Grumman Goose, on the brink of extinction, to rise like a phoenix
By VICTORIA BARBER of The Seward Phoenix Log
July 10, 2008 at 4:04PM AKST
One of Alaska’s aviation legends will get a new lease on life this summer.
Over the past 70 years, the Grumman Goose has won acclaim as a plane that can go anywhere. Yet as more Gooses have crashed or retired, many saw the aircraft as a dying breed.
That’s set to change this month as a North Carolina company, Antilles Seaplanes, will lay the keel on the first new Goose produced in 63 years.
“It’s an understatement to say that there is a lot of excitement about this plane coming back,” said Warren Ludlam, who is the director of marketing for Antilles. “It is such a significant plane.”
Originally designed to taxi millionaires about the coast, the Goose was pressed into military service during World War II and achieved enduring popularity due to its sturdy design and versatility. The plane is really an amphibious flying boat — made to take off and land on both land and water.
Unlike float planes, the Goose lands with its hull in the water, making it stable in water swells up to three feet. That has made the Goose particularly useful in Alaska, where it can land places that other planes cannot.
The Goose is also known for its longevity. While Grumman stopped making the planes in 1945, many continue to fly today. However, as replacement part dwindle, keeping the planes flight worthy has become difficult.
Ludlam said that the reincarnation of the Goose began with a couple of buddies and some brew.“
V.L. Manuel and Tim Henderson were sitting around drinking cold beer one night and decided they might want to have a plane to fly down to the Bahamas sometime,” Ludlam said. The friends happened across an advertisement for a Grumman Goose for sale in Florida.
That Goose was owned by a 92-year-old man named Dean Franklin, of Franklin Aviation Enterprises, who turned out to have more than just a plane to offer. Franklin had an enormous stockpile of Goose parts, which he’d bought from Grumman.
More important, Franklin owned the type certificate for the plane — a document that approves the production of an aircraft design.
After purchasing the lot, Henderson and Manuel spent seven years developing a business out of reviving the Goose by reverse-engineering parts and purchasing the supplemental type certificates needed to modify and update the original blueprints.
The resulting Antilles Super Goose is designed to be a faster, stronger version of the old Goose. In place of the old Goose’s piston engines, the Super Goose is designed with 680-horsepower turbine engines that allow it to cruise at 200 knots (more than 230 mph), carry a load of 5,400 pounds and range 1,200 nautical miles on a single tank of Jet A fuel.
The new Goose will also feature the latest in avionics, a large cargo door, air-conditioning and other updates.
Other than the flying improvements, Ludlam said that the Goose will keep its iconic, barrel-chested profile. The obvious changes to exterior design will be retractable wing floats and a one-piece, wrap-around windshield.
And the price tag for Grumman Goose’s 21st century redux? It’s a cool $2.95 million (that’s U.S. dollars, please), with a price increase anticipated later this summer.
Ludlam said that Antilles currently has orders for five planes but is in discussion with “hundreds” of interested parties throughout the world, most of whom want to use the Super Goose commercially. Antilles is also developing a special Goose for the U.S. military.
In addition to making new planes, Antilles Seaplanes will be producing and selling parts for the Goose.
Peninsula Airways is the only Alaska airline known to still employ Gooses in its fleet.
One of these made headlines in April when the plane crashed on the Dutch Harbor runway. No serious injuries were reported, but the aircraft was extensively damaged.
Scott Bloomquist, PenAir’s vice president of sales and service, said that the airline doesn’t have any plans to purchase any of the new Super Gooses to replace the damaged planes in its fleet.
“Our initial reaction was that it was exciting that there might be a source for parts and aircraft,” said Bloomquist, who said that the price was comparable to what Penair paid for the Saab 340 aircraft, which seats 30. “It’s all dependant on pricing. ... ($2.95 million) is out of most ballparks.”
Penair uses the Goose because it is the only airplane that can fly to Akutan, an island in the Aleutians with no landing strip and only rough waters to land in. Bloomquist said that PenAir plans to combine the parts of two damaged Gooses to make one airworthy plane, while a third keeps up daily flights to and from Akutan.
“Putting turbines on it is an interesting factor. ... They’ll probably make a very nice airplane,” Bloomquist said . “We have a limited resource for that plane, and we can handle it with the aircraft that we have today.
“For who is in need of a specialized market there may be some demand. ... We’re still shooting for an airport in Akutan,” Bloomquist said.
Ludlam said that the first Antilles Super Goose will be ready to take flight in the summer of 2009. The company anticipates bumping up their production to 72 new Gooses a year by 2014.
For more information on the Antilles Super Goose, visit www.antillesseaplanes.com.