On Friday, Sally Runyan will say goodbye to a piece of history: a 1936 Lockheed 12A that has a special story.
Of the 130 of these planes built, the one Runyan has owned was the same one used to spy on Nazi Germany just prior to World War II.
But after 13 years of ownership, she has sold the plane to a private collector in France. On Friday, a pilot will start the long journey to Europe.
“I’m proud that it’s been here in Clark County,” Runyan said. “Had it been flying all this time, I would have shared it more.”
She bought the plane 13 years ago as a present for her husband, Ben Runyan. He flew it from Georgia to their Orchards-area home and private airstrip, Green Mountain Airport, in December 2003.
Sally Runyan said he flew it home 100 years after the Wright brothers’ first flight.
“We’re kind of history buffs,” she said.
The plane, a fixed-wing twin-engine, is special in that it was modified to hide cameras for reconnaissance — removable floor panels were used as camera ports.
In fact, the Runyans nicknamed the plane Sidney after the Australian man who made it famous — Sidney Cotton.
Working with British intelligence in 1939, Cotton flew the plane low over Germany to take aerial photographs of Nazi military facilities. Posing as a businessman, an archaeologist or a film producer looking for locations for a movie, Cotton took several flights into Germany capturing photos of munitions factories, airfields, troop concentrations and anti-aircraft batteries.
“It was before satellites were around,” Runyan said. “This man did a terrific thing for England and the U.S.”
The war wasn’t the plane’s only brush with fame. Later on, the plane was owned by movie stunt pilot Art Scholl, known for his work in “Top Gun.”
Ben Runyan wanted to use the plane to run a charter service around Mount St. Helens. He was in the middle of refurbishing the plane when he and his son were killed in a crash.
Ben Runyan, a retired Delta Air Lines pilot, and his son, Ben Runyan Jr., were aboard a Russian-made 1981 Yak-52 military training plane that went down in a wooded area near Green Mountain Airport in May 2008.
Sally Runyan held onto the plane after her family members’ deaths, but when the economy improved she decided to sell it.
“I came to a spot in my life where I needed to share this airplane with the world again,” she said.
She put the plane up for sale on the international market last year and struck a deal with a private collector in France in August. The owners waited until good weather to have their plane flown to Europe.
Runyan wouldn’t say how much she sold the plane for, but she said that knowing it was going to a good home was more important than money.
“It will be very well taken care of. … It was very important for me to find the right fit,” she said. “It’s going to fly, and these things need to fly.”
Runyan said that when Friday comes, she expects to cry, but is ultimately happy that Sidney’s adventures are continuing.
“Europe is where it did the most significant service,” she said. “It’s going back home in a way.”
