DOUG DAVIDGE COLLECTION
No. 6416. Grumman G-21A Turbo-Goose (N221AG c/n B.72) "Aleutian Goose"
Photographed at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, July 21, 2006, by Doug Davidge

Gruman G-21A Turbo-Goose

08/31/2011. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "Built as a JRF-5 for the USN and delivered with BuNo 37819 (c/n B-72) on July 26, 1944, eight years and with 1,420 flying hours later, it was struck off charge on October 13, 1952.

Two weeks later it was transferred to the US Department of Interior, Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) at Washington, D.C., and was registered as JRF-5 N780 on November 13, 1952. Reportedly it remained in non-flying storage with FWS, until it was converted by FWS to a turboprop-powered aircraft.

The conversion of N780 to the only Garrett TPE-331 turboprops-powered Goose started in 1969, while it received numerous other modifications, including wrap-around windshield, retractable wing tip floats, radar nose, and the cabin was lengthened by ca. 3.3 ft (1 m).

After the conversion the aircraft was incorrectly registered as a McKinnon G-21G with the new c/n 1240, this was not correct as the aircraft wasn't converted under the McKinnon Type Certificate 4A24, nor the Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) covering the engine conversion and other modifications. Technically (and legally) N780 still came under the original 1937 TC 654 that covered the G-21 and G-21A, and later military variants, including the JRF-5.

In 1996 FSW sold the aircraft and it was reregistered N86MT until October 12, 2000, whereafter it was briefly registered in Chile as CC-CTG.In 2001 it returned on the FAA register as N221AG and since known as the Aleutian Goose. Ten years later, February 27, 2011, the aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Al Ain International Airport about 60 mls (96 km) east of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, all four US citizens aboard were killed."


Created April 30, 2007