Featured Articles - Vol.35, No. 08- December 2012

A Place of
Delivery of my L-2M to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
by Richard J. Valladao
photos courtesy of author
About the Airplane
On January 17, 1944, the Taylorcraft Airplane Co. located in Alliance,
Ohio, completed manufacture of an
L-2M type aircraft and assigned it Serial No. L-5904.
Four days later, it was accepted by
the Army Air Forces- AAF and given
Military Serial No. 43-26592. It left
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DECEMBER 2012
the factory on February 2, 1944, and
arrived at the AAF Liaison Pilot Training School, located at Pittsburg, Kansas, on February 9, 1944. While at the
school it accumulated 230 hours of
military flight time. In June of 1944, it
was placed in storage at the Oklahoma
City Air Depot, Tinker AAF, Oklahoma, and was disposed as surplus on
September 11, 1944. Not a glorious
history of military service; however, it
did play a part in assisting in the war
effort and therefore qualifies as a legitimate WWII artifact.
In early 1945, the airplane was sold
to a civilian and restored back to civilian configuration, which included
removing the rear greenhouse canopy
and spoiler system. During the ensuing years, the aircraft ownership changed 13 times, and it accumulated
a total of about 1,550 hours of flight time. No record
of flight can be found after 1985. It appears that the
airplane was wrecked and completely disassembled for
restoration, which was never completed. The project
was found in a garage in the Central Valley of California.
In 2009 restoration back to original Army specifications was completed, and the airplane became an excellent and pristine example of a WWII (Grasshopper) type
aircraft. In addition to restoring the airplane to original
Army specifications per U.S. Army tech manuals, the
following vintage original equipment was located and
installed in the airplane to make it as authentic a restoration as possible: RCA radio receiver and transmitter
with trailing antenna, Western Electric microphone,
U.S. Army Signal Corps receiver earphones, Morse code
keyer, Champion Aviation Products wind generator,
M-8 flare gun, Fyr-Fyter Model A fire extinguisher, canvas first aid kit, and map holder.
About the Donation
Honor
In 1944, the same year that this airplane was manufactured and accepted by the U.S. Army Air Corps, my
wife’s 19-year-old uncle, U.S. Army PFC Richard Jerome
Conway of Sioux City, Iowa, was killed in combat in
France. Serving as a rifleman with the 180th Infantry Regiment – 45th Division, and hardly out of high
school, he already had fought in campaigns in Italy and
Southern France. He received the Silver Star Award for
his gallantry and heroism in action against the enemy,
but he never returned home. He lies at rest with his
fallen comrades in a beautiful American Military Cemetery in Epinal, France. In my mind he represents the
thousands of men and women who made such tremendous sacrifices so that our country’s people could live in
freedom, enabling those of us who came thereafter to
experience and enjoy the American dream.
It was my desire, therefore, to donate this airplane to
the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in memory
of PFC Richard J. Conway and that it be a memorial to
him and all those who fought and died during World
War II.
About Finding and Restoring
I had purchased and restored my Piper J-3 Cub some
10 years earlier, and like all such owners, one day in
2001 I was visiting a used airplane parts facility to see if
there was anything that I needed. A friendly conversation ensued with another customer who casually mentioned that he had an airplane project that he might
consider selling. When I learned what type of airplane
Valladao displaying the process of masking for the
star and bar emblem.
www.warbirds-eaa.org 1 5
Leading edge fixture.
Bungee cord tool.
Leading edge completed.
Left wing precover.
it was, I couldn’t wait to venture off
and inspect my good fortune of possibly finding a warbird project. After
close inspection, it was obvious that
the airplane had been put on its back
as the front lift struts were bent; the
nose bowl, cowling, and carburetor air
intake crushed; and the top of the vertical stabilizer bent. A certified rebuilt
metal prop in a wooden box lay on the
floor with the engine. A quick check
of the engine prop shaft indicated
no deflection. All parts had been removed from the welded fuselage frame
and placed in a cardboard box; however, the frame had been cleaned and
primed, keeping it free of rust. Except
for the wing spars, all the wood in the
16 DECEMBER 2012
airplane was rotten, so new wing ribs,
leading edges, and other wooden parts
would have to be rebuilt.
The project had passed through a
couple of owners who each had done
some work on it, but all in all, it was
quite complete. A deal was struck, a
truck was rented to transport my newfound “pile of parts” home, and I had
the makings of a 1944 Taylorcraft Liaison type L-2M aircraft in my hangar.
With the project came the three
U.S. Army technical manuals for the
airplane, which included the parts
list with schematic drawings, maintenance and repair manual, and the
operator’s manual. The airplane was
basically rebuilt using the parts man-
ual as a guide. Starting a project such
as this, it’s necessary to make note
of what parts are missing, and if you
look long enough and hard enough,
you eventually will find them. Parts
came from all across the countr y.
John Natalia of Placerville, California, an owner of an L-2, steered me to
eBay where the vintage radio equipment was found. He also built the
trailing antenna reel and provided the
brass fire extinguisher and first aid
kit. The carburetor air box was found
at the Florida Sun ’n Fun swap meet.
The spoiler system assembly came
from Dick Huish of Hubard, Ohio.
The front windshield and rear canopy
was manufactured by Great Lake Aero
Rib stitching.
Co. The vintage wind generator was
found on an aviation museum’s swap
table. Wing struts were extra to Howard Hunt’s L-2 project, which is now
at the Anchorage Aviation Museum.
The flare gun was given to me by my
good friend George Fleming who retrieved it from a B-17 bomber that he
and his crew ferried to an Oklahoma
bone yard after the war. Parts that
could not be found were fabricated.
The airplane was assembled using
certified aircraft hardware, and covered and finished using the Stits coating process. It is finished in 1944 Army
Air Corps colors with appropriate Star
and Bar and U.S. Army insignias. All
work was inspected and signed off
by a certified aircraft inspector. Since
the airplane’s restoration, it has been
flown about 90 hours and displayed
at numerous air shows throughout
Northern California. Finding and
bringing this aircraft back to life was a
challenging but rewarding experience.
Fuselage precover.
About the Acceptance
and Delivery
Communications with the museum’s staff continued for most of a year
regarding the donation of the airplane
as an artifact of aviation history. In
Instrument panel.
www.warbirds-eaa.org 1 7
Wing removal for shipment.
Valladao stands next to the L-2M just before loading in trailer.
April the museum sent out its chief
of aircraft restoration to inspect the
airplane, and he liked what he saw. The
decision was made to accept my airplane for display, and a late September
delivery date was established.
I anticipated flying the airplane
from Rancho Murieta, California,
to Dayton, Ohio, for delivery to the
museum and secured all the navigation charts, plotted the route, chose
the stops, and was prepared to depart
about 12 days prior to the planned delivery date. All this changed in late August when I slipped and fell out of the
attic and landed on the garage concrete
floor below. To say the least, it hurt,
and shoulder damage was done. Unfortunately the time remaining would
not allow sufficient healing for me to
be able to hand-prop the airplane at
every stop and endure a 34-hour solo
cross-country flight. I still wanted to
personally deliver the airplane, by flying it onto the grass adjacent to the
huge buildings that house the collection of airplanes and aviation artifacts
of the National Museum of the U.S.
Air Force. As a result it was decided
to have the airplane dismantled and
ground transported to the Champagne
Aviation Museum located at Grimes
Field about 40 miles north of Dayton.
That museum graciously agreed to
allow us to use its facilities to store,
reassemble, and prepare the airplane
for its final flight—to the National
Museum. The airplane was loaded and
left Rancho, Murieta, Saturday, September 17, 2011, and arrived on Friday, September 23, 2011. Two of my
September 28, 2011, the L-2M is flown to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
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Welcoming ceremony with family and friends.
airport buddies, Ron Pizer and Mark
Depoli, along with my twin brother,
Jerome, were there to help put the airplane back together, fly it, and make it
ready for final delivery to the museum,
which took place Wednesday, September 28, 2011, at 10 a.m. Roger Deere,
chief of aircraft restoration at the National Museum, accompanied me on
the airplane’s final flight.
Retired Lt. Gen. John Hudson, di-
rector of the museum, was on hand to
welcome the arrival and take delivery
of the airplane. A number of my family
members, friends, and museum personnel were also there to witness the
event. A tour of the museum with the
director occurred, and luncheon followed. It was a great end to a journey
that started nine years earlier when I
found the decaying bones of a derelict
WWII airplane and was able to bring
it back to life, then deliver it to a location where it will be displayed and
preserved forever.
It gives me great satisfaction and
pleasure that the Museum has accepted this airplane as an artifact of
military aviation history, and that it
will be displayed so that the role this
type of aircraft and its pilots and observers played during WWII will be remembered.
Valladao’s crew, Ron Pizer, Richard Valladao, and Mark Depaoli (far left), are photographed with Lt. Gen. (Ret.)
Jack Hudson, Director of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force (second from left).
www.warbirds-eaa.org
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