Dates

Event

Constructed as a L-5.

Circa 1943

Taken on Strength/Charge with the United States Army Air Force.
Editor Note: The original identity of this airframe is unknown and James Gray explains it much better (29 March 2023): It cannot be 42-98218 / 76-459 because that aircraft was destroyed in a USAAF accident on 9 Dec. 1943 in Tennessee. The aircraft is also not Bureau Number 60459 as painted on the vertical stabilizer. I knew the previous owner before the plane was donated to the museum. He was an ex-Marine and wanted to depict a Marine Corps OY-1 but the number chosen, BuNo 60459, was not allocated to any OY-1 or OY-2 aircraft. In any event, only 10 L-5s were built in 1942, so Circa 1942 is also wrong. All 42-98xxx and 42-99xxx serials were built in either 1943 or 1944. So far, the identity of the plane is a mystery. 76-1909 was an L-5B, so that is out too. Unfortunately, the original USAAF data plate is missing. It might be 76-909 but that was sent to reclamation in 1947 according to the USAAF record card. However, there have been instances where that did not occur and the plane was sold at auction as scrap instead. So, best guess, 76-909 / USAAF 42-98668 is the most likely candidate. The old CAA files might hold the answer. A clue is that the scoop on the early RH exhaust (shown in the old photos) was deleted sometime before 76-1025 was built.

15 April 1956

Certificate of airworthiness for N63393 (L-5, 1909) issued.

Circa 1960

Photographer: Michael Burnham
Notes: My father received this airplane as a partial payment on a contact for a small hydro electic plant constructed in the Chalfant Valley in late 1950s. Photo at BIH

Circa 1960

Photographer: Michael Burnham

Circa 1960

Photographer: Michael Burnham

Circa 1963

Photographer: Michael Burnham
Notes: After moving the the Los Angeles Area, in 1961, we began the restoration of N63393. The airplane was ferried to Brackett Field, tneh deisassembled and transported to a barn in Covina, CA where work began. unfortunately the project was never completed and was sold in 1964.

19 August 1989

To Richard D. Blosser, Fullerton, CA with new c/r N63393.

Placed on display with Santa Maria Museum of Flight, Santa Maria, CA.
View the Location Dossier

3 August 2010

Civil registration, N63393, cancelled.

Markings Applied: U.S.MARINES, 60459

13 September 2010

Photographer: Mike Henniger

30 October 2010

Photographer: Rich Tregear
Notes: 2010 photo at Santa Maria Museum of Flight, CA

1 January 2015

Certificate of airworthiness for N63393 (L-5, 1909) issued.

9 May 2015

Photographer: Mike Henniger
Notes: Photographed at the Santa Maria Museum of Flight.

9 May 2015

Photographer: Mike Henniger
Notes: Photographed at the Santa Maria Museum of Flight.