Beech GB-2  (UC-43)  Traveler      N9466H          (c/n  6688)

                                          

                                                  The US Navy operated more Beech Staggerwings than the USAAC or USAAF did, hence
                                                  most civil conversions to be seen are ex GB-2s rather than ex UC-43s.  This one, taken at
                                                  Hawthorne Municipal Airport in 1961 originally had been allotted the USAAF serial of 44-67711
                                                  and USN BuAer number of 23676.  In the event, it went almost immediately to the Royal Navy
                                                  under Lend Lease where it became FT467.   Upon return to the USA after the war it was returned
                                                  to the US Navy as a GB-2 with BuAer serial 32871, and shortly afterwards civilianized as NC25H.
                                                  It was re-registered N9466H in the 1950s.  Incidentally, many of these Lend Lease aircraft found
                                                  their way onto the UK (and Colonial) civil registers and never were returned to the US.  I have no
                                                  idea how it was decided which ones were to be repatriated or which ones were allowed to be
                                                  civilianized 'as is, in situ, so to speak.  Anyway, this machine is still registered and was reported
                                                  flying in US Navy livery into the 1990s.