I wonder who ended up buying those crop dusters and for how much money. They were sturdy dependable low flyers.
This seems to be a partner photo to the related picture posted on October 18, 2018. The final comment there was posted in two years later, by Allan Hanna, whose father flew these planes.
I wonder what 5 people were looking at in that cockpit?
Someone in this group of men is driving a 15-year-old vehicle, evidenced by the 1950 Ford Custom Deluxe 4 door in the background.
The fellow in the hat on the near side of the plane standing on one leg is thinking about climbing up on the wing for a closer look but is somewhat hesitant because there is already a lot of weight being placed on the wing from the three guys already up there – I think he decided to go up anyway.
The guy up on the far wing wearing the glasses with clip-on sunglasses reminds me of my father who was also an aerospace nerdy type who used a pocket protector and carried pens/pencils and a slide rule his shirt pocket.
i’d like to know what kind of research is going on at parc that all these bug-control photos are being scanned! are we gonna see em in one of those sepiatone-cover history books, maybe called ‘the mosquito fleet?’ 🙂
Vlad–Here is what I have found regarding the life of this airplane. If you look at the October 18 photo above the comments you will see that the plane has a registration number of N-49312 on the tail, and if you look closely you will see the numbers on the bottom side of the wing in today’s photo, and records show that the City of Portland cancelled this planes registration on March 11, 1952.
The aircraft is a North American AT-6A military training aircraft, and the details on this plane are as follows.
USAAF serial number 41-578 (United States Army Air Force) Manufactures Serial 77-4627 (the 41 in the USAAF likely means 1941)
3018th Base Unit (Gunnery School), Kingman Field AZ. Damage by mechanical failure landing at Kingman Field 43&45—Damaged landing 21 mile NNE of Kingman AZ. March 30, 1945.
Registered January 17,1946 to Richard Reed Yakima WA. NC-49312
Registered March 20, 1950 to the City of Portland N-49312 and cancelled March 11, 1952
Exported by Volitan Aircraft Service of Palmdale CA to the South African Air Force as SAAF 7644
Dived from high altitude and struck the ground during a night navigation sortie and crashed at Trichardt, South Africa March 26, 1957. (2KIS) (2 Killed ?)
Excellent research on the life of this plane Dennis!
From South African War Graves the following is one of the people killed in the crash of this airplane.
Kennaugh, Neil Rhodes Edward
Date of Birth 4/25/1936 20 years old
South African Air Force
Unit assigned CFS (Central Flying School)
Rank 2nd Lieutenant
Died March 26, 1957
Cause of death— Died of injuries received in an aircraft accident, struck ground during night cross country and crashed at Trihardt, near Bethal, in AT-6 Harvard (South African Air Force Name) serial #7644
Here is the second person killed in the crash of this airplane.
De Klerk, Andre
Date of Birth February 22, 1932 25 yrs old
South African Air Force
Unit assigned CFS (Central Flying School)
Rank Lieutenant
Died March 26, 1957
Same as above crash of South African Air Force AT-6 serial #7644
I’m saddened to learn of the deaths of the two South African servicemen in this terrible accident. Thanks for all your fine research Dennis. Cheers!
Dennis, your research is excellent. So this photo can’t be from ’65 if the airplane crashed in South Africa in 1957. So sad about the two young servicemen/pilots killed. The airplane sounds like it had a history of problems, dating back to WWII. It’s interesting that the City cancelled the plane’s registration in 1952, just short of two years since it was acquired.
Thanks Dennis – great research! Interesting how the serviceman who lost their lives in the crash reflected the ethnicity of the “Colonizers” of south Africa. Neil Rhodes Edward Kennaugh, I would guess by his name to be of English decent and I would also assume that his Middle name Rhodes is either a family connection to Cecile Rhodes or a adopted tribute.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Rhodes. The other victim of the accident, Andre De Klerk I would assume is of Dutch dissent. As we know the Boer War was fought by The English and Dutch for control over South Africa.
Vintage Portland 
I wonder who ended up buying those crop dusters and for how much money. They were sturdy dependable low flyers.
This seems to be a partner photo to the related picture posted on October 18, 2018. The final comment there was posted in two years later, by Allan Hanna, whose father flew these planes.
I wonder what 5 people were looking at in that cockpit?
Someone in this group of men is driving a 15-year-old vehicle, evidenced by the 1950 Ford Custom Deluxe 4 door in the background.
The fellow in the hat on the near side of the plane standing on one leg is thinking about climbing up on the wing for a closer look but is somewhat hesitant because there is already a lot of weight being placed on the wing from the three guys already up there – I think he decided to go up anyway.
The guy up on the far wing wearing the glasses with clip-on sunglasses reminds me of my father who was also an aerospace nerdy type who used a pocket protector and carried pens/pencils and a slide rule his shirt pocket.
i’d like to know what kind of research is going on at parc that all these bug-control photos are being scanned! are we gonna see em in one of those sepiatone-cover history books, maybe called ‘the mosquito fleet?’ 🙂
Vlad–Here is what I have found regarding the life of this airplane. If you look at the October 18 photo above the comments you will see that the plane has a registration number of N-49312 on the tail, and if you look closely you will see the numbers on the bottom side of the wing in today’s photo, and records show that the City of Portland cancelled this planes registration on March 11, 1952.
The aircraft is a North American AT-6A military training aircraft, and the details on this plane are as follows.
USAAF serial number 41-578 (United States Army Air Force) Manufactures Serial 77-4627 (the 41 in the USAAF likely means 1941)
3018th Base Unit (Gunnery School), Kingman Field AZ. Damage by mechanical failure landing at Kingman Field 43&45—Damaged landing 21 mile NNE of Kingman AZ. March 30, 1945.
Registered January 17,1946 to Richard Reed Yakima WA. NC-49312
Registered March 20, 1950 to the City of Portland N-49312 and cancelled March 11, 1952
Exported by Volitan Aircraft Service of Palmdale CA to the South African Air Force as SAAF 7644
Dived from high altitude and struck the ground during a night navigation sortie and crashed at Trichardt, South Africa March 26, 1957. (2KIS) (2 Killed ?)
Excellent research on the life of this plane Dennis!
From South African War Graves the following is one of the people killed in the crash of this airplane.
Kennaugh, Neil Rhodes Edward
Date of Birth 4/25/1936 20 years old
South African Air Force
Unit assigned CFS (Central Flying School)
Rank 2nd Lieutenant
Died March 26, 1957
Cause of death— Died of injuries received in an aircraft accident, struck ground during night cross country and crashed at Trihardt, near Bethal, in AT-6 Harvard (South African Air Force Name) serial #7644
Here is the second person killed in the crash of this airplane.
De Klerk, Andre
Date of Birth February 22, 1932 25 yrs old
South African Air Force
Unit assigned CFS (Central Flying School)
Rank Lieutenant
Died March 26, 1957
Same as above crash of South African Air Force AT-6 serial #7644
I’m saddened to learn of the deaths of the two South African servicemen in this terrible accident. Thanks for all your fine research Dennis. Cheers!
Dennis, your research is excellent. So this photo can’t be from ’65 if the airplane crashed in South Africa in 1957. So sad about the two young servicemen/pilots killed. The airplane sounds like it had a history of problems, dating back to WWII. It’s interesting that the City cancelled the plane’s registration in 1952, just short of two years since it was acquired.
Thanks Dennis – great research! Interesting how the serviceman who lost their lives in the crash reflected the ethnicity of the “Colonizers” of south Africa. Neil Rhodes Edward Kennaugh, I would guess by his name to be of English decent and I would also assume that his Middle name Rhodes is either a family connection to Cecile Rhodes or a adopted tribute.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Rhodes. The other victim of the accident, Andre De Klerk I would assume is of Dutch dissent. As we know the Boer War was fought by The English and Dutch for control over South Africa.