The Stinson 108 Voyager Stinson 108's with Duplicate Serial Numbers http://personalpages.tdstelme.net/~westin By Larry Westin - August 1, 1998 UPDATED - Rev A - 3/30/99 Serial numbers are critical to aircraft manufactures and those who own airplanes. Light aircraft manufactures use the serial number to identify each airplane produced along with the individual equipment included from the factory which makes each airplane unique. When problems occur it is the serial number which is the primary identification used to determine if a light aircraft is affected by a problem. Researching the Stinson 108 reveals there were three different serial numbers each issued to two different airplanes. Serial Number Model Registration Current Aircraft Status ------------- ----- ------------ ----------------------- 108-1 108 NX31519 1st Prototype, Scrapped 108-1 108 NC87600 Unknown 108-2 108 NX31532 2nd Prototype, Scrapped 108-2 108 NC87601 Active - oldest 108 flying 108-5001 108-3 NC4001C Active 108-5001 108-5 N5576V Aircraft destroyed - see below. Unable to determine why Stinson decided to issue two duplicate serial numbers. Chronology suggests that both serial numbers 1 and both serial numbers 2 were flying at the same time. This may account for the decision by Stinson to scrap both prototypes after only a relatively short life. Veda N. Dyer, owner of Univair, registered Model 108-5, N5576V, serial number 108-5001, for certification in 1963. It appears that Univair choose what it thought was a high enough serial number to be well above any MSNs of airplanes built by Stinson and Piper, but misjudged by some 260. Thus this 108-5001 is a different airplane from the original 108-5001, a model 108-3 manufactured by Stinson or Piper. If you have corrections or additional information about Stinson 108 serial numbers, please contact me. Larry Westin, email me at westin@tdstelme.net or to my postal address: Larry Westin 233 Pratt Road Newport, Maine 04953 Bibliography for this article: Serial number information about 108-1 and 108-2 came from FAA records and printed information from Univair. Status of 108-2 from the John Baker World Stinson Database. My thanks to John Wegg, author of "General Dynamics Aircraft and their Predecessors," for providing the information about the Univair model 108-5, serial number 108-5001. My thanks to Capt. Bill Frances at moongate@sympatico.ca for the update on the second serial number 108-5001 airplane.