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VOL.
31
, No. 2
FEBRUARY
2003
2 VAA NEWS .G. Frau
tschy
3
FRIENDS OF THE RED BARN
4
JOHN MILLER RECALLS . . .
A Dc-3 ADVENTURE l ]oh n
M.
M i ll er
7
ICE
AND
OTHER
WAYS TO
BREAK
AN
AIRPLANE
1
OR AIRMAN/Bi l l Dunn
10 MYSTERY PLANE
13 THE
WINSTEAD SPECIAL
THE 1920s WERE " SPECIAL"
G i les Auliard
17
THE FAMILY FLIVVER
THE KOSHAR S 1966 SKYHAWK
Budd Dav
i sson
21
THE VINTAGE INSTRUCTOR
-
DISTRACTIONS
IT'S WHAT
YOU
DON
'T
SEE
THAT MIGHT BITE
Doug Stewar t
22 PASS
IT
TO
BUCK
25
CALENDAR
27 CLASSIFIED ADS
28
NEW
MEMBERS
30
VAA MERCHANDISE
Publisher
Edi tor-in Chief
Executive Edi t
or
Ne
ws E
di tor
Photo
g
raph
y Staff
A
dv
erti s
in
g
Coor
di
nat
or
Adverti s
in
g/ Edito
ri
al
Ass
is
tant
Copy E
ditin
g
VINTAGE AIRPLA""""-=
Exec
utiv
e Director E
ditor
VAA A
dmini
strative
Ass
istant
Co
ntributin
g E
di t
ors
Graph ic Designer
TOM
POBEREZNY
scon SPANGLER
MIKE
DIFRISCO
RIC
REYNOLDS
JIM
KOEPNICK
LEEANN ABRAMS
TRISHA LUNDQUIST
JULIE
RUSSO
ISABELLE WISKE
COLLEEN WALSH
KATHLEEN WITMAN
HENRY
G.
FRAUTSCHY
THERESA BOOKS
JOHN UNDERWOOD
BUDD
DAVISSON
OLIVIA
L.
PHILLIP
17
FRONT COVER It s hard to believe that this Cessna
172
was delivered over 6
years ago. One of the first bui lt with Cessna's Ommnivision back window,
it s
been
a part of Robert Koshar's family since 1972. It won the Contemporary Champion
award at
EM
AirVenture
2000.
EM
photo by Jim Koepnick, EAA Cessna 210 photo
plane flown
by
Bruce Moore.
BACK COVER Frank Warren's striking painting entitled "
All
American Ace " shows
us Douglas Campbell, the first pilot trained by Americans to become an ace during
WW-I.
Campbel l downed his
5
German aircraft
in
1918
.
He
stands beside a Nieuport
28
bearing the "Hat
in
the Ring " markings
of
the 94th Squadron of the American 1st
Pursuit Group . Warren 's painting was awarded an Honorable Mention ribbon from the
judges of the
2002 EM
Sport Aviation Art Competition.
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Feb 2003
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e
LEVEL
t happens every so
often;
we
in my part of
De
er I have had either snow or ice
in front of my hangar
door
time.
My
hangar door
and
with
the sun
in
the
sky this
time
of year,
the
shades this area. The
snow
ice stays there until i t warms up
few
days.
I
know
those
of you
who live
must put up with
these
every winter are
not
go
. Not having all of the neces
y equipment to deal with the snow
, most of the time
we
south
on
Mother
Nature
to
this crunchy,
cold stuff. I
t closed, coupled with the insulation
a cozy atmosphere.
In
December we
had our EAA
Christmas party in our
is one that
a
of people that may not at
t is
a
dish affair; Norma
and
I
is
y, uncomfortable
outside,
the
Chapter also
its
January meeting at our
number of aircraft did fly
including
a
new RV-S.
I
would
to
linger and admire it,
it was
windy
and cold, so I
ed back inside before I was
With the weather so
cold
, it's a great
to stay in the hangar and work on
Luscombe
panel again. I have com
plumbing, etc. The windshield
Y
ESPIE
BUTCH
JOYCE
PRESIDENT
VINTAGE
ASSOCIATION
Winter
Work
had to be removed to drill out the rivets
securing the windshield retainer. (Add
that
to the ever-growing list of "just
one more thing./I)
I have mounted
the
new panel in
a jig
on the workbench.
All of
the
new
instruments
are installed,
and
my
radio guy
is
doing the wiring for
me.
f
I can keep every
thing
going
forward
,
maybe
I
can
be
finished
somewhere between late spring
and
mid summer. In
the
meantime, I do
have to
throw in
an
annual
inspec
tion
on
the Baron, and maybe a golf
game or two.
We
can
"see over the
horizon,
" season-wise,
and warm
weather
is not far
away.
Think
of Sun n
Fun
as
the
coming-out
party
for
EAA s Countdown
to Kitty Hawk.
We
all know
what that
means; it
will
soon
be April Everyone needs
to be at
the annual
Sun 'n Fun
EAA
Fly-In
held
at Lakeland Linder Re
gional Airport
in
Lakeland, Florida.
The people
at
Sun 'n Fun
continue
to improve this great fly-in, expand
ing
the
attendance of airplanes
and
people each year.
Think
of Sun 'n Fun as
the
com
ing-out party for EAA s
Countdown
to Kitty Hawk. The Wright Flyer
built by Ken Hyde's Wright Experi
ence will be
the centerpiece
of an
exciting pavilion located just to
the
east
of the FAA
building.
Thanks to
the
sponsorship of
the
Ford
Motor Company and Mi-
crosoft, this exhibit promises
to
be
both
entertaining
and
educational.
The centennial reminds us of
the
great freedoms we've enjoyed over
the years
as we fly
all over this great
nation. I am
not
sure
how
many of
you
have thought about th
e a
n-
niversary
celebration in this
light,
but
I
will
offer the following
for
your thoughts.
The Wright brothers would have
no
way
of
ever
imagining that an
aircraft
could
be used as a
weapon
against
civilians
in the
way i t was
during
the
terrorism act of Septem
ber 11. The fallout of
th
e action of
terrorism affected
the
aviation com
munity
in a negative
manner.
Some
even wondered if we would ever get
back in
the
sky with
the freedom
that we
have known.
Because of a
number of people's hard work,
we
'
re
close,
but
there are still those within
our own
government
who
would
prefer to see greater restrictions
placed on us. We
can't
let that hap
pen
under
the
guise
of
national
security." The powered flight of
the
Wright
brothers
inspired
others to
become involved in aviation. Now
because of their flight
in
1903, they
are once again the leaders whose de
termination and will to succeed will
cause
aviation people to
celebrate
flight, and, with renewed spirit, find
aviation once again enjoyable.
I will be
in the
Vintage area dur
ing
this
year's Sun 'n Fun Fly-In. I
hope
to see you there. Let's all pull
in the same direction for the good of
aviation. Remember, we are better
together. Join us and have it all.
Butch
VINT
AGE
A
IRPLA
NE
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V NEWS
FAA FIELD ApPROVALS
At this point
we
can't
give
you
specifics since
the FAA
has
not
yet
issued a revision to
the
policy gov
erning
field approvals
and
supplemental type certificates; how
ever,
as
this issue was going to press,
we
learned
th
e
FAA
Small Aircraft
Directorate
was
in the
process
of
putting
together Revision 16 to
the
policy.
Coupled with some addi
tional direction
issued
from
FAA
Washington, the
field
approval
process should become clearer.
We
were also asked
to
urge
any mem
bers
who have had
problems,
particularly in
th
e lower 48 states, to
appeal
their denial of
a field
ap
proval to the manager of
the
facility
with which they've
been
working,
and if that does
not
work, to contact
us at
EAA headquarters.
Specific,
non-emotional data
is
needed to be
sure the word gets
out that the
field
approval
process
is not to
be
held
up,
and
that
field approvals should
be
continuing.
I f
you need
to
con
tact
EAA
Government Programs on
this issue
,
please
e-mail us
at
ov
t@eaa or
or call 920-426-6522.
METEOR RT-
14
LOGS
FIRST FLIGHT
AT
CHINO
With Dave Morss at the controls,
the Wathen Foundation's replica of
the
Turner
RT-14
Meteor
made
its
first flight at
Chino
, California, on
Thursday, December 12, 2002. Tom
Wathen said the airplane flew for IS
minutes,
and
that golden era racer
indicated 170
mph
with its Pratt
&
Whitney R-1830 producing just 17
inches of manifold pressure,
about
30 percent power.
During the first flight the engine
ran smoothly,
but
hot. We have to
let more air out of the cowling, Wa
then said.
Bill Turner built the replica in his
Repeat Aircraft
shop
on
the
Flabob
Airport, which the Wathen Founda
tion saved from developers little more
FEBRUARY 2003
than
two years ago,
but
work to ad
dress
the cooling
needs
and other
bugs, such
as
the inability to get more
than
10 degrees of fla ps, will take
place at Chino's Planes of
Fame.
With
a 2S-foot wing and an empty weight
better
than
3,000 pounds, with full
flaps the
l,OOO-hp
racer should land
at
115
mph, Wath
en
said
,
which
makes
the
airplane
too hot
for
Flabob and its short runway.
Morss
called the
RT-14 a
real
rocket ship,
Wa t
hen said.
He
added that the replica marked
Morss'
32Sth first
flight, and his
30th
first flight of a
prototype
air
craft.
Owned and
flown by
legendary race pi lot Roscoe Turner,
the
original
RT-14 is
in
the
collec
tion of
the Smithsonian National
Air
and
Space
Museum and com
peted
in the National
Air Races
from 1937
to
1939, placing first
in
1938
and
'39.
S.M. Spangler
DAVID
ELMENDORF
David
Richard Elmendorf was born in
1911
in
Puerto
Rico.
His family then moved
to New York, and
he
attended St. John 's
Military
School.
As
a
young man
he
moved
to California in the
late
1920s
and settled
in
Culver
City,
close
to
Clover
Field in Santa
Monica
, a
center of
early aviation
in Califor
nia.
He learned to
fly
in
a
Reet
biplane.
In 1935
he
entered the National
Air
Races in Cleveland
and
again in Los Ange
les in 1936 with his plane, the Elmendorf
Special, which
was a
Keith-Rider R5. This
plane
was
later
sold
1938) and
renamed
the Jackrabbit
and
today is
on display in
the
Wittman hangar at the
EAA AirVenture
Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Later, he
worked
at Douglas Aircraft and
in 1941
j
oined
a
pilot training school
at
Ca
l
Aero in
Ontario,
Californ
i
a,
where he
trained
young
Air
Corps cadets
to fly
He also served
in
the
U.
S.
Army in
1945 and cont
inued to
train pilots.
After
the war ,
he
returned to
Douglas and retired after 35 years as
an
air
craft mechanic.
Dave is survived
by
his wi
fe
of 70
years, Helen
Elmendorf.
He
was
buried on
September
26,
2002, at Forest Lawn in
Hollywood
Hills, Californ ia.
The rt
of
Engineering
From
NASA s
eronautical
Research
AN EXHIBITION AT THE ART INSTITUTE
OF CHICAGO
The
architecture department at
The
Art Institute
of
Chicago
and
the Aero
space Technology Enterprise
of
the
National
Aeronautics
and Space Adminis
tration NASA)
are organizing
an
exhibition
on aerospace design
for showing August
2, 2003, through February 8, 2004,
in
the
Kisho Kurokawa
Gallery of Architec
ture
at
the
Art Institute.
Later,
it
will
travel
to two other museum locations in the nation
,
and
a
photographic
version
will
circulate to airports throughout
the United
States. The
project
will have
an
accompanying book
published by Merrell Publishers
in London
and
an extensive
educational program
at
the
Art Institute.
The
exhibition itself will feature the architecture
and
engineering of
wind
tunnels
through
approximately 90
wind
tunnel models
from NASA
's collection. The
earl
iest of
these is
shown here and remains
unidentified.
NASA and
The Art Institute of
Chicago
would
appreciate
any
ideas that members might
have
regarding the identification of
this
vintage
artifact.
The exact
nature of the routed-out hole
and
rectangular
area on
the side
of
the fuselage are also unknown. Please
contact
John Zukowsky, the John H.
Bryan Curator
of
Archi
tecture,
The
Art Institute of
Chicago,
111 S.
Michigan Avenue,
Chicago
IL 60603
(phone
312 443
-
3949;
fax
312 578 0960;
[email protected] . The first
E member who
correctly identifies this biplane
any
documentation
would
be
helpful, since it is unidentified )
will
receive
copies
of
two
of
the Art Institute's previous books
on
aerospace architecture entitled
Building for Air
Travel
(1996) and 2001:
Building
for Space
Travel
2001).
2
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]
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VAA s Friends of
The
Red Barn
VAA 2003 Convention Fund Raising Program
The Vintage Aircraft Association is a
major
partici
pant in the
World's
Largest Annual Sport Aviation
Event - EAA AirVenture Oshkosh! The Vintage Divi
ion hosts and parks over 2,000 vintage airplanes each
ear from the Red Barn area of Wittman Field south to
the perimeter of
the
airport.
The financial support for
the
various activities
in
connection
with the weeklong event in the
VAA
Red
Barn area has
been
principally derived from the Vin
tage Aircraft Association's general income fund.
tarting in 2002, the Vintage Board elected to more
properly underwrite the
annual
Vintage
Red
Barn area
Convention
activities from a yearly special conven-
tion support fund. This effort is
the
VAA's "Friends of
the Red
Barn" program.
This fundraising program
is
an annual
affair, begin
ning
each
year on
July
1 and ending
June 30
of the
following year. This year's campaign is well underway,
with
contributions already arriving here at VAA HQ.
Our thanks to
those
of you who have already sent in
your 2003 contributions.
You can join in as well. There will be three levels of
gifts and gift recognition:
Vintage Gold Level - $600.00 and above gift
Vintage Silver Level - $300.00 gift
Vintage Bronze Level - $100.00 gift
Each contribution at one of these levels
entitles
ou to a Certificate of Appreciation from the Division.
Your name will be listed as a contributor
in
Vintage
irplane magazine,
and
on a special display at
the
VAA
Red Barn. You will also be
presented
with a special
name
badge recognizing your level of participation.
During AirVenture, you'll have access to the Red Barn
Volunteer Center, a nice place to cool off.
Gold Level
contributors
will also receive a
pair
of
certificates
each good
for a flight
on
their
choice
of
EAA's Ford Trimotor
or
New Standard
Biplane,
re
deemable during AirVenture or during the summer
flying season at Pioneer Airport. Silver Level contribu
tors will receive one
certificate
for a
flight
on their
choice of one of the two planes.
This is a grand opportunity for all Vintage members
to join together as key financia l supporters of the Vin
tage Division. It will be a truly rewarding experience
for each
of
us as individuals
to
be
part of supporting
the finest gather ing of Antique, Classic,
and
Contem
porary airplanes in the world.
Won't you please join those of us who recognize
the
tremendously valuable key role the Vintage Aircraft
Asso
ciation has played in preserving the great grass roots and
general aviation airplanes of the last 100 years? Your
participation in EAA's Vintage Aircraft Association
Friends of the VAA Red Barn will help insure the very
finest in AirVenture Oshkosh Vintage
Red
Barn
programs.
For those
of you
who wish to contribute, we've
included a copy of
the
contribution form. Feel free
to copy it and
mail it
to VAA
headquarters
with
your donation.
Thank
you.
2003 VAA
Friends
of
the
Red Barn
Name
______________________________________________ EAA #_______________VAA#
______________
Address____________________________________________________________________________________
City
/State
/Zip_____________________________________________________________________________
__
Phon
e_____________________________________E-Mail____________________________________
__
_____
Please choose your le
vel
of participation:
_ Vintage Gold Level
Friend
- $600.00
Mail your contribution to:
_ Vintage Silver Level
Friend
- $300.00
EAA
_ Vintage
Bronze
Level
Friend
- $100.00
VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOC.
o Payment
Enclosed
o
Please Charge my credit
card
(below)
PO Box 3086
Credit Card Number
______________________
Expiration Date ___________
OSHKOSH
WI
54903-3086
Sign atu re
____________________________
_
00 you
or
your spouse work f
or
a matching gift company?
If
so, this gift may qualify for a matching
donation.
Please ask your Human Re-
sources departme
nt
for the appropriate form.
NameofCompany
________________________
__
The Vintage Aircraft Association
is
a non-profit educa tional organization under IRS sOlc3 rules , Under Federal
Law,
the deduction from Federal In-
come tax
for
charitable contribution s is limited to
th
e amount by which any money (and the value of any property
oth
er than mone
y)
contributed
ex
c
eeds
the value of the goods or services provided in exchange for the contribution. An appropriate
rece
ipt ackno
wl
edging your gift will be se
nt
to
you for
IR
Sgift reporting reasons.
VINT GE IRPL NE 3
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6/36
uring World War II, I was
a -captain on Eastern Air
. Lines EAL), flying
out
of
Newark airport (before LaGuardia
had been built),
and
in addition, I
was also the chief test pilot for Co
lumbia Aircraft Corp. at Valley
Stream, Long Island (extra duty on
the side, due to the necessities of
wartime).
On
one of
the
rare days
that I was at
home,
I received
an
urgent call from
the
airline, asking
me
to
rush to Newark for an emer
gency flight. I realized
that
it must
be an emergency, since I had the
day off from
both
jobs because the
weather
was
absolutely horrible
with zero/zero fog over
the
eastern
half of
the
United States,
and with
the
airlines at a standstill.
I drove
the 80 miles in that
dense fog
with
real difficulty, and
it took almost twice
as
long
as
the
usual trip. I could
hardly imagine
what
was
in
store for
me during
those
nearly four hours of driving
or why
they
would
be calling
for
me to fly
in such
weather, espe
cially since there were
other
pilots
living
much
nearer to Newark than
I
who
were also grounded. I finally
found
out.
No
other pilot
wanted
to fly the trip, for several good rea
sons . First, the fog was
extremely
dense right
to
the
ground and
was
expected to be very deep . Second,
there was a cargo load of live Bo-
fors
anti-aircraft
ammunition
aboard, which
made
the airplane
about
1,000
pounds overweight.
Third, there was no alternate air
port
other than the
destination
itself, Atlanta, and it too had the
same weather but was expected
to
open before arrival. Dispatch had
FEBRU RY
2003
called me, confident
that
I would
cooperate as usual.
On arrival at Newark I
found
that another captain senior to me
had
volunteered, so I was
to
be his
copilot. Evidently, we were
the
only two volunteers. I had done so
without knowing what a difficult
set of circumstances confronted us,
but I did not renege.
The anti-aircraft cartridges were
about 15 inches long, as I remem
ber. I do not know the caliber. t
was for a commonly used Swedish
anti-aircraft gun. This load was ur
gently needed for a cargo ship
due
to depart
from New
Orleans the
next day
with
a load
of
war
mate
rial. The
cartridges were packed,
three
in
each wood
box,
and
were
loaded
all along
the
floor
of the
passenger
DC-3, and
in
each pas
senger seat. Quite a sight
We
were
told that
the
center of gravity
CG)
was okay, but the overload was
about
1,000 pounds; I suspected it
really weighed more. t
was
all
more
than slightly
illegal, but it
was wartime, and regulations had
to be
ignored
sometimes. There
were
probably
another thousand
pounds worth
of regulations being
violated, too.
The fog
was so
dense that
we
had
to be towed out to the runway
by a special
tow tractor
made for
that
purpose (the
driver could see
better than
we
could
because
he
was
closer
to
the
ground)
. We
could
not
see
the
white
lines, or
the taxiway
and
runway markings,
over the
nose ahead of the wind
shield with
the
ta ilwheel on
the
ground
. The
mechanic
driving the
tow
tractor
detached,
pulled
the
two landing gear safety pins;
and
held them up for
both
of us to see
them. We ran up the engines
and
checked
the instruments and ra
dios (low
frequency
receivers for
four-leg ranges
and
high frequency
for communication), set the direc
tional gyro carefully to the runway
heading (toward
the
southwest,
where there were no
high
obstruc
tions
ahead), and started
the
long,
slow
acceleration for
takeoff.
t
took
a
long, long time to get the
extra airspeed necessary
to
get air
borne with
the heavy load aboard,
and we did
not
have
any
markings
to
tell
us
how
much
runway
we
had
left.
We were
committed
We had to
hold an
exact
heading
to stay
on
the runway, with occasional
glimpses of runway lights in our pe
ripheral vision
to
assure
us.
The fog
was so dense that we could
not
ac
tually
see
the runway approach
lights
as
we passed over them, only
a glow
from
them. After all, they
were faced
in the
same direction
as
we were. Captain Dice gave me the
thumbs-up signal
to
raise the gear
when
he
was sure
that
he
was
going
to stay in the air
without
inadver
tently touching down. I
already
had my left
hand
on the gear lever.
SURPRISE The
gear lever
re
fused
to unlock
or move
at all.
With all my strength I could
not
move
it.
Captain
Dice
frantically
held
his
thumb up and jabbed it
into the air, insistently, but
to
no
avail
Thoughts
raced through my
mind that possibly the operator of
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Feb 2003
7/36
him
f l P t i U some of the
~ P l e u ~ ~ n the
attempts. The
slow climb, with
the
landing
gear fully extended,
did
get us over
the
big
oil
refinery ahead of us at
Kearny, New Jersey,
but we could
smell the chemical
smoke as
we
skimmed
over
it
The two Wright
engines stayed
at
full takeoff power
and
were getting hot.
Fortunately, with
flat
terrain
ahead we were
able to hold
level
for a while to get more cooling air
before
starting
a long, slow
climb
to about
1,000 feet. That
was
enough for the present. Only
a
sight reduction of power was possi-
ble without losing
airspeed and
altitude. Here we were
at
low alti-
tude
with all kinds of populated
areas under us, with an overload of
ammunition.
The engines
had to
be left in a rich mixture
condition
to
keep
them
from fai l ing-we
used the
fuel
for extra
cooling
.
There was
no
choice whatsoever
we had to
continue on
course, gain
a little
altitude, and hope the
en-
gines
would
get us
to
Atlanta. Fat
chance
We
did
not have autopi
lots
in EAL
airplanes (Captain
Eddie's idea), so flying
at that
load
and
low
airspeed was
tiring.
We
took turns
at
it and suspected
that
the overload was
greater than
we
were
told. We could not decide
what it could be that could
pre
vent
the
gear from retracting,
unless a set of safety pins was still
in place.
Yet we had plainly seen them
in
the
hand of the tow tractor driver.
in
store
for me
during those
ne rly
four
hours
of driving or
why
they would be
c lling
for me
to
fly
in
such we ther
• • •
We
must
have awakened a
lot
of
people below
us
that night
when
we passed
over
at 2,000 feet with
the
poor
engines
over-revving
at
almost full takeoff power. We were
using fuel at a very
high
rate, so we
were worried
about getting to
At-
lanta.
Any attempt
to lean
the
mixture
too much caused high oil
and
cylinder head temperatures.
We were
busy
controlling
the
en-
gines
to prevent
failure. We
radioed ahead to Atlanta to
pre
pare
to
offload
the
cargo
to
another airplane
and to
divide the
load between two of them if avail-
able, for the engines
in our
airplane
would
have
to
be
changed, due to such
mistreat
ment,
even
i
we did succeed in
getting there. There was no chance
olina, where
a Re Y:ollUtliOO
battle
was
fought and
ally told my passengers,
via
a
system,
about
it. I was
thinking of
that while
we were still
on instru
ments, with Atlanta still below
minimums.
At
that
moment the
left
engine suddenly started
to vi-
brate, shaking the entire airplane
with its steady vibration. The oil
pressure
was
okay
and
strangely
was staying at red line temperature.
Fortunately, the engine
kept
right on
running
with
that
steady,
sharp vibration.
Switch
ing the
ignition had
no effect, so I
concluded
that
both spark plugs
had
failed on
one
cylinder. We had
not tried the
ignition before
be
cause of the
high
power, so
we had
not
had any
warning of
one spark
plug
failing.
I
was
rushing ideas
through
my
mind and suspected
some metal was
flying around in
the dead cylinder that would
bat-
ter
the
spark
plugs.
The fast fuel
burn-off
had lightened the air
plane, so
the
loss of power was not
serious.
But
of course,
the total
failure of
the
engine would be fatal
for a dead-engine crash
in
that
rolling farm country in a dark
night
. We were mighty scared. I in-
termittently tried the
landing
control lever
without
success. I was
pondering why it
would not
re-
lease
and
operate.
In reviewing
the landing lock-
ing system
in my
mind, it suddenly
dawned on me that there was an
up-lock cable
that
was
extra
taut
due
to the deflection of the wings
under the unusually
heavy
over-
load on
them.
I tried
the
gear lever
VINTAGE AIRPLANE
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Feb 2003
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again. It was still locked . I was fly
ing at that momen
t , so I
quick
ly
shoved
the
wheel forward sharp ly
to
moment
arily u
nl
oad t
he
wings,
and at
the same time,
with my
left
hand on
t
he
gear lever, it unlocked
an
d
came up
to
the retract
posi-
tion. With that,
the
gear came up
Meanwhile
,
Captain
Dice was
trying instinc
t
ive
ly
to overcome
my
sudden
push on the
wheel.
Be-
fore
pushing
forward I
had
slowly
raised
the
nose
a little.
What
a re
lief
With the engine about to
fail
we were able
to
reduce
power
and
contin
ue
on
to Atlanta, which
had
suddenly
opened
up
wide
due
to
a
warm front passage. The engine
kept right on running
with
its
steady vibrations, even while
we
taxied
to the
hangar.
When
we stopped
the
engines, a
column
of
oil
smoke
arose
from
the
cowling of
the
left
engine and
a small
stream
of oil
ran
down
to
the tarmac
.
The mechanics
re-
moved
the
cowling and, not
to our
surprise,
the master
cylinder, No.
1, had
a big
open
crack right across
its
head
. I stayed at the airport (af
ter
midnight)
instead of going
to
the
hotel,
because I
wanted to
see
what
had caused the trouble.
The
mechanics were
curious, too, so
they
removed
the cylinder and
found
the
reason.
The
top of the piston
had
been
pounded thousands
of times by
a
piece of
metal
and
had been dis
torted
to
a concave surface
without
being punctured. The head
of
the
exhaust valve was missing with
only
the broken
valve stem
showing. t
had
done all of
that
pounding
and had
finally escaped
out
through the
exhaust port
into
the
exhaust
pipe. The tapered
end
section of the pipe
had
a long slot
for the exhaust gases but was too
narrow
for
the valve
head to es
cape
through
it
.
The
section was
removed,
and
there
was
the
head
of
the
exhaust valve, neatly folded
double.
While it was
in
the
cylin
der
and being
heated red hot, it
had
broken off its stem and,
being
soft,
the piston crushing it
edge-
FE RU RY
2 3
wise
had
quickly
folded
it tightly
double.
By the
greatest good
for
tune it
h
ad
no
t
punctur ed the
piston, which would certai
nly
have
caused a fu lly
catastrophic
failure
of the
engine.
As
for
the
failure
of
Meanwhile
Captain
Dice
was trYing
instinctively to
overcome my
sudden
push
on
the
wheel.
the landing gear to
retract,
why
didn't
I think
of that
before I did?
Since
Dick Dice had
priority as
captain, he
was entitled to keep
the
valve.
Now
, here is a
similar incident
in a Bonanza.
You
Bonanza people
all know
that
it
is de rigueur
to
crank up
the landing
gear by
hand.
Such stress
on the gearing may
cause a failure
in
the gearbox. The
failure
might
not
happen
at the
time
of
the
cranking, but
pOSSibly
later
at
an inconvenient
time.
When I was flying the DC-8 out of
]FK airport it sometimes
happened
that I would land late at night, just
barely
ahead of
the sea fog rolling
in
off
the
Atlantic that would cover
the
airport with
dense
fog.
That
could
happen with only
a few min
utes' warning.
One night
, just
that
happened.
When
I finished
the
de
briefing
in the operations
office,
the
ai r
port
was
covered by dense
sea fog . My
trusty litt
le
model
C
Bonanza was si
tt
ing
out
there
in
it,
and
I
wanted to
get home, as usual.
The
weat
h
er at
POU (Dutchess
Co
u
nty
Airport
at
Poughkeepsie)
was
showing 900/2, and
was
ex
pected
to
go
down to
below 500/1,
later.
The
legal
minimum
on
the
only VOR)
approach was 600 feet.
Syracu
se
was
my
alternate,
quite
a
long
way,
but
well within my
range,
and
with
Buffalo
open
I
had
a
good
set
of alternates.
So, I was
driven
out to my
very
damp
steed.
The tower
operator
recognized
my
voice
and
said, "Any
runway you
wish, Captain," I chose
4.
I was
the
only airline pilot who
regularly
commuted to my
flights
by
private
airplane
in
the entire New
York
area, so
the control tower opera-
tors
knew me
well.
Knowing that
the top would
be
about
1,000 feet,
I took off
in the
dense fog.
In the climb
I flipped
the land-
ing gear switch to
retract.
But it
didn't After
two
or
three
trials, I
got the same result. The
circuit
breaker was still engaged, so press
ing it
gave
no help either
. By
that
time I was
on
top, temporarily, for I
had a low overcast
ahead of me at
POU.
f the weather went
below
minimums
I
could
not land,
be-
cause the minimum descent
altitude
was
the
definite limit. No
landing could
be made with run-
way in
sight
only, at that time.
In
case I
had
to go to my
alternate,
SYR,
with
the gear
down
all of
the
way, I
could run low
on
fuel. So I
wanted to get
the
gear up. Remem
bering how I had unloaded
with
wings in the DC-3
a
long time be
fore jet airliners), I made a series of
short
zooms and
short
push-overs,
each time getting a few turns of
the
crank while
the
weight of
the
land
ing
gear was zero and
no
load was
on
the
gears in
the
box. Presto The
gear was safely up. The
weather at
POU stayed above
minimums, and
I
got
home on
schedule. The
gear
switch had
failed,
but
it worked
fine for extension.
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bre k an
irpl ne
nd lrm n
ILL DUNN
j
ohnny Ringer
hated ice. Ice can
be quite unpre-
dictable.
f
the
temperature and
moisture are just right,
you can pick
i t
up even
when
it isn 't forecast.
And then again, even
when it is forecast, you
might
not
get any.
Johnny and I were
waiting
at LaGuardia
wheel. Just then a red
light
started
blinking
on my
side
of
the in
strument
panel. The
warning
light
was in
dicating a loss of fuel
pressure to the
right
engine.
Under the throttles
on the
center
console
was a wobble
pump
handle
to manually
pump fuel pressure
to
for a Lockheed C-60 to
arrive
on
a cargo run. The C-60 was
to depart Buffalo for Rome
Air
Force
Base in upstate New York and then
continue
on
to LaGuardia.
We
were
to
take it back
the other
way. I t ar
rived late. The crew told us about
the hairy trip they had.
As
they were
approaching Rome they started pick
ing up rime ice, fast and heavy. The
crew decided to pass up Rome and
try
for
Albany.
They soon had such a load of ice
that the boots couldn't cope with it.
They also were
unable to climb up
out of it. With full power they were
just able to stagger
into
Albany. Af-
ter landing they said
that
the whole
underside of the wings and even the
fuselage
had
fingers of ice
hanging
down like stalactites. Of course, this
load raised hell with the lift
and
added weight to the plane. The cap
tain was a good pilot and
plenty
cool.
He
wasn't one to exaggerate.
Johnny and I listened to all this,
and I figured
that Johnny would
cancel.
He
certainly would have had
the right to. But he didn't.
We took off for Rome and were
between layers at 6,000 feet between
Albany
and
Rome.
We
started
to
let
down
into Rome and
immediately
started
picking
up ice. Johnny let
down to about
4,000 when
he
de
cided that
he
had enough of that.
He
poured the coal to
the
Lockheed
and started a steep climbing
turn
to
the left. We used to teach chandelles
under
the hood
at
Burlington.
Johnny
was
doing
a
chandelle
i f I
ever saw one.
Johnny
and
I flew together a lot.
If
he was looking at a chart or some
thing besides his instruments and
got a little off course, I acted
as
his
autopilot. I would just reach up and
make the
correction.
He
accepted
that
as
routine
after a while. Actu
ally it made
us
a pretty good team.
On
this particular flight Johnny
was a bit overanxious
to
climb
out
of
there.
When I saw that the air
speed
had
dropped to 90, I reached
up
and
pushed forward on
the
the
engines.
I
started
pumping, and
Johnny asked me
what
I was
doing
. I stopped pump
ing and showed him
the
red light
that had come back on. Johnny then
did something
that
really shook me
up. He started
pumping
his control
wheel back and forth and mutter-
ing, "Oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot."
He
had definitely panicked.
We were
able
to climb
back
up
between layers. I kept
pumping the
wobble pump
until
I was tired. We
had
a
second lieutenant
Air Force
pilot
in
the back, riding observer. I
called
him up
front
and
asked
him
to pump
for a while. I informed
him
that
if
he
did a good
job
we
could make it
into
Albany.
He
did,
and we did.
Johnny and I
never
mentioned
that
incident to
each other or any
one. The following year I had a flight
as
plane
commander
where panic
got a grip
on
me.
It
taught me never
to be too critical of my fellow pilot.
t
has
always
been amazing to
me
how critical
some
pilots can be of
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other pilots,
even
their
friends. I
have to admit that
from
time to
time I have been guilty. I think
that
it came from the phrase, "There but
for the grace of God go
I.
The demise of our Colonial Air
lines DC-2s was another series of
wild experiences.
To
operate
the
hydraulic system
to work the landing
gear
up or
down, the copilot would start with a
lever next to his seat. This lever had
a button on the end of it with a re-
movable cap over the button. After
removing
the
cap and
depressing
the button,
the lever
could
be
moved either up or down. Then a
long pump
handle
on the floor
would be used to build up the hy
draulic pressure.
When the DC-2 would sit on the
ground
without the
engines run
ning even for a short period of time,
the
hydraulic
pressure
would
go
down.
t
was the
copilot's
job to
pump
the pressure back up. More
than once, especially
in the
wee
hours
of
the morning on an
all
night trip
when
we were
parked
and
waiting to be loaded, the pres
sure would go down. I would look
at the
pressure gauge
and
say to
myself, "Self, pump
up
the pres
sure." I would be thinking "Up"
when I grabbed the gear lever. Then
I would say something else to my
self
like, "Don't do something
stupid, like pulling the lever up " It
is
the pressure that has to come up,
ot the gear The lever would have
to be
put
in the down position, and
the pressure pumped up with the
pump
handle.
One of our DC-2s was parked in
front
of
the terminal at Buffalo.
My friend, Johnny Strong, was
the
copilot.
I
forget
who the captain
was, although I can
think
of a cou
ple I wish it were. The
captain
was
in his seat, and he asked Johnny
to
pump
the
pressure up.
Well,
Johnny pulled the
lever
up, and
the captain pumped The
DC-2s
didn't
have
the pins
that
would
prevent the gear
from
folding as
the later model DC-3s had. It
had
a
cable
around the
gear
with
a turn-
FEBRU RY
2003
buckle.
Unfortuna t ely, the turn
buckle on the left gear of this DC-2
had been put on with
on
ly a cou
ple
of turns ...
and
i t parted. With
that, the left
gear
collapsed and
the right gear folded sideways.
think
that it
came
from
the phrase,
There
but
for
the grace o
God
go
/.
There sat that great old bird right
in front of the termi
nal
at Buffalo.
The l
eft
wing was sprung. So you
might
say
that
it was "terminal at
the terminal"
Captain Roe Nemmers was one of
our check pilots. He was checking
out
one of the new capta ins at
La-
Guardia in
the other DC-2. The
brake system on the DC-2 was differ
ent, to say the least. The captain had
a brake lever on the left side of
the
cockpit,
and the
cop ilot had one
on
the right.
If
the captain wanted both
brakes, he would neutralize his rud
der pedals and pull on his brake
lever. I f
he
wanted
left brake,
he
would
let off
on the
brake lever,
push the left rudder pedal, and pull
on the brake lever. The same if he
wanted right brake. The lever would
always have to be released before it
could be applied again.
The procedure after
landing
was
for the copilot to take the wheel and
for the captain to have his left
hand
on the brake
lever
and his right
hand on the throttles.
t
was raining
on the day that
Captain
Nemmers
was checking out the
new
captain.
Between the two pilots pushing and
pulling on their
respective brake
levers
they
managed
to
get off
the
runway and
onto
the wet grass after
landing.
They got it back heading
for the runway and would have
made it except for two things. One,
they started sliding sideways on the
wet grass. And two, a B-24 was
parked
in
the direction they were
sliding. They collided with the
B 24.
I t wasn't a terrific crash. Just
hard
enough to total our second and last
DC-2. No fire and nobody hurt. But,
"Adios, good old DC-2."
At the end of 1942, Colonial
Air-
lines got a contract with the Air
Force to operate a school to train Air
Force pilots to fly C-47s. The 10 sen
ior copilots with 1,000
hours
were
chosen to be checked out. I was one
of them. We received horsepower
ratings but not air transport ratings.
This being a military program, ap
parently
we
did
not need an
instructor's rating.
The school was set up at Albany,
New York. We arrived there in Janu
ary 1943 with two C-47s. These were
the same as our DC-3s, which were
the old type with boilers for cabin
heat. They were flown into Albany
by Colonial captains, not us.
We suggested that we be given
the
opportunity to do a little flying
together to practice. None of us had
even flown a DC-3 or C-47 without
an airline
captain aboard. Our re
quest was denied with the ridiculous
excuse
that
nothing was going to in
terfere with
the training
program
start ing
on
time.
So
we sat around
until February
10.
f
they had
thought that
we were going to bend
one of
their
planes,
they
would
never know how close I came
on
the
first early morning flight.
Early morning was really the mid
dle of the
night-0400
to be exact.
It
was February 10, 1943, and it was 10
below zero
and
snowing.
My
two
students were
second
lieutenants
who
had just received their wings
and had no twin-engine time. I
asked the chief pilot, Charlie Wen
zel,
and
Mr. Brown, the director of
the school, what they
thought
I
might be able to teach on a morning
such
as
this. They told me to just get
the
flight
out on
time,
and
if
noth
ing
else,
check
the
weather. Ours
was
not
to question
why, so I pre
pared to depart.
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This was to be my first flight in a
DC-3 wit hout a captain. Also, as it
turned out, I would have been better
off alone th an to have those two
students aboard.
Those early DC-3s and C-47s had
boilers that provided the cabin heat.
Those boilers co
uld
be the most
temperamental contraptions
ever
invented. I'm
not
sure that even a li
censed plumber could get any heat
out of them some
tim
es. This was
one of those times. As
we
taxied out,
one of the students was still messing
around trying to get th e boiler work
ing, with no success.
The runway
was
covered
with
snow as I took off to the so
uth
.
There was a southwes t wind blow
ing. They were giving
the
ceiling
at
1,200 fee t, and they were correct. At
that altitude the lights on the
ground were starting to disappear. I
turned on the l
and
ing lights,
and
it
was snowing like
crazy
. I made a
180 to the left and headed back to
ward the field. I
turned on the ADF
(automatic direction finder).
It
was
just going around and around. A
few minutes went by,
and
we should
have been able to see
the
field. But
we didn t. I
couldn t
believe it. Of
course, looking back, I know
what
happened.
I
had
a
wind
o
ut of the
southwest and poor visibility,
and
while making my 180
toward
the
east, I had passed to the east of
the
field. I was getting into serious trou
ble. Panic was
setting
in. At least I
always thought it was panic.
Years
later I read an art icle written
by a flight surgeon about the mental
effects of
hypothermia.
We
had no
cabin heat, and it was 10 below zero
outside. The students were scraping
ice off the inside of
the
windshield.
They
didn t
have
the
slightest idea
that I didn t know where in
the
world
we
were.
Ac
tually they seemed
to be getting a charge out of it. All I
could think of was to stay
VFR
and
stay in the lowlands. We had hills to
the
east
and
to
the
west.
The
Mo
hawk
River
runs
west
from
the
Albany area, and the Hudson runs
north and south. I picked up a river
and
started
down
it, or perhaps up
it. I don t even remember checking
my
compass. Suddenly right
ahead
was one of the most beautiful sights
I have eve r seen. Two blinking red
lights that were on a bridge between
Albany
and
Troy. I
had
seen
these
lights many
times
from my hotel
room in Alban
y.
I knew the heading
from
there to
the
airport.
I
landed
and went
into
operations. I told
them that if they fixed the boiler,
then come daylight I would go back
out, weather permitting.
I told this experience to very few
people, but it
really
shook me. I
knew
that I had really panicked. I
also knew that I had not
done
a
good job in preflighting.
For
one
thing
I
should
have
checked
the
ADF before taking off. Even if I was
n t
planning on
using it,
it didn t
mean that I
might
not. There were
many other things that I could have
done that
I
didn t.
I t
taught
me
an
important lesson, however. A lesson
about the consequence of not main
taining the best possible tranquility
of spirit. In
other
words, keep cool
so
that
you can keep thinking.
Thinking e rlythat is .......
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12/36
B Y H G FRAUTSCHY
s
many of you noticed ,
there
was no Myster y Plane
in last
month s issue, so we ll double up
on answe rs to keep on schedule.
First, the October Mystery Plane
was a
pretty
pre-war prototype
from a we ll
-known manufac
turer
that
didn t make it to th e pro
duction
line.
Here s
our
first
note, from Jim
Stothers , Rancho Palos Verd es,
California:
Th
e Starliner was a s
ix-p
lace
development
of
Lockh d's Vega di
vision in
1939
. t was powered
by
a
600-hp M e
nasco
Unitwin e
n
g in e, whi ch
was
in fa ct , a
Si am ese
-twin
devel
opm
e
nt
o
th
e
Mena sco six-cy
linder
in verted air-
THIS MONTH S
MYSTERY PLANE
OCTOBER S
MYSTERY PLAN
VEGA
STARLINER
SEND
YOUR
ANSWER
TO
: EAA , V IN SION
IN
THE M
Y
2003 ISSUE OF V IN
TAGE
A
IRPLANE
, P.O. B o x 30 8 6 , TAGE AIRPLANE .
OSHKOSH , WI 54903 -3086 . YOUR
You
CAN
ALSO
SEND YOUR RE
ANSWER NEEDS TO BE IN NO
LATER SPONSE
VI A E-MAIL . S
END
YOUR
THAN MARCH 15,
2003
,
FOR
INCLU ANSWER
TO
1 0 FEB UARY
200 3
BE
SU
RE TO INCLUDE BOTH YOUR
NAME AND
DDRESS
(ESPECIALLY
YOUR
CITY
AND STATE
) I N
THE
BODY
OF
YOUR NOTE AND PUT ( M
ONTH) MYs
TERY
PLANE IN THE SUBJECT LINE.
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Feb 2003
13/36
WRE-2 LL
ANCA
SKYROCKET
NOVEMBER ' S MYSTERY P L ANE
Bellanca
CH
-
400
Skyrocket designated by t
he
U_S. Navy as
an
XRE -2,
BU
No.
9207
WING STRUT, 1/16 TH1CK (MAKE 41 TRIM TO EXACT
THREAO·WOUNO
I
LENGTH BY7
UMMY CYLINDER
AKE 9 FROM
~
O O / @ R A W
B LS
PROP :L
NK
]
NOSE
O/2"THICK
BALSA)
STRUT
CROSS
SECTION
0 BlDCK AERO DIGEST JULY, 1929
THIS MEMBER ON TOP ONLY : / . 4 J ( ° I ~ ~ ~ : ~ 6 ~ O , D ~ ~ ~ S R T E R A
A ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ E : ~ 9 3 1
~ r : ~ j f = r F r ~ T = r r = = = n = = = ~ = o ; L ~ O I J S O N OF RUSSCRAFT HOBBIES
SIDE REAR ·
-
U.S. NAVY AIRCRAFT 1921-1941
VIEW VIEW •
:
of
1/16 DIAMETER
METAL TUBE)
PROP
HOOK 8
.030 CIA. WIRE
rALANCE
HERE
BAMBOO REAR
RUBBER PEG
COLOR SCHEME:
~ ~ ~ 1 ~ t G ~ F N ~ U S O ~ ~ R O s ~ ~ ~ ~ s ,
ARE SILVER . TOP OF WINGS
AND STAB ARE CHROME
YELLOW
COVER WINDSHIELD WITH CELLULOID
a OTHER WINDOWS WITH CELLOPHANE
U.S.
NAV
Y
BELLANCA
aIlY OCIl£T
A
SALTY
td P ~ A N U T
~ = J ~ t ~ ~ = J b = = ~ = = J
•
BY WILLIAW HANNAN
Bill Hannan 's sharp-looking pean ut scale,
rubb
er-powered model airplane
plan for the XRE -1 (this
is
sheet 1
of
2 sheets) is publ
is
hed
in
his small
book
entitled
Plans
&
3-Views International Volume
1
.
Stock number
BHP-
31
,
and
priced
at
$9.95
(plus S&H). The book is available from Hannan 's
Runway, P.O. Box
210
, Magalia , CA
95954
, phone 530-873-6421;
e
[email protected]; or on
the websi
te
at
www.hrunwa
com.
cooled Buccaneer engine, result source
of most of
my information is
ing, in ef fect, in a V-12 engine. I Aerofi les .com.
think
only one example of th e air Tom Baldenhofer, Waveland,
craft was built. t was later modified
Mississippi, has some
additional
to a single-tail version (Model
22) memories of
the Starliner:
with
a
furth
er
refinem
e
nt
o f
th
e
Unitwin engine producing
640
The Bob O'Hara photograph
hp. Further deve
lopment
/production brought back some
pl
easa
nt
memo
was te
rminat
ed due to WW-II. The ries of my
young
days in the 1940s
and 1950s, scraping
allowance
mon
ey to bu
y a 25 -
cent Comet
model
airplane
kit. Cleveland kits
were too pricey for
me
then ,
and
Guillow kits were for little k i s-
they could not fly. The Comet
E-series
was a go od
compromise.
They flew well, there was a good as
sortment
of
subjects,
and with
care,
they could fly fairly well.
Some
of
those I built
and
flew included the
Waco EQC-6, Aeronca K on floats ,
Piper J-4,
Stin
so n SR-7,
Ryan
ST,
C
urtiss P-40
C, Grumman F4F-3,
Republic P-47C, and the P-51A .
The Navion that
I
built
took
about
10 days to
ge
t ready to fly, and
turned in some 30-second flights.
Then,
th
ere
was
the
Vega Star-
liner.
The following has been ab-
stracted from
Lockheed Aircraft
Since 1913, by Renee J. Franeil-
Ion Putnam, 1987 :
In 1937, Loc
kheed
fostered the
founding of
th e A iRover Company,
to mak e a Unitwin engine from two
Menasco C6S-4 engines, and assem
ble some Lockheed Altair spare parts
to
act
as a Flying Tes t
Stand
for the
flig
ht
tests. A iRover
was
renamed
Vega
in
1938, and Vega's first air
plan
e
was
the Starliner, which was
given the
CAA
reg istration of
NX21725. It appears that the ma
chine
nev
er had an ATC or even a
Group 2 approval. First
flight
was
made with a centrally located
fin / rudde
r
on
22
April 1939, but
th
ere
was
a g
litch
in
the
propeller
control mechanism
and
the
pilot
mad
e
an off-airport landing.
Re
pairs
were made
quickly, and
a
twin-fin
/ rudder [as shown
in the
Vintage Airplane
photograph],
was made. A further mishap took
place
wh
en
th
e
nose
gear failed to
lower
on
a
landing
but due to
the
fact
that
all three wh ee ls of the tri
cycle
landin
g gea r protruded from
th
e
surface,
a la B-
17
and
DC
-3,
damage was minimal. NX21725
amassed a total flying time
of
nearly
ninety hours, but Vega d
ee
med it too
impractical for use as an
airliner
th e ma c
hin
e had only a five-s eat
VINTAGE AIRPLANE 1 1
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:///reader/full/www.hrunway.comhttp:///reader/full/www.hrunway.comhttp:///reader/full/www.hrunway.comhttp:///reader/full/www.hrunway.comhttp:///reader/full/www.hrunway.comhttp:///reader/full/Aerofiles%22.comhttp:///reader/full/Aerofiles%22.comhttp:///reader/full/Aerofiles%22.comhttp:///reader/full/Aerofiles%22.commailto:[email protected]:///reader/full/www.hrunway.comhttp:///reader/full/Aerofiles%22.com
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Feb 2003
14/36
capacity. Besides, Vega
was
being
taken into the war production pro
gram and the company needed
the
production space for
Hudson mar
itime reconnaissance planes for the
British Royal Air Force.
Measurements: span 41 ft length
32 ft 5 in height 8.5 ft
Weights:
empty 4,190
lb, loaded
6 OOOIb
Speeds: max 210
mph
@ 7,500
ft cruise 178
mph
Climb:
1,350
ft/min, initial svc
ceiling 21,500 ft
Range: 640 miles
Note well
that
this applied to a
1938 light-twin with tricycle land
ing gear
and five seats. Vega or
Lockheed did
not
scrap the machine;
it
was sold to a motion picture com
pany,
and like the old
Capelis
transport, appeared in a few films.
Its present location
is
unknown. A
sufficient
amount
of determination
will yield a set ofplans from any of
the several
model
airplane
plan
services
that
cater to nuts like
me
who build
new models
of
old air
planes.
The old Comet
kit
had
a
span
of about 24 inches, which
re-
sulted in a scale very close to
1
:20.
Another reply from the
West
coastCoast, from Bill
Grove,
Tu-
junga California:
Gentlemen:
You
will likely have thousands of
replies given the typical Lockheed
rudders.
Here's a
quote
from
Lockheed
Aircraftsman, a special edition for
September 10, 1938:
Mac Short, president
of
the
Vega
Airplane Company, has announced
that
the company will manufacture
a five or
six
place, low-wing mono
plane to be known as the
Vega.
The
Vega will incorporate the Unitwin
engine installation
and
will gener
ally qualify for the requirements of
current airline-type transports. t
will
be
metal
structured
and have
the dual engine power plant
unit
mounted
in
the nose
of
the fuselage
geared
to a
single constant
speed
propeller.
Wingspan of
the new plane
will
1 2 FEBRU RY 2003
be 41 feet. Overall length will be 31
feet, 5-1/2 inches, height 9 feet, 1
inch. Estimated gross weight is
5,411
pounds.
Retractable tricycle
landing gear will be a feature of the
plane. The Vega will follow the gen
eral trend of the Lockheed transports
produced
by
the
parent company
(Lockheed
Aircraft
Corp.)
by using
trailing
edge wing flaps
and
twin
rudder-and-fin tail arrangement, as
well as other advanced aerodynamic
features.
Correct answers
were
received
from Charles F Schultz,
Louisville, Kentucky; Larry
Knechtel,
Seattle,
Washington;
Wayne Muxlow,
Minneapolis,
Minnesota; Harold Swanson,
Shoreview, Minnesota;
Wayne
Van
Valkenburgh,
Jasper, Geor
gia; William A Kirby Gainesville
Florida;
Lane
Older
Bellingham,
Washington; Ken
Love, North
Wilkesboro,
North Carolina; Re-
nald
Fortier Ottawa,
Canada;
Bill
Mette;
Bub
Borman, Dallas,
Texas; Walt
Albert
and John
Bishop,
Ocala, Florida;
Kenny
Finch, Paso Robles, California;
and Thomas Lymburn,
Prince
ton,
Minnesota.
The second half of our
twofer
is the
answer
for the
November Mystery
Plane.
While
no great mystery, it sure
is a favorite
for full-size
and
model
aircraf t enthusiasts.
Here's our first
letter:
The
Mystery
Plane is
the XRE
2, one
o
three Bellanca
CH-400
Skyrockets
purchased by the
U.S.
Navy
in 1932.
The
aircraft in the
photograph is BU-9207, used
for
communications duties
at
Naval
Air Station Anacostia, Washing
ton,
D.C.
Another
photo o the
XRE-2 is shown on
page
7 o
luptner's [U.S.,
Civil Aircraft}
Volume 4.
The other two
CH-400's
were
BU-8939,
designated
XRE-l, used
by the Navy
for radio resarrch
re-
search and development at
Anacostia,
and
BU-9341,
desig
nated XRE-3,
used
by
the
Marines
as a two-stretcher ambulance.
X =
Experimental
R = Transport
E = Bellanca
in
the Navy's des
ignation system
in the early
1930s.
These three
aircraft
were
pow
ered
by Pratt
Whitney R-1340
radials, with a
maximum
gross
weight
o between
4,600 and
4,700
pounds,
and
were capable of
speeds between 148 to
161
mph.
It's not clear what
the
manu
facturer's
serial
numbers were,
but luptner
suggests
they might
have been 628, 629, and 630. In
1938 the
Navy
purchased
a single
example o the Bellanca Senior
Skyrocket
and
called
it
the
IE-I.
This aircraft
also served at
Ana
costia.
Thomas
Lyburn
Princeton,
Minnesota
Correct answers
were re
ceived
from: John Bebe, White
Stone, Virginina; James Stub
ner
Mercer Island,
Washington;
Dan Cullman,
Kent,
Washing
ton; the
Rev. Bob
Scheidly,
Cape
May,
New Jersey;
Konrad
Gar
cia, Salem,
Oregon; James
Kolander, San Jose, California;
Owen Bruce Richardson, Texas;
Gerry
Norberg,
Winnipeg, Man
i toba, Canada;
Ozzie
Levi;
Thomas M.
Perkins,
Tullahoma,
Tennessee;
Wayne
A Forshey;
Walt
Albert, Ocala, Florida;
Timothy
Dube, Ottawa,
On
tario, Canada; Peter
Foster,
Caledon
East
Ontario,
Canada;
Bill Fife Ocala, Florida; Glenn
Humann, Everett, Washington;
Jim
Stothers,
Rancho
Palos
Verdes,
California; Kenny
Finch, Paso
Robles,
California;
John L. Kidd; Earl Space, Maple
Valley
Washington;
Wayne
Van
Valkenburgh, Jasper,
Georgia;
Emil Cassanello,
Huntington
Station,
New
York; Tom
Balden
hofer, Waveland, Mississippi;
Larry Beidleman, Granada Hills
California; and John S
Paul, In
dianapolis, Indiana. .......
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Feb 2003
15/36
inste
The 1920s were Special
RTICLE
ND P OTOS
BY
GILES ULI RD
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Feb 2003
16/36
t the beginning
of
the 1920s
a
great
number
of
small airplane
companies were
created. But at the beginning of the
following decade, more
than
90 per
cent
of
them
were
history, some
having built only
one
airframe, oth
ers
none. One such company,
the
Winstead
Brothers Airplane Co
.,
was formed in 1926 and dissolved
the same year, with a total produc
tion run
of
exactly one airplane.
Thanks to Paul
Dougherty,
presi
dent of the Golden Age
Air
Museum
of Bethel, Pennsylvania, this his
toric
machine is still alive,
and
it
graces the sky of central Pennsylva
nia
on
all-too-rare occasions.
During a bustling
period
in the
1920s, Wichita, Kansas, became one
of the premier centers for airplane
design and production, starting with
the famous Swallow Airplane Manu
facturing Co., created by Matty Laird
in 1919 as the E.M. Laird Co. Under
Laird's guidance, Swallow became
one of the first successful post-war
airplane manufacturers, with
the
Laird Limousine and, later, the Swal-
low.
By
1924,
Matty
Laird
had
left,
and Jacob
Jake
Moellendick
was
14
FEBRU RY
2 3
presiding over its des
tiny. In his team were
two
brilliant
young
engineers
with ad
vanced fo r the
t ime-ideas:
Walter
Beech and Lloyd
Stearman. In
their
af
ter-work
hours,
they
were
building
their
own vision for the
plane of the future, an
airframe with a steel
tube
structure fuse
lage. After all, the idea
was not new
and
was
put to good use by
the Germans during
Typical of early airplanes, the Winstead's panel
is
filled with instruments related mostly to the
en-
gine's operation. The height gauge
nd
a clock are
the total complement of flight gauges.
World
War I specifically with the
Fokker D.VII which gave allied pilots
a tough ride.
After completing their project,
Beech
and
Stearman presented the
fruit of their illicit labor to Jake
Moellendick,
who
did not
really
appreciate
their efforts, and com
mented thusly: No way
. . .
Our
customers
trust
wood,
and
that's
what they will get . . . .
At that pOint,
the
two friends
decided
to part with
such
a
short
sighted company and
create
their
own.
Late in
1924,
Beech and
Stearman visited
an
older fellow to
ask him
to
participate in
this
new
and
risky
endeavor.
After a lot of
convincing, Clyde Cessna agreed
to put his
expertise
(and his
money)
in the Travel Air venture .
With the new
company
incorpo
rated on February 4, 1925, the trio
was writing a new page in the his
tory of aviation books.
The first product of the newly cre
ated
Travel Air
Manufacturing
Co.
was
the
Travel
Air
1000, swiftly
amended into the
Travel Air 2000,
and finally, by installing a radial en
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Feb 2003
17/36
bit,
since they
added a second
set soon after
the
initial flight.
The landing gear
was
purchased
from Nicholas
Beasley Co. of
Marshal,
Mis
souri. According
to
the Winstead
family, the air
Prior to starting the OX-5 Paul Dougherty president of
plane had
a
the Golden Age Air Museum of Bethel Pennsylvania
radial engine be
primes the engine.
gine, the Model 4000. All
of those
designs had more than a family re
semblance to the Swallow project.
Left with
the
fuselage
of the now
moribund
Swallow project
on
his
hands, Jake Moellendick decided
to
get rid of it and sold it to one of his
employees, a fellow
named Carl
Winstead. A pilot and a mechanic,
Winstead,
along with
his
brother, Guy, was working to
create
yet
another
airplane
company. Leaving Swallow,
he embarked
on
making the
Beech
and
Stearman creation
his
own. The
fuselage was
used as t was designed and
built, while the wings were of
Swallow design, with
an
atyp
ical shorter wingspan. They
were attached
to the
fuselage
with four vertical bolts run
ning through the
spars
and
standard
Swallow
fittings.
The engine
mount
was of
Swallow design, sporting an
example
of
the ubiquitous
Curtiss OX-5.
Paul Dougherty
comments
We figure that they
loaded their pockets with as
much Swallow stuff as they
could before leaving The
tail is Winstead's design; it
has an aluminum tube for
the
horizontal stabilizer, the rest
was steel tubing. In early pho
tographs, the tail was braced
with only
one
set
of
wires.
We think it wobbled quite a
fore the
OX-5,
but we could
not
find any proof of this.
Looking somewhat like a clipped
wing Travel Air 2000 (without the
elephant
ears),
the
resulting
flying
machine
was
called the Winstead Spe-
cial. With all
their
finances sunk in
the airplane, and with no hope of sell
ing it, Guy
and
Carl dissolved their
company, going their separate ways.
Carl and the Special stayed on the
aviation scene, joining in
the
Flying
Aces Air Circus in the late '20s, with
Jessie Woods walking the wings, as
well as barnstorming. Everything
for a buck, as Paul
puts
it. The Spe
cial was sold
to
Marvin Mara in
1930, who employed it to barnstorm
around
the
Midwest and, believe or
not, in
air racing. After changing
hands
multiple times,
the
Winstead
was deemed unairworthy
in
1937.
The owner at
the time, J.J. Davis of
Ayre, Nebraska, took it apart and put
it in storage. Resurfacing in
the
'80s,
the Special was traded with the Air
power Museum
of
Ottumwa,
Iowa,
where Paul and his father, Paul Sr.,
found it in 1995.
After
the
Special episode
of
his
life, Carl went on with his aviation
career, becoming one
of the
first
Cessna Aircraft Corp . employees,
helping build the A series.
He
later
became Cessna's chief test pilot, tak
ing the model 190 for the first
time in the air
on
December 7,
1945. Shortly thereafter, how
ever, Carl died while testing
the Cessna 195. Guy Winstead
joined Travel Air in 1926, help
ing with
the design
and
construction of
the
Travel
Air
5000 model, which was built
on Cessna and Winstead's own
time, in the same manner as
Beech and Stearman pro
ceeded with the Special.
Paul continues:
My father and I purchased
it from
them
[the AAA s
Air
power Museum] in 1995. The
restoration
was
very
exten
sive. Three of
the
wings were
replaced, as well as the center
section. Damage could
be
seen in the original center sec-
tion from wing walkers. The
lower ailerons were replaced.
The only
thing
missing prior
to the restoration was the ver
tical fin and rudder, plus
the
seats. We
re-created
them
from photographs because
no
blueprints exist. t took some
four years before the airplane
could
fly
again.
VINT GE IRPL NE 5
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Feb 2003
18/36
Also on display at the museum
in
Bethel, Pennsylvania, is Andrew King's Ryan
M l
, shown here
in
formation with
the Winstead Special.
Just
look at that beautiful grass at the Golden Age
ir
Museum The Winstead's
rudder
and fin were missing from the project, but Paul and his restoration crew
were able to re-create the structure using photographs for reference.
After three years of flying the air
plane, he describes its characteristics:
It
flies
very
nicely. The
OX-5
puts
out
plenty of power for the
airplane, and the
climb
rate is re
spectable for its vintage.
Contrary
to [what]
one might
think, its short
wings and
the
four ailerons
are
only
giving it a
modest
rate of roll.
The elevator
is
very responsive,
but
does not have any trim. However,
1 6
FEBRU RY
2 3
it
can
be changed on the ground
by
removing the attach
bolt
and
changing
washers. But
this is too
much work
for little
results.
The
rudder is
also very responsive and
works very well
upon
taxiing. The
airplane
does
not
have
any
brakes
or a steerable tail skid. The rudder
is all you have to steer
the
airplane.
The takeoff distance
is
depend
ing
on
the load, between 400 to 800
feet. The stick forces do not change
too badly between one or three peo
ple on board. Landing rolls
can
be
very short, i you
want
it,
the
tail
skid acting
as
a very efficient brake.
Formation flying
is
interesting, be
cause it takes
a lot of coaxing to
accelerate. The OX-5
is
flying very
close
to
full
power
during cruise,
and
the only way to accelerate is to
give all what little power it had left.
I set
the
engine at
about
1400 rpm
on the
takeoff roll, at 1350 to 1400
in
normal
cruise,
and
1525
during
'fast' cruise. You realized
that
there
is not much room to play
with
power. We
never experienced an
overh