As one of the Honeywell reps at Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah I have the opportunity to work with lots of people who've been in aviation a long time (not to mention working on some of the prettiest aircraft in the sky). Over the years I've gotten to be friends with a man named Tom who goes back further than most, who worked at American Aviation in Cleveland when Jim Bede was still there.

As a young A&P in the early seventies I often dreamed what it might be like to own my own Yankee, and to this day have a warm spot for them. So one day while discussing his years of building Yankees and the other Grumman American aircraft (in Cleveland and Savannah), I was rather excited to learn that Tom had some kind of flight test model Grumman had commissioned after they acquired American Aviation.

One thing led to another and this past December Tom brought the old model down from the attic where it has been for decades and gave it to me. The accompanying photos show this AA-1 still painted in its' original Research Vehicle orange.

With the passing of time, some of the details surrounding this historic flight test model have been lost, but here are a few tidbits as Tom recalls:

-The model was designed by one of the on-site Grumman engineers, to explore the aero changes needed to improve the handling of the orginal A/C.
-It was built in the Experimental Shop by three men (including my friend Tom) circa 1972, who at the end of the project split a $1000 bonus between them.
-The cowling and canopy were built in the Production fiberglass shop on special tooling by the same folks who were building the full-size components.
-A "professional" R/C modeler was hired to fly it.

As a life-long modeler myself, examining the "Yankee Research Vehicle" has been a treat. One feature I've never built in to a model is the recovery parachute in the belly behind the wing. It appears if things got out of hand they planned save the model by deploying the chute. I'm curious which engine they would have used...looks to me like at least a .60 would be needed since she's pretty heavy.

John Fog