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Remember, We’re Better Together!
www.auaonline.com
Aviation insurance with the EAA Vintage Program offers:
Lower premiums with payment options Additional coverages Flexibility on the use of your aircraft Experienced agentsOn-line quote request available AUA is licensed in all states
The best is affordable. Give AUA a call – it’s FREE!
Fly with the pros… fly with AUA Inc.
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AUA is Vintage Aircraft Association approved. To become a member of VAA call 800-843-3612.
Ev has flown more than 100 types of airplanes and he has flownmore Ryan airplane types than any other living pilot.
Dealing in any way with AUA is an old-time pleasure. Theyare, courteous, pleasant, thorough, personable, businesslike,competitive, and on top of that - they love old airplanes andtalk the language too.
— Ev Cassagneres
Ev CassagneresCheshire, Connecticut
■ Commercial Pilot
■ Flying since 1945
■ Ryan Aircraft Historian
■ Author
a n s A U
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2 Straight & Level Embracing change by H.G. Frautschy
3 News
6 Making an Old Friend New Again Envy of the airport—he flies an Aeronca by Sparky Barnes Sargent
14 Carburetors Are the Difference by Steve Krog, CFI
20 Light Plane Heritage The Unique Longhead S-1
by Bob Whittier
26 The Vintage Mechanic Engine cowls for drag reduction—Part I by Robert G. Lock
30 The Vintage Instructor Flight reviews make them fun—Part II by Steve Krog, CFI
34 Mystery Plane by H.G. Frautschy
37 Classified Ads
39 Making a Ramp Check a Short-Order Event by Steven W. Oxman
VINTAGE AIRPLANE 1
A I R P L A N E A U G U S T
C O N T E N T S
S T A F FEAA Publisher Rod Hightower
Director of EAA Publications Mary JonesExecutive Director/Editor H.G. FrautschyProduction/Special Project Kathleen Witman
Photography Jim KoepnickCopy Editor Colleen WalshSenior Art Director Olivia P. Trabbold
EAA Chairman of the Board Tom Poberezny
Publication Advertising:Manager/Domestic, Sue Anderson
Tel: 920-426-6127 Email: sanderson@eaa.org Fax: 920-426-4828
Senior Business Relations Mgr, Trevor Janz
Tel: 920-426-6809 Email: tjanz@eaa.org
Manager/European-Asian, Willi Tacke
Phone: +49(0)1716980871 Email: willi@flying-pages.comFax: +49(0)8841 / 496012
Interim Coordinator/Classified, Alicia CanzianiTel: 920-426-6860 Email: classads@eaa.org
C O V E R S
Vol. 39, No. 8 2011
FRONT COVER: The jaunty Aeronca Champ restored by Frank Jacobs cruises the skies of
east-central Wisconsin. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Champ and i ts sibling, the
Chief, have been favorites of Aeronca restorers, thanks to their simple structure and fine fly-
ing characteristics. Many Champs and Chiefs now qualify for operation by operators with sport
pilot certificates. Read about Jacob’s Champ in Sparky Barnes Sargent’s story beginning on
page 6. Photo by EAA Chief Photographer Jim Koepnick
BACK COVER: “A Course In Aviation for Fifteen Cents a Month” the cover copy crowed
about Model Airplane News , now the longest running model airplane magazine published
under the same same name. Model Airplane News ran this cover featuring the Nor thrup
Alpha mailplane in January of 1933.
14
6
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2 AUGUST 2011
While President Geoff Ro-
bison attends to some ur-
gent family business, I’d
like to take this oppor-
tunity to thank each of you who at-
tended EAA AirVenture 2011, and if
you’re a VAA or EAA volunteer, you
get a double “Thank you!” for your
efforts. We really could not do it
without you!Every year Theresa Books, VAA’s
administrative assistant, and I en-
joy the hectic month of July as our
friends and fellow volunteers head to
Oshkosh from all over North Amer-
ica, and some even come to Oshkosh
from overseas. It’s always good to see
so many great folks, many of whom
we get to see only once a year. Some
are faces we’ve seen for more than 20
years, and others are newer volun-
teers. It’s a great mix of people whoall have enthusiasm for aviation as a
common interest.
So many of us in the EAA family
have strong interests, and this wide
world of aviation is part of what
makes it so interesting. So many of
our fellow VAA members have an
equal interest in homebuilt airplanes,
and quite a few have one or more
of each in their hangars. Within the
VAA family, we’ve got members who
really like antiques best of all, andothers who really love their contem-
porary or classic airplanes. Addressing
the needs of each of these groups has
been one of the most challenging as-
pects for the offerings from the VAA.
Each of them has particular needs,
and at times it can be quite a juggling
act to ensure we’re doing our best to
meet members’ expectations with the
resources at hand.
Every day means change; some
changes are for the better, some “just
happen” without active work on our
behalf. We have gone from fairly rudi-
mentary cellphone communications
to multi-media wireless communica-
tions we can access nearly anywhere.
The Internet as we know it was really
just getting fired up, and since most
of us were just getting started with
using a 56k phone modem, it was a
good thing that those early websiteswere pretty rudimentary!
Now we have access to various fo-
rums and websites that allow us to
share information and enjoy the
social aspects of being involved in
aviation to whatever extent we de-sire. With all this change, it leads us
to ask, on a regular basis, what it is
our members desire from the VAA.
Vintage Airplane magazine has long
been your primary member benefit,
along with an outstanding insuranceprogram administered by AUA Inc.
We’ve had a website for more than
a decade, and we have an active and
growing component of EAA’s online
community on www.Oshkosh365.org .
But as we all know, change is inevi-
table, and if we don’t actively man-
age the change, some of it may not
work out for the better. Oshkosh365.
org will see some changes in the near
future to enhance its usability, and
we’re actively working on getting allof Vintage Airplane available in an on-line archive where members can read
or download any issue.
This fall, we’ve been planning on
surveying the VAA membership on
a variety of subjects related to their
expectations and desires, and to
help enhance the knowledge gained
by that survey, I’ve got a few ques-
tions for you, and I’m looking for-
ward to hearing from as many of
you as possible.
If you could add one more thing to
the member benefits you receive as a
Vintage Aircraft Association member,
what would it be? Why?
Is there a current member bene-
fit that you don’t feel is worth keep-
ing? Why?
Besides Vintage Airplane magazine,
what other means of communica-
tion would you like to see offered byVAA? What would you like to see in
those communications? How-to vid-
eos? Profiles of vintage aircraft restor-
ers? Historical pieces of a particular
aircraft or personality?
If you’ve got an idea or comment
about anything related to VAA and
its activities, including the annual
fly-in and convention, please feel free
to send them as well. As EAA mem-
bers, you have access to a wide vari-
ety of member benefits, and while wedon’t want to duplicate their efforts,
if you have a suggestion on how we
can “fine-tune” an offering to make it
fit better for your needs, please don’t
hesitate to make a suggestion. Feel
free to send us a response using what-
ever method you prefer, either mail or
e-mail. Our mailing address is:
Vintage Aircraft Association
PO Box 3086
Oshkosh, WI 54903
Or e-mail us at vintageaircraft@eaa.org .
Once again (we can never say it
enough!), “Thanks!” to each and ev-
ery one of you who is a member of
the VAA, and to each of you who en-
hanced their membership experience
by volunteering for the VAA. On be-
half of Theresa Books and me, we’d
just like to say that you folks are the
best, and we enjoy helping you enjoy
your love of vintage airplanes!
H.G.
H.G. FRAUTSCHY
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VAA
STRAIGHT & LEVEL
Embracing change
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VAA NEWS
VINTAGE AIRPLANE 3
Marion Cole
Longtime EAA and Vintage Air-
craft Association members who
recall one of the earliest pilots fly-
ing a 450-hp Stearman in an air
show act will be saddened to hear
of the passing of Marion Franklin
“Master” Cole, who lost a coura-
geous battle with pancreatic can-cer on Friday, July 8, in Louisiana,
at the age of 86. Marion, EAA
Lifetime 48 and a founding (No.
9) IAC member, was a part of the
famous Cole Brothers Flying Cir-
cus for 17 years, then flew the lead
Pitts with Bob Heuer and Gene
Soucy in the original Red Devils
formation team. He is a past U.S.
National Aerobatic Champion
and competed as a member of the
U.S. Aerobatic Team at Magde-
burg, East Germany, in 1968. As
an aerobatics instructor, Marion
provided training for many of the
great names in competitive and
air show aerobatics.
“Marion was a longtime sup-
porter of EAA and one of the most
outstanding aerobatic pilots I ever
met,” said EAA Founder Paul Po-berezny. “Especially in the 450-hp
Stearman—in my opinion, Mar-
ion was top of the line in the pre-
cision handling of that aircraft.
He served as a role model for the
entire aerobatic community, just a
wonderful man.
“Time flies too rapidly for us
human beings.”
Mar ion Co le was bo rn on
December 9, 1924, in Toulan
Township, Illinois. He became
a “hangar brat” at an early age,
cleaning airplanes and hangars—
anything to earn a ride with a lo-
cal pilot. He soloed at age 16 and
never looked back.
Marion joined the serv ice as
soon as he was of age and be-
came a flight instructor in the
Navy. Following World War II,he flew with his brothers in the
Cole Brothers Air Shows, then
formed Marion Cole Air Shows,
with which he performed until
the early 1990s. Marion was alsoan aerobatic inst ructor, flight
instructor, FAA examiner, a cor-
porate pilot for 32 years, and
a national and world aerobatic
competitor. In all he logged more
than 31,000 flight hours.
Marion was a founding mem-
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ber of the International Aerobatic
Club, taught aerobatics at the ba-
sic and advanced levels, and tu-
tored many young aerobatic pilots
for more than 50 years. He flew air
shows throughout the continental
United States from the late 1940s
to the early 1990s. He retired from
the air show circuit but continuedto council, tutor, and announce
for young aerobatic hopefuls and
attended several air shows, in-
cluding AirVenture, each year.
He is survived by his wife of 66
years, Charlene; sons Bill and wife
Norma, Larry and wife Terri, How-
ard and wife Donna, Don and wife
Sharilyn; grandsons Kevin and wife
Tiffany, Aaron and wife Maegan,
Ray, and Justin; and great-grand-
children Kennedie and Collin.
Enroll in an EAA Webinar! Jo in the thousands of people
who have participated in free EAA
webinars (web-based seminars).
All you need is a computer and a
broadband Internet connection to
receive live streaming interactive
multimedia programs at home.
For instance, on August 10, 2011,
maintenance expert and EAA Sport
Aviati on columnist Mike BuschA&P/IA will offer his insight on
owner-produced parts for cer-
tificated aircraft, and even if you
can’t be there to participate live,
you can always watch the archived
webinar. You can sign up for up-
coming webinars at www.EAA.
org/webinars (you’ll be redirected
to a page on EAA’s Oshkosh365
website), and you can also watch
archived webinars starting from
that website.
4 AUGUST 2011
Hall of Fame
John Underwood
Vintage Aircraft Association
EAA will welcome and honor five new members to its Spor t
Aviation Hall of Fame on October 29, 2011. All EAA members
are invited to attend the induction ceremony and dinner that
evening in the EAA AirVenture Museum. For tickets, please call800-236-1025.
VAA’s 2011 inductee will be John Underwood of Glendale, Cali-
fornia. Author of 10 aviation books and numerous ar ticles con-
cerning aviation history, John has had a lifelong fascination with
airplanes since his was a little boy of 7. Later, as an aviation tech-
nical writer and illustrator, he earned a living in the industry, all the
while amassing a vast collection of photographs and aeronautical
materials. His work in the center of one of aviation’s most active
locations, the Los Angeles basin, gave him access to a number of
aviation luminaries, including Lockheed’s Kelly Johnson, test pilot
Tony LeVier (with whom John was partners in a Monocoupe), airracing and test pilot Gordon Israel, Alden Brown (designer of the
Brown racer), and even Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan.
John’s dedication to “getting history right” often sees him lend-
ing materials and photos to other authors so more people can be
made aware of exactly what happened when.
VAA is pleased to include him in its Hall of Fame, honoring his
contributions to the modern-day efforts to keep the world of vin-
tage aircraft alive and vibrant through his writings and research.
Do come join us to honor him at the induction ceremony on Octo-
ber 29, 2011.
Bill Turner (left) presents the Cliff Henderson Award (c.1995) to
John Underwood.
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE 5
To nominate someone is easy. It just takes a little time and a little reminiscing on your part.
Mail nominating materials to:
Remember, your “contemporary” may be a candidate; nominate someone today!
www.VintageAircraft.org
CALL FOR VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION
NominationsCall for VAA Hall of
Fame Nominations
To the left is our informationfor nominations for VAA’s Hall
of Fame, which is presented each
year during a special dinner. This
year’s dinner will be held Friday,
October 28. We’ll have more on
this year’s inductee, John Under-
wood, in a subsequent issue of Vin-
tage Airplane. If you are interested
in purchasing tickets to attend the
dinner to honor the inductees,
contact EAA’s Matt Miller at 920-
426-6886 or mmiller@eaa.org .We would like to take this op-
portunity to mention that if you
have nominated someone for the
VAA Hall of Fame, nominations
for the honor are kept on file for
three years, after which the nomi-
nation must be resubmitted.
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6 AUGUST 2011
Making anOld Friend
Envy of the airport—he flies an Aeronca
BY SPARKY BARNES SARGENT
JIM KOEPNICK
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE 7
Fr ank J acob and h i s
Aeronca Champ have
been buddies for a long
time—and he just in-
vested three and a halfyears restoring it to
make sure they’ll continue their
friendship for several more de-
cades. Frank, a soft-spoken gentle-
man with an amiable smile, flew
his newly restored Champ from
Lafayette, Louisiana, to Sun ’n
Fun, International Fly-In & Expo
at Lakeland, Florida, in the spring
of 2010. His Champ and two oth-
ers composed a friendly flight
of three, and they enjoyed fineweather all the way to Lakeland.
He knows N84856 from the in-
side out, having owned it for 34
years. “It has gone through a lot in
its lifetime,” he says with a smile.
“I found all the old records of
what all the previous owners did
to it when I got the file from the
FAA in Oklahoma City.” Frank has
also gone through quite a bit in his
own lifetime, making aviation his
profession in one way or another.“I flew various airlines that went
bankrupt, went out of business,
and all that sort of thing,” he ex-
“The money isn’t really
the reason for any of this.
It’s fun!” —Frank Jacob
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plains. “I did
maintenance work for Ozark for
a year in St. Louis and put in fouryears of maintenance work in the
Air Force. I got my A&P at Spar-
tan in Tulsa, and I was going to go
through the flight engineer course,but the airl ine on the West Coast
that Spartan had contracted to give
us the flight training went out of
business, so I got my multiengine
instrument instead.”
Frank first became enamored
with Aeronca Champion airplanes
in 1951. “That’s what I did my first
flying in, and that’s what I soloed,”
he recalls, with a twinkle in his eye,
“and I like the airplane!”
Champion History“So safe—so simple—now any-
body can fly” boasted Aeronca’s ad-
vertising of the era, along with the
declaration that the Champ was
“America’s No. 1 Low-Cost Plane,”
and its pilot was the “envy of the
airport.” The tandem AeroncaChampion trainer was designed
by Raymond F. Hermes and man-
ufactured by the Aeronca Aircraft
Corporation in Middletown, Ohio.
More than 8,000 were built, andjust like its predecessors all the way
back through the 1930 Aeronca
C-2, it incorporated aeronautical
engineer Jean Roché’s unique trian-
gular fuselage structure.
In February 1946, as produc-t ion was about to begin, the
Champ was advertised as “the easi-
est plane you’ve ever flown…with
far greater maneuverability and
greatly broadened range of visibil-
ity. …Just wait till you see Aeron-
ca’s luxuriously finished interior…
the extra room and comfort…the
wide safety-swing door! Improved
brake system and tie-down rings
that are built in.”
Features also included 300-degree visibility from the cockpit,a 38 mph landing speed, and stan-
dard oleo landing gear. So it was
easy for a pilot to let his gaze roam
over a pastoral landscape and the
open sky, thanks to the Champ’s
low-profile nose, a one-piece Plexi-
glas windshield, and rather large
side and rear windows. And with
its slow landing speed and shock-
absorbing gear, the Champ could
alight as softly as a flower petal
floating to earth. With its 35-foot
wingspan, and 21-foot 5- inch
length, the Champ had excellent
handling characteristics from
taxi through landing. It offered
a respectable performance
among its contemporaries—
its Continental A-65 pow-
ered a top speed of 100 mphand a 90 mph cruise while
sipping from a 13-gallon fuel
tank for a range of 270 miles.
N84856Unlike many Champs of the
day that were used as trainers,
N84856 went into service as an
agricultural sprayer for Vanda-
lia Flying Service Inc. in Van-
dalia, Illinois. It installed an
Aero Spray King Model A2 unitand converted the plane from
a model 7AC to a 7BCM by re-
moving the Continental A-65-8
and wood propeller and install-
ing a C-85-12F with a Hartz-
ell ground-adjustable propeller.The Champ changed hands several
times, and its Grade A cotton fab-
ric was replaced in 1951. Five years
later, while it was in Oklahoma, the
Champ was converted back to a
7AC model. By 1958, it needed newfabric again, and this time, its fuse-
lage was covered in cotton, and the
wings and tail were covered with
Irish linen.
N84856 continued flying from
owner to owner through the years,
experiencing a few mishaps (such
as ground loops) along the way.
Then in 1975, Frank Jacob became
its new caretaker, and N84856 has
remained in his capable hands
ever since. An A&P and CFI, Frankexplains with a chuckle that he
learned to fly “in west Texas where
the wind blows pretty hard, and
they say instead of a windsock,
they use a logging chain. If the log-
ging chain is standing straight out,
then it gets to be fun.”
He had a bit of work to do on
the Champ when he first purchased
it—but after all, the airplane only
cost him only $3,000. “The gear
had been wiped out from the fuse-
8 AUGUST 2011
“
d
a
i
d
Aan
a
m
an
in
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lage one time, and the doorway was
cut down to just a hole. I thought
I was going to put the hinge pinsin place and put the door back on,
but instead I wound up having to
take fabric off around the bottom
to weld a new door frame,” Frank
recalls, then adds with a smile, “An
FAA man came up behind me while
I was welding on the airframe, and
he thought he’d caught somebody!
He said, ‘Let me see your A&P li-
cense,’ and I pulled it ut to show
him—then he just walked off.”
Research and Resources
By 2004, Frank decided, some-
what apprehensively, to start restor-
ing his aging friend. He had helped
other folks with their projects, but
he hadn’t tackled a full-blown res-
toration. So the first year, he cau-
tiously decided to fabricate a new
cowling. With that accomplished,
he says, “I kept doing a little more,
a little more, and finally it was time
to take the wings off—then I was
committed! So I got serious about
it and put in two and a half years
of work.”
Myriad questions sprang to
Frank’s mind as he examined the
condition of numerous airframe
components and contemplated
such things as par t s replace -
ment, so he sought answers from
technical, personal, and cyber re-
sources. “A little bit of research
can really do a whole lot for you,”
he shares. “There’s a ton of infor-
mation on the Internet from the
various Aeronca flying clubs; Bill
Pancake [well-known Aeronca
VINTAGE AIRPLANE 9
SPARKY BARNES SARGENT
BRADY LANE
Frank says his Champ is probably about 90 percent original.
Frank Jacob
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10 AUGUST 2011
“guru”] is super friendly; and
John Houser, who worked at the
Aeronca factory, has the drawings
for the wing spars and fuselage.
[Editor’s Note: After decades of faith-
ful service to Aeronca enthusiasts,
John no longer prov ides th is he lp .
See the note at the end of this article
for information regarding sources of
data for the Aeroncas.—HGF] I used
the Poly-Fiber fabric-covering pro-
cess, and I dealt with Dondi and
Jim Miller [of Ohio]. They were su-
per helpful and mixed the original
Champ colors for me.”
Frank incorporated a few modi-
fications to his Champ, by means
of various STCs. Through his re-
search, he discovered one from
Cashmere Aviation Inc. (STC No.
SA4760NM) that allowed him to
use Marson Klik-Fast blind rivets to
attach the wing fabric to the ribs,
as opposed to using the original
PK screws. Another handy one was
from Rainbow Flying Service (STC
No. SA00860SE), which allowed
the installation of that company’s
fuselage formers. Additionally,
Frank also used two more STCs:
one for the Champ’s fabric instal-
lation (Poly-Fiber Aircraft Coatings’
STC No. SA1008WE), and one sohe could burn autogas in the 65-
hp Continental (STC No. SA732GL
[airframe] and STC No. SE634GL
[engine]).
Snafus and ChallengesRemember tha t new cowl -
ing that was the genesis of the
Champ’s restoration? Well, as it
turned out, Frank had to rework it
just a bit. Explaining with a good-
natured chuckle, he says, “I madethe new cowling first, and later
on, I installed new rubber engine
mounts, which lifted the engine
up about an inch. Then the new
cowling didn’t fit right! So I had to
modify it, because the engine was
in the proper position when I fin-
ished the airplane.”
One of the most challenging
situations Frank encountered was
installing the leading-edge metal
around the wing ribs. “That wasbecause I had to get to the [pre-
drilled] holes in the ribs from in-
side the wing, in order to align
them with the placement of holes
on the leading edge, and that
metal didn’t want to bend around
the nose ribs. So I had to hold the
metal down while reaching inside
the wing with a pencil and making
a little mark on the metal. Then I
took the metal back off and drilled
one hole. I did that for each hole,all the way across the wing lead-
ing edge. That took a long time,”
recounts Frank with a wry smile,
“and that’s the thing—when I first
took the airplane apart and looked
at it, I thought, ‘Boy, this is going
to take a whole year to do!’”
Frank endured an odyssey of
sorts when he ordered the Sitka
spruce to make new wing spars. He
says, “My first order was shipped
in a cardboard box, and they
The Champ at the beginning of the restoration.
The refurbished fuselage, replete with stringers and formers.
C O U R T E S Y
F R A N K
J A C O B
C O U R T E S Y
F R A N K
J A C O B
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE 11
[the wood] rattled on the back of
a truck until the cardboard was
worn through, exposing the wood.
I took the wood to a professional
shop, and he ruined the wood,”
Frank recalls, adding, “so then, I
bought a second batch of wood
from the same place, and it came
and it was worn terribly, so I soldit back to the trucking company.
Then I bought a third batch from
a different source (Wicks Aircraft
Supply), and they shipped it in a
wood box. That spruce was so per-
fect; it had exactly 90-degree grain
instead of 45-degree, and the grain
was perfectly straight for 16 feet—I
didn’t think a tree could grow that
straight! It was the most beautiful
wood I’ve ever seen in my life, and
we built the spars out of that.”When it came time to strip
the airframe tubing down to bare
metal, he tried using a heavy-
duty commercial sandblaster at a
boat yard, but its force was strong
enough to pepper holes into one
elevator, which necessitated weld-
ing repair. Since the fuselage was
in decent shape, Frank had it
Sponge-Jet blasted (an environ-
mentally friendly type of abra-
sive blasting), and he sandblastedthe smaller parts in his hangar.
He used two-part epoxy primer to
protect and preserve the cleaned
metal components.
Finishing TouchesFrank wanted to make his Champ
as original as he could, and overall,
he thinks it’s “probably about 90
percent original.” In summary, he
used all new hardware and cables,
some new ribs and drag wires fromWag-Aero, new aluminum leading
edges, and new spars and stringers.
He also installed new side windows
and simply reused the windshield,
since it was still in good shape. In-
terestingly, the Champ’s original-
style hubcaps came from the island
of Guam; one of Frank’s friends
found them on eBay.
When he started on the inte-
rior, he consulted Bill Pancake, who
helped him identify the correct col-
New and old ribs are mounted on the new spruce spars.
The wings, ready for fabric.
The fabric-covered fuselage and wings, coated with Poly-Brush.
C O U R T E S Y
F R A N K
J A C O B
C O U R T E S Y
F R A N K
J A C O B
C O U R T E S Y
F R A N K
J A C O B
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12 AUGUST 2011
ors. The brown paint was locally available, and the co-
ordinating brown crackle coating on the instrument
panel was available in a handy spray can from Ken-nedy Manufacturing Company (it makes tool boxes) in
Van Wert, Ohio.
Frank purchased the interior flocking kit from DonJer
Products Corporation in Winnebago, Illinois. The kit, he
says, consists of “one spray gun with glue and another
spray gun with powder. You spray the glue on the sur-
face; then you spray the powder and it sticks to it,” ex-
plains Frank, adding, “Any excess falls off, and eventually
it looks like suede. I had everything ready to spray, but I
had the wrong fitting to plug the spray gun into the air
hose. So I ran to town and went to all the places I could
think of, but nobody had the right fitting. It was late inthe day, and I was discouraged, so I just brushed it on the
cabin wall. So now, if you get the light just right, you can
see little brush marks. Spraying is the way to go!”
Engine and MagsBack when Frank started the Champ’s restoration,
the A-65-8 engine was running so well that he merely
took it off the airframe, pickled it somewhat and used
dehydrator plugs, and hung it on the wall for three
and a half years. At that time, it had a little more than
1,000 hours since major and 200 since top overhaul.
With the airframe completed, he reinstalled the engine
Note the neat upholstery and “flocking” on the
cabin wall.
S P A R K Y
B A R N E S
S A R G E N T
B R A D Y
A N E
P H O T O S
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and crossed his fingers. “It started
after three flips of the prop,” he
says happily, “and has been run-
ning good ever since—I’ve flown it
about 100 hours since June 2008.”
He spruced up the engine com-partment by painting it and powder
coated the black rocker box covers.
Since the Continental has the old
Bendix magnetos, he’s recently de-
cided to buy a magneto with an im-
pulse coupling, to facilitate hand
propping the engine.
Flying the ChampFrank describes flying N84856
by saying, “Generally you want to
lift off at 50 mph, climb at 60, andcruise at 80. As for landings, if you
have a nice, calm day, it’s going to
be all three-point landings, until
you get used to the airplane,” he
explains, emphasizing, “Basically
you want to become part of the air-
plane—you want to feel it. When
most people land an airplane that
has a nose wheel, as soon as they
touch down they sort of relax and
the airplane goes straight down the
runway. But in this airplane, you
ought to be relaxed until you touch
down—and then you get serious
and have to work at it to keep it
straight. I like to wheel land in a
strong crosswind, because you have
a lot more control.”As a flight instructor, he feels that
simply learning how to correctly taxi
the tailwheel Champ is a good step
in transitioning from a nosewheel
airplane. “If you’re just starting out,
mainly you want to get used to the heel
brakes, which are unusual for most
people. You turn the airplane with
full rudder, and if that’s not enough,
then add some brake and then some
power—you’re just working every-
thing when you’re taxiing. And youshould always be conscious of where
the wind is when you’re taxiing, be-
cause you’re flying it when you’re on
the ground. You’ve got to feel the air-
plane to see what it’s doing.”
An Eye to the FutureFrank is affectionately attached
to his Aeronca Champion—and
with good reason; his own personal
history is inextricably entwined
with it. “My daughter, Cathy, first
flew with me when she was 10 years
old,” he reminisces, with a twinkle
in his eyes, “and she used a cushion
so she could reach the rudder ped-
als. I never thought she would do
much with flying…and today she’sflying internationally for Delta. My
son, Don, soloed a few days after
his 16th birthday but didn’t con-
tinue with flying. But the kid across
the street, every time I drive in the
driveway, he wants to go flying! So
you can never tell with kids.”
Father and daughter still occa-
sionally share the joy of flying to-
gether in the faithful Champ, and
Frank proclaims with a smile, “I
plan to give it to her when I finishwith it. I hope to wear it out before
then! I tell her I’ll restore it in an-
other 40 years.”
So it isn’t surprising that Frank
won’t consider selling it. With a
gentle laugh, he shares, “I have put
$17,000 of parts in it, and all those
hours that I can’t count. If some-
body wants to buy it, I say, ‘No way,
I don’t care how much!’ The money
isn’t really the reason for any of
this. It’s fun!”
VINTAGE AIRPLANE 13
JIM KOEPNICK
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14 AUGUST 2011
Ever wonder why your J-3 Cub,
identical to your friend’s Cub in
every way (i.e., engine, prop) just
doesn’t perform like your friend’s
Cub? You’ve checked everything,
including compression, timing, and
identical Stromberg carbs including
the same type of fuel, but still your
Cub is continually outperformed.
The empty weight for both Cubs isnearly identical, and you and your
friend are within five pounds of
one another. Why does your Cub
seem so sluggish on takeoff, but the
other Cub just leaps into the air?
This issue has puzzled Cub own-
ers for decades, but finally there ap-
pears to be a cause and solution on
the horizon. It’s the carburetor!
I recently had an opportunity to
sit down with Robert Kachergius,
Uni-Tech Air Management Systems
Inc. Bob has an engineering as well
as aviation maintenance back-
ground including an A&P and IA,
and for the past number of years he
has specialized in the rebuilding of
Stromberg carburetors.
For years if not decades most
aviation mechanics have been frus-
trated by the Stromberg carbs. If you
get a good carb, they run beauti-fully. But they often cause mechan-
ics much frustration and gray hair.
Consequently, many Strombergs
have been removed and replaced
with a Marvel carb. Now, thanks to
Bob’s research, the cause and solu-
tion have been found.
Bob was asked to take a look at
a Stromberg carb that had been in-
stalled on a Continental A-65 en-
gine. The owner stated the engine
started easily and idled smoothly,
but when full power was applied,
the engine just was turning up. The
normal things had been checked
but made no difference.
The carb was carefully disassem-
bled and all parts checked for wear
and correct assembly. Everything
seemed to be in order. The float
drop was then measured. It should
measure 0.048 inch in all Strom-bergs. However, this float was only
dropping about 0.032 to 0.033
inch and didn’t meet that specifi-
cation, causing the engine to run
lean on partial power. Upon closer
examination it was determined the
float was coming in contact with
the main metering jet, restricting
float drop. In normal operation,
the float will rest on a castin-posi-
tion 45-degree bevel at the bottom
of the float bowl, thus clearing and
Carburetors
BY STEVE KROG
To highlight the special attention that must be paid to even the simplest of mechanical
items like the reliable Stromberg carburetor, the photos are of the work per formed by BobKachergius of Uni-Tech.
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Aug 2011
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE 15
not hitting the edge of the main
metering jet. Operating under
these circumstances the float was
restricting fuel flow, so the engine
was only producing about 60 per-
cent to 65 percent power due to
restricted fuel flow.
Bob had a number of the Strom-berg carbs on hand and pulled sev-
eral of them apart to check float
travel and drop as well as clearance
near the main metering jet. Bob fur-
ther disassembled each of the carbs
to carefully measure the position,
angle, and height of the main meter-
ing jet. Nearly half of the carbs had
restricted float travel due to contact
with the main metering jet. It be-
came quite apparent that a number
of these carbs had been incorrectly
Above and below: The three-legged fuel level measuring tool must be used in conjunction with the
proper amount of fuel feed pressure, or “head,” so the needle and seat will be set properly. Before the
carb is reassembled, the parting surfaces of the carb are carefully checked for flatness using a granitesurface block.
For more explanation on the reason for the fuel level sitting at an angle in the float bowl, see
the photo on page 18.
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16 AUGUST 2011
machined during manufacture
when the main metering jet open-
ing was drilled into the bottom of
the carb fuel bowl. There appeared
to be a large machining variation.
With that finding it bec ame
clear as to why one Stromberg
carb performs as expected, while
the identical carb runs and per-forms poorly causing the me-
chanic and owner fits.
If you’re experiencing lethargic
performance from your Stromberg-
equipped airplane, don’t go tearing
Fuel Drip—WhoGets the Blame?
By Bob Kachergius
As we all know, a lot of Strom-
berg NA-S3 carburetors truly do
drip when the plane is sitting
there, not running. It appears that
the poor little Stromberg is always
blamed as the culprit in this situa-
tion. That’s not always the case.
There are two other factors that
contribute to the fuel drip, but most
of the time they are overlooked.
It could be that the primer or fuel
selector valve is leaking, causing
the problem. Two tests can quickly
and easily solve the puzzle:
First: Disconnect the small primer
line from the fitting on the fuel in-
take spider. Make sure the primer
is seated in its “park” position on
the instrument panel and not par-
tially out. If the primer line continues
to drip, the primer assembly needs
service or replacement.
Second: With the fuel selector
valve turned to the off position, dis-
connect the fuel line at the carbure-
tor. If the fuel line drips, the culprit
here is a leaky fuel shut-off valve.
Repair or replace it.
So, in the end, the poor little
Stromberg that “drips” may not al-
ways be the cause of the problem.
Any time you experience a fuel drip,
do these two tests. They are fast
and simple to perform. The tests
should always be part of a 100-
hour or annual inspection.
Completely overhauled and ready for installation after Uni-Tech’s Bob
Kachergius has given it a thorough going-over. As is typical for most instal-
lations of the Stromberg with the back-suction mixture control installed, the
control lever for the mixing disks is either safety wired in the closed posi-
tion, or, as in this carb, had it removed and replaced with a simple cover
plate. The yel low dot indicates the carburetor has had its fl oat chamber
vent hole repositioned per a Stromberg service bulletin.
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Aug 2011
19/44
into your Stromberg carb just yet.
There is a simple check that you can
do. Remove and inspect the spark
plugs. If the probe ends are a nice
even chocolate brown, your carb is
probably performing as was intended.
However, if your plug ceramic insula-
tors are white to light gray in color,
you are running a lean mixture thatis probably caused by this float/fuel-
flow restriction. In this case you may
want to have your carb thoroughly
inspected and corrected.
Bob has developed a “fix” for
those carbs experiencing float
travel restrictions. He has devel-
oped machining so that the main
metering jet orifice can be counter-
bored slightly, thus allowing full
float drop and proper fuel flow.
When done properly and legally,
VINTAGE AIRPLANE 17
Stromberg NA-S3 Carburetor—Helpful Hints
By Bob Kachergius
They say in life there are two ways to get a job done—doing it the
easy way or the hard way.
When removing and then re-installing a Stromberg carburetor on a
small Continental engine, because of the lack of room, it becomes an
act of frustration in trying to get the castellated nuts and cotter pins
started on the intake spider studs. Doing this while the intake spider is
mounted to the engine becomes, at best, very time-consuming. That’s
the hard way.
Try this instead:
Remove the intake spider from the engine (two AN6 nuts and wash-
ers, four rubber intake tubes and clamps, one primer line connection)
and then easily re-install the carburetor to the intake spider while it’s
on the workbench; it’s fast and simple. This is the easy way.
You will find, in most cases, that the rubber intake tube sleeves are
pretty old, dry, and cracked and in need of replacement anyway.
Stromberg Carb Information Chart
CARB MODEL ENGINE MFR ENGINE MFR ENGINE MODEL HORSEPOWER FUEL FEEDSETTING NUMBER
NA-S3A1 series carburetors with mixture controlA18033B CONT 3628 A-65 65 GRAVITY
A-75 75 GRAVITY
A-80 80 GRAVITY
A30177 CONT 4631 A-75 (Stinson) 75 GRAVITY 50” HEAD380162 CONT 40059 C-75 75 GRAVITY380167 CONT 40590 C-85 85 GRAVITY
380171 CONT 36019 C-75 75 PRESSURE
380172 CONT 40636 C-85 85 PRESSURE
380174 CONT 24716 C-75-12 75 GRAVITY
380231-3 CONT ------ C-9012F 90 GRAVITY
380231 CONT ------ C-90 90 PRESSURE
391090 CONT ------ C-90 90 GRAVITY
391156 CONT ------ C-90 90 GRAVITY
391229-1-2 CONT ------ C-90-14F 90 GRAVITY
391257 CONT 531157 C-90-14F 90 GRAVITY
391716-1 CONT ------ A-50 50 PRESSURE “ “ “ A-65 65 3 PSI /
“ “ “ A-75 75 .048” FLOAT
“ “ “ A-80 80 DROP
392458 CONT 4805 A-80 80 GRAVITY
NA-SO3A1 (rarely seen )380168 CONT 50335 A-100 100 GRAVITY
380175 CONT 36020 A-100 100 PRESSURE
NA-S3B (no mixture control)380155 CONT 35885 A-50 50 GRAVITY
“ “ “ A-65 65 “
380205 CONT 36109 A-65 65 PRESSURE
“ “ “ A-75 75 “380206 CONT 36109 A-65-8 65 PRESSURE
This chart details the proper engine/application with the model number stamped on the carb body.
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18 AUGUST 2011
the float restriction is no longer a
problem and the carb can be re-
turned to service.
Bob also does several other things
to a Stromberg to get it to run prop-
erly. He finds that in all the carbshe gets in for overhaul, almost ev-
ery one has the old neoprene needle
and seat. These needles were the sec-
ond generation from Stromberg and
were designed to eliminate the fuel
drip common to Strombergs. These
needles came out in 1943 after the
war, and some can approach 60-plus
years in age. They get very brittle
and will crumble when squeezed
with a long nose pliers. It is also
common knowledge that when us-
ing auto fuel containing ethanol,
many of these needles can swell up
and cause real fuel flow problems.
There were three other manufactur-
ers of the neoprene needles along
with Stromberg, and it is impossibleto differentiate as to who made the
needle. The three clone needles were
made of an inferior-grade neoprene
and did swell up. The OEM Strom-
berg needle did not. Thus, at over-
haul, Bob will use the latest stainless
steel or Delrin needle and seat, elim-
inating the neoprene headache.
Another interesting find is that
when dismantling the carbs for
overhaul, Bob finds that whoever
worked on the carb in the past had
grossly overtorqued the six 1/4-
20 fillistered head screws holding
the upper casting half to the lower
one. The normal torque specified
in the Stromberg overhaul is only
35-45 inch-pounds. This puts ex-cessive stress on the casting and
warps them, causing possible vac-
uum and fuel leaks. Bob has to
custom lap each casting parting
surface on a granite lapping plate
to get perfectly flat mating surfaces,
guaranteeing a positive seal. This
procedure is done on every carb he
overhauls.
Another situation exists contrib-
uting to fuel drip. The Stromberg
was originally designed for the Er-
The steel needle and its corresponding sharp-edged
brass seat.
An original and aftermarket set of neoprene-tipped
needles, illustrating the brittleness that occurs as the
needles age.
The Delrin needle used in many Stromberg carbs
seems to offer the best of both worlds.
Here is a 12-degree wedge plate Bob uses to show how
the fuel level sits in a taildragger after the float level was
set to 13/32 inches wet in the bench. It shows how the
fuel sits at an angle in the bowl, and, even when the
float level is proper at 13/32 inches level, the rear of the
main gasket can get “wet” and seep a little fuel at the
casting parting line, causing a blue stain. This is why Bob
always turns the fuel selector off after every shutdown.
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Aug 2011
21/44
coupes, which sat on tricycle gear and level to the
ground. Now, install the Stromberg on a taildragger,
and it no longer sits level, causing fuel to drip out
of the carb float bowl vent opening. This vent port
is located in the lower casting about 1/4 inch be-low the parting surface. Stromberg came out with a
service bulletin to effect a fix. This involves sealing
the lower casting port opening and relocating the
port to the upper casting half, approximately 1/4
inch above the parting surface. This raises the float
bowl vent 1/2 inch higher than original and elimi-
nated float bowl drip. Bob makes this modification
on every carb he overhauls. The easy way to see if
this mod was done to your carb is to look and see
if there is a 1-inch-diameter yellow dot painted on
the face of the float bowl as recommended by the
Stromberg service bulletin. If this mod isn’t done,your carb will drip. Bob has found that on almost
every carb that comes in for overhaul, none have
this modification installed.
Another situation occurs when someone in the
field attempts to set the float level of 13/32 inch
(all Stromberg carbs) below the lower casting part-
ing surface and doesn’t dry mechanically. This is
impossible to do accurately. The float level has to
be set “wet” with fuel fed to the float bowl with the
recommended gravity flow pressure head. This has to
be done on a flow fixture device to be accurate. Fuel
float level is done by randomly stacking variable-thickness special gaskets under the brass needle seat
to attain the proper level.
The Stromberg carburetor is an excellent unit and
will perform flawlessly if inspected, overhauled, and
maintained properly. Bob’s diligence in really figur-
ing out the manufacturing variances in the original
parts is to be commended. His company, Uni-Tech
Air Management Systems, located at 13221 Wind-
ward Trail in Orland Park, Illinois, specializes in
overhauling only the Stromberg carburetor. Bob can
be reached at 708-267-7111 to answer any questions
you may have on your Stromberg.VINTAGE AIRPLANE 19
THE “STROMBERG SPECIALIST”
R.E. “Bob” Kachergius A&P/IA
UNI-TECH AIR MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, INC.
Call: 708-267-7111 Mail: 13221 WINDWARD TRAIL
ORLAND PARK, IL. 60462 E-Mail: uni-tech@earthlink.net
Does your Stromberg NA-S3 carburetor Drip - Leak - Perform poorly ? ? ?
Have it Overhauled & Restored to “Grand Cham-
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& seat – proper metering
jets & venturis… Float level
is set “wet” to 13/32” – Stromberg service letter
procedure installed to raise float bowl vent position
eliminating fuel drip – prepare a log book entry
sheet…
All for $850.00+ $25.00 freight & handling
Before re-assembling the Stromberg carb, the cast-
ings are carefully inspected and finished, with the
mating surfaces trued up on a granite surface plate.
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8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Aug 2011
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20 AUGUST 2011
Light Plane Heritage
published in EAA Experimenter October 1991
Editor’s Note: The Light Plane Heritage series in EAA’s Experimenter magazine often touched on aircraft and concepts
related to vintage aircraft and their history. Since many of our members have not had the opportunity to read this se-
ries, we plan on publishing those LPH articles that would be of interest to VAA members. Enjoy!—HGF
THE UNIQUE LONGHEAD S-1BY BOB WHITTIEREAA 1235
In the autumn of 1918 the feel-
ing became widespread that the
long and bloody conflict we called
World War I was at last moving to-
ward its end. This prompted lively
discussions to take place in a mod-
est aircraft manufacturing shop lo-
cated in the California seaside town
of Santa Barbara.“What are we going to do after
the war?” was the gist of the talk
that went on between the brothers
Allan and Malcolm Loughead and
their associates John Northrop and
Anthony Stadlman. They finally
agreed that they should turn their
quite impressive mechanical and
engineering talents to developing a
small sportplane that would appeal
to the thousands of men who had
learned to fly during the war.
Before getting into the story of
the Loughead S-1 (for Sportplane
No. 1), let’s say something about
the two Lougheads. The name, bythe way, was and is pronounced
“Lockheed.” They came from a fam-
ily of Scottish origin and were born
in the late 1880s. They had an older
half-brother, Victor, from their fa-
ther’s previous marriage. He had
formal training in engineering and
as early as 1909 was writing books
on aviation and aircraft design.
The two younger Lougheads be-
came expert automobile mechan-
ics during the first decade of the
20th century. Then living in San
Francisco, the three spent much
time discussing aviation. This led
Allan in 1910 to move to Chicago,which at that time was a beehive
of aeronautical activity. There he
became a good aircraft mechanic
and taught himself to fly by acci-
dent. That is to say, an airplane he
was taxi testing picked up enough
speed to become airborne, oblig-
The young lady gives an idea of the
Loughead S-1’s dimensions as it sits on
display in front of the San Francisco CityHall in 1920.
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE 21
ing him to “fly” it as best he could
in an erratically circular path so as
to return to the field from which
he had departed. Since the landing
injured neither the plane nor him-
self, that made him into a pilot by
the standards of that time.
Early in 1912, Allan returned
to San Francisco and persuadedbrother Malcolm to join him in
building an airplane. Malcolm
had remained in Cal i fornia ,
where he worked as an accom-
plished auto mechanic and de-
veloped what became the widely
used Lockheed hydraulic brakes
for cars. Between 1912 and 1916
the two divided their time among
assorted aviation projects and
prospecting for gold. In 1916 they
relocated to Santa Barbara, wherethey set up a modest aeronautical
shop in a garage.
Here they built a small number
of flying boats. The aforementioned
John Northrop and Tony Stadlman
had also been active in the heady
early days of aviation and during
the war joined the Loughead shop
to help build a small number of na-
val flying boats. Between them the
four possessed very considerable
practical and engineering knowl-edge. As mentioned previously,
they began to brainstorm their
ideas for a postwar civil airplane.
Now, in the year 1918 nobody
foresaw clearly the enormous impact
that thousands of war-surplus mili-
tary planes would have on the post-
war civil aviation scene. Not realizing
that the aircraft manufacturing in-
dustry would be severely depressed
for several years by this vast supply of
cheap surplus airplanes and engines,the quartet enthusiastically drew up
a list of desirable characteristics for
their new plane.
Of course, there were often
strong differences of opinion while
all this talk was going on, but in the
end they agreed on what it should
be like. It would be a single-seater,
partly so that a small and therefore
economical engine could fly it satis-
factorily, but in retrospect probably
also because they felt that the typi-
cal returning military pilot would
be one who was accustomed to fly-
ing a fast and nimble single-seater
or at least being in total command
of a two-seater.
Airplane fuselages of that time were
tediously put together from wooden
longerons and cross-members
held together with a great many
intricate metal fittings, braced
against bending and twisting with
many crisscrossing steel cablesand trued up by expertly adjust-
ing a multitude of turnbuckles.
All of this was much too labor-
intensive for a plane meant to be
sold to civilians at the lowest fea-
sible price. For this reason they
developed a more suitable form
of construction, which will be de-
scribed shortly.
They also decided that their
plane should perform well enough
to have a reasonable chance of sat-isfying pilots accustomed to flying
lively military planes, within the
limitations set by an economical
selling price. Yet at the same time,
because real airports with good
runway and hangar facilities were
at that time still very few in num-
ber and far apart, they agreed that
their plane would have to be able
to take off from and land on what-
ever modest-sized clearing owners
might be able to find.
Because the g lues and var -
nishes available in those long-ago
days were rather lacking in water-
resistance, the new plane would
have to be designed so that its wing
folded for towing behind a car to a
garage or barn for storage.
While some European war-
planes such as the German Fokkers
had fuselages put together com-
paratively quickly by welding steel
tubing of suitable length and di-ameters, the technique of building
this way was not very well under-
stood in the United States. Also,
expert oxyacetylene welders were
scarce in California.
Much thought and experimen-
tation went into the method set-
tled upon for building the fuselage.
They knew of other airplanes that
had wooden fuselages of the mono-
coque-type construction. That
word is of French origin and is pro-nounced monoKOK. It means es-
sentially “a stiffened sheet of metal,
veneer, plastic, etc. to bear loads.”
Various other fuselages of this
type had been built using tech-
niques familiar to builders of light-
weight boats. Typically strips of
veneer would be laid onto a suit-
able building form made of bulk-
heads and stringers. One of the
problems was to end up with an
acceptable smooth, sound, and
Obviously the result of a lot of pattern work and concrete mixing, the fuse-
lage molds for the S-1 were solid and durable. While books on the Lockheeds
claim birch plywood was used for lamination, material visible to the right looks
more like some kind of veneer.
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Aug 2011
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22 AUGUST 2011
strong laminate using whatever a
builder chose in the way of tacks,
staples, and glues. Sometimes lam-
inations sprung apart before the
glue set adequately.
They were not, by the way, the
only ones looking for an alterna-tive to the wood-and-wire type
of construction. While they were
building their S-1 in early 1919,
the Curtiss company on Long Is-
land in far-away New York built
a number of Curtiss Oriole three-
seater biplanes that had fuselages
made with Curtiss’ version of the
laminating process. The fuselage of
an Oriole can be seen and studied
today at the Glenn H. Curtiss Mu-
seum at Hammondsport in centralNew York.
The Lougheads came up with
the idea of using large concrete
molds in which to laminate right
and left shells from which to as-
semble a complete fuselage. While
very heavy, concrete was inexpen-
sive and admirably rigid. The glue
most generally used for aircraft
construction in those days was
of the casein type, made of dehy-
drated milk curds ground into a
powder and then mixed with wa-
ter for use. Commercial glues of
this kind usually had additives in
them to impart desirable charac-
teristics. While water-resistant for
periods of time reckoned in terms
of a few days immersion, it wasnot truly waterproof.
Information in available litera-
ture is vague and confusing, but
it appears the Loughead team
gradually devised a method of
preparing materials and position-
ing them in the concrete molds.
Three layers of very thin spruce
plywood were laid up, and one
old book claims that layers of thin
cloth were spread between them
to serve as binding membranes.When the laminating materi-
als were in position in the mold,
a rubber bag was laid in place and
the mold capped with a bolted-
on cover. Air pressure then forced
the rubber against what would be
the inner surface of the finished
molding. This applied necessary
pressure to assure proper bond-
ing of the glue, absence of voids,
and a smooth outer surface. When
the glue had cured, right- and left-
hand moldings were joined to-
gether with longitudinal bonding
strips to form a light, strong fu-
selage. The finished laminate was
1/8 inch thick.
The structure and shape of the
tail surfaces were made to fit onthe torpedo-like tail end of the fu-
selage. This characteristic look ap-
peared some years later on the
Lockheed Vega, Sirius, Orion, and
Altair designs.
The Santa Barbara experiment-
ers originally intended to use an
English Green engine on their new
design, but had to give up this idea
when the manufacturer went out
of business. So expert mechanic
Stadlman designed a two-cylinder,horizontally opposed engine that
he and Allan built in their shop.
At that time designers and found-
ries were much more familiar with
the technique of casting deep,
closely spaced air-cooling fins. So
this new engine was water-cooled.
A radiator of crescent shape was
made to fit neatly under the fu-
selage below the firewall. The en-
gine developed 25 hp.
To get acceptable takeoff and
This view of the S-1 in flight suggests that the German Albatros of World War I could have been the inspiration for its
overall shape.
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE 23
climb performance from this en-
gine, the plane’s wings were given
the ample span of 28 feet for the
upper one and 24 feet for the lower
one. While at first sight appearingto be a biplane, the S-1 was actu-
ally a sesquiplane. “Sesqui-” means
“one-and-a-half,” and so this now
seldom-encountered aviation term
refers to a two-winged aircraft in
which the area of one wing (in this
case the lower) is one-half or less of
the other.
The top wing was of conven-
tional two-spar, fabric-covered
wooden construction and had no
ailerons to simplify manufactur-ing of the ribs. The wingtips were
of very pleasing and efficient semi-
elliptical shape. Lower wings were
of single-spar construction. V-
shaped interplane struts connected
the two spars of the upper wing
panels to the single spars of the
lower ones. This layout originated
in the famous French World War I
Nieuport fighters as a result of de-
signer Edouard Nieuport’s strong
feeling that the number of wing
A Hint From Boat BuildersMonocoque construction has been little used in homebuilt aircraft or re-
storers, but offers possibilities for experimenters having a working knowl-
edge of stress analysis and weight control. For example, using certain
modern techniques, a fuselage could be made without the need for an
expensive mold, and the method could be adapted to such things as tail
booms, seaplane floats, and flying boat hulls.
Epoxy resins that develop full strength without the need for great clamping
pressure are now available. They are used in a method of amateur and cus-
tom boatbuilding called cold molding, from the fact that these resins cure atroom temperatures. A study of this boat-building technique could be produc-
tive. But a word of caution—poorly chosen lamination schedules can result
in unacceptably heavy or costly aircraft components.
In copies of WoodenBoat magazine, you’ll find advertisements of epoxy
suppliers such as Chem Tech and Gougeon Brothers and get prices for their
how-to literature and trial samples. WoodenBoat has a catalog that among
other things lists books on lightweight wooden boat construction. Their ad-
dress is Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616. Write to Forest Products Laboratory,
One Gifford Pinchota Drive, Madison, WI 53705 and request copies of “List
of Publications on Veneer and Plywood” and “Glass and Glue Products – List
of Publications.”
Veneer used for cold-molded boat hulls is about one-eighth inch in thick-ness and produces laminates too thick and heavy for aircraft. Being an ex-
pensive manufactured product, there’s a question if it’s economical to buy
thin plywood and slice it into strips for lamination work. When homemade ve-
neer is produced by running planks through a table saw, much of the raw ma-
terial one has purchased is turned into wor thless sawdust. Veneer is made
by special machines in which very large blades slice wood from logs without
producing sawdust.
Builders of fiberglass boats use a wide variety of special foam plastic and
balsa wood core materials that add thickness and rigidity to laminates. A
successful epoxy-based monocoque aircraft structure would be the result of
careful study of the many special materials and techniques available today.
The S-1’s wing assembly was really
unique. Lower wings pivoted to act
as ailerons, and tipped on edge to
clear the fuselage when the wings
were folded for towing and storage.
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24 AUGUST 2011
struts and brace wires should be
kept to a minimum for the sake of
minimizing wind-resistance while
retaining the strength and rigiditycreated by trussing biplane wings
together with a system of struts and
crisscrossed wires. The Germans
imitated this approach in their Al-
batros fighters, and we can see a re-
semblance to the Albatros’ lines in
those of the Loughead S-1.
The S-1’s lower wings also had
no ailerons. Because each had but a
single spar, it was feasible to make
fittings that attached them to the
fuselage in such a way as to al-
low these wings to pivot about the
spanwise centerlines of their spars.
The control system was designed to
make the lower wings move exactlyas do conventional ailerons. In ef-
fect, the smallish lower wings were
the plane’s ailerons.
The control system incorporated
another feature. By pulling a lever
just after touching down on a land-
ing, the pilot could cause the lower
wings to rotate 90 degrees, with
leading edges poi nting straight
down and trailing edges straight
up. This presented the lower wings’
full surface broadside to the air and
provided dramatic braking effect.
The cleverness of the wing struc-
ture’s overall design is further il-
lustrated by the fact that wing rootfittings also allowed right- and left-
hand assemblies to be folded back-
ward (on the ground, of course!) to
make the ship narrow enough to
be towed tail-first behind a car over
the road from landing field to stor-
age building.
Extensive test flying was carried
out during 1919, and the plane at-
tracted much favorable attention
when exhibited and demonstrated
at the 1920 San Francisco Aeronau-
Two workmen easily hold the partly completed fuselage of the S-1. In the original 8-by-10-inch photo, strips of veneer
of verifying widths could clearly be seen running in a straight fore and aft direction.
It’s a widely acknowledged truth that each new airplane design is based at
least in part on lessons learned from previous aircraft. In 1927 the Lock-
heeds (having changed the spelling of their family name) based the fuselage
of their Vega on the construction method used for the 1919 Loughead S-1,
combined with Anthony Fokker’s method of making wooden cantilever wings.
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VINTAGE AIRPLANE 25
tical Exposition. Empty weight was
only 375 pounds, all the more im-
pressive when we remember that it
was fitted with a water-cooled en-
gine with its radiator and coolant
weights. Weight fully loaded was
an equally impressive 600 pounds.
Top speed was 70 mph; landing
speed a very useful 25 mph. Rate ofclimb was 700 fpm, which is very
good for the power available.
This interesting plane was a tech-
nical and operational success, but
a commercial disappointment. Af-
ter investing $29,000 in healthy
1919 dollars in its development,
the Lougheads were very disap-
pointed when not a single order
came in. They went out of busi-
ness in 1921, engaged in a variety
of other enterprises, and becausepeople persistently mispronounced
their name in such ways as “Log-
head,” changed the spelling to the
phonetic Lockheed. Theirs was but
one of the many firms that suf-
fered from the flood of cheap, war-
surplus airplanes.
As the 1920s wore on, new and
vastly improved aircraft engines ap-
peared on the scene. Notable was
the very reliable Wright Whirl-
wind nine-cylinder radial engineof 200 to 220 hp, which powered
the planes of Adm. Byrd, Charles A.
Lindbergh, Clarence Chamberlin,
and others. Designers began to re-
alize that the drag of biplane wings
handicapped these better engines
and turned to monoplanes. Most
monoplanes of the late 1920s were
strut-braced.
Despite their setback, the Lock-
heeds maintained their interest in
aviation and in 1927 came up withsomething really good. By combin-
ing Anthony Fokker’s method of
building low-drag cantilever wings
of wood with their method of mak-
ing the S-1’s fuselage, they came up
with the very sleek and fast Lock-
heed Vega. In the hands of intrepid
pilots like the Wilkins-Eielson
team, Wiley Post, and Amelia Ear-
hart, it made many daring and dif-
ficult flights.
Developed from the high-wing
Vega, the low-wing Sirius led tothe retractable-gear Orion and Al-
tair low-wings that introduced
high speed and reliability to airline
scheduling. Lessons learned while
building stressed-skin Lockheeds of
wood taught lessons to designers
like John Northrop that stood them
in good stead when in the early
1930s they began to design all-
aluminum aircraft of monocoque
fuselage and cantilever wing design.
So despite its lack of commercial
success, the innovative LougheadS-1 contributed greatly to aeronau-
tical progress. It even passes along
two important lessons to those
who are working with amateur-
built aircraft today. One is that
there is always more than one way
to do something, and the other is
that when well-informed experi-
menters start brainstorming, no
one can predict to what surpris-
ing developments their efforts will
eventually lead!
This set of general-arrangement drawings, done by Patricia and Monty Groves,
originally accompanied an article by them concerning the history of the S-1,
and the building of a scale R/C model. It appeared in the October 1972 issue
of American Aircraft Modeler .
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26 AUGUST 2011
One of the first designs, whichproved successful in dealing
with the problem of engine drag,
was the Townend ring cowl. De-
signed by British engineer B.
Melvill Jones, this cowling was
intended to reduce cooling drag
but did little for improved cool-
ing, thus it was strictly for in-
creased airspeed.
I l l u s t r a t i o n 1 s h o w s t h e
Townend ring cowl (also called a
speed ring), when installed prop-erly, reduced drag by as much
as 11 percent. However, the
Townend ring impeded visibil-
ity while taxiing on the ground.
Engineers and researchers be-
gan to explore improved designs
that would address the issues of
drag and visibility. In 1928, Fred
Weick (pronounced Wyck), an
engineer from the National Advi-
sory Committee for Aeronautics,
led the development of what wasto become known as the NACA
low-drag engine cowling. Weick
had access to the NACA Propeller
Research Wind Tunnel at Lang-
ley, Virginia. Weick and his team
won the 1929 Collier Trophy,
the first of five Collier awards
for NACA. One of the four Col-
lier trophies received by NASA’s
Langley Research Center, Hamp-
ton, Virginia, was in 1929 for the
development of the cowling for
radial air-cooled engines. By theend of September 1928, tests of
Cowling No. 10 in the Propeller
Research Wind Tunnel, shown
here, demonstrated a dramatic re-
duction in drag.
Illustration 1
Weick (Illustration 2) authored
a number of technical papers for
NACA regarding his research on
engine cowlings, both full-pres-
sure cowlings and speed r ings.
Weick was also interested in de-signing a safe aircraft, one that
would not stall or spin. His de-
sign was wind tunnel tested in
the Langley facility, and a full-
size aircraft was constructed and
flown as a proof-of-concept ve-
hicle, but it never went into pro-
duction. Weick and his staff made
numerous wind tunnel tests of
various configurations and instal-
lations of engine cowlings. All
showed a tendency to reduce par-
asite drag by smoothing out theairflow around cylinder heads,
but there was a penalty in engine
operating temperature. As the
team continued the experiments,
it became apparent that some-
thing other than the cowling
was needed. Intercylinder baffles
directed the air more efficiently
around cyl inder barre l s and
heads for better cooling. For the
speed ring or Townend cowl, it
was the angle to which the cowl-ing mounted to the engine cylin-
ders. The following charts show
Weick’s experiments on cowling
configuration. Weick was head of
the Propeller Research Wind Tun-
nel section from 1925-1929.
Illustration 2
BY ROBERT G. LOCK
Engine cowls for drag reductionPart I
THE VintageMechanic
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28 AUGUST 2011
Illustration 3 depicts experiments with a wide
and narrow speed ring configuration shown with
mounting locations forward and aft on the cylin-
der heads. The location of the speed ring would
give varying drag decreases and would also affect
engine cooling. Early experiments were carried out
using a Wright J-5 radial engine, but were expanded
to other radial engines of the time. Oscar W. Schey
and Ernest J ohnson authored NAC A Technical
Notes No. 334, and Melvin Gough authored No.
335 dated February 1930.
Illustration 3
Illustration 4 shows NACA Technical Note No.
355 authored by Melvin N. Gough and detailing
the tilting of a speed ring +6 to -20 degrees to the
longitudinal axis of the aircraft. These experiments
were carried out on Curtiss SF7C-1 aircraft.
Illustration 4
Illustration 5 shows a photograph of experimen-
tal military aircraft used for flight testing and vali-
dating the NACA speed ring engine cowlings. Not
only was drag measured but also engine cooling.
Early cowling experiments tended to reduce drag
but increase the engine-operating temperature, es-
pecially the oil temperature.
The full-pressure NACA cowl installed on a Cur-
tiss AT-5 aircraft, ready for another test flight in the
early 1930s, is shown in Illustration 5. The develop-
ment of this speed ring was a major breakthroughfor all World War II aircraft.
Illustration 5
On a test flight, the NACA speed cowl or Townend
cowl can readily be seen in these NASA photo-
graphs. The aircraft is a Curtiss P-3 Hawk with a
Townend ring cowl.
Early cowling
experiments tended to
reduce drag
but increase the
engine-operating
temperature, especially
the oil temperature.
NASA
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Illustration 6
Curtiss P-3 Hawk with Townend
ring cowling.
Illustration 7
Curtiss P-3 Hawk with NACA
cowling.
Engine cowlings became a method
to increase performance of an air-
craft, both in speed and range. This
invention was to have a profound
effect on future aircraft.
VINTAGE AIRPLANE 29
As the team
continued the
experiments, it
became
apparent that
something
other thanthe cowling
was needed.
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NASA
What Our Members
Are RestoringAre you nearing
completion of arestoration? Or isit done and you’rebusy f l y ing andshowing it off? Ifso, we’d l ike tohea r f r om you .Send us a 4-by-6-inch print from a
commercial source(no home printers,please—those prints just don’t scan well) or a 4-by-6-inch, 300-dpi digital photo. A JPG from your 2.5-megapixel (or higher) digitalcamera is fine. You can burn photos to a CD, or if you’re on ahigh-speed Internet connection, you can e-mail them along witha text-only or Word document describing your airplane. (If youre-mail program asks if you’d like to make the photos smaller, sayno.) For more tips on creating photos we can publish, visit VAA’swebsite at www.vintageaircraft.org . Check the News page for ahyperlink to Want To Send Us A Photograph?
For more information, you can also e-mail us at vintageaircraft@eaa.org or call us
at 920-426-4825.
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30 AUGUST 2011
In the last issue of Vintage Airplane magazine I offered
a brief overview of “Rock,” a local general-aviation,
pleasure-flying pilot in need of a flight review. Much
of the article was told in a “tongue in cheek” manner,
but it was more real than fiction. This article will dealwith a flight review and some of the considerations I
like to use when conducting a review.
The requirements of a flight
review consist of one hour
(minimum) of flight training
and one hour (minimum) of
ground training. It should
include:
• A review of the current
general operating and flight
rules of Part 91, and
• A review of those maneuversand procedures that, at the
discretion of the person giving
the review, are necessary for the
pilot to demonstrate the safe
exercise of the privileges of the
pilot certificate.
There Is No “Pass or Fail”
The flight review should
not be viewed as a necessary
evil. Rather, approach it as a
means of making you a better,safer pilot. If should be fun
and, yes, even challenging,
depending upon how much
flying you do annually. It is not a pass-or-fail test!
This is what I like to do when I conduct a flight
review.
Review the aircraft paperwork. This gives me an
opportunity to ensure the airplane is legal to fly and
point out discrepancies, if found. Does the airplane
have a current weight and balance sheet? If so, is it kept
in the airplane as it should be? Or is it with the logbooks
and other paperwork? If it is not in the airplane with
the airworthiness certificate and registration, I’ll make
several copies of the sheet for the individual, making
sure one is installed in the plane and the other copies
kept safely with the logbooks. This exercise helps pilots
make or keep their airplane legal should they everexperience a ramp check.
If the airworthiness certificate is tattered and torn?
I’ll usually make several copies
of it and suggest that the extra
copies be safely kept with the
logbooks. If the airworthiness
certificate is lost someday, or if
it blows out of the airplane (I’ve
had this happen), it’s quite easy
to get a replacement from the
local flight standards district
office if you can produce a copyof the old certificate.
N o w t h a t t h e F A A h a s
converted to the new registration
system, I find it a good idea to
look at the registration and
remind the pilot of when he
or she can expect to receive a
new registration notice from
the FAA. (You would be amazed
at how many individuals
are confused by this new
registration system.)I ’ l l n e x t r e v i e w t h e
individual’s logbook, discussing
the type of flying as well as how
much flying the pilot has done in the past two years.
Is it local flying never beyond 50 miles from home?
Or is it one or two cross-country flights annually? This
information will help me decide what to cover when it
comes time to fly.
I then like to discuss the new style of NOAA sectional
charts, pointing out various changes that have been
made both in color usage as well as chart symbols.
If you haven’t recently looked at one, you will be
BY Steve Krog, CFI
THE VintageInstructor
Flight reviews make them funPart II
Most pilots with
whom I’ve worked
with on a flight
review will be
quite candid and
want to talk
about things in
which they may
feel weak.
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Go Wide.
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32 AUGUST 2011
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