After having designed the cabin monoplane Monocoupe aircraft, Don Luscombe started his own company in the early 30's. He was convinced that aviation's future lay in all-metal stressed-skin aircraft construction. Based on his previous experience he developed his model 8, known ever after as the Silvaire series. It is no secret that Cessna's popular post-war Model 140 was largely influenced by Don Luscombe's little 2-seater.

Initial versions had fabric covered wings, but metal covering was offered as an option and later became standard, so that the Silvaire became one of the first all-metal sports aircraft. Power ranged from 50 hp on the Model 8 up to 90 hp on the later Models 8F, 8G and T-8F.

Prewar publicity pictures showed the Silvaire with as much as 21 grownups sitting on the wings, intended as a proof of the strength of the all-metal construction technique. Indeed, most aircraft at the time were of the wood-and-fabric variety and any novelty was seen as a curiosity with limited value unless proven otherwise. That Don Luscombe was right can be seen on every corner of the world up to this day !

After the war, surplus army Piper Cubs and similar machines were sold by the military authorities at absolute bargain prices. This proved problematic for the Luscombe Airplane Corporation who started to fall short of new orders. They saw an opportunity in a military observation version of the basic Silvaire, as the Air Force and Army were looking around for a new aircraft in this class. Designated T-8F, this was a tandem-seat version (as opposed to the side-by-side seating of previous Silvaires) with a large plexiglass bubble behind the wing. Unfortunately, the military were not really interested in the small company's offering and Luscombe built the T-8F in small numbers only for the civil market, some of them as agplanes. The company struggled through the forties and fifties until, in 1961, production finally came to a halt.

It should be noted that in the meantime an outgrowth version of the 2-seat Silvaire had been developed. This was the large 4-place Model 11 Sedan, which achieved little sales successes. A modernised verion of this machine is nowadays being marketed as the Spartan Model 11E.

Silvaire 8A G-AKTT. Note the single wing bracing strut, indicating a metal-skinned wing. Versions with fabric-covered wings have a double (v-shaped) bracing strut.

Built as an 8E, this particular Silvaire was converted to 75hp 8D standard.

(picture kindly supplied by Cristobal Marloms)