Two part question:

Is there anyone here old enough to remember Sky King? 

The 2nd part of the question....   What kind of a plane did he fly?

be darned if I can remember..........

I never missed an episode! I was enthralled with aircraft when I was young.. all in black and white when I watched it.

Schuyler "Sky" King's personal aircraft was called Songbird.

Sky flew a Cessna T-50 twin-engine "Bamboo Bomber." The plane, a World War II surplus UC-78B.

The best-known Songbird was a twin-engine Cessna 310B. The airplane used was the second production 310B (N5348A).

Songbird III was a 1960 Cessna 310-D.

Info compliments of - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_King

Thanks for the info..........

Flying Trucker wrote on Apr 20^th, 2012 at 8:31am:


Growing up in the 50's we had a B&W TV that wasn't very large. I think it might have been 13". My parents got their first color TV about 1970 and it was about a 16". Ah the old tube type and the wait while it warmed up....lol

When we went to visit my grandparents; all they had was a radio. We spent most of our time just talking and being a family. I really enjoyed and truly miss my visits with my grandparents (the last one died in 2000 at 90).

I'm certainly old enough but I'm not sure if Sky King was ever broadcast in the UK. I wouldn't have seen it as we didn't get our first TV set until the 1960s. We got our entertainment from the "steam radio" with classics like Dick Barton - Special Agent, Journey Into Space & of course the Goon Show.

Flying Trucker wrote on Apr 21^st, 2012 at 10:10am:

I watch very little TV nowadays but I must confess to being a boob tube watcher. --> Boob Tube

Anyone remember an 80's show called 'Tales of the Gold Monkey'?  It was only on briefly but as I recall it was something like Indiana Jones with an airplane.  The only scene I recall (and only in part) is a glass (maybe it was a bottle) of water being marked horizontally with lipstick and being used as an emergency attitude indicator.

I believe Sky King was based on a real pilot's exploits. I cannot remember his name, it was in an EAA Sport Aviation Magazine article a month ago. The 'sheriff' the Sky King character was modeled after flew an all-white Piper J-3 Cub around 29 Palms. One time he chased down a fleeing fugitive that was driving through the desert, buzzed the fugitive's car with his Cub, then landed right in front of him, and casually pulled out his revolver, got out of the Cub and arrested him on the spot! He would buzz around all the little homesteads in the desert at low level to check up on the citizens. If they need medical aid, food, water, etc. they would usually put a red piece of cloth on their clothes line to wave him down. He always carried emergency supplies to drop to people in need out in the desert.