction Company. The requested aircraft registration, eligibility, identification, and activity report was not submitted to the FAA by the due date July 1, 1970.

On December 10, 1970, the FAA ordered the aircraft registration certificate be revoked, effective 12/10/70, and returned to the Aeronautical Center Counsel, AC-7, P.O. Box 25082, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73125. This order was issued by Joseph T. Brendan, FAA counsel Oklahoma City.

The registration was canceled but the tail number was reserved. I called the FAA and asked why this was done. They could not offer an answer. I tried calling the Cunningham Construction Co. but there was no listing. I then called the aircraft registration clerk at the FAA (Barbara Schnell) in Oklahoma City to ask who had reserved the tail number. They could not find the file. She told me all inactive files were in the "dead vault" and not on computer.

The FAA had sent me a large file on Cessna aircraft serial number 35548, registration mark N-5348A, dealer’s registration certificate dated 8/23/56.

The Cessna Aircraft company agent was Del Roskam when the aircraft was certified by the CAA on 7/20/57 by Doras E. Hillman. On October 11, 1957, the plane was sold by D.W. Hammer, billing supervisor at Cessna, to the Air Oasis Company (a Cessna dealer), 2601 East Spring Street, Long Beach, Ca.

On October 18, 1957 the Vice-president of Air Oasis, Tom Sheridan, sold the aircraft to A-1 Iron and Metal Company, 10,010 South Alameda, Los Angeles, Ca. Jerome Williams was listed as the registered owner of the aircraft and the A-1 Iron & Metal Company. Mr. Williams was the first of four owners listed in the FAA records. The records show that the aircraft was taken to a certificated repair station for a major alteration to the airframe

on November 7, 1957.

FAA file on Cessna N-5348A

The original mortgage on the aircraft was signed at 3:11 PM on November 13, 1957 in the amount of $44,951.00 by Jerome Williams to the Bank of America in Los Angeles. Interest 10% with the final payment due on October 20, 1960. Total amount of the loan with interest: $89,902.00. The CAA acknowledged receiving the mortgage information provided by W. Spindler, assistant cashier of the Bank of America, P.O. Box 3609, Terminal Annex, Los Angeles, 54, Ca. on November 13, 1957. The letter was signed by Robert E. Forbes, Chief aircraft and Airman Records Branch, General Safety Division, Civil Aeronautics Administration.

On October 22, 1958, the A-1 Iron & Metal Company sold the aircraft to Huntair, Inc., 2361 Airlane, San Diego, Ca. Mortgagor was listed as L.W. Hunt, 2601 East Spring St., Long Beach, Ca. Huntair was listed as an aircraft sales company owned by Air Oasis Company. The mortgage was in the amount of $45,000 held by the Bank of America in Long Beach. The last payment was due on February 5, 1959. Total amount of loan with interest $90,000.00.

On February 2, 1959, California General, Inc., P.O. Box 565, Chula Vista, Ca. purchased the aircraft from Huntair, Inc. for $59,622.00. $13,130.00 in cash unpaid balance $46,492.00. On the registration, the aircraft is listed as being manufactured in 1958 . Mortgage on the aircraft was assigned to Air Credit, Inc., L.W. Hunt, president. The FAA acknowledged the transfer on April 22, 1959.

On February 14, 1962, the aircraft was sold to the Cunningham Construction Company, 24453 Hawthorne Blvd., Torrance Ca. by California General Inc.

The purchase price was $23, 964.00 to be paid in 48 monthly installments of $499.26. The certificate of registration was issued by the FAA on March 29, 1962 to Basil E. Cunningham. Mortgage holder was listed as the Mercantile National Bank, P.O. Box 5415, Dallas, 22, Texas.

Mr. Cunningham owned the aircraft until it was stolen in 1970. As late as 1981, the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) listed the aircraft as a drug runner aircraft and was on its hot sheet. Bizzare story? It gets better. When I called Cessna Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas and asked them what had happened to this airplane, they directed me to George Norvall of General Aviation News in Texas who had written the articles on the various famous planes.

Mr. Norvall told me that N-5348A crashed in 1957, killing the pilot, six weeks after filming the stock shots and opening sequence with the new Songbird, and that the wreckage was still locked in a garage in Los Angeles. The widow of the pilot who was flying the plane at the time it had crashed kept the plane all of these years. It is unclear who actually performed the surgery, but somehow, one of the other Cessna’s used in the series had its number changed to N-5348A so that the stock footage would match the other sequences. If you look at the closeups of the plane you can see what appears to be tape on the wings over the numbers. When California General, Inc. purchased the aircraft (with the new tail number) in 1959, noone caught the fact that the year of manufacture was listed as 1958. Cessna Aircraft Company told me that Sky King always used three 310-B’s in the production. One was used as a camera plane. Cessna sent me three publicity stills, one T-50, and two 310-C’s, one with the Tail number N-5350A. Kirby Grant is standing on the right side of one of the planes. Tail number is not shown in this photo. I believe this photo was taken in 1959. In the magazine Flying for February 1959, N-5350A is featured on page 54. Basic price of the aircraft is listed as $59,950.00.

Dave Stivers at Nabisco (201-682-7143) told me that Nabisco sold the series to Kirby Grant in early 1959 (more about this below). Nabisco published a one shot Sky King comic book in 1964 featuring a runaway train. Sky King was one of the few shows that did no merchandising due to Nabisco sponsorship. Nabisco received a letter about 7 years ago offering to sell the 310-B (original) to Nabisco. Three years ago, an aircraft auction house in Oklahoma sent out a flyer featuring the 310-B up for auction. Was this aircraft the one with the modified tail number? I could not verify. I also do not know what the tail numbers were of the other two 310-B’s used on the series. Maybe you know. One had to have disappeared sometime in 1957.

Correspondance with Rick Plummer is available through this site...Thanks Rick-KV