Page 10 - July24T

NNorth American’s Civilian Sedan
orth American Aviation (NAA)
scored a major PR victory when
their B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, under the command of Jim- my Doolittle, became the first Ameri- can aircraft to strike the Japanese home islands in 1942. Their equally famous and fantastically photogenic P-51 Mustang fighter had the range to accompany bombers deep into en- emy territory and became
the steed of many an ace.
With lucrative military
contracts ending, NAA in-
tended to use their name recognition to sell a ci-
vilian family hauler that
could help to keep their
post-war balance sheet in
the black. Even the name
of the aircraft would be a
word invented for the pur-
pose. The company’s stock
exchange code was “NAV.”
NAA added the “ion” and
the first two letters were
capitalized to further high-
light the machine’s North
American pedigree.
The NAvion’s robust design and con- struction drew directly upon NAA’s military experience. In fact, even the military was impressed enough with them to place multiple orders, which were used in various liaison roles and designated the L-17. While no manufacturers achieved the civilian sales numbers they predicted after the war, NAA was successful enough sell- ing NAvions to keep their core staff of engineers and laborers busy during the gap years between the winding down
of P-51 production and the spooling up of their military jet aircraft production. By 1948, however, NAA was again re- ceiving big military contracts to build fighters and bombers. The decision was made to sell the NAvion to the Ryan Aeronautical Company. In 1949, Ryan re-started Navion production (with the “A” now in lowercase) at their San Diego facility. By the time production ended in 1952, over 2,600 had been built be- tween both companies.
Owner Troy Welch frequently flies N108N to/from non-paved runways, showcasing the study undercarriage of the Twin Navion (an uncommon trait for a light twin). [Provided by Troy Welch]
The interior of N108N has been beautifully updated. As the huge canopy slides forward, a large hat rack becomes available
to the back seaters and covers the baggage area for safety.
8 • TWIN & TURBINE / July 2024
The vertical tail of the Twin Navion is a standard Navion horizontal stabilizer mounted vertically.