In the sixties and early seventies, Air

America was probably one of the Worlds

largest operators of Twin Beeches.

There were 3 different types of aircraft

used. The first aircraft purchased were

C-45G, two of which (N7950C &

N7951C) were introduced into Laos in

1960 where they were used to transport

CIA personnel and supplies to small

airstrips. Both aircraft left Laos in

63/64 and moved to South Vietnam

where Air America started to build up a

fleet of more than 30 Beech 18’s

Of the fleet 12 aircraft were modified to

what was known as “Ten-Two” configu-

ration. The “new” aircraft were essen-

tially modified standard C-45G. Modifi-

cations included those to the power

plant, whilst still retaining the same R-985. The stabiliser incidence was increased, new gear doors and aerodynamically improved

wingtips were installed. All of these modifications increased the maximum take-off weight to 10,200lb, (hence Ten-Two).

In 1966 14 of the air America C-45’s were converted to Volpar Turbo Beech configuration by installing a nose gear tricycle undercar-

riage and two Garret TPE-331 turbo-prop engines. This increased the maximum take-off weight and increased both top speed and

useful load.

All three versions of the Beech were used to transport all manner of goods

such as typewriters, pastries, animals and hand grenades in support of CIA

operations. The older versions, C-45G and the Ten-Two’s were used for cargo

whilst the Volpar modified aircraft were used for passengers.

Other Beech 18’s were operated outside South Vietnam in the mid-sixties and

adopted a special col-

our scheme. N343T

was operated by

Scheduled Air Services

Ryukyus out of Oki-

nawa between 1964 &

1967. N5454V was

operated in Thailand

as a sprayer aircraft for

experiments with defo-

liants. This aircraft was disguised as a private agricultural plane. N5269V was

operated in Thailand under the provisions of the contract with the Royal Thai

Border Patrol Police and used for communications and parachute training.

This aircraft had a red

belly.

In late 1966 two of the

Volpar conversion aircraft (N9542Z & N9671C) were equipped for high sensi-

tive photo-reconnaissance and were used until March 74. In late 67 a several

of the Volpar’s were transferred into Southern Laos and used on an Aerial Sur-

vey Project which collected and relayed signals received from road watcher

teams hidden close to the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail. This project was termi-

nated in 1968 and the Volpars returned to South Vietnam. Later another Vol-

par (N3728G) was equipped for special photo missions.

During the late sixties most of the C-45 and Ten-Two’s were inactivated thus

leaving the Volpars to continue on active service until the end of the war in

Vietnam.

Beech 18’s of Air America

B E E C H R E S T O R A T I O N S

Volpar modified Beech N9157Z. This aircraft survived the war and was still

registered as of January 2002

Another Survivor , N91295 on “Cargo” duty

B E E C H R E S T O R A T I O N S Page 4

Beech 18: Mad Mods

N8186H This is the one and only Rausch Star, a heavily modfied

Beech 18. D18-S with tricycle gear, cabin headroom increased by

re-roofing the fuselage

Denali Air Beech 18 (C-45H). Obvious modifications include tricy-

cle undercarriage, and single tail

N18R Cargo converted Beech 18 holding for takeoff. Daugherty Field

California, October 5, 1998. Note the F-117A Stealth Fighter .

The photographs on this page are intended to

illustrate just a few of the strange modifica-

tions applied to Beech 18’s over the years

N231LJ Beech TC-45J Hamilton Westwind IV s/n 23835 built in

1945 for the US Navy as a Beech SNB-2C Navigator under

BuNo 23835. In service with the Navy it was upgraded to the

SNB-5/TC-45J standard. After being retired from the Navy it was

modified by the Hamilton Aircraft Co. which included turbo-

engines, cargo floor & extended nose.

Volpar Modified Beech 18. Note the DayGlo one behind.

The end of the line for all old planes.

Just a Nice Picture

Page 5

TORA, TORA, TORA (Recreating the Japanese Naval Air Force). In 1968, 20th Century Fox set out to make a film

about one of the most important events in American history – the surprise attack on U.S. installations in the Hawaiian Islands by

Imperial Japanese Naval Air Forces. The film would examine every aspect leading up to the attack, then show the actual attack in

great detail.

To create the aerial sequences, producer Elmo Williams and directors Richard Fleischer and Akira Kurosawa had to have an entire

Imperial Japanese Air Force in flying condition.

The films producer Williams could not use real

Japanese aircraft. Some types did not exist any-

more, 9at least not in flying condition), and the

ones that still could fly were simply not up to the

hard use required for filming.

When 20th Century Fox announced they needed

an Air Force to film "TORA! TORA! TORA!" Jack

Canary successfully bid the contract to provide

such an air force. He had already worked with

Williams and 20th Century Fox when he built two

Fokker Triplanes for the movie "The Blue Max."

Plus he had worked for many years at North

American Aviation Inc., where one of his jobs had

been technical representative for the AT-6

Texan. this man would create the Japanese air-

craft for "TORA! TORA! TORA!" This is how he did

it.

Carrier-based naval aircraft of both the U.S. and

Japan during World War II consisted basically of

three types: single-seat fighters, dive bombers with a two-man crew and torpedo planes with a two-or three-man crew. The Japanese

types that Canary needed to replicate consisted of the Mitsubishi Navy type Zero Carrier Fighter (A6M), the Nakajima Navy Type 97

Carrier Attack Bomber (B5N) and the Aichi Navy Type 99 Carrier bomber (D3A).

These aircraft were code named by the Americans: Zero or Zeke for the fighter, Kate for the Type 97 torpedo bomber and Val for the

Type 99 dive bomber. The Japanese designated their aircraft by type number based on the last two digits of the Japanese calendar

year when the aircraft entered service. The fighter was designated a type Zero fighter because it entered service in the Japanese

calendar year 2600 (1940), the Type 97 torpedo bomber entered service in 2597 (1937) and the Type 99 dive bomber entered

service in the year 2599 (1939).

The American-given code names were the idea of Capt. Frank T. McCoy Jr., intelligence officer of the 38th Bomb Group, and his staff.

They began this code name system from Australia in early 1942. They decided on boy’s names for fighters and girl’s names for

Due to our efforts on the Beech with the

results detailed earlier in this publica-

tion, very little work has been carried out

physically on the T-6 itself.

This doesn’t mean however that nothing

is being done. It always works this way,

lots of behind the scenes detail and planning going on then all of a sudden

it all comes together.

One of the recent “Behind the Scenes” operations resulted from us all

missing an advert in Flypast. We all look at the small classified ad’s in the

magazine and we completely missed the quarter page advert for a sale of

aircraft parts to be held in London. The sale included Harvard parts.

After some sterling efforts (no pun intended) by Ben Brown we managed to

gain access to these items prior to the main sale day.

We eventually located the premises which was situated under a block of flats and we were amazed at the amount of aircraft parts

that were literally stacked between golf buggies and stretched limo’s.

After much sifting we eventually ended up purchasing the

whole cache’ of Harvard parts, in which some very interest-

ing items were discovered. These included “new” propeller

constant speed units, gunsight covers and even .30cal ma-

chinegun feed mechanisms. Several hundred “new” control

cables were also included together with many hundreds of

engine accessories and engine tools

All parts will be catalogued and se-

curely stored for future use on our T-

6G or offered for sale to raise much

needed funds for the soon to be

required engine.

About half of the parts purchased

are visible here!

Hydraulic hand

pumps

Propellor Constant

Speed Units

B E E C H R E S T O R A T I O N S

T-6 Update

bombers, hence Zeke, Kate and Val. The name Zero remained in use for the fighter simply be-

cause it had already become too familiar and popular by 1942.

Canary and his staff decided on using two American airplanes to create the three Japanese air-

craft required – the Vultee BT-13 basic trainer and the North American AT-6 advanced trainer.

Both these aircraft were used to train tens-of-thousands of American pilots during the World War

II years and were suitable for conversion to Japanese naval aircraft with a "few" modifications.

These modifications were handled by two companies, the

Stewart-Davis and Cal-Volair companies located at California’s

Long Beach Airport. Unfortunately and tragically, Jack Canary

was not there to see his "Fox Air Force" become a reality. He

was killed in August 1968 while flying one of the BT-13s to

California for conversion.

To create the Zero fighters, AT-6s were used. The main area of

change was the cockpit. The AT-6’s two place, fairly large

greenhouse canopy had to be altered to match the single-seat

Zero canopy. But the greenhouse canopy frame and the front

windshield canopy piece and upper deck of the AT-6 were

changed to closely resemble the Zero’s look. The engine cowl-

ing was changed by adding non-adjustable cowl flaps, reposi-

tioning the air scoop for the carburettor with the oil cooler

scoop and adding a rather large spinner to cover the propeller

hub.

The changes to the cockpit area and engine were

what really made the AT-6 look like a Japanese Zero,

however, the wing tips were also reshaped to con-

form to the Zero’s shape and the rudder was like-

wise redone to match the Zero’s rudder. The wheel-

pants and wheel-well shapes were also changed and

wing-to-fuselage fillets changed to help with the AT-

6’s aerodynamic shape. Some of the Zeros had

geared R-1340 engines with three-bladed props and

working arresting hooks fitted for close-up shots on

the carriers and landing scenes filmed on the USS

Yorktown. Most of the reshaping of the aircraft was

done with fibreglass and the result was an airplane

that very closely resembled a Zero fighter. Most of

the Zero replicas flying today have a modified pas-

senger seat behind the pilot under the cut-down

canopy frame.

Creating a replica Kate required a little more work

than the Zeros. A real Kate has a very long fuselage

that houses a three-place cockpit area. Stewart-Davis began with an AT-6 airframe, at least the front end, removed the tail and rear

fuselage from behind the cockpit, put in a 6-foot-11-inch extension starting at the rear of the cockpit and then added the tail unit of a

BT-13. Then a 16-foot section was added forward of the firewall. The greenhouse canopy had to be completely redone into a five

section piece; the wingtips were extended and reshaped with fibreglass; the BT-13 fin and rudder were reshaped slightly to more

closely resemble the Kate’s; and a third seat was installed facing rearward. All the modifications, the re-skinning, the rebuilt canopy

and the reshaping with fibreglass required a great deal of skilled work by the craftsmen of Stewart-Davis and Cal-Volair. The result

was a great looking replica of a B5N Kate.

In all, 25 replica Zeros, nine Kates and nine Vals were built in

California by Stewart-Davis and Cal-Volair. Fibreglass torpe-

does were added to the Vals. A few of each type had fitted

three-bladed props, gear-cased engines and tail hooks for

close-up scenes and carrier landings. In addition, 19 other AT-

6s were modified in Japan using the "California pattern" by the

Kawasaki Aircraft Co. for a second unit filming in Japan.

The movie "TORA! TORA! TORA!," using these movie-replicated

Zeros, Kates and Vals, is one of the greatest aviation movies

ever made.

It set the standard Hollywood had to meet for every movie

containing aircraft scenes that followed. This great, unique,

collection of aircraft has also continued to please crowds from

Canada to Mexico.

In the past 25 years, the TORA group of the Confederate Air

Force’s Gulf Coast Wing has flown these aircraft across three

countries. Today the TORA act continues to be one of the most

requested air-show acts in the US.

Tora, Tora, Tora.

B E E C H R E S T O R A T I O N S Page 6

In-flight action of two replica Kates shows off the aircraft’s long

fuselage, created by using the front end of an AT-6 stretched sev-

eral feet with a BT-13 tail added.