Luscombe
Model 4, the Elusive Luscombe

    
Just mention the name Luscombe to aviation types and visions of the sultry
and seductive Silvaire Model 8 will immediately flash across the
windows of one’s memory. That is if one is aeronautically normal; or in
the words of the author’s wife, aeronautically abnormal. Don Luscombe
named his first all metal creation the Phantom, producing two dozen
or so from 1934 to 1941. There was a reason for such a small total number
of these eloquently sculptured metal aircraft being produced and that
brings us to the reason for this article. Let’s briefly look back in
time. 
     Don Luscombe
admired the way automobiles were produced on a production line. That saved
production costs and would be so much faster to produce than the welded
steel tube fuselage and wooden spar and rib wing structure of the
Monocoupe in which he had been involved. Now, if he could do that in the
aircraft industry, he could corner the mass produced, all-metal, light
aircraft market. Unfortunately, the beautiful compound curves of the Ivan
Driggs designed Phantom did not lend themselves well to mass
production. More metal skins wound up in the scrap heap than on an
airplane. Nick Nordyke, a talented metal smith, had to make each and every
compound curved outer skin by hand.
     The Phantom
brought fame to Luscombe but, alas, not fortune. Every Phantom sold
for $6,000 depression dollars. It was akin to trying to sell a Duesenberg
auto in this depressed time period. The Luscombe Aircraft Development
Company needed a lower cost product if they were going to stay in the
aircraft business. First off, they needed a lower horsepower engine to
help bring down the outside costs. Although the Phantom was
advertised as being available with a choice of the . . . . .