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All Jungmeisters are wonderful, but are some more wonderful than others? If you take into account their provenance I think you could argue that some have a history that makes them the most desirable of the breed. There is an aircraft at my local airport that was once owned by Richard Bach. It doesn't fly any better than any other Fournier and it certainly doesn't look any better, but to me that name in the logbooks makes it special.

Among Jungmeisters there are some extra special examples: Albert Zeller's "Antares" comes to mind as does Graf Hagenburg's aircraft. There is one, however,  that has to be the most special of the special. EC-AEX was famously displayed throughout Spain by exiled Prince Cantacuzeno, operated by Col. José Aresti who developed the 'Aerocryptographic Sistema Aresti', and then flown for many years by American airshow legend Frank Price. Three of the most famous and respected aerobatic pilots of all time.



EC-AEX / N87P is currently undergoing restoration and as that happens its history is being researched, and more information is being learned about the aircraft.

EC-AEX was built in Rangsdorf in in July 1937 and was delivered to Franco´s army in Spain where it was registered as 35-10. It survived the Civil War and was then operated in the new Spanish Air Force as ES.1-10 and eventually E.1-10. It was finally withdrawn from service in 1958.

At this point it appears to have been acquired by Mr. Fernando Pons Ramírez, a former pilot and instructor who established an aviation  scientific/engineering company in Madrid. Perhaps Pons Ramírez had the aircraft in some official capacity.

It may also be that Cantacuzeno and Aresti were friends of Pons Ramírez (this is yet to be established) and so perhaps they had some arrangement with him to fly EC-AEX. Did they lease the aircraft? Were they acting as pilots for his company? That is the subject of the current research. At the time it was forbidden for a non-Spanish individual to own an aircraft in Spain so it is assumed that Cantacuzeno must have had some such arrangement. Very few facts are known about the aircraft between 1955 and 1961.

Aresti sold EC-AEX to Frank Price on July 7, 1961 and listed its serial number as 1015. Frank registered the Jungmeister with the FAA as N87P in July of 1963. (He had at first requested N52F but then changed his request to N87P.) The registration was supported by a document from the Director General of civil aviation, Madrid, with statement from Jose Aresti that Bucker 133C, serial number 1015 EC-AEX had been removed from the Spanish aircraft registry for export to the United States.

Interestingly when Frank registered the aircraft it was listed as having a Warner "Super Scarab" engine, so it is assumed that he changed the engine sometime between 1961 and 1963. N87P went on to fly with many different engines during its life with Frank Price. At one time he said that more than twenty had been installed!
There are a number of interesting questions that remain unanswered: In what capacity did Aresti and Cantacuzeno operate EC-AEX? What was the disposition of the aircraft between 1955 and 1961.

If you have any information or suggestions that might help answer these questions, please let me know and I will pass the information on to the current owner.

Thank you to Paco Rivas and to Stephen Craig for the information contained in the article.

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