Despite many
mishaps over its
eight decades of
service, Gary
Filizetti’s Grumman
Goose is the oldest
one still fl ying, says
pilot Gord Jenkins.
It’s just so pretty.SURVIVOR – 1939 G-21 GRUMMAN GOOSE
The original customers for Grumman’s 1937 G-21
amphibian were wealthy Long Island businessmen
looking for a comfortable commute to Manhattan.
By the following year, military services began to
buy, and the Royal Air Force, always expert at
alliteration, christened it the Grumman Goose.
It became a World War II phenomenon.
The lovely green and white Goose in the NAHI
contest is, according to its pilot Gord Jenkins, the
oldest Goose still flying. Its first owner was Lehman
Brothers financier Robert Lehman. He sold it to
the Royal Canadian Air Force, which manhandled
it—gear-up landings, engine failures—from 1942
into 1946. Later Laurentian Air Services of Ottawa
had it rebuilt after a Fleet 80 crashed into it. (The
Fleet pilot was hand-propping and didn’t know the
throttle was engaged. It flew off unpiloted, straight
into the Goose.) Its next owner, Trans-Provincial
Airlines, had it for about 20 years, during which
it sank twice, in 1979 and 1992. Only after it was
retrieved from Rose Harbour at the southern end
of the Haida Gwaii archipelago did it come south to
its current U.S. owner Gary Filizetti. Says Jenkins:
“It’s just fascinating to me that it’s still going after
all that rough treatment.”STAR SPEEDSTER – 1962 MEYERS 200B
Edna Gardner Whyte is not as famous a pioneer
as Amelia Earhart or Jackie Cochran, Bruce Mayes
admits. One way he knows this is because he’d
never heard of Whyte—four-time winner of the
Women’s International Air Race, president of
the Ninety-Nines from 1955 to ’57, among other
credentials—until he became the fourth owner of
the 1962 Meyers 200B that Whyte had borrowed
toflyatthe 1968 RenoAirRaces,placingthird
intheWomensStockPlaneConsolationRaceon
September22.Whytealsoflewthe200Batthe
MarylandNationalAirRacesthepriorJuly,and
attheFloridaNationalAirRacesthefollowing
February.Shewasjustas seducedbythesingle-en-
ginelightsportster’sfleetness,easeofhandling,and
fetchinglinesas Mayeswas.(Thetype’smovie-star
goodlooksearnedit anappearanceinthe 1967
JamesBondfilmYouOnlyLiveTwice.)
“AlMeyersonlydesignedthreeairplanes,”Mayes
says.“Thefirstwasa militarybiplanetrainer.There
wasnota singlefatalityasa resultoftheairplane.
Whichinmilitarytrainingis almostunheardof.”
Inhisthirddesign,the200,Meyersretainedhis
trademarkchrome-molysteelskeletonofearlierdesigns,buttheairplanewasbuiltforspeed.The
200Bcruisesat 230mph,butit’stherateofaccel-
erationthatstruckMayeswhenhefirstbegan
flyingit.“Theoriginalinteriorsoftheseairplanes,
theykindoflooklike’50sdiners,”Mayessays.“He
wasn’tasconcernedabouttheaccoutermentsas
aboutperformance.”
Mayes’airplaneis oneofonly 17 B variantsbuilt
andis thesecondhe’sowned.Hecrash-landedhis
firstin2016.Mayeswasunhurt;hiswifesustained
a headinjurywhenherseatfailed.Thattheir
injurieswerenotmoresevereis a tributetothe
sturdinessofthe200B’sairframe.Edna Gardner
Whyte fl ew this
sleek Meyers 200B
at the Reno Air
Races in 1968.36 AIR & SPACE airspacemag.com
TOP: COURTESY BOB KOBZEY; BOTTOM: COURTESY BRUCE MAYES