Barry,
the man is the founder/owner of Motorfirma Uno Ranch AB who at
the time was the Swedish importer of Bugatti Automobiles and
later of Triumph Motorcycles. From early in the sixties they
started to import Triumph Automobiles also and did so until in
the aftermath of the Leyland take over Leyland Triumph Sweden AB
was founded in 1970 or so. Mr Uno Ranch [currently 90 years old]
is of course a honorary member of the Triumph Club of Sweden.
The air plane is registered SE-AUR [UR from his initials...] and
was bought directly at the assembly plant by Mr Ranch in March 1946.
Since it was the first plane sold delivery had to be post-
poned until testing was finished in late January of '47. On the
pictures taken in the sixties one can see that on the starboard
engine cowling it had the logo and text: TRIUMPH MOTORCYKLAR
and on the port side cowling it had the logo and text: TRIUMPH
AUTOMOBILER.
Mr Ranch also owns a de Havilland DH 104 Dove, registration SE-EUR
with an eight hour extra long duration tank arrangement. A very
nice flying apparatus indeed...
He learnt to fly in Germany back in 1925 at a mere 18 years of
age, and has got the Swedish Pilots license number 103. If I'm not
mis-remembering things he has been certified to fly some 54 different
types of aircraft over the 70+ years he's been piloting aircraft...
He currently lives in Gothenburg, Sweden.
/Odd
Bwfox@aol.com wrote:
> What makes all this relevant, is that on page 27 is a photo of
> single engine, tri-cycle gear, Mooney look-a-like called the
> Safir 91A. It was given serial number 3 registered as SE-BHB
> (hard to be sure as one wing partially covers the last three
> letters) and delivered to Uno Ranch of Gothenburg in 1946.
> Painted on the nose is (drum roll please) TRIUMPH AUTOMOBILLE.
> I wonder if Odd or any of our other Swedish listers are familiar
> with this gentleman, his business, etc. According to the caption,
> he is still flying the plane 40 years later(!), but that was 87,
> wonder what the status is now.
>
> Cheers,
> Barry W. Fox 65 TR4A CT51681L
> W1HFN
> and Mooney-wanna-owner
--
Odd Hedberg
Pomonagatan 4
S-74236 Östhammar International liaison secretary,
Sweden Triumph Club of Sweden
'70 Spitfire Mk3 FD82497LO Signal Red
'80 TR8 EFi DHC TPZDV8AT211468 Midas Gold
E-mail: odd@triumphclub.se / odd.hedberg@bigfoot.com
Club URL: http://www.triumphclub.se/index.htm
Home Phone/Fax: Int+ 46-1731 7131 / 46-1731 8131
Geographical Position: N 60deg 15min E 18deg 23min
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