7BCM/L-16A serial numbers

[williamc]

I have compiled a list of 174 7BCMs still registered with the FAA. I have determined that not all 7BCMs were sold to the military and designated L-16As. I believe that there were 524 manufactured and 509 went to the military. I know that 7BCM-417 and 7BCM-420 went directly to the civilian market. If you know of other 7BCMs that are not L-16As please let me know. If you know both serial numbers for your plane I would like to add them to my list. If you are looking for a 7BCM s/n or a military s/n I may be able to help you.

Bill, Carolina Champ Pilot

[Paul Agaliotis]

Bill,
The 7BCM (M for military) are easiest to check by the serial number. Aeronca did assign numbers to all of the ships but most were lost when the Air Force got them. They assigned a Bureau number consisting of the year followed by the procurement number. When they were released from service most only had the military numbers, in my case 47-1108. Any ships with this style serial number would have been ex-military.
There are many 7BCM's and L-16's have 7AC serial numbers, this is a dead give-away. Back in 1956 with the advent of the FAA the Airworthiness Certificates were not issued annually. Prior to this is where most of the confusion occurred, if the plane was modified to a different configuration sometimes the A/W cert listed this as the Model. When the change in 1956 occurred this is what became the permanent record.
Paul

[williamc]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for your response. I am only considering 7BCM-XXX serial numbers. Every L-16A manufactured had a 7BCM serial number before the military assigned it a number. I am trying to put together a list that shows both the military s/n and the corresponding factory 7BCM number. I would appreciate it if you would post your 7BCM serial number.

Bill

[Paul Agaliotis]

Bill,
Thats the rub. Most of the time the planes lost track of the Aeronca assigned number. That number meant nothing to the military for operational concerns. The procurement department would have been involved with the Aeronca number, to make sure they fulfilled their contract.

My number from Aeronca was lost to eternity, with only a small footnote in the logs about a serial number. It's not signed by anyone and could not be confirmed as legitimate assigned number.

Be careful using the FAA's site. Most of the information is incorrect. Unless you pull each CD, the listed registration cannot be confirmed. If you go to TCDS A-759 and scroll to the back, Note 5 has the instructions for conversion of the military models. You stamped the new model designation but left the serial number alone. This implies that the military ships had the 47-xxx or 48-xxx serial numbers and the civilian models would have the 7BCM-xxx or 7CCM-xxx serial numbers.
Paul

[williamc]

Paul,
There are many nice L-16As registered with their 7BCM-XXX serial numbers and many more with their military serial numbers. I agree that some serial numbers are lost to history but some are in the aircraft's records. I'm just making a diligent effort to get as many of the serial numbers as I can. I would really appreciate it if you or anyone else on the discussion forum can add to my list. The numbers can be e-mailed to me if you like. My email is address is in my profile.
Bill

[MikeB]

Bill,
My L16A serial number is 7BCM405 and the military number is 47-1180 according to the records I have. The paperwork is pretty (really) vague on this old girl as it appears it was a basket case for a long long time before some dummy (me ) rescued it and decided to spend the kid's inheritance trying to bring it back to life. I have some military records from a card index, which are hard to understand, but it almost looks like it went directly to the National Guard (NGG??) before assigned to the Civil Air Patrol for the rest of it's useful life.

Hope this helps!

Mike

[Rich Valler]

Bill, on the UK civil aircraft register there are 3 x Champs recorded as 7BCMs, two of which are actually conversions of civilian 7ACs ie with the C85 engine but without the fully extended cabin windows of the L16. One of these is G-DHAH which is now flying in immaculate condition after a long term rebuild; the other is my own G-TIMP.

There is one genuine 7BCM registered G-BFAF (previously N797US) with the c/no 7BCM-11. This has been with it's sole owner in the UK since 1977, but it's Permit to Fly has been lapsed since August 2001 and unfortunately I have no information about it's current status.

To my knowledge there are no other genuine 7BCMs anywhere in Europe.

I hope that's of interest
Regards
Rich

[williamc]

Hi Mike & Rich,
Thanks for the numbers. I presently have a total of 22 L-16As that I know the 7BCM s/n and the military s/n. I'm also hoping to find some more 7BCMs that were never L-16As. I know of 2 so far. I am presently flying a 7AC converted to 7CCM with an 0200 engine. I have 2 7BCM projects, one from New York CAP and the other from the Georgia CAP. I am installing a C85-12F on the New York plane. Hope you have a great day.
Bill

[Rich Valler]

Bill, one last snippet of information that I have turned up from old magazines ... it appears that the original US military serial number for the 7BCM G-BFAF was 47-797 which would seem to be consistent with the subsequent N797US registration, albeit initially via N2552B which was it's first registration after demob.
Regards
Rich

[williamc]

Paul, Based on my research data so far, for what its worth, I believe your serial number is 7BCM-332. I'm still looking for other L-16A information and getting to talk to a bunch of great guys. Have a great day.
Bill