Authenticity

How do you tell an authentic L-17 from the "civilian" NAvions flying with "warpaint"?  Everyone wants to own a warbird, hence there are a lot of aircraft flying out there in military paint schemes. One A&P states that the quickest way to sell a NAvion is to put it in military colors!

While accepting the homage paid to the men and woman of the Armed Forces by these aircraft, very few of these aircraft are authentic L-17s or have military service history. They often wear schemes that reflect the owner's military service, or just the best features of various well-known WW II or other schemes, but rarely accurate colors or markings. With today's treasured, over-restored Warbirds, it's important to realize that many L-17s were painted in the field, used hard and repaired as well as possible under the conditions.  So an "Oshkosh winning" paint job may be nice...but it's not authentic.  However, due to the multi-service, multi-role nature of the L-17, they wore MANY different looks and from research it wouldn't be too far off the mark to say that no two were ever exactly alike.

So, how do you tell an authentic L-17 from a replica? The quickest method is by use of the manufacturer serial number from the L-17 Registry Database available for download from this site. The manufacturer's data plate will be found on the left far aft side of the fuselage and will have the form NAV-4-nnnn.

There were also U.S. Army Air Forces data plates such as the one depicted here for L-17B 48-1007.  These appear to be somewhat rare, as they were typically removed when the aircraft was struck from the Air Force inventory.  This often occurred as the aircraft were released to flying clubs or the Civil Air Patrol (CAP).  Also, these tags were riveted below the glove compartment on the right side of the panel, and as panel upgrades are VERY common for the L-17, it was likely often an "extra part" and tossed in the scrap more times than not.

If you do see one of these, it's still VERY important to check the manufacturer's serial number to make sure they match. In a number of cases they did not, meaning the data plate was moved or a replica data plate was created.