The Nieuport 28, N4728V, long associated with Paul Mantz and, later, Tallmantz Aviation, flew its first post-restoration flight in April 2022 at Sabbarp, Sweden. This aircraft was the subject of a complete restoration by Mikael Carlson for the American Heritage Museum, a Collings Foundation organization at Stow, Massachusetts. This Nieuport 28 was obtained by Paul Mantz probably in the early 1930s and was a post-war veteran of the U.S. Army Air Service before transitioning to the civil fleet. It has been featured in numerous movies and other projects through the years. Tallmantz Aviation was forced to sell it and a good part of its collection in February 1966 to Rosen-Novak to raise cash. Rosen-Novak, in turn, ended up selling most of the collection at the famed May 1968 "Tallmantz Auction." The rare Nieuport 28 sold for $14,500, one of the higher priced items sold that day. New owner was race car driver Jim Hall. The airplane ended up going into storage for most the succeeding 55 years but was recently donated to the American Heritage Museum, which then sent the airframe on to Sweden for restoration.
As a footnote, it is interesting that its long-time civil registration of N4728V was cancelled with the FAA on March 21 of this year, the record showing it exported to Sweden. The Swedish registry gained the Nieuport 28 on March 31 as SE-BMA with the registered owner as the Collings Foundation in Massachusetts and the registered operator as N.A.B. Nordiska Aviatik Bolaget AB, Kvarnhem Sebbarp, 240 33 LÖBERÖD, Sweden. Presumably, a Swedish civil registration was required to fly it in Sweden. We shall see what registration gets assigned once it is back in the USA.
And that is supposed to occur prior to September 17th/18th when it is scheduled to be the featured aircraft at the AHM World War I Aviation Weekend. This aircraft is featured in the July 2022 issue of Air Classics magazine, and is also featured in on Warbird News online article seen here:
https://warbirdsnews.com/warbird-restor ... light.html. Nice to see the rare airplane resurface...
