Allied Aircraft, Inc

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Allied Aircraft
Type: Private Company
Active: Unknown
Founder:
Headquarters: Tucson, AZ
Business: Salvage, Scrap, & Restoration
Employess: Unknown


Allied Aircraft, Inc was a business that bought surplus planes from the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ. The physical property sits adjacent to the AMARC yard and shares a fence with them. They are located just to the southeast of the approach side of Runway 30 at Davis-Monthan. The company was operational sometime in the 1950s. At some point in the early 2000s they stopped doing aircraft work altogether and went into recycling, now known as Allied Precious Metals.

The company had an interesting history and mostly dealt with buying surplus aircraft from the USAF and repairing and reselling them for private purchasers and museums.

During the 1960's Allied had a 3,000' dirt runway installed for takeoff use. The air base at Davis-Monthan would allow them to land there, but they required a hefty insurance premium to be able to use the runway for take-off, so Allied made their own.

Allied's Runway

This photo shows the 3'000' dirt runway that ran east-west as it was in 1972. The runway sat just off the approach-end of Davis-Monthan's Runway 30. The runway fell into disuse and is now Drexel Road.
Allied AZ 72.jpg

Some of the key people involved with Allied during its heyday were Jack Kern, the chief mechanic, Billy Walker, the Chief Test Pilot, and Jack Gallaher.

The runway didn't last long operationally. In January of 1975 there was an accident that caused Allied to discontinue use of the runway.

On 1/2/75, Jack Kern tried to takeoff in a Douglas DC-4B. According to his son J.R., it failed to clear the power lines on the other side of the railroad tracks & crashed. The plane was a total loss. The FAA accident report from this occurrence described Allied Airfield as being a 3,060' soft dirt strip.

Gordon Cheeseman provided further details of the DC-4 crash: “It was the elevators locks that were left on. The story begins the day before... 1/1/75, we had just replaced the carburetor on the #3 engine and were going to do a test run of the engines. The aircraft was purchased by Mid-Air out of Barstow CA, a spray operation using large aircraft to do spruce bud worm contracts out of eastern Canada. It would be the first company to use GPS mapping on-board DC-7 aircraft. The DC-4 was for parts, mainly the engines, too good of a deal to pass up. It was a shoe-string budget & everyone was hired cheap. The plane if everything was OK was to be flown to the main airport in Arizona to refuel & fly back home to California.”

Gordon continued, “The runs started late in the afternoon & right away things were going wrong, no brakes, shut down. Bleed the brakes on the left, seemed to fix the problem but not for the right. Another shut down. We pinched the #4 lines to stop the hydraulic leaks on the right brakes. No worries plenty of brakes for the long runways ahead. Too late in the day to continue, first thing tomorrow then. It was a clear day, I remember it like it was yesterday. My brother & I were fighting over who would get to go. I won, mainly because I didn't have a drivers license & someone had to drive the pilot's Camaro over to the main airport. I was looking forward to playing with the bomber scope that was still on board, that was what the fight was about.”

Gordon continued, “The pilots were using a check list from the day before. They started the engines & scrolled down to where they thought they left off. Talk in the cockpit was about reaching V1 around a tower / small shack 2/3 down the runway on the left, if not there was an opening to the right that we would steer to. I was busy holding the loose radio stack in the middle of the cockpit door still & looking at the bomber scope. Throttles ups, we started to roll, I loved the roar of the engines, speed was good, but something was wrong? The pilots were pulling hard on the elevator but no response, then the captain noted the lock was still engaged, trying to pull it free, no good. I looked for a place to sit down, a table & chair on the left, the belt was broke & I tried to tie it around my waist.”

Gordon continued, “I remember flying though the air, watching the glass from the windows fly pass me, I could see the shower of sparks from the hydro wires as they snapped. I came to up against the door with the radio stack on top of me. My leg was twisted my head throbbing with pain, I could feel the blood running down the back of my neck. The aircraft was on fire, filling with smoke, I stood & looked into the cockpit, they had white coveralls on covered with blood, the captain had a large piece of glass in his eye, I thought there were dead. I went into the rear of the aircraft, I could see the engines were on fire. I opened an emergency window & flames rushed in. I was choking on the thick smoke & turned away from the flame to see a man standing behind me. He said he would lift me up & open the hatch in the roof. I did & slid to the ground. Thank him for me if you every see him again.”

Everyone survived the crash, but the Jack Kern got a broken leg jumping from the burning wreck.

You can find more information and photos about Allied's history here: http://www.airfields-freeman.com/AZ/Airfields_AZ_Tucson_SE.htm


Counter Invader Inventory

The company had in its inventory a numberof A-26As:

USAF S/N Date acquired Comments
64-17647 2 Oct 1976 Presumed scrapped
64-17649 31 Mar 1976 Presumed scrapped
64-17655 16 May 1979 Presumed scrapped
64-17658 6 Apr 1976 Presumed scrapped
64-17660 9 Apr 1976 Known to be scrapped by 1995
64-17661 31 Mar 1976 Presumed scrapped
64-17664 2 Apr 1976 Presumed scrapped
64-17665 9 Apr 1976 Presumed scrapped
64-17670 31 Mar 1976 Presumed scrapped
64-17675 1 Apr 1976 Presumed scrapped
64-17678 9 Apr 1976 Presumed scrapped

I did manage to track down their former Chief Test Pilot, Captain Billy Walker and we exchanged emails on 10 Jul 2020. He explained that the company has been long-closed and the records lost. He doesn't specifically remember the plane I was asking about (647).

"I don’t have any specific information on the A-26 you are asking about (64-17647). However, if it went to Allied Aircraft, I very likely flew it. I can’t be sure as I didn’t keep records and Allied is long gone with none of their records apparently saved. Also, that was nearly a half-century ago!

I flew a lot of airplanes for Allied and, for a while, was the Chief Test Pilot. In addition to the A-26s, I flew one Navy AJ “Savage,” a bunch of Navy SNB-5’s, T-28’s, C-131s, DC-6, DC-7, and I flew one B-29 which was actually a Navy P2B-1S “Fertile Myrtle.”

Equally likely, (64-1767) was a former Korean War B-26 (B or C) converted to a much improved A-26K with upgraded Pratt & Whitney R-2800-27 engines to the CB series engines (water-methanol injection) which were some 200 more horse power with prop reversing along with DC-6 wheels and brakes. Boy Howdy was that an improvement! If it was, in fact, one of the A-26’s (re-named B-26 after the Martin B-26 was no longer in inventory) then converted to the ubiquitous “K” model then, again, redesigned “A-26A” for the SE Asia War Games. I believe there were 40 “K” models produced by On Mark Engineering in California."

He shared some war stories about his time as a pilot and then went on to explain:

"64-17647 may have, perhaps, gone to Gene Powers (Hawkins-Powers, Greybull, Wyoming). Another possibility was the late Denny Lynch in Billings, MT. Denny, a long-time friend bought his from the State of Georgia who had planned to use it as a fire bomber. Denny had thought he would as well add it to his small fleet of A-26C’s he used as Borate bombers. He never did convert the airplane and, thusly, it was saved for posterity. I was offered the opportunity to fly it, but never did (unless it was one via Allied)… I think Denny’s Invader is the only “K” Model flying. It is appropriately named “Special Kay.” Special Kay is hangared in the Vintage Flying Museum at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport in Texas."

Captain Walker is right about Denny Lynch's plane. It was serial number 64-17679 and is, in fact, "Special Kay", so its not the plane I'm looking for.

My records do show that Hawkins-Powers had an A-26 (N126HP), but it was an older WWII version that they named "Lu Lu". When H&P went under in 2006 the plane was bought by the now-defunct Lauridsen Aviation Museum and she sits derelict at the Buckeye Municipal Airport on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona. I explained this to Captain Walker and he responded in a follow-up message:

"I do know that, in fact, Gene “Red” Powers had a B-26K/A-26A. It was in military configuration with hard points although absent the guns. He offered it to me for a flight. Alas, I let the opportunity slip by. My bad!"

I have no reason to doubt Captain Walker about H&P having an A-26A, but I personally haven't seen any records or photos of that. At this time I can't confirm which A-26A H&P may have owned.

I have sent an email to a museum in Montana that acquired several of H&Ps planes in the hopes that they can get me in touch with someone who might know more. I will update this page as more information becomes available.