Luscombe Aircraft closed in 1949, with its assets purchased by Temco Aircraft, also Dallas-based. Temco built about 50 Silvaires before selling the rights to the Silvaire Aircraft Corporation in 1955. When TEMCO chose to discontinue production, the Luscombe tooling, parts and other assets were purchased by Otis Massey. Massey had been a Luscombe dealer since the 1930s. His new venture opened in Fort Collins, Colorado, as Silvaire Aircraft and Uranium Corp. From 1956 to 1961, this firm produced 80 aircraft. The make and model for all 80 was Silvaire 8-F, with "Luscombe" shown in quotation marks in company literature. James May of BBC's Top Gear wrote in Top Gear Magazine in 2007 about his 1946 model Luscombe 8A ownership experience. After a temporary loss of power in flight of the meticulously maintained aircraft he concluded in a tongue-in-cheek manner, "All this old stuff is rubbish. None of it works properly. After almost a whole day of fart-arsing around with machinery, I was forced to conclude that the only dependable things in my life are an Italian car and a British motorcycle. For more development details and the 12 variants, click here.
