Gästinlägg: Sweden’s ‘TwinCom Bomber’
Här ovan ser vi "Hökens" Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche SE-EIN av årsmodell 1964 fotograferad på Linköping-Saab den 27 augusti 1991. Denna fina kärra minns man även som parkerad ett par gånger i månaden vid 3/F 10 i Ängelholm i slutet av 80-talet. Anledningen till besöken i Linköping såväl som Ängelholm hette Sven-Olof Hökborg, generalmajor och på den tiden tjänstgörande vid FMV/Flyg. Efter att pensionen flyttade generalmajor Hökborg till USA och tog med sig Twin Comanchen. Det - och en hel del annat - berättar Paul R Compton i detta gästinlägg. Visste du att SE-EIN varit modifierad för bombfällning? Jo, du läste rätt...
Sweden’s ‘TwinCom Bomber’
Paul R Compton
Declared airworthy by the Inspectorate and duly registered 1961/04/10, SE-EIN was one of a total of nine PA-30 Twin Comanches to have ever graced the Swedish Civil Aircraft Register (SWECAR). Although it was an early example of the type, SE-EIN wasn’t the first to appear on the SWECAR as it had already been preceded by the arrival of SE-ECS (30-57) that debuted with the Swedish Piper agents, Nyge-Aero, almost ten months earlier. Built by Piper Aircraft at Lock Haven, PA, and issued a US Export CofA (#E58256) to Sweden 1964/03/20, c/n 30-148 was officially sold by the manufacturer to AB Nyge-Aero as SE-EIN the same day. Powered by two Lycoming IO-320-B1A engines - standard for the early Twin Coms – it had flown around 16 hours upon its arrival at Norrköping/Kungsängen 1964/03/28 having ferried via Lajes/Azores & Prestwick. Despite the issuance of a CofR (number 1840) by the Swedish CAA 1964/04/10, for some unknown reason SE-EIN was issued an Interim CofA the same day that was renewed thrice and remained valid until mid-1966 before attaining full airworthiness and receipt of its standard CofA (#1951) a couple of years later, 1966/06/30.
Following a number of demonstrations to potential customers, Nyge-Aero found buyers for this TwinCom, namely Stensele Järnhandel AB & AB Ålomaskiner in Storuman who jointly acquired the Piper 1964/05/26 that was officially registered to them three days later 1964/05/29. Within a short space of time, a local Umeå based operator, Umeflyg AB, had also found use for the Twin and began to hire SE-EIN from the owners on an ad hoc basis. So much so, that the operator purchased the aircraft outright from the owners and Umeflyg was officially entered on the register as sole owner 1964/08/04. A little over a year later, in Sept, 1965, the company changed its name to AB Umair that subsequently succeeded in attaining full airworthiness for the Piper. Following some years of plying the airways across the Nordic region for passenger-carrying, sightseeing, tourist and regular air taxi services, and after accumulating around 1,100 flight hours, Umair discovered other potential uses that would qualify SE-EIN as one of Europe’s most versatile and unique Twin Comanches.
In November, 1968, Umair was awarded a mineral prospecting contract requiring inboard installation of a towing winch and launcher weighing 183 kg. Despite the increase in payload and some take-off and landing limitations, Umair deemed the Twin Comanche suitable for both the task and installation of the winch required for trailing the so-called ‘MagnetBomb’ pod. Lapplandsflyg installed the equipment and converted SE-EIN for the work. Needless to say, the Swedish ‘TwinCom Bomber’ was born.
The 'Magnetbomb' and launcher on the fuselage underside. (LFV Centralarkivet)
A closer view of the winch equipment installed in the Twin Comanche. (LFV Centralarkivet)
As the photo shows, the device was not entirely dissimilar to other winches used for target towing operations at the time and whilst the number of sorties carried out with this specific equipment is unclear, a few hundred hours were clocked before the apparatus was removed and allegedly transferred to another unidentified twin engined aircraft.
One can assume that the aerial exploration work involved took its toll on both the aircraft interior and exterior thereby necessitating some interior refurbishment, exterior repair as well as a touch up of the paint work. This assignment was undertaken early in 1971 by Norrønafly at Fornebu airport in Oslo who mistakenly applied the markings “LN-EIN’ to the aircraft during the rework process, before the mistake was discovered and the incorrect Norwegian prefix was removed and amended to read SE-EIN. With a total airframe time of 1,978 hours recorded by May 5th, 1972, Umair decided to replace the original power plants with two factory new Lycoming IO-320-B1A engines – serials RL-796-55 & RL-437-55 – in April, 1972. The Piper was then leased to Lapplandsflyg on a permanent basis until January, 1976, when Umair morphed into AB Delta Air and, later the same month, into Dicro AB, Umeå, who legally acquired ownership of SE-EIN January 16th and was duly entered 1976/01/23 on the SWECAR as sole owner. Just over a week later on February 1st , Dicro had sold SE-EIN onwards to HB Lintaflyg, heralding yet another new, exciting epoch for this Piper twin.
Bromma-based HB Lintaflyg was officially entered on the SWECAR as sole owner 1976/03/23 and the airframe time stood at 2,412 hours upon inspection March 31st at Bromma, the airport that would become the TwinCom’s ‘haunt and home’ for the next couple of decades.
Bromma den 27 juli 1971.
Having acquired the Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche from Dicro AB 1976/02/01, Lintaflyg’s acquisition heralded a new lease of life for SE-EIN that it instantly put to good use in all nature of service roles. Over the next 48 months it was able to record in excess of 800 flight hours and almost 1,000 landings across the continent. Recognizing the versatility of the TwinCom, the Bromma-based operator decided the aircraft would be ideal for yet another unique, non-standard role and late in 1979, Philips Elektroinikindustrier requested Lintaflyg to examine and determine the suitability of all the aircraft at its disposal for a number of radar tests. The main assignment involved the inflight dispatch of cassette modules - designed and built by Conort Engineering AB - that contained sixteen aluminium foil cartridges for ground radar tests and trials. The nature, size and weight of the payload involved required modification of an aircraft type for installation of a special luggage compartment to accommodate the cassette modules. Once again, the Twin Comanche SE-EIN was deemed well qualified for the mission and Lintaflyg was awarded the contract. Modification of the aircraft was undertaken and completed May, 1980, by Nyge-Aero at Brandholmen. Whilst it is not known how many sorties and hours were flown in this specific role, it appears the configuration was retained for at least twelve months. The TwinCom remained Lintaflyg’s workhorse thereafter and although a Piper PA-28-180 Cherokee C, SE-EMW, was added to the fleet in October, 1980, it was resold to its former owner, Bromma-Kungsängens FK, Stockholm already n June, 1983.
Lintaflyg continued to make good use of the TwinCom in its more traditional and conventional service roles and in March, 1992, it was once again time to replace both engines that had each accumulated over 2,500 hours. Two factory new Lycoming IO-320-B1A engines – serials #RL-2304-55A & #L-5927-55A – were bought and installed by Nyge-Aero. A few years thereafter, in July, 1995, ferry tanks and equipment were installed. This was done to enable Lintaflyg’s owner, chief pilot and renowned aviator, Sven-Olof Hökborg, to make a solo ferry flight with the TwinCom across the pond later the same year from Bromma to Washington DC, where he would go on to serve at Swedish Embassy in the capital city as Air Attaché for several years. Now based Stateside, the TwinCom was in need of local maintenance and upkeep, and Lintaflyg gained approval from the Swedish Lfs for the necessary US Mechanic certificate/authorization, namely Roberta Ann Boucher, Fredicksburg, Virginia. However, it wasn’t until February, 1998 that Sven-Olof Hökborg acquired SE-EIN from Lintaflyg and was officially registered 1998/05/27 in his own name as sole owner.
Although he initially based SE-EIN at Potomac, Maryland, Hökborg eventually moved his TwinCom further south - via longer intermittent stays at Tappahannock - to North County Airport in Florida where he resided in later years. To the dismay of the Swedish authorities, Hökborg kept the Piper on the Swedish Register for several more years and after expiry of its CofA 2007/12/31, SE-EIN was deleted from the SWECAR as exported to the USA 2008/04/22, and entered on the USCAR as N847B 2008/08/04 again with Hökborg as registered owner. N847B was advertised for sale in 2009 by Hökborg and bought up by Bradley Powell, Draper, Utah, but was deleted from the USCAR 2018/01/09 as ‘Expired’ and subsequently changed owners. However, the TwinCom has since been restored to the USCAR, regained airworthiness and was issued its most recent CofA as recently as 2023/03/15. Since 2023/05/27 it is owned by an obscure company named Registration Inc, with an address in Kalispell, Montana. So whilst it may no longer be ‘bombing’, all the evidence suggests the Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche c/n 30-148 is still ‘alive and kicking’ on the other side of the pond.
