Ed. Note: This is the first edition of our new feature in which rare aircraft fan Jay Selman scours the county airports and grass strips of the world to find some of their most interesting tenants.
I have known Danny Linkous, now 74, since we both worked in the airline industry, and we became reacquainted at a formation flying clinic in 2017. Since he lives up the road from me, at Miller Airpark with its 2000-foot grass runway, we have stayed in touch. We share a passion for aviation, and the more I got to know him, the more I liked him. When he told me about his most recent airplane purchase, which was made in 2023, I was interested since I had no idea what a Porterfield was.
Like many of us who love aviation, Linkous was bitten by the bug early in life. He recalls, “I grew up near a small airport named Greenbrier Airport (no longer in existence) at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. This airport served the famous resort hotel, The Greenbrier. I was probably five years old and was playing in the street with friends when a pair of F-86s with wing tanks came roaring overhead. I was transfixed. From then on, I took an interest in things that flew. The pilot who ran the operation at the airport, Charles Oscar Tate Jr., had a trio of Lockheed 12s that I was aware of. Before that, he had a pair of Howards. So, this is how the seeds were sown.”
Danny Linkous was a man on a mission. He mowed lawns in order to pay for flight lessons and soloed on his 16th birthday in November 1967. Ratings followed, including commercial and flight instructor, before he joined the Air Force in June 1974. His first assignment was flying the F-4 Phantom followed by the OV-10 Bronco. He left the Air Force in December 1981.
In 1982, Linkous was hired by Atlantis Airlines based in Florence, South Carolina. With that, his airline career was off and running. In the early 1980s, Piedmont Airlines was one of the fastest-growing airlines in the country, expanding beyond its traditional boundaries in the Southeast. The furloughed Braniff pilots were among the first pilots hired by the Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based carrier to fuel its growth. Finally, in March 1984, Linkous got his shot and was hired by Piedmont Airlines. His career began on the Boeing 737 and, through multiple mergers, ended with his retirement in 2016 as an American Airlines captain on the Boeing 757/767.
Danny Linkous could be called a serial airplane owner. He explains, “I think I developed a habit of buying an airplane, keeping it for two or three years, fixing it up and then I’d sell it before something major broke.” Following this pattern, Linkous has owned, and sold, a Taylorcraft L-2M, a Cessna 140, a PT-17 Stearman, a War Aircraft Replicas P-47 Thunderbolt (which he built), a North American Yale, two North American T-6s, a Vultee BT-13, a Nanchang CJ-6, a deHavilland Tiger Moth, two deHavilland Chipmunks, a Cessna 195, an Aeronca Champ and a full-scale replica Fokker Dr.1 Triplane. Presently, along with the Porterfield, he has a Scottish Aviation Bulldog. Each one of these airplanes comes with a colorful Danny Linkous story.
Rewind a couple of airplanes. Linkous explains how he came to own the Porterfield. “I’d had my second Chipmunk for several years and I loved that bird. However, my grandchildren were getting old enough to fly with me and I was not comfortable having them sitting in the back seat where I could not keep an eye on them or what their little hands might be getting into. I decided to sell the Chipmunk and replace it with a Scottish Aviation Bulldog. The Bulldog, which replaced the Chipmunk with the Royal Air Force as a primary trainer, has a bubble canopy and side-by-side seating, so I can keep a close eye on them. More importantly, they would probably be more comfortable sitting next to me instead of sitting by themselves in a dark pit behind me.”
However, Linkous says, “I love tailwheel airplanes and the last tricycle gear airplane I had was the Nanchang CJ-6, 30 years ago. I enjoy the Bulldog, but it has a nosewheel. I just really missed tailwheel flying. I started looking for something with a tailwheel and I knew I didn’t want a Cub. I didn’t want a Champ. I didn’t want a Taylorcraft. They’re great airplanes but I wanted something unique. I knew about Porterfields. I’m not sure I’d ever seen one, but I just started looking around and found this one, NC32328, in Warrenton, Virginia. The owner had bought it with a Lycoming 65-hp engine on it, which is an anemic engine. It didn’t perform well so he replaced the Lycoming with a recently overhauled 85-hp Continental engine which makes it much peppier.”
On his flight home to Mooresville, North Carolina, Linkous knew that on this day and time it would be difficult to find someone who was familiar with hand-propping an airplane. The Porterfield has no electric system and, thus, no starter. His first landing on the way home was in Lynchburg, Virginia, in a 16– to 18-knot crosswind. “It was not pretty,” he relates with a grin. “At least I didn’t tear anything up.” After refueling it was time to crank up. He started walking around the field asking if there was anyone familiar with hand-propping an airplane. “I finally got a line boy who helped me. I had the tail tied down and the chocks in place. I instructed the line boy on how to operate the magneto switch and throttle based on my commands while I hand-propped the engine. Without any issues we got the engine started, I got in the airplane and on the brakes while the line boy, at my signal, untied the tailwheel and pulled the chocks.”
So how do you work with a plane that you’ve got to hand-prop every time you want to go flying? Linkous explains, “I put a stake in the ground, tie a rope with a slip knot in it to the stake and to the tailwheel. I leave a long enough piece of rope so I can grab it when I jump in the cockpit. I’ve got these big chocks which were given to me by Transient Maintenance at a military airshow back in the late 1980s. I chock it, prime it, and pull the prop through four blades. Then I come around and turn the mag switch to BOTH. I always keep the throttle set way back, so when it starts, it’s chugging over at 500 or 600 rpm. With the tailwheel still tied, I carefully remove the chocks, grab the rope, and get in the cockpit. Once seated and on the brakes, I pull the rope to release the slip knot. My wife, Diane, flies with me frequently in both the Porterfield and the Bulldog. When she’s with me in the Porterfield, she manages the mag switch and throttle and holds the brakes, eliminating the necessity for the stake and the rope. Easy peasy! So yeah, it’s much easier to do with a second person.”
So now, let’s talk about the Porterfield. This is a model LP-65, the last in the line of the Porterfield Collegiate series, which began with the CP-40 Zephyr, powered by a 40-hp Continental A40. The LP-65, last in the production line, was originally powered by a 65-hp Lycoming O-145-B1 or B2 engine. As previously noted, the Lycoming on NC32328 was replaced with an 85-hp Continental C-85-8F engine.
The Porterfield Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft design and manufacturing company founded in 1934 in Kansas by Edward E. Porterfield, one of the early, somewhat obscure airplane designers in the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s. Porterfield was running a flying school in Kansas City, Kansas. He had been operating primarily surplus WW-I biplanes and felt the need for a more suitable and better-performing trainer aircraft. He soon launched the production of several light single-engine, two-seat, high-wing, and biplane aircraft. Then, in 1925, he started the American Eagle Aircraft Corporation. American Eagle continued producing airplanes until 1931. The worldwide stock market crash of 1929 severely depressed the sale of nonessential items such as sport airplanes. On May 15, 1931, the company’s assets were purchased by the Lincoln-Page Aircraft Company of Lincoln, Nebraska, and Porterfield assumed the title of aircraft sales representative of that company, which became known as the American Eagle-Lincoln Aircraft Corporation with production headquarters in Lincoln.
Porterfield left the company in 1932, forming the Porterfield Aircraft Company in 1934. The new company was seen as a comeback for Porterfield, and while it never achieved the numerical success of the larger light aircraft manufacturers such as Piper, Aeronca, and Taylorcraft, the planes were well made and popular with pilots. Porterfield achieved some success selling to Central and South American countries. With the start of WW-II, however, light aircraft production for civilian use came to a stop. The final straw for the company came in 1942, when it failed to secure a contract to build liaison aircraft for the U.S. military. Altogether, 476 Porterfield Collegiates were built.
Edward Porterfield died from a heart attack in 1948.
To date, approximately 27 LP-65s appear on the U.S. Civil Aircraft Registry. NC32328 is manufacturer’s Number 786. Linkous notes, “I wish I knew more about this particular airframe, but I do know that it was built in 1940, and in 1940 Roscoe Turner, the famous air race pilot, was associated with the Porterfield Aircraft Company.” NC32328 was totally restored in 1998 by H.O. Aircraft in Blaine, Minnesota. Linkous adds, “They did some of the prettiest fabric work I have ever seen. It’s got the most beautiful fabric. The fuselage, the wings, everything is absolutely gorgeous.”
“Performance of the airplane is good,” Linkous comments. “With that 85-hp engine, it cruises at a solid 90 mph. I love just cruising around in it, enjoying the world slowly passing by. It stalls around 38 mph. It gets off the ground in about 400 feet or so and lands in about 600 feet. The fuel burn is 5 gph, and it carries 12 gallons, so it’s not a long-range airplane. But it really is a delightful little kite. That engine had only about 30 hours on it when I bought the airplane in 2023. Since then, I have probably put another 90 hours on it. My average flight time is around 30 minutes.”
Having flown jets like the F-4 Phantom, you would think that Linkous would be an adrenaline junkie with a need for speed. He is actually quite the opposite. He says, “I like airplanes that go slow, and the Porterfield certainly fits that requirement! Here is the way I explain it … it’s as if I live in a small house on a small lot with a small pond in back and I have a small boat. Sometimes I just like to take my small boat out and putt around in that small pond. We’ll go up and fly around a bit, do some takeoffs and landings … I always try to do at least three on each flight. The longest trip I’ve made was 70 n.m. I flew it to Hickory once for lunch (only 35 miles), but the tower controller was, shall we say, ‘disappointed’ that I didn’t have a transponder!”
Though roughly in the same general class with the tandem-seat Piper Cub, Aeronca Champ, and Interstate Cadet—and the side-by-side seating Aeronca Chief, Taylorcraft BC-12D, and Luscombe 8—the tandem-seat Porterfield is visually distinguishable from them by its twin parallel wing struts on each side (compared to the V-shaped struts on the other airplanes) and by its largely symmetrical airfoil wing (similar curvature, top and bottom). Due to the narrowness of the fuselage, particularly to the rear of the cabin, the type is nicknamed “Skinny Bird.” Linkous says, “I want to point out to you how narrow it is. If you get back and look at the fuselage right before it gets to the empennage, you’ll see what I mean. At that spot, I can take my hand and lay it across the whole airplane! It’s very narrow there, but the cockpit is roomy. I’m 5 feet 8 and about 170 pounds and the cockpit is a good, comfortable fit for me.”
How does the Porterfield compare to other taildraggers in that class? Linkous responds, “They’re similar, but not the same. I’ve flown Taylorcrafts, Cubs, and Champs. Each has its own personality. But I’ll say it again … the Porterfield is a delightful little kite!”
My first instruction , my Dad bought me three lessons in a Porterfield CP-65, 65 Cont., out of Compton airport, Calif. N25915, 9-27-59. Three months later, my Dad had purchased an Aeronca C3, 36hp, and had it over at Torrance. I then began getting dual in it several times a month. My first solo was in that was 4-13-60. I saw a Porterfield not long ago. Made me think back on my first relationship with it.
You’re right about the lyc. I had a ’39 Chief with a Lycoming O-145 B2. A very smooth little engine. But at best 55 hp. And I’ve had an Aeronca 7DC , hand crank 85 hp , 5 gph, but with the original 12 gal tank. It did keep you aware of how much flight time you had used each flight.
Had a beautiful Porterfield at Tehachapi Airport for many years and we all had to learn that it wasn’t an Aeronca or Piper Cub. It was great to have something different on the field to watch and talk about.