A 'New' Navion On The Way

The first "zero-time" Navion to be built in 30 years is expected to be on the grounds at Sun 'n Fun today.

According to an email from Navion Aircraft International's Wes Sanda, the plane was to have arrived in Lakeland last night from the factory (yep, that's the right word) in St. Paul, Minn. Details are a little sketchy about the aircraft and we're not sure what the company's definition of "zero time" is since the FAA registry gives the manufacture date of the aircraft as 1947 but we'll track it down today.

The type certificate for Navion was purchased in 2002 by Sierra Hotel Aero Inc. and Navion is now described as a division of that company. The Navion was originally built by North American (some of the same engineers involved in the P-51 helped design it) in 1946 and was bought by Ryan Aeronautical in 1947. A succession of owners, all of whom strugged to relaunch the speedy single, progressively gave up and the certificate was in the hands of the American Navion Society for decades.