Naval Encounter Number one job here at Beech Restorations is the restoration to flight of our Beech 18, G-BKRN, otherwise known as Naval Encounter.

G-BKRN was constructed in 1951 by the Beech Aircraft Company Wichita Kansas as 50-1477 A-675. The airframe was rebuilt to Expeditor 3N Navigator Trainer standard with the construction number CA-75 and was operated from 1951 by the Royal Canadian Air force as RCAF-1500 until being placed in serviceable reserve in 1959. In 1960 it was registered as CF-DTN with the Department of Transport, Ottawa, Canada until 1970/71 when it was registered with Capital Air Surveys (CAS) with whom it flew until 1974.

In 1974 the airframe was registered to the Hauts Monts company of Quebec but was still in service with CAS, carrying out survey work in North Africa where it was extensively modified as a camera platform. During it's return trip to Canada CF-DTN together with 2 other aircraft had reached Prestwick where they were impounded as CAS had ceased trading. Subsequent to this "our" Beech was donated by the owners The Hauts Monts Company Inc to The Scottish Aircraft Collection Trust and ferried to Scone airfield in Perth as G-BKRN.

Details of what happened to our aircraft and particularly the engines become a bit sketchy from here on. We have managed to trace the former vice chairman of the trust Mr. Ewan Latona who negotiated the acquisition of the Beech. After speaking with him at length it would seem that sadly there was little interest in the Beech from certain members of the trust and it was sold off to raise funds after his resignation. We have also found out the engines ended up at the air museum at East Fortune.

In 1986 the aircraft was moved by road to Cranfield where it was paint-stripped and thoroughly coated in waxoyl - thankfully this helped a great deal with the aircraft's preservation. Resident at Cranfield from 1986 until the premature closure of the Vintage Aircraft Team in 1996 the airframe lay derelict and accumulating parking fees. Beech Restorations purchased the airframe in 1996 and it was moved again by road to Bruntingthorpe on 17th February 1996.

We have been restoring it ever since, and are now within 6-12 months of flying the aircraft. The aircraft is painted to represent a JRB-3 based at Dunkeswell from 1943 to 1945, with the addition of a yellow stripe on the tail surfaces on which to place sponsor logos and our Naval Encounter nose art. Current status is that we have finished painting the fuselage, tail and wings, have mounted both engines and outer wings back on the aircraft, outfitted the interior, fitted the control surfaces and fuel and oil lines and begun on the electrics. However, we no longer have the use of the hangar at Bruntingthorpe and so work has slowed right down due to having to store the aircraft outdoors. Continuation of work may mean removing the wings once more to put the aircraft back under cover in our own much smaller hangar facility.