Beech 18, N13JC, is currently under a return-to-flight program at the Vintage Flying Museum (VFM) of Fort Worth, Texas.  The Twin Beech, a 1954 Beechcraft E18S-9700, construction number BA-31, was gifted to VFM several years previously by the Tarrant County College and had been using the aircraft for several decades as a maintenance trainer. During its tenure at the college, it was discovered to have been previously owned by Jacqueline ‘Jackie’ Cochran, the accomplished record setting aviatrix and founder of the WWII Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) organization.  With this heritage, it was decided by the VFM is to use the airplane to honor and promote women in aviation past, present – and future. With that in mind, it was re-registered as N13JC in Cochran’s memory.

The aircraft was originally purchased by the Williams Brothers Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to support their oil exploration activities, including a short stint flying in Venezuela, and being registered by them as N80008, N108WB, YV-P-EPC and N107WB.  In 1962 the aircraft was sold to Arkansas Best Freight System Inc. and based in Fort Smith, Arkansas as N475AB.

According to the National Air & Space Museum, this was the last aircraft personally owned and flown by Cochran, registered as N13JC.  After her ownership the aircraft became the transportation tool of 1970’s television personality Merv Griffin, as N475AB,…