Ken Blackman had been saving stuff from his Grumman American Dealership days and had his pile.
Gif Hamilton got several cart loads that (Gulfstream?) was going to throw out, so he arranged for help and a truck to remove it. He offered the stuff to the AYA and eventually mailed the lot ($175 in postage, best guess or approximation.) to Ken for one big pile. The Board (Larry Foster) complained about the freight charge , without board approval so Ken reimbursed.
Duplicates were culled out and auctioned at Mac Island in 1985, to offset the costs to the board, which did authorize the postage after the fact.
Cindy Fletcher was awarded the LL award for her work with the Archives in 1990.
Posterboards - Just a few of the Many
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This is the plane that started it all! Including our organization. Yankee #0002 will be on display at AYA'10 as well. This was the plane that had the first 8 SB applied to it as part of the certification flight testing. N309AA. |
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Here are a number of planes that did not make it to production for one reason or another. One of these was the Patriot (AA2) which will be on display at ATA'10! See it for yourself. |
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The Cheetah, with it low drag cowling and great handling. |
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The most popular of our 4-seaters. The plane that has risen from the ashes 4 times now, Thank You - Kevin! |
Other Items - And there are many!
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There are sales brouchurs and much other literature in the Archives. | |
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Folks send stuff to the archives in all formats. Here are some of the slides that have been digitized. Coming soon to a website near you! | |
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The factory paint booth from 1976. | |
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Many rare photos of the early years, including some of our leaders! From left to right: Ken Blackman, Lauren Larsen, Otto Kopen, Bev Hanson (President 1980-1981), and Dicey Miller (AYA 1980) | |
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The formation image that was used to generate the Star Masthead. Thanks to Dave Wheeler for this. Ken Blackman is flying the Cougar, Cliff Johnston and Bev Hanson the AA5s, and Bill Crump and Dave Wheeler are in the AA1s. |  |
"The Bat Plane" and "The Damn Yankees" post from Dave Wheeler and a glimpse into history;
Gee, Dave, you brought back some memories for sure with the photos of our flight team and the "new airplanes in formation" (well they were in 1978 when that photo was taken). Damn, Dave, that was 31 years ago.... are we really that old?
Since many (hopefully most) "gangsters" are also members of the American Yankee Assoc., the comment on the AYA STAR Masthead deserves a little more explanation. The annual airshow at PAE used to be one of the three largest in the nation. (the last one was held in the early 1990s) Named the "Paine Field, Lynnwood Rotary International Airfair" it always featured several of the World's top aerobatic teams and individual performers. Art Scholl, Mira Slovak, Bob Hoover, Joann Hull, Debby Gary, Jimmy Franklin, Dave Rahm, The Eagles flight team (lead by Tom Poberesney), The Canadian Reds, The Thunderbirds, or Blue Angles, or The Snow Birds were on the docket plus many others and lots of military displays and flight demos. (They even had an SR-71 flight demonstration one year!) It was a huge two day event.
Skytrek Aviation was our flight school and rental / charter operation, on PAE, and we put on a very large display for our new Grumman American Airplanes and our Private through ATP, Part 141 & VA approved, training facility every year at this show. Our flight team performed at many local airshows and events so we were a standard for the first part of the airshow featuring "local acts". In 1978 we had a great weekend (weather wise) and a full schedule of top performers. We had our booth, with several new planes, in the prime position of all the displays. Our factory (Grumman) rep was on hand to help "hustle" potential airplane buyers and we had our first Cougar on display.
We decided to do our Damn Yankees routine with one of each model of new planes and were given a time slot just before the airshow to "go do our thing" and we did. The picture Dave posted was our "Flying V" formation with the Cougar in lead, Tiger on right wing, Cheetah on left, T-Cat on 2nd right wing and a Lynx in second left wing. Dave Wheeler was flying the T-Cat and I was in the Cougar. (RHIP for you military types). It was an interesting challenge to have the varied performance capabilities of the 5 "all stock" airplanes trying to hang together and put on any kind of a decent show but we did pull it off pretty well (two days in a row). One of the formation passes was taken from the big military teams showing the "slow & fast" extremes of the aircraft. The 4 single engines would do a "slow pass" in a diamond and the Cougar would underfly at top speed and pull up steep in front of the slow group. This was to happen at "show center" and I got a little wide on my solo pass set up. I thought I was going to be late passing under the rest. I warped the 721GA into a steep, descending turn with everything to the firewall and had to lean as far forward as possible to keep the diamond formation in sight. Bev Hanson, flying slot, was to call "1 clear" when I passed under for my signal to yard back on the yoke with both hands and try to impress people. I did catch the group in time and Bev made the call ...... and I glanced at the airspeed ... OOPS! (Throttles back) "1 clear" ... "CLEAR KEN .... PULL UP". I answered, "When I get back to VNE!"
Anyway, a few years later, we needed to develop a new "masthead" for the STAR and the graphic artist that worked with me on laying out the magazine (Yes, with galley strips, waxed boards, and all... this was before desk top publishing was popular.) was looking through a pile of pictures and came up with that airshow photo. He did "line art" copies of the planes, pulled them in to fit the space (that required loosing the 2nd left wing plane) and designed the new lettering style. That is exactly the same masthead you see on the American Star today.... 27 years later.
So now, you know "the rest of the story"! I hope you weren't too bored by it and thanks again to Dave Wheeler for the "trip down memory lane".
Good night and God Bless,
Ken Blackman
The Patriot - AA2-0101
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For years the Patriot sat in this barn and was exposed to weather, abuse and groundhogs |
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The Patriot all loaded and ready for transport home out of the weather. |
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Luann asks, where is the canopy? |
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Commonality of parts was one of the reasons that the production costs were kept down. |
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The Patriot as a new bird as nice and shiny. |