Grumman Gallery
Images from the past featuring local Grumman aircraft.
Learn moreTailwheel Grumman? Oh, yes!
At least two STCs have been offered for The AA1 series of Grummans - from Aeromods NW and Gene Plazak.
The conversion involves the removal of the nose wheel and swapping the main legs left to right and right to left. This moves the main wheels forwards for stability on the ground. Of course a tail wheel needs to be installed after strengthening the rear mounting area. This mod adds something like 12 mph to the speed available from the littlest Grumman along with improved rough field capability.
33 Gene Plazak conversions were done, it was reported some years ago. Plazak's own aircraft which has a 175 hp motor and many other speed mods can apparently hit over 200mph! Impressive!
One of the photos on theright has Plazak's AA1 at the top in yellow. The pic was taken in 1998.
In the Cafe 100 race in the US another taildragger AA1 was clocked at an average speed over the course of 190mph.