I learned to fly in an 8F in the 1970's. Wonderful plane.

Luscombe only built two models before the model 8,the Phantom and the Model 4, which had a radial. Several Phantoms and one Model 4 survive. I've owned an 8A for 25 years, and think it is the ideal lightplane, as well as a very good trainer. I taught my son to fly in in a few years back, and he's now flying with US Air. They say that if you can fly a Luscombe, you can fly anything. The biggest insult you'll ever get when flying one into an new airport is "Gee, what a pretty Cessna." Actually, the Cessna 120/140 series were copies of the Luscombe done sat the end of the war. The Luscombe is a great sportplane and an excellent trainer.

Don Miller if you go to wendell hostetlers web sit he has planes and can put you in touch with national house off balsa for the kit.

A friend bought an old 8A in 1960. He and I recovered the wings. Then we flew it from L.A. to the Bahamas and back in 1961. Met a pipeline inspector along the way who flew a beautiful 8E for Mobil oil.

Years ago, I owned a 8-F. Very nice pilots plane! About as good as it gets. I did do 2,3 or 4 mods. The first was some frame work to take a 150hp. engine. C S prop.(you could run that baby ay about 1900 rpms.)A Maule tailwheel. also put the gear 24 in. wider(because the wind blew me over one time, when I was sitting still?) Also 20 more gals. of fuel. Wish I still had it!!

I soloed in the Luscombe 8A on skis at the Troy Airport, Troy, NY in the winter of 1944 when I was 16yrs old. A great airplane.

Recently tried hard to make a comeback and should have done it but politics and poor leadership sunk the dream once again.Bankrupt two or three years ago from our plant in Oak. too damn bad. Hell of an airplane, had a hell of a future.

I have owned a Luscombe 11A Sedan since the 70's and it is a great airplane,it is a shame that several flybynight outfits have said they were going to build the 11E but never did. N1642B is still flying here in the State of WA and will soon be looking for a good home.

I first started flying this at a very young age. In fact Genny alias Genevieve Conrad, True, Quam, Friet, Pribilo taught me how to earn my wings as she pushed me down stairs. Oh the memories. Remember Gen?

I was in the Luscombe float plane in Sausalito, CA in 1955.
A Korean Vet, I wanted to fly float planes and go to Alaska. I loved that plane, and I also fell in love and she hated flying. So my life changed and I flew no more after the solo in the summer of 1955.

Owned 8 F. Metal wing 90 H P. Loved her. Put 250 + hours in it. Lovely airplane, no bad habits, but a pilot's aircraft while moving on the ground. Tried tracking N1866B through FAA registration, but believe it was demolished out in Montana or close to there. Was a beauty, and drew admiring looks and questions wherever we went. Was difficult finding dual instruction, as brakes only on pilot side! John Clark, Jonesboro, GA

I took my fright lessons in an 8A, out of the Columbia Airport in the Sierra upper foothills of Northern California. During the course of my instruction, we learned to add 'PURGE YELLOWJACKETS (wasps)' to our checklist.

I'd just taken off when, at about 200' AGL, a big ol' nasty yellowjacket flew right across my nose...yikes! If you've ever tried to open the door at 100 mph with one hand, while shooing out an angry insect with a machine-gun on it's tail with the other hand, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't, well...I hope you never do!

Sadly, our little Luscombe was converted into beercan stock by my instructor's partner. He was unhurt, but our little airplane never flew again.

Mr. Burns, You might want to try the American Aviation Historical Society for the photographs you need. They have an extensive photo file of aviation and will supply you with what you need for a nominal charge. Publication and business office is: 15211 Springdale Street, Huntington Beach, California 92649. Image Services is under the direction of one Kase Dekker; President of AAHS is Bob Brockmeier. Neither phone number nor E Mail address was listed in the latest AAHS Journal. This is probably because all AAHS Staff are strictly volunteers with varied work hours. You might try going on line. Best wishes for what appears to be a worthy project. EdJ.

To Luscombe Community,

Would anyone - including those who operate this site - know how one could gain access to the photo of the Luscombe 8 at the top of this web page?

My company is producing a documentary about Jimmy Van Heusen, the Oscar-winning songwriter who was also an avid aviator, and whose first airplane was a Luscombe 8, purchased in 1938. Unfortunately, there are no photos of his Luscombe, or of his other early airplanes. In the absence of information about the one as pictured above, a similar high quality shot would be usable for our purposes. We would need to have a larger file of the photo - 1 meg or over, and of course information on the ownership of the photo for a release to use it.

Thank you so much.

You are a little bit short with your Luscombe Lore. The Phantom was the first product of the Luscombe Airplane Development Corp. and was called the Luscombe One. Other designs followed but never got past the drawing board until the Model Four, or Ninety, was built and flown in 1938. The Phantom was powered by a 145 h.p. radial while the Model Four used a 90 h.p. radial. There is an artical in the American Aviation Historical Society Journal, Vol. 54, Number one, Spring 2009, describing the Model Four complete with a 1/48 3-view drawing by none other than Lloyd S. Jones. Extreme modesty (cough!) prevents this humble writer from expounding on how brilliantly the article was written...
The Model 4 evolved into the famous Model 8. Everything aft of the cabin was essentially the same. That's why the Model 8 has a round front end. Don Luscombe wanted it that way in case the flat four cyl. 50 h.p. didn't work out(!).
Then, in 1946 we had the neat Model 10, but only one. This was followed by the four place 11A Sedan. Our good friend, the late Joe Johnson, of Luscombe Acres, Grandview, TX, owned a Sedan. He also owned, for a time, the one and only Luscombe Colt four place. Last we heard it was in Houston, TX.
Joe's Sedan was featured in an article by Gene Smith in Air Progress, Oct. 1970. Other references include Model Airplane News, March 1948, 3-view drawing of the 11A Sedan.
Yo, Bob @ MEHS2004=MSV.com, the aircraft you flew in sounds like the Model 4, NC1337, serial no.403, and was not a Phantom. It was owned by one Hans Browatzki for a time, wound up in the Museum at Morgan Hill and, the last we heard, was purchased by Ron Price of Fremont , California.
Gadzooks! Didn't mean to go on this long! Regards to all Luscombe Lovers. Ed J.

I soloed in an 8A or B and flew 15 hours before one of our six owners did a steep turn stall and spun it into an oak tree. He destroyed the airplane and killed his wife. Really sad and unnecessary.

My flying time with the Luscombe...was in 1958
Enjoyed it as MY sports car..now it's 2011 and gone forever

Flew one with a friend a long time ago, kind of cramped but flew fine for me, I soloed in a 7BCM Champ in Denver in a few hours. I had flown a lot of other planes, from both seats before I was 16.

I would like to build a R/C mode/ of the Luscombe Sedan. If anyone has planes or specs for one please let me know. Thanks.

Bill, A check of FAA records shows N28627 was reassigned to a Cherokee 181 apparently based in Rhode Island. Your little friend's last known locale was VENTURA COUNTY JR DISTRICT COLLEGE in California where it was "decommissioned" probably to be used for a "lab rat" in an A&P training program. When I was an A&P student I learned on many an old bird I would have loved to rescue, but at least she wasn't just outright scrapped.