NOTICE: This livery requires Microsoft Local Legends #5 (Beechcraft Model 18) product to be installed.

My father worked for Grimes for over 25 years and helped restore this unique airplane. A special thanks to my father and brother for photo references. Thanks to the very talented Bomber12th (https://flightsim.to/profile/Bomber12th) who is a very talented repainter that helped teach me a lot. 

I also have created Grimes Field (I74) scenery here: https://flightsim.to/file/25653/grimes-field-i74-urbana-ohio

Description:

The Grimes Flying Lab is a beautifully restored Beech C-45H airplane that was used to test Grimes aircraft lighting systems. The nonprofit Grimes Flying Lab Foundation operates the airplane from a hangar-museum on Grimes Field in Urbana, Ohio.

The Grimes Flying Lab aircraft was built as a transport for the U.S. Air Force in 1953, sold as surplus in 1960, and eventually acquired by Warren Grimes in 1963 for conversion to a lighting testbed. The airplane was flown at air shows, including the 1975 Paris Air Show. Older local residents remember the airplane’s spectacular night flights during Urbana’s Fourth of July celebrations. Grimes engineers used it as a flying laboratory to develop lighting products until 1986, when it sustained wing damage during a Fourth of July fly-by at the Tremont City Airport. It was sold for salvage in 1987.

Honeywell re-purchased the airplane in December 1999 and worked to restore it to flyable condition with volunteer labor and company funds. Foundation volunteers completed the restoration and made the first night flight of the restored airplane in 2008.

Today, the foundation uses the airplane to educate the public about the history of aircraft lighting and the role of the Grimes Manufacturing company and its successor companies' contributions to the aircraft lighting component of flight safety. The airplane’s hangar doubles as the foundation's museum.