Mer B 6 - NX55811 & N55539
Se där, en trevlig bild på en civil Republic AT-12 Guardsman...eller varför inte säga den civila beteckningen: Republic 2PA-204A. Bilden ärligt stulen från denna site, där det även bland annat står:
The pictured aircraft was sold as surplus and came on the civil registry as NX55811. Sponsered by the actor Buck Rogers the aircraft was entered in the 1949 Bendix Trophy cross-country speed contest as a 'Super P-35', and was listed as Racer number '61'. Flown by Vincent Perron was withdrawn at Grand Junction, Colorado, due to continuing engine problems.
Hmm, en skådis som hette Buck Rogers!? Har inte hört talas om, men väl seriefiguren...som även blev filmatiserad i korta avsnitt med Buster Crabbe i huvudrollen.
I en tråd på WIX saxas följande intressanta info om AT-12:
. . Sweden had placed an order for 120 EP-106s...and for 52 SEV-2PA-204A two-seat fighters, that would be modified to serve as dive-bombers.
After the first batch of EP-106s were received in Sweden, a second order for 60 EP-106s was signed with Republic. The deliveries were not to be completed, since the United States Government placed an embargo on all military supplies to Sweden on 24 October, 1940; the undelivered airplanes were taken over by the USAAC and given the designation P-35A and were sent to the Philippines in order to reinforce the weak forces in place.
Of the dive-bombers ordered, only two had been delivered, and the remainder 50 examples from this order were taken over by the USAAC, and assigned to various training units, the airplanes redesignated as the AT-12 (advanced trainer) “Guardsman.” They were mainly employed as squadron hacks, and by war’s end, the majority of surviving examples were scrapped.
Two examples survived the scrapping, and were sold in the post-war surplus market.
One, entered as a “Super P-35” into the 1949 Bendix Trophy cross-country speed race. It was registered as NX55811, race number 61, but engine trouble forced a landing at Grand Juction, Colorado, where its brief racing career ended.
The other example was registered as NX55539 and served during some time in Latin America, where it was employed as a mapping airplane. On the vertical surfaces, it had a US and a Salvadorean flag, crossed.
It was registered in El Salvador as YS-114, and owned by Archie Baldocchi. After spending some time in El Salvador, it was returned to the USA during the 1950s, and eventually made its way to the collection owned by Ed Maloney, which eventually became the Planes of Fame Museum.
...och där plockar jag upp tråden: Den Republic AT-12 Guardsman (fast vi säger väl hellre B 6, eller hur?) som finns kvar bevarad i flygande skick bär amerikansk civilregistrering N55539.
Flygplanet finns fortfarande hos Planes Of Fame i Chino. Det har tillverkningsnummer 483-38 och skulle nog med andra ord blivit - om allt gått som först tänkt - B 6 nummer 7238 i svenska flygvapnet. Istället blev alltså kärran AT-12 nummer 41-17529 i USAAC...