AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2022 - 46

BRIEFING
LOOK BACK /
A piece of Beatles history (sort of)
Massachusetts museum has a Thurston Teal
BY KEVIN R. CURRIE
EVERY TIME SOMEONE walks by the open hangar door, I get similar
comments. " Nice plane. What kind of homebuilt is it? " And,
every time my response is the same, " Thanks. But it's not homebuilt.
It's a Thurston Teal. " They squint a bit, tilt their head to
the side, and say, " Thurston Teal? Never heard of it. Is it new? "
It's not all that surprising that most folks are not familiar with
an amphibious airplane that received its FAA certification in
1970; was manufactured in Sanford, Maine; and of which only
38 were built.
Nat Sims has donated his Thurston Teal to the Massachusetts
Air and Space Museum (MASM). After having an annual performed
at its home field in Newport, Vermont, the Teal was flown
by Mike DuPont, owner of American Aero Services in Taunton,
Massachusetts, back to Mansfield, Massachusetts. N501ME started
out life in 1970 as N2011T and was initially scheduled to go to the
Bahamas for use by the Beatles, but more on that later.
N501ME was designed and built by David Thurston in his factory
in Sanford. Thurston received his aeronautical engineering
degree from New York University just before the start of World
War II. In 1942 he went to work for Grumman Aircraft and after
the war assisted Leroy Grumman in the design of numerous
amphibious aircraft being developed for the general aviation market.
Thurston also designed and built the Colonial Skimmer, which
later sold and ultimately became the Lake Buccaneer.
The Teal has a manually operated retractable gear system.
Two bars between the seats are used for lowering and retracting
the gear, along with the rudder control for water operations. The
larger bar is for the mains and the smaller one right beside it is
46
AOPA PILOT / April 2022
for the tailwheel. Throttle, mixture, carburetor heat, and propeller
pitch are all located on the ceiling.
With its 150-horsepower Lycoming engine, constant-speed
propeller, and two-place setup, N501ME has plenty of power for
recreational flying. Flying the Teal from land is like flying all close
gear tail draggers (think Piper Pacer or Pitts)-keep your feet alive
and fly the airplane through takeoff and landing. But the Teal does
love water landings and takeoffs.
Currently, there are only five Thurston Teals listed in the FAA
registry. Most of the remaining airplanes are located outside of
the United States.
And, as promised, the Beatles connection: In 1973, David
Thurston sent a note to Charles J. O'Malia, who was the first person
to take possession of N501ME, to explain why a 1970 airplane
was being delivered to him as a new airplane in 1973. It seems
that the aircraft was purchased by a New York City management
company for Apple Records in July 1970 and was scheduled to be
delivered to the Beatles while they were in the Bahamas. But the
Fab Four broke up before the airplane could be delivered. It was
stored in the Thurston Teal factory while the courts settled the
band's issues.
The Massachusetts Air And Space Museum's mission is to educate,
promote, and share with the public the contributions that
area companies, organizations, and individuals have made and
continue to make in aviation. Kevin Currie is a long-time private
pilot, 35-year AOPA member, and a director at the Massachusetts
Air and Space Museum in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
massairspace.org
http://www.massairspace.org
AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2022

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