for the conversion to the Super-V Aircraft Corporation of San Francisco International Airport. Super-V conversion centers operated under franchise from the Super-V Aircraft Corporation. Tirey L. Ford, Jr., was president of both the Insul-8 Corporation and the Super-V Aircraft Corporation. Early accidents The sales manager, Kenneth Bellamy, was killed in a crash fifteen miles southeast of Brighton, Colorado, while demonstrating the Super V to a potential buyer, Don Vest, founder of Vest Aircraft Company on September 14, 1960. A crop-duster pilot, John Curry, was also killed in the crash. It was believed that Vest was at the controls of the Super-V at the time of the crash. The Super-V belonging to Southland Corporation, a distributor for Bay Aviation Services, crashed on August 12, 1961, near Ardmore, Oklahoma, with at least one survivor. Shifting production It is likely the relatively high cost of the Super-V conversion and competition from the Beechcraft Travel Air, a factory-built twin-engine aircraft of comparable role and size, resulted in low demand for the Super-V. This, coupled with workmanship issues and early crashes, led to the rapid dissolution of Bay Aviation. Bay Aviation became Lawrence Properties in 1962. Production was transferred to Fleet Aircraft in 1962 with some detail improvements to fulfill existing orders. A separate type certificate was issued for planes manufactured by Fleet in Canada, this time with O-360-A1D engines. The production rights were sold again to Mitchell Aircraft in 1963. The current type certificate holder is KWAD Company. Specific aircraft The complete Super-V serial number consists of the converted Super-V serial number (in the format SV###) accompanied by the Beech donor plane serial number (D####). Super-V serial numbers were assigned sequentially starting from SV101. Serial numbers as high as SV117 are known to exist; SV101 was later rebuilt into SV116, and SV110 and SV111 were skipped, hence known production is fourteen aircraft. Of the fourteen, nine were built by Bay Aviation (of which five have been destroyed, two still hold current registration, and two have unknown disposition) and five were built by Fleet Aircraft (of which two have been destroyed, one still holds current registration, and two have unknown disposition). Specifications See also References External links Super V 1950s United States civil utility aircraft Low-wing aircraft V-tail aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1956 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft