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GEOFF RO ISON
PRES IDENT VINTAGE IRCR FT ASSOCIATON
It s
irVenture time
I
t's here. For aviators around the
globe,
the month
of July always
brings EAA AirVenture Oshkosh
to
mind. Most everyone of these
aviators will wish
he
or she were go
ing to be able to attend, but for var
ied reasons, many are never able to
make
it. Here's
hoping
this
is
the
year for you! I still remember my
first EAA
convention in
1984; I re
ally thought it would likely turn out
to be a one-time visit for me. Fortu
nately, the proverbial Oshkosh bug
bit
me pretty
hard. So far, I
have
not
missed a single Oshkosh since
my
first,
and
each of
them
has been
very enjoyable. But, some members
are not as fortunate as I am in be
ing able
to
come
to
this great event
every year. Even if you can get here
only once, you really owe it to your
self
to
experience
this
amazing cel
ebration of the Spirit of Aviation.
One
of
the
great benefits
of mem
bership
is
the opportunity
to
serve
yo ur fellow members as a Vintage
volunteer during EAA AirVenture.
So, as we typically do
each
year in
July, here's a
partial
list
of
names
EAA
AirVenture Oshkosh 2008, the
World's Greatest Aviation Celebration,
is
July
28
through August 3 2008.
VAA is about participation:
Be
a
member!
Be
a volunteer!
Be
there!
Let's all pull in
the
same direc
tion for
the
good
of aviation. Re
member
,
we
are
better together.
Join us and have it all.
Vintage ircraft
ssociation
chairpeople
Convention Management
Geoff Robison, chairman,
chief7025@ao i .com
219 493 4724
Butch Joyce, vice-chairman,
wind-
sock@aoi .com 336 427 0971
Convention Management
Field
Operation
s
George, Daubner, Vice Chairman,
vaaf/[email protected]
414-673-5885
Aerogram
Rob Kamsch,
chairman,
336-668-3410
VAA ludging/Awards
Dave Clark, VAA
chief
judge,
317-839-4500
C
omputer Operations
Merchandise
Bob Lumley, chairman,
i
ump
262 782 2633
Metal Forming Workshol)
Steve Nesse, chairman,
507-373-1674
Parking and Safet
y
Michael Kosta,
chairman,
cubf/[email protected] 303 673 9355
Participant Plaques
Jack Cope land ,
chairman,
cope
508 393 4775
Past Grand
Champions
Steve Krog, chairman,
[email protected] 262-966-7627
Saf
e
Flying
Ken Morris, chairman,
Taiidragger7W@aoi .
com
815 547 3991
Security
Tim Fox, chairman,
tim@{ly
ingshepherds.com
260-486-8126
Tall
Pines Cafe
Steve Nesse,
chairman,
[email protected] 507-373-1674
Toni
's
Trolley
Jim Brown, chairman,
414-895-6282
Tour
Tram
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:vaaf/[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:cubf/[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:///reader/full/tim@%7Blyingshepherds.comhttp:///reader/full/tim@%7Blyingshepherds.comhttp:///reader/full/tim@%7Blyingshepherds.comhttp:///reader/full/tim@%7Blyingshepherds.comhttp:///reader/full/tim@%7Blyingshepherds.commailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:vaaf/[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:cubf/[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:///reader/full/tim@%7Blyingshepherds.commailto:[email protected]
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J U L Y
VOL.
36 ,
NO.7
2008
CONTENTS
Fe
Straight & Level
It
s
Air
Ve
nture time
by Geoff Robison
2 News
6 Aeromail
8
Vernon's
CAA
Airmaster
The Bronze Age Outs
tandin
g Closed Cockpit Monoplane
by Nick Hurm
13
The Flight of
the June
Bug
The centennial of Gle
nn
Curtiss' epic flight of July 4, 1908
by H
.G
.
Fraut
s
ch
y
r
_--
2 Light Plane Heritage
Re
member the Klemm
by Bob Whittier
26
The Pratt &
Whitney
Wasp
The history of a most remarkable engine
by Joe Hayn
es
32
Mystery Plane
by H.G . Frautschy
34 The Vintage Instructor
The ID
A"
by Doug Stewart
8 Classified Ads
ST FF
EAA
Publishe r
Tom Poberezny
Directo r of EAA Publications David Hipschman
Executive
D
irector/Edi
t
or
H
.G.
Fra
utschy
EAA
Art Direc tor
Oliv ia
P
Trabbo ld
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I
T
o help members who
Theater
"
1
fly
in to understand In The
West Side Woods
the layout of the con
~ r
))
Vintage
Aircraft
An t
ique
amping
vention area administered
by VAA, we've
prepared
this simplified map.
As
you
can
see,
camping
starts
at
0 ,
',..
Row
74 on
the
east side of
Type Club s
Parking
the main north/south road
~ S t a r t s a t
(Wittman Road), with
the
- . - - Row 74
areas
to the
north of that
Tall Pines
line
set
up to handle
dis
- . - -
Cafe
play-only vintage aircraft.
Near Ultralights
That's why you may
see
open areas as you taxi south
to your camping location.
Once
you arrive, you'll
need
to
register
your
air
craft and/or campsite.
In
addition to
roving
regis
Row 78
EAST
SIDE
tration vehicles,
there is
-
VAA CAM PING AND PARK ING
one main
aircraft registra
STARTS H
ERE.
CONTINUES TO
ROW
150
tion
building, located just
south
of
the
Red Barn (see
map).
The
EAA
convention
campgrounds
are
private
campgrounds and are
not open to non-EAA members.
Each
campsite must
be registered
Flight
Planning for
Your E AirVenture
Trip
As an
EAA
member
(an
important
part of
your
VAA
membership),
you
can use
Parking
))
t ~ v
o
Type Club
&
Showers Workshop Tents
Showplane/Campe r (\ (\ ....-\
Reg istra
tio
n V V V
Red
{ H anga r
D
Ba
rn
Cafe
- parked alo ng road
and in rows
60
& 61.
V
AA
Large Special
Inte rest
Aircr
aft/
Ant iques
o VAA
VAA PARK ING -
No Camping
Operat ions
Shack
Row 62 through Row 77
Past Grand
Ch
ampions
Rows 60
Row 50
& 61
Anl
iqu,
POint
-----'---'- -'--------
- - - - -- -
by a current
EAA
member.
Another immediate benefit
of
VAA membership is your
free
VAA
AirVenture
Oshkosh
2008 Partici
pant
Plaque, which
you
can pick
Get Your
E AirVenture 2008
NOTAM Booklet
Printed copies of
the
EAA
Air
Venture Oshkosh 2008 Notice to
Airmen
(NOTAM)
can be ordered
by
calling
EAA
Membership Ser
vices at 800-564-6322, or you
can
download
it directly from
the
Web
D
omm
Ce
nte r
up in the
rear of
the
Red Barn.
EAA
and
VAA
memberships are available
at
both aircraft
registration
and
at
the
membership
booth
located
northeast of
the Red
Barn.
o 2 8 It \
/1mVENTURE ~
OS KOS
-
-ff i -
NOTAM
The Worfcf5
Greatest
Aviation Celebration TU
http://www.airventure.orgi20081%28lying/http://www.airventure.orgi20081%28lying/http://www.airventure.orgi20081%28lying/
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Grass Runways
and Fuel
Also on our VAA website,
we
publish a list created by
VAA
mem
ber
Kris
Kortokrax.
Kris
flies
a variety of old biplanes
that are more pleasant to fly when
they are
flown
from grass strips,
and he and
his buddies from Shel
byville, Illinois, do their best to keep
the
old biplanes
happy
(and keep
tire wear to a minimum) by flying
cross-country
from
grass strip to
grass strip. Finding fuel facilities can
be a challenge these days, and
Kris
has distilled this airport information
to be useful for like-minded grass
runway-preferring pilots. This data
was
current
as of the beginning of
the year, and
we'd
suggest calling
ahead to confirm
fuel availability
and hours of operation. I f you have
any changes or additions, drop us
an e-mail here at vintageaircra t@eaa.
org and we'll forward it to Kris.
Our thanks to
Kris
for sharing his
list. Let us know if you find it useful
Breakfast
and a Briefing
The
VAA Tall Pines Cafe will be
in operation
again
this
year
with
an
expanded schedule prior to
convention,
and
fly-in-style pan
cake breakfasts during EAA AirVen
ture. Starting on Friday morning,
July 25,
and continuing through
Sunday, July 27,
the
VAA Tall Pines
Cafe will
be
open for breakfast
(6:30-9:30 a.m.) and dinner 4 :30
7:30 p.m.).
Starting
Monday,
July
28,
only
breakfast will
be
served
at
the Tall Pines Cafe (6:00-9:30 a.m.).
Just
to the north,
an FAA
Flight
name badge. We can also point out
the location for the Ford Tri-Motor
rides.
f
you have any questions,
feel free to ask for
Jillian
Rooker,
the
VAA
administrative assistant.
I f
you need to reach her in advance of
your arrival, call her
at
EAA
head
quarters, 920-426-6110.
Our
thanks to each
of you
who have contributed
to the VAA
Friends of the Red Barn 2008 cam
paign. We'll have the list of con
tributors in
next
month's edition of
Vintage
Airplane
VAA Message Center
I f you would like to leave a mes
sage for
people
you
know
who
frequent the VAA Red Barn, stop
by the information desk. You
can
write them a message in our "note
book on a string,"
and
we'll post
their
name
on
the marker board so
they'll know there's a message wait
ing
for
them.
Sure, cellular
phones
and walkie-talkies are great,
but
sometimes
nothing works better
than a hand-scribbled note
VAA Picnic
Tickets for the annual VAA picniC
to be held Wednesday, July 30, at
the Nature Center will be available
for sale at the VAA Red Barn prior to
the
start of EAA AirVenture. Tickets
must be purchased in advance so we
know how much food to order. The
delicious meal will
be
served after
5:30 p.m. Trams will begin leaving
the VAA Red Barn
around
5 p.m.
and will make return trips after the
picnic. Type clubs may hold their
lot of effort to sponsor this event .
Shawano's residents do a great job
of hosting us, and we hope
you'll
help
us thank Shawano
by
joining
us
on the
flight.
VAA Red Barn Store
The
VAA Red Barn Store, chock
full of VAA logo merchandise and
other great gear, will be open with
expanded hours all week
long,
Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m.
until
6 p.m. Early-bird arrivals can
shop on the
previous weekend
as
well,
during
limited hours. Show
your VAA membership card (or your
receipt showing you joined
VAA
at
the convention),
and
you'll receive
a 10 percent discount.
When you first visit the Red Barn
store, check to see when there will
be a special VAA members-only sale.
Bring your V
AA
card to the sale, and
save with
additional discounts. See
you there
VAA Volunteer Opportunities
Are you an ace pancake flip
per?
I f
you're not
one
yet, we can
help
The
VAA Tall Pines Cafe is
looking for volunteers who can
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VAA Judging Categories
The VAA s
internationally
recog
nized judging categories are:
• Antique: Aircraft built prior
to
September 1, 1945
• Classic:
September
1, 1945,
December 31, 1955
•
Contemporary:
January
1,
1956, - December 31, 1970
Any aircraft built within
those
years is eligible
to
park in
the
Show
plane parking and camping
areas.
f you wish to have your
aircraft
judged, let
the volunteer
know
when
you register your aircraft
and
camping area.
f
you
want
your air
craft
to
be judged
by VAA
volunteer
judges,
you need to be a
current
Vintage Aircraft Association mem
ber.
VAA
contributes
a
significant
portion
of
the costs related to the
EAA awards
that
are
presented to
the
award winners.
Designated Smoking
Areas Near
Flightline
Smoking
on the
flightline at
EAA
AirVenture is prohibited
because
it's a hazard to all aircraft. There are
several
designated
smoking
areas
with
butt cans along the flightline,
well away from aircraft
and
refuel
ing operations.
Designated smoking
areas will
be south of the ultralight runway;
near the Hangar
Cafe;
near the
Warbirds area
(northeast
corner of
Audrey Lane
and
Eide Avenue);
the
Wearhouse flag pole area;
the
shade
pavilion north of
the
control tower;
and
near
the
Ultralight
Barn. Lo
A
eroplane
Factory volunteer Ron Kempka shows (I to r) Roger
White
, Beverly
Cu
shman
,
Sam
James, Reed
McCall
,
and Bruce Leighfield how to tie
a
knot.
Find u r
Favorite
Presentations
and
Workshops
Online
With hundreds of
the
world's leading aviation authorities delivering
close
to
1,000
individual
presentations at
nearly
3S
locations spread
throughout the expansive EAA convention grounds, planning
your
week
at
EAA
AirVenture Oshkosh 2008
can
be,
in
a word, challenging.
Fret
not
, eager aviation enthusiasts, because you can
plan your
visit
to the World's Greatest Aviation
Celebration with
EAA s
integrated
presentations
and
workshops schedule database,
and the
preliminary
version
is now
available at www AirVenture org/forums
The database will
include
all the venues, subjects, topics,
and
pre
senters from not only forums and
workshops
,
but
also Warbirds in
Review, KidVenture, Museum Speaker Showcase, Authors Corner, The
ater
in the
Woods, special at
the
aircraft presentations
on
AeroShell
Square,
and
more. You
can
search for activities by date, interes t level
(such as Aerobatics or Homebuilding),
name
of presenter, location, or
simply by keyword. f it's on a schedule, it'll be here, allowing you
to
create custom searches to conveniently preplan your AirVenture stay.
The process
of
confirming schedules,
making
modifications, and
adding new presentations
is
continuing,
so check back
often
for
the
latest updates.
tion,
please
vote for two officers vice
and
information.
and 7 directors.
I f
you d prefer
to
Visitors can
obtain general in
http://www.airventure.org/forumshttp://www.airventure.org/forums
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More
on the Web
Visit www.AirVenture.org for more
information
on EAA
AirVenture 2008.
AirVenture Is
Almost Here
•• •
Are You
Ready?
We've made it easy
to
learn the
status
of, for
example,
Oshkosh
area accommodations, with new
pages
on the
Web.
Just
a few short weeks from
now,
many
of you will
make
the
annual pilgrimage to Oshkosh for
EAA
AirVenture 2008.
Are
you
ready? Here
are
several handy
online
tools on the newly
rede
signed
AirVenture website
that
can
help
you
take
care of
any
last-minute
concerns.
•
For
pilots flying in: www AirVenlure
.
org/200B/{lying/index .html
Arrival procedures, ground op
erations, parking,
even a Special
Offers for Pilots
interactive
map
www.AirVenture.org/200B/{lying/al -
ternate_airports.html) help get you
here and take you home.
• For
lodging: www.AirVenture.
From the massive Boeing Dream
lifter to
the small
but
fast Neme
sis NXT .
more military
aircraft
than
you ve ever
seen
o
ut
side
an
invasion, including F-22 Raptors,
the
V-22 Osprey,
and
those great
vintage warbirds . . . and the iconic
Goodyear
blimp
find
out
what
you ll want to
see
at AirVenture
this year.
• www.AirVenture.org/200B/news/
OB060S_presentations html Put
more
than
a
thousand pr esen
ta
tions, workshops,
and other
sched
uled events at your fingertips.
SPOT to Offer
Free
Messengers
for EAA Members
Attending AirVenture
EAA members
attending
EAA
AirVenture Osh
kosh 2008 are
eligible
to
re
ceive
a free
SPOT Satel
lite Messenger
th rough an
exclusive offer
from
SPOT
Inc.
available
only at
Oshkosh.
SPOT
Inc.
will give
away SPOT Satellite Messengers
a
169 .99 value)
to current
EAA
members when they
subscribe
to
a one-year satellite service package
for 149.98
at
AirVenture.
SPOT uses
the GPS
network to
pinpoint
a
user s location, then
transmits
that
information
to
friends, family, or
an
emergency
re-
Upcoming Major
Fly-Ins
Arlington Northwest Fly-In
Arlington MuniCipal Airport AWO),
Arlington, Washington
July 9-13, 2008
www.N
W
AA.org
EAA AirVenture Oshkosh
Wittman Regional Airport OSH),
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
July 28 -August
3,
2008
www.AirVenture.org
Mid
-Eastern Regional Fly-In
Mansfield Lahm Reg ional Airport
(MFD), Mansfield, Ohio
August 23 24 , 2008
www.MERFI.info
Southeast Regional Fly-In
Middleton Field Airport GZH) ,
Evergreen, Alabama
October 24 -26 , 2008
www.SER I .org
Rocky Mountain Regional Fly-In
(New Date)
Front
Ra
nge Airport
FTG)
, Denver
(Watkins) , Colorado
September 19-21 , 2008
Coppersta te Regional Fly-In
Casa Grande Municipal Airport CGZ) ,
Casa Grande, Arizona
October 23-26, 2008
www. Coppers tate.org
u.S.
Sport
Aviation Expo
Sebring Regional Airport
SEF),
Sebring, Florida
January
22
-25 , 2009
www.Sport-Aviation- xpo .com
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SEND
YOUR
COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS TO:
VAA
LETTERS
TO
THE EDITOR
P.O.
Box 3086
OSHKOSH, WI 54903-3086
OR
YOU
CAN
E-MAIL THEM TO:
Additional Information on
while
it
was
still owned by the
Funk Serial Number
Funk brothers,
and
while
the
bulk
Al Ball of
Santa
Paula, Califor of it was rescued from the fire, there
nia, who owned serial number 2 was significant damage done to it .
for 40 years, called to tell us
that According to
evidence found
on
the airplane
was built
out
of
the the
parts of serial
number I,
it was
salvaged parts of serial number 1.
originally
painted lemon yellow,
No.1 was
caught in
a
hangar
fire with
black numbers. AI
Ball says
the color was close
to
the color of
a
yellow
writing pad-lighter in
tone than Cub Yellow, but not a
light
yellow. He pointed out
that
when
he
restored
the
airplane he
didn t
repaint
the
airplane in
its
original
yellow color,
but chose
a
dark-red-with-black-trim scheme
that
is
closer to the production
Funk airplanes.
The split nosebowl seen on the
first
airplane
was used
on the
sec
ond
version, but the
distinctive
center divider was removed at some
point, so
the opening
appears very
different than
the
original.
Just prior to World
War II, the
Northrop Technical
Institute took
ownership of
the
airplane,
and
after
the war it was sold to a Los Ange
les-area pilot.
The pilot
who pur
chased
it
from NT flew it briefly,
but
because
the
cooling system was
so clogged
with
scale
and
rust after
sitting for a number of years, the
engine would overheat soon
after
takeoff. After Al Ball
restored
the
engine
and airframe,
he
put
about
500
hours on
it before selling it
to
Fred
Patterson
and the
Oakland
Aviation
Museum
(also
known
as
the
Western Aerospace Museum) in
Oakland, California.
Al
is currently restoring
an Air &
Space 18A autogyro
and
expects
to
have it flying
within
a year.
WH T OUR MEM B RS
RE
RESTORING
Are you nearing completion of a restoration? Or
is it done and you're busy flying and showing it off?
If so, we'd like
to
hear from you. Send us a 4-by
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
9/44
• 700
mW
loud
audio
with built-in BTL amplifier
• 18 hour* Lithium-Ion battery pack, 2000
mAh
Optional BC 179
• Securely
holds &
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
10/44
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
11/44
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12/44
Here s the Interior of the
Airmaster, complete with tan
whipcord upholstery.
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
13/44
ing
the war, including airway de
velopment, which could have been
a likely job for 237E.
Airmasters were exceptional
camera
planes
because
of
their
rock-solid
stability
.
One
former
owner
joked the Airmaster can cut
through
turbulence like a DC-3 .
Of the 186 built, 23 were sold or
converted
by the factory for aerial
photography.
N237E was not
one
of them
on
record; however, cam
era
equipment
was installed.
I looked
in
the
belly,
and the
holes were still
there in
the
wood
for the
big
camera/ said West
Coast antiquer Don
Carter,
who
owned
the
airplane from 1961 to
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
14/44
to have
an
aerial
photography
busi
ness he used
the
plane for.
"He claimed they went
to
20,000
feet doing high-altitude photogra
phy.
That's with two
guys-pilot
and
camera operator,
and one of
those big Fairchild cameras.
I
said,
'How long
did
it
take you
to get
there?' He said, 'Well, we
brought
our lunches along!'"
The president of Security was avi
ation and parachute pioneer
John
Maggi,
who owned
the
airplane
from 1948 to 1955. Maggi was
one
of the
first air
show
sky
divers
we're talking
the 1920s-and
later
flew Curtiss Helldivers
in
the Ma
rines during World War II. He was
voted into the Aviation Pioneer Hall
of Fame in 1998.
The airplane went
through
a few
owners before Carter bought the
plane. He said the airplane was in
good condition except for one glaring
problem. Someone repainted it.
it,
he
was able
to
keep the airplane
ding-free.
You
want to keep the thing going
straight
on
landing and takeoff," Coe
said. "The tail
is
really heavy.
If
you
]
I
kept thinking,
get the
thing out
of alignment, you
can put it in the weeds really
easy.
I'm
proud in the fact that all of the years I
flew
it,
I
never put it in the weeds."
Heyrman
and
Baeten also got
some
flying advice
from
another
Airmaster expert, 98-year-old Mort
Brown, who was
Cessna's
chief
production test pilot
from 1939
until
1972.
"I
called Mort Brown and asked
him
if there were
any
quirks," Baeten
said. "He
told me
the
airplane
is
pretty straightforward. Come across
the fence
at
75
i f you two-point it
and
80-85 i f you're going
to
wheel
land it."
Baeten said during the 22-hour
trek back,
the
165 Warner
sounded
good,
burning
8 gallons
an hour
at
1850 rpm. They averaged 120 mph.
That's
pretty
good efficiency
today
from the airplane once deemed the
world's most efficient airplane."
Back home, Heyrman said every
,
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
15/44
BY
H.G. FRAUTSCHY
I
t had been a long, muggy summer day in up
state New
York.
The
humid
air hung in
the
val
ley southwest of Hammondsport until it could
hold
no
more, and the crowds assembled on
the
grounds of Stony Brook Farm
and the
Pleasant
Valley Wine
Company had to endure
a few rum
bling
thunderstorms
that
afternoon.
Many had
been there since dawn, expecting to see a remark
able
sight-a
local man, already famous for his ex
ploits
on
bicycles and motorcycles, was going to fly
nearly a mile
through the
air.
A few days before that hot, muggy afternoon,
Glenn
Hammond
Curtiss
had
stepped aboard a
train
bound
for Washington, D.C. He
and
Thomas
Selfridge were
to
meet with officials of the Aero
Club of America. He
and Selfridge were members
of
the
Aerial Experiment Association AEA), a small
group of accomplished aeronautical experimenters
A.
O.
BELL,
r. W.
BALDWIN, J. A.
D. MoCURDY,
O. H.
CURTISS ...
T.
E.
8ELFRIDOE
.
I .
I IUIIDII
, AD.II .I U,101 or r .
I .
IILraIDU.
DIO'
1
.
FLn iB
IUOB I
RE
.
.. LIOATIOI rlLlD
API . I , 110 .
1,011 , 106.
Patented Dec.
5,
1911.
., anu-un? I .
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16/44
A. G. BELL, F.
W.
BALDWIN ,
J.
A.
D.
McCURDY,
G.
H. CURTISS
;
T.
E.
SELFRIDGE.
£
..
. lliLP'lIDGZ.
AD_ 111 101
or f . E.
I t
LtIJDOt . DJ:O ' D
FLYING
liA
CHINE•
PPLIOiTIO.
U
D
HI
. 8, 1909 .
1,011,106.
Patented Dec. 5, 1911.
"
I IUTI
-
IBEET
,
J
X
< \)
. ~ ~
10
~ ~ o
,
,
\
1\
-
,
-
\
The June Bug
Is
prepared for flight on a
warm
, muggy Satur
day,
the
Fourth of
July
, 1908.
Glenn
Curtiss
stand
s with his
hands on his hips, garters for his shirt sleeves holdin g his
cuffs
above
the elbow on the
summe
r
day
.
Draw a crowd
to
Hammondsport and prove to the world
that we
can
really fly."
In Washington, Curtiss
and
Selfridge told
the
officials
of the Aero Club that they intended
to compete
for the
Scientific American trophy. Established by
the noted
sci
ence magazine, the silver trophy was created in 1907 to
stimulate aviation progress in
the
United States.
If
a com
petitor could complete a trio of trials in succeeding years
(each year's
hurdle
would
become
increasingly difficult,
thanks
to
standards determined by the Aero Club), the
trophy would
be
permanently
given
to the
competitor.
Curtiss and
the AEA
were
confident
that
their new
air
plane, the third powered fixed-wing aircraft they built,
was up to the first challenge
of
flying
more
than a kilo
meter (3,281 feet, or 0.621 mile) in a straight line. After
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
17/44
day),
the AEA
made
the
decision
to
go ahead with a
new
design, similar in appearance but refined by Curtiss. The
five flights
made with White
Wing
told them they
were
on the right track, but that both structural and aerody
namic changes needed to be made.
It
would be easier
to
build a new airplane
than
to rebuild
the
White Wing with
the
changes incorporated.
Aerodrome
No.3
which would be dubbed the June
Bug by
Dr. Bell,
would feature
the
wingtip lateral controls
first installed
on
the
White Wing. The triangular movable
control surfaces were a revelation to the team. They al
lowed
the AEA s
aircraft
to
be controlled laterally, so
the
pilot could regulate his turns or recover from upsets
that
caused
the
airplane
to
roll
to one
side or
the
other.
The
June
Bug's "wingtips," as the controls were called
by
the
AEA, were
controlled
by a yoke
that
was
worn
over the
shoulders of the pilot. If you leaned into the turn in the
same manner as when
riding
a motorcycle,
your
lower
shoulder would
be
on the
lower
or inside of the turn
while your higher shoulder would be
pointed
away from
the
ground.
The yoke was rigged
to
move
the wingtips
so
that the
trailing edge
on the
wingtip of
the
wings you
wished
to
lower would tilt upward,
and the wingtip
on
the
opposite wings would tilt in the opposite direction.
Curtiss' design for
the June Bug
created a biplane with
the
familiar AEA-style wings,
although
the design of the
structure
created a
straight line down the leading and
trailing edges
as
viewed from in front, each side more like
a long truncated triangle than
the
curved wing of its pre
decessor. (Later, Curtiss would dispense
with the
tapered
wings, maintaining a rectangular box structure for his air
craft wing designs.) With a longer forward structure, which
allowed the builder to move
the
engine back 5 inches,
the
pilot sat further forward
than on the White
Wing.
The
total length of
the June
Bug was 27 feet 6 inches,
with
a
wingspan of 42 feet 6 inches. The lightweight structure
of
the
third AEA aerodrome
had
an
empty
weight of 473
pounds
and
a gross
weight of
615
pounds; the
engine
alone weighed nearly 200 pounds. The
White
Wing and
June
Bug had one other
pioneering
feature
that would
become a standard in aviation many decades
later-they
had
a tricycle landing gear.
J.
.
O BELL, r. W. BALDWIN, 1.
A
D. I4 ,
CORDY,
O
B. CURTIBU T. E.
SELFRIDGE.
I , A,
leUllDOI
, J.DWIIIITU.:UI
or
T. E.
U nU
• .
EO
D,
FLYlJO IUOQlWE.
UPLIOJ, I IOi
ru
API , I , UOf .
1 011 106.
atented
Dec 1911
l I un-I I ln .
ger than
the
White Wing, which
had
a lifespan of
only
six
days from its first flight to its last
It took just slightly less than a
month
to build
the
new
airplane.
The
airframe was
completed
by
June
19, 1908,
and
it was given a few ground tests before
the
wings were
installed and
it was pronounced ready for a
test
flight.
The
summer
heat
and
humidity
caused
the varnish to
crack and peel, so it
had
to be refinished. Pioneering aero
nautical
enthusiast and
engineer
Octave Chanute
had
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
18/44
The
June
Bug's
eight cylinder
, 40 hp engine was a Curtiss
product.
Eac
h
cylin
der had its
own
carburetor. Curtiss , alr
ead
y
well known for his
company
's engi
ne building
prowess, was
one of the spark
plugs
of the Aerial
Experiment Association
.
ing
the June
Bug, yet
other
research
would
lead
one to
believe the varnish
coating
was used first on the
White
Wing
and
then
the June Bug. In either event, the coat
ing
is
believed to have been
the first use
of
a
sealing
coating, or dope, used on a fixed-wing aircraft.
Flight testing began on June 21 with three short
flights,
the
longest
of which
lasted 25.5 seconds, cover
ing just more than 1,200 feet in length.
By
the
seventh
test flight
onJune
27, Curtiss kept
the
airplane
in the
air
for 60 seconds, covering more
than
3,000 feet
and
land
ing
only when
the boundary
of the
field
at
Stony Brook
Farm was reached.
Curtiss
and
his compatr iots were
convinced-they had
A. G. BELL , F. W. BALDWIN, J . A. D.
McCU
RDY, G. H. CURTISS'" T. E.
SELFRIDGE
.
E • .
UFlIDGE
.
ADKII18 rU.tOI or
r .
t . IELrllDGE
, DEO D.
FLYING CHINE.
APf LI OATIOI
rtL£D
H I.I U V .
Patented
Dec 5 1911
I,Oll,106.
6
BEE1 I
-
lHtEf 4
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
19/44
certain their rights
as
inventors would be better served by
not taking part in such a public event, were
not
drawn out
by
the
trophy.
By July
1 it was clear
to
the
secretary that
the AEA
meant
to claim
the
prize, and since
the
rules allowed
the
competitor to
name the
place
and
time of
the
attempt, it
would be accomplished in a valley in
the
wine
country
of
the
Finger
Lakes
region of New
York
and not
in Washing
ton or
any other
major population center.
The day before
the
public, officially
sanctioned event
was to take place, Curtiss
and the members of the AEA
who were in Hammondsport, along with Curtiss' assistant
Henry Kleckler, decided
to
test
the June
Bug
one
last time.
Using
the
horse racetrack
owned
by winery
owner
Harry
Champlin as a runway, Curtiss roared off on a dry run
of
the next
day's record
attempt, but due
to his (and ev
eryone else's, for
that
matter) inexperience
and the
chal
lenging
handling
characteristics of a pioneer-era aircraft,
gusty winds
put him in the
ground,
wrecking
one wing
and busting a wheel. But Curtiss was undeterred,
and
with
the
help of
the
others,
they
rebuilt
the June
Bug
in only
half a day.
As the sun
rose
that
steamy Saturday,
hundreds
of
spectators began to spread out blankets and settle in for
what they thought would
be a few hours
on
the
hill
side of the valley near the
Pleasant
Valley
Wine
Com
pany. Expecting the flight
to
take place early
in
the day,
when
normally
the weather was calmest, the crowds
were forced
to wait in
the
increasingly
uncomfortable
weather. At
one
point
,
in an
effort
to put
a
cheery
face
on an otherwise
tedious
day,
the owners
of the
winery
opened their
doors
to the public
for a repast,
complete
with the local vintner's creations.
As the
day dragged on, Curtiss kept eying
the
weather.
After his experience the previous day, he wasn't
about to
take a
chance
on
blowing
the opportunity to make his
tory by being impatient. Finally, after
the
afternoon show
ers had passed
and the
weather calmed down, he gave
the
word he was ready
to
fly.
As the
sun began to draw lower on
the
western ridge of
the
valley, Curtiss
and
his associates pulled
the June
Bug
from its
tent
hangar.
With
the hour
now
past six in
the
A. O. BELL
F.
W.
BALDWIN
J. A D. MoCURDY O. B. CURTISS
T. E.
SELFRIDGE .
I 1 , tELlIIDQE . .101'11
11'-1'01
or T
lurllDGE
Dt
U D
FLYING IIACHINE.
J PPLICJ TI0M f iL ED P
l
9
1.011.106.
Patented
Dec.
5.
191
I
~ t ~
- R . u x J ; ~
J4I
lI 7:l4ff
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
20/44
The June
Bug
roars
past the camera and its
no-doubt
startled
photographer
on one
of the two flights on July Fourth. Might this
be the
shot taken
y
the photographer
whose choice
of
position short
of the expected
end
of the
flight seemed to inspire
Curtiss to
fly
well past the 1-
kilometer
mark s red flag?
as
they reviewed the setting of the flight control surfaces,
they discovered the error in the stabilizer setting. Quickly
putting it right, they had time for another attempt to win
the Scientific American trophy.
At 7:30 Manly's starter flag
dropped
and
the
roar of
Curtiss' V-8 echoed up and down the valley.
It
must have
been a fantastic sight; the yellow wings of
the June
Bug
must have glowed in
the
warm evening light of
that
July
summer
day, the cloud of exhaust and oil smoke trailing
behind
as Curtiss coaxed
the
biplane
up
to an average speed of 39 mph for
the flight.
Just before takeoff, annoyed at the
naysayers, Curtiss spotted something
that
steeled his determination. A pho-
tographer, intent on taking a
photo
of the
June Bug as
i t passed by, set up
h is
camera short of the
finish line s
red flag. Curtiss took that to mean the
photographer didn t
think
he could
make it
the
full distance. I
think the
ph o tographer just wanted a shot in
the
air,
and
not one
as
the June
Bug
touched down . After all , for a historic
flight, who wants a photo of an air -
plane on the ground?)
The crowd then got to witness
one
of the most amazing flights ever made
up to
that
point in time, and one that
wo uld actually
be
the longest flight
ever
made with the June
Bug. Curtiss
wove his way
around
the t rees
and
vineyards of
the
Pleasant
Va ll
ey Wine Company, roaring
by the photographer and continuing well past the red flag
only coming down when he reached a stand of trees near
the
edge of
the
fie ld. He covered nearly 6,000 feet in dis-
tance, flying 102.5 seconds . He'd won Glenn Hammond
Curtiss and the AEA had topped
them
all, placing himself
and the
accomplishments of
the
AEA
on
the
front page of
every newspaper in the nation and around the world.
O S ~ K O S ~
~ Q W COH6!11
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It must have been a very sweet cel
ebration that Fourth of July, 1908.
With the Great Western champagne
flowing from th
e
winery, i t must
have been quite a night.
Glenn
Cur
tiss, once known as The Fastest Man
on Earth" thanks to his motorcycle
building and racing
prowess,
had
set himself on a
new
path,
one
that
would lead
to
remarkable
technical
achievements, but one that wo uld
try his very soul.
........
July
Fourth
will
mark
the
100th
anni-
versary of Glenn Curtiss
flight
in the AEPls
Aerodrome No.3
June Bug
winning
the
Scientific
American
trophy for the first of-
ficially
observed public flight of more than
1 kilometer
in
length .
The
Glenn
H
Curtiss Museum in Ham
mondsport New York
is
dedicated to the
memory
of the pioneer aviator. The mu-
seum
contains a priceless collect ion relat-
ing
to early aviation
and local history. In
addition to
seeing
the museum displays
and
exhibits, visitors
are
welcome to
viSit
the
Restoration Shop
talk with volunteer
For
more on Glenn Hammond
Curtiss
and
his life, I recom
mend the
following books:
Unlocking the Sky: Glenn Hammond Curtiss
and
the Race to In
vent the Airplane,
by
Seth Shulman, published in 2002.
Hell-Rider
t
King
of
the Air: Glenn Curtiss s Life
of
Innovation,
by
Kirk W. House, published in 2004.
Curtiss: The Hammondsport Era, 1907-1915,
by
Louis Casey,
published
in 1981.
Glenn Curtiss: Pioneer
of
Flight,
by
C.R. Roseberry,
published
in 1972.
"Bu
••
ts
bounce right
oft
th
Po.y-FI ber•• sec?"
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B uy Y
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http:///reader/full/polyfiber.commailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:///reader/full/polyfiber.commailto:[email protected]
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
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Light Plane Heritage
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED N EAA xperimenter NOVEMBER 1991
Remember th Klemm
BY BOB
WHITTI
ER
This nostalgia evoking photo shows a 20 hp Klemm in flight over the German countryside. Bulge
atop engine cowling covers the single magneto. ost Klemms were done with unpigmented fin-
ishes allowing natural wood and fabric colors to show Note wingtip skids and the unusual pivoting
wingtip aile
ron
s.
housands
of
young
men
learned to
fly
during World
War
I
Upon
being
dis
In the United States a great many
took eagerly to barnstorming in sur
plus two-seater Jenny
and
Standard
ing. Some
joined
flying clubs.
Yet
others
saw a future in offering fast,
frequent ,
and
hopefully reliable air
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
23/44
but valuable cargo to and from
these places more swiftly
than
could
be
done
by ship spurred yet others
to use
modified
single- and
twin-
engined bombers
to
make
incred
ibly
long and daring exploratory
flights
to
South Africa, India, Indo
China,
and
even
Australia . Out
of
these
adventures
there eventually
developed a vast airline system.
But pilots
in
defeated
Germany
found
themselves in a very differ
ent situation. The harsh terms of
the
Treaty of Versailles called for
the
destruction of
Germany s military
equipment. Only a handful of war
surplus planes escaped the bonfires.
The
manufacture of new military
aircraft was forbidden, and severe
restrictions were placed on
the
manufacture of and performance
capabilities of civilian aircraft.
On top
of that, their country was
in the throes of runaway inflation.
These daunting factors combined
to spark a strong interest in gliders
and
gliding.
Many and
sometimes
strange-
looking gliders appeared. The method
of launching them in those very early
days was to find a large, grassy field
on the side of a hill and yank the glid
ers
aloft with stretched bungee cords.
Flights were simply
short
downhill
glides. Soaring came later.
Inevitably some pilots
began to
install whatever
they
could find
in
the
way
of very small, light mo-
tors
in
their gliders so
they could
get airborne without having
to
call
together
enough people to
form
launching
crews, or so they
could
The Klemm monoplane was powered by this 20-hp Daimler-Mercedes
two-cylinder engine. Circular shape behind the propeller
hub
is the
hous-
in
g for the 3-to-1 reduction gear. Note two exhaust stacks per cylinder,
n outcome of the engine s having four valves per cylinder. Single mag
neto
is
mounted atop the crankcase. The engine
h d
a
75
mm
bore
nd
1
mm
stroke.
A derivation of the original Klemm was this very handsome KL-35 trainer
powered with a 150-hp Hirth engine. That s Hans Klemm standing beside
the fuselage. Wing was of inverted gull design. Front cockpit has been
covered over.
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
24/44
any and all aircraft construction,
but
the
Udet crew apparent ly didn t
realize this.
One of Udet s em ployees was
collared
by this official, liquored
up,
and
questioned. The employee
promptly told Udet
that
officialdom
was after
their
little company. The
little crew went into a huddle and
decided "To hell
with
the treaty "
In the dark of night they loaded ev
erything into
a wagon, made
their
furtive way well out into the
hin
terlands, and resumed work in
a
chicken coop.
Just a
few
days before their plane
was finished, in May of 1922,
they
were very happy
when
word reached
them that
the
ban on construction
of civil aircraft
had been
lifted.
So
they
proudly rolled the ship
out
for
its maiden flight. It was powered by
an
opposed twin-cylinder air-cooled
Haacke engine of 30 hp. This mill
vibrated so badly that Udet wrote of
the plane's first hop thusly:
"The motor shakes the plane so
badly I
can t
even recognize
the
aile
rons Everything vibrates
as though
the
road
in
the
air were paved with
cobblestones But I
am
flying-for
the
first time in two years "
The Udet crew must somehow
have improved
on
this situation, for
by 1923
the
little company had also
developed a similar two-seater pow
ered by
an
upgraded
S
-
hp
Haacke.
The hoped-for mass
market
in
the
United States never materialized
due to the insurmountable competi
tion caused by
the
thousands of war
surplus
American
military planes
available
at
flea market prices. But
This American Aeromarine-Klemm sports the 4O hp Salmson nine-cylinder
ra-
dial engine built in France and a set of floats designed
by
Harold Kantner.
This American-built Aeromarine-Klemm with a LeBlond engine was photo
graphed at Floyd Bennett Field in New York around 1937 Fat airwheel
tires
were
standard and allowed operation
on
rough fields, sandy beaches,
etc
. Rudder top was raised
to better
control added horsepower.
man deSigners like Junkers had pi
oneered this
form of wing design,
so Udet
had
a precedent. This type
would need no external struts or tie
rods,
in
addition to offering
the
low
drag necessary
to
get decent perfor
mance from low power. Making it
in
one
piece from
tip to tip would
save
the cost and weight of the
steel connecting fittings necessary
in
a wing built
in
two or more sec
Cessna C-
38 Airmaster,
you will
understand
this perfectly. The low
wing configuration allowed the
deep
central portions of the Udet
plane's wing spars
to
pass
under the
seats
and/or
knees of
the
occupants.
The open cockpits were easy to get
into,
had
no
headroom
problem,
and
afforded excellent visibility.
In the town of Bbblingen, not far
from
the
city of Stuttgart
in
south
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you can best appreciate
this
tini
ness by recalling
that the
original
four-cylinder, 1200 cc Volkswagen
engine has 73 cubic inches displace
ment. But it
had
excellent breath
ing characteristics by reason of
having
two
inlet
and
two exhaust
valves
per
cylinder.
So what
else is
new,
you
modern automobile en
gine deSigners?
Also its peak-rated rpm was 3000,
quite
high
for aircraft engines of its
time. It was fitted
with
a 3-to-1 re
duction gear so as
to
drive
the
pro
peller at a
maximum
speed of 1000
rpm, which was comparable to
the
rotational speeds of World War I
rotary engines. A large-diameter
propeller
could
thus
be used,
and
this
threw
back a
correspondingly
large
diameter, thrust-producing
column of
air. So it was
in
fact a
well-thought-out approach to light
airplane
engine design that
was
quite advanced for its time. And
by
the
way, the
engineer
in
charge of
its
development
was
Dr. lng.
h.c.
(doctor of engineering) Ferdinand
Porsche,
whose
skill
at designing
small and
reliable
air-cooled en
gines later created
the
Volkswagon
and Porsche automobile engines.
The well-financed Mercedes
Daimler company decided to develop
an airplane of its own to use this en
gine. They
put the
project
into the
hands
of
an
aeronautical
engineer
named
Hansjurgen Hans Klemm.
The resulting airplane was originally
called
the
Daimler L.20. A separate
organization
was
established to
manufacture it
and named
Leight
signs from other
engineers'
draft
ing boards to learn whatever
he can
about their poor
and
good ideas.
Like
the
Udet, the Klemm
was
of
all-wood
construction
and was
a low
wing of the cantilever
type.
But, where
the
Udet had a mod
est
span of
29
feet
1
inches, the
new
Klemm
had
a
long span
of 40
feet 2
inches
and had 215
square
feet
of
wing area. Later American
lightplanes
of the
Cub
type
had
around 170 square feet
of
wing
area, so you can see
that the
Klemm
was definitely a floater. Very light
airplanes tip easily
when landing
in
crosswinds, so
the
low wing on
the
Klemm did much
to
minimize this
problem. I f
wind
did
tip
a Klemm,
one wingtip
skid simply
contacted
the
ground and
bumped the
ship
back to level position.
Because of this appreciably
greater span, Hans Klemm decided
to
build the wing
in
three pieces, a
center
section
and
two
outer pan
els. He
paid
a small
penalty in
the
form of
the
cost
and
weight of
the
necessary steel
connecting
fittings,
but
gained
much
in convenience.
Each wing panel was attached with
two
vertical bolts
and
could quite
readily be removed
and hung
snug
and secure against
the fuselage
sides by means of small fittings pro
vided for
the
purpose. This enabled
the Klemm
to
be housed
in
a fairly
narrow and inexpensive
storage
shed or to be towed along
a
road
behind an
automobile. The rudder
and horizontal
tail were
removed
so as
not to
catch
the
wind or foul
the
tow car.
Making light
and
easily managed
wings removable
rather
than fold
able
saves a
lot of complication,
cost,
and weight. Some Klemm
owners came
to value
this
feature
very highly.
The reason for
the
long span had
to do with
a concept
known
to en
gineers as span loading. Basically
the
idea
is
that
i f
good takeoff
and
climbing
ability
and high
ceilings
WeD for a l J J o
airplanes, anyway .. w
got th
idea from Ponce.
It's
called
rejuvenation,
and
it
works
great
with
real
dope
finishes. Spray
our
rejuvenator
over
ge dope;
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are wanted in a plane powered by
a small engine,
wingspan
must be
quite long. Read the article
Wing
Span - The Vital Factor
in
the July
1988 issue of EAA Experimenter
In early models
the
leading edges
of the wings had false ribs between
the
main
ones. Later the leading
edges were
sheathed
with thin ply
wood
back to
the front
spars, and
in
a later (1929) license-built Amer
ican version, to
the
rear spars.
An
odd feature
was
the
use of
pivoted wingtips
for
aileron con
trol.
The
tips
pivoted in response
to
control
stick movement.
You
can
see this clearly
in
the in-flight
photo accompanying this
article.
Regular
ailerons
were also used,
and the result must have been
a somewhat complicated control
linkage system
.
The exact reason
for
the use of
pivoted
tips
is
ob
scure but could have
involved
the
problem of
adverse yaw in a
light
airplane of considerable wingspan.
The
writer recalls
reading some
thing many years ago
to
the effect
that it was hard to get good control
stick
feel
with tip ailerons. They
were very sensitive to the
location
of their pivoting pOint,
and
at
high
angles of deflection
they
could be
come overbalanced
so as to
take
the
stick away from
the
pilot. This
feature was in
time dropped
in
fa-
vor of
conventional
ailerons
only
.
The wing
used
the
thick, high-lift
Gottingen
387 airfoil, very similar
to the Gottingen
386
used in the
American Ford Tri-Motor of notable
load-carrying capability.
Cessnas
fitted with
retractable-wheel amphibious
twin float
s are nothing
new
in
the
aviation world
Back
in
1929
Aeromarine-Klemm in New Je
r-
sey experimented
with
e
xactly the
same idea.
00
AA
ss
cc
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The
ltn
The history
of
a
most remarkable engine
BY JOE
HAYNES
WITH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TO
THE
PUBLISH CORPORATE HISTORY
PUBLISHED IN 1950,
TH PR TT WHITNEY
IRCR FT STORY
As antiquers,
we all like
to talk
about
our
particular antique or clas
sic Stearman, Waco, Beech, Cessna,
skilled machin is ts who had
both worked at the Colt
Pistol Factory and formed
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
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toga and Lexington. Rentschler be
lieved that
the
best airplane could
only be designed around the best
engine; second best didn't count.
At that point, aircraft
engines
were still based
on
World War I de
signs. What made him think an air
cooled engine could be developed
in this horsepower range and com
pete with the big Curtiss D-12 and
the water-cooled V-12s being devel
oped by Wright and Packard? Well,
the story goes back to
an
engineer
named George Mead.
George Mead was a Massa
chusetts Institute of Technology
graduate who
had
worked on an
aircraft
engine
design for
the
U.S . Army Air Ser
vice during World
War I and didn' t
believe
that
liquid-
cooled
engines
were
ideal for aircraft.
Those types of
required
en
gines
carried
too much weight.
He had worked for
Rentschler
when
Rentschler
had formed
Wrigh t -Mar
t in
(later
re
organized into
Wright Aeronautical
Corporation
)
and
produced
the
His
panso-Suizas
and
the 575-hp Wright liq
uid-cooled T.
On a side note, before Rent
mous Wright J-5, which later pow
ered
the
Ryan NYP
Spirit
o st
ouis
from New York to Paris in May of
1927.
Mead knew more about get
ting more horsepower per
pound
than anyone in the engine busi
ness, but the Wright directors still
backed the liquid-cooled designs, a
stance that caused Rentschler to re
sign. Mead and Willgoos told Rent
schler they would go with him if
he ever got back
in the
engine busi
ness. Mead's foresight was
the
key
to
any
rapid
expansion
of aircraft
engine development, but he got
bogged
down
by
Wright
manage
ment and their insistence on stick
ing with the liquid-cooled design to
challenge the Curtiss D-12.
Pratt
Whitney management
reviewed
Rentschler's proposal
with their board of directors and
looked at
the
market. The War De
partment
reports were negative in
tone. The National Advisory Com
mittee for Aeronautics Report to
President Coolidge was blunt in its
assessment: There was
no
civil avi
ation development
following
the
war. They
consulted with Chance
Vought, a well-known, outspoken
aircraft designer, who replied, Hell,
if you can even produce an engine
of 350
hp and
weighing less than
650 pounds , there will be a mar
ket . Two days later, Pratt Whit
ney
management
called Rentschler
and
told
him
he had his money;
produce your team
and
we will
work out a contract.
Rentschler
called
Mead, who
The
so
li
d
ma
ster
rod
wi
th one of
the
othe
r
eight connecti
ng rods
nstalled
ceed 650 pounds. A generation later,
when the
highest
-powered radial
air-cooled engines delivered power
almost 10 times
the
400 hp Mead
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PH
OTOS
E
LIBR RY
PR TI WHIT
NEY
The two-piece crankshaft
of the
Wasp .
Combined with the one-piece
master rod
and the industry-l
eading metallurgical
engineering that created
long
lasting
bearings and valves ,
the
Pratt Whitney
Wasp
rais
ed
the bar for all airc raft
engines
that were
to
follow after it 's
introduction
to the industry
in
1926.
of 1,344 cubic inches displacement
on the
basis
of
125
pounds
brake
mean effective pressure
BMEP)
and
1900
rpm. That
meant
the
average engine would have
to
be
capable
of
420
hp or 130
pounds
MEP
to
assure a safe
margin
above
the 400-hp guarantee . They also
had
to consider that
for
military
use
the engine
would
be
forced
in
dives to run
at
2400 rpm, as
there
were
no
controllable-pitch propel
lers
in
1925.
In
1920, Mead
had
designed
an
engine
the
R-1, for
the
Army Air
Service
on which he had
reversed
the
usual procedure splitting
the
crankshaft and employing
a solid
master rod. He decided
on
this pro
cedure because it
meant
less weight
to counterbalance.
He
also
thought
it
might
hold
the
key
to
permitting
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The two-
piece crankcase
tational speeds and sturdier
con
struction for dependability, and
the l,344-cubic-inch displacement
would weigh no more than
the
Si-
moon's l,176-cubic-inch engine. A
cylinder design was developed us
ing an all-steel barrel with
the
cool
ing
fins
machined from
the
solid
casting. General practice up to this
time
had
been to integrally cast
an
aluminum cylinder head and barrel
with a shrunk-in steel sleeve. Mead
devised a
rotary
induction system
that
made
possible
the
use of one
carburetor instead of three, and, by
gearing up
the
impeller,
the
engine
could later be supercharged.
Mead put Willgoos to
work
on
the arrangements
for the valves,
finning
, rocker boxes , and push
rods. He used Mead's
tulip
valve
design, which had solved the valve
burning on
the
Lawrence
engine,
and
designed
the
rocker
box
as
an
integral
part
of the cylinder head
casting,
along with telescoping
pushrod covers. Mead had Willgoos
design the rear accessory section,
The
power section
of the
engine
was
built
asa
separate unit
from
the
accessory
section
,
giving the eng
i
ne
greater maintainability
were designing in Willgoos' garage
in
Montclair, New Jersey. The only
space available was
in
the Pope Hart
ford building that Pratt Whitney
to why these engine men were in
Hartford. Mead let
them
know
that
something was up, but he
needed
their silence.
He told
them
they
would be the first to know
when
the
news
broke
.
They
were
in the
market for workers, but they still
had to formalize a contract with
Pratt Whitney. That afternoon, a
formal contract was signed between
Pratt & Whitney Tool Company, as
a subsidiary of Niles-Bement-Pond,
and the
new
Pratt
& Whitney
Air
craft
Company,
with
Rentschler
as
president
and
Mead as vice presi
dent of engineering. Their objective
was
the designing, constructing,
testing
and experimenting with
aeroplane engines, aeroplanes, hy
droplanes, and if successful, to pro
ceed
with
the
production
thereof.
The spelling of aeroplane was
not
the choice of
Rentschler
or Mead
but
of
the
lawyers.
The financial details closely fol
lowed those originally proposed by
Rentschler:
$250,000
to carry the
work
through the
testing of
the
first
engine and, if the engine was prom
ising,
1
million
for further devel
opment
and
production tooling.
Rentschler insisted in the
contract
that neither
Niles-Bement-Pond
nor
Pratt
& Whitney Tool could
have
any
voice
in the management
of the new company. In addition
to Rentschler and Mead, three out
side directors, Col. Leonard Horner,
Sanford
Etherington, and
Edward
Deeds were chosen. They had been
key
aviation
figures in World War
I and recognized the need for na
vey of Pratt &
Whitney
Tool, which at night on December 24 ,
they
The No.1 Wasp swept through the
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they found very well-equipped . t
appeared that
only certain gears
would require
subcontracting for
the first engine.
John
Burrop was
one
of
the
old
metal cutters from the train sta
tion
meeting,
and
Brown put
him
in charge of the machine shop. Be-
tween
them
they secured two lathes,
two big milling machines, a Lucas
boring mill, external grinders, inter
nal grinders, benches, drills, layout
plates, etc. The routine was simple.
Mead released the drawing through
the hole to Brown,
who
doubled as
purchasing agent, who then passed
them to
Burrop,
who
had
built
a
platform
in
the
center
of the shop
and assigned the tasks for building
the various engine parts. By October
the
blueprints were flying
through
the
hole as several more designers
had left Wright
and
joined Mead
and Willgoos.
Willgoos'
brother Bill Willgoos
joined
them and
was
in
charge of
the
assembly
of the first engine .
No name had been selected for the
engine. Mrs. Rentschler
thought
it
should
be in the bee line, as the
place resembled a beehive. She se
lected Wasp, which stuck. Bill
and
his small crew set Christmas as
the target
date
for completing the
assembly. Several days earlier, Col.
Deeds had cabled from Havana,
saying
that
if
the
engine was com
pleted by Christmas he would give
each member of the organization a
turkey. There were still
some
parts
to be fabricated and the engine was
passed
out
the baskets as the men
left the shop. Sitting
on the
engine
stand
was the first Wasp, all assem
bled
and
ready for the test stand.
In just six
months
the engine had
progressed from scratch to a
com-
pleted assembly.
Mead now had to put into practice
the adage of this old engine professor
of
MIT
to start
her
up and see why
she didn't go. The Wasp weighed in
at just under 650 pounds, and as he
and Andy looked at her, they knew it
looked right.
Mead wanted to start an immedi
ate
informal
test prior to the Navy
test and felt it should start at 360 hp.
He was finally coaxed into going for
380
hp
, if it started. The Wasp started,
all right. It took the 380
hp
in stride
and
so
smoothly
that
all skepticism
vanished. Why
not
go for 400 hp?
Again
under an informal test, the Wasp
delivered 410 hp. On the third test the
Wasp hit 425 hp and ran clean.
During the next two months the
Wasp underwent continual informal
runs
in
preparation for the formal
Navy qualification test. In the mean
time, the second Wasp was
almost
assembled and four more were mov
ing from rough to finished parts to
as-
sembly. Also during this time, Mead
and Willgoos were
far
along with the
design of a new engine, the Hornet,
which displaced 1,690 cubic inches
and
was
aimed at
525
hp
at 1900 rpm.
Many parts of the Wasp were inter
changeable with
the
Hornet, which
was remarkable in those days.
The Navy qualification test started
SO-hour test, measuring at full throt
tle between 410 and 420 hp. The
fi-
nal reading taken by the observers,
their 221st, showed 1890 rpm
and
415
hp
. The Navy sent its congratula
tions and asked that this Wasp be ear
marked for an earthbound existence.
t
was retired and placed
on
perma
nent exhibit in the Franklin Institute
in Philadelphia, where it resides to
day.
It has never flown. In later years,
Mrs. Mead remarked that it was a pity
this Wasp was never allowed
to
fly
after performing so well
and
being
the
engine
that ushered in Pratt
Whitney Aircraft and its slogan De
pendable Engines. She also said that
the engine still
smelled
of the to
bacco
that
hung in the air of the ex
perimental shop that Christmas Eve
when the engine
sat gleaming
and
finished on the engine stand.
On May
11,
1926, the Navy issued
Pratt
Whitney
Aircraft a check in
the amount of $15,385.92 as pay
ment
for
the
first Wasp. On April
I,
Pratt Whitney Tool
advanced
the 1 million to proceed with pro
duction
tooling, as
they had
risked
only $202,713 .29
on
the
experi-
mental
engines.
Rentschler's plan
and
Mead's design offered a fertile
investment opportunity.
The
sec
ond Wasp took to the air in a Wright
Apache (F3W-l),
which had
been
modified by Chance Vought. Within
six
months, the
Wasp was flown in
planes
never designed
to
take its
power
and
the Wasp
demonstrated
power
that
made possible the aircraft
speed, rate of climb, performance at
http:///reader/full/15,385.92http:///reader/full/202,713.29http:///reader/full/202,713.29http:///reader/full/202,713.29http:///reader/full/15,385.92http:///reader/full/202,713.29
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Be
sure
and
visit
AUA,
Inc
.
at
AirVenture July
28th
through Augus
t
3rd,
2008. They
are
in
South
East
Exhibit Buil
ding
B,
Booth
B-2005 .
Ace
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BY
H.G.
FRAUTSCHY
THIS MONTH'S MYSTERY PLANE IS ANOTHER GOODIE COMING TO US
ROM
THE
COLLECTION OF TED BUSINGER, SALEM, ARKANSAS.
Send your answer to
EAA Vintage Airplane P.O. Box
You c n also send
your
response via e-mail. Send
3086, Oshkosh, WI 54903-3086. Your answer needs your answer to [email protected]. Be sure to include
to be in
no
later th n August 10 for inclusion in
the
your name, city, and state
in
the body of your note, and
October 2008 issue of Vintage
Airplane.
put (Month) Mystery Plane in
the
subjectline.
APRIL'S
MYSTERY
ANSWER
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April's
Mystery
Pla n e also
came
to
us
from
Ted
Businger's collection. Our
answer comes
from Wes
ley Smith:
liThe
April 2008 Mystery Plane
is the
1927 Martin
Boyd (Parasol)
Monoplane
. The aircraft was b
uilt by
Edward Martin of San ta Ana, California, and was de-
signed
by
Millard Boyd.
The
aircraft
incorporated
a
parasol
wing using
a
symmetrica
l NACA No. 81 air
foil,
which at the
cen
ter
was 22
inches thick
.
It
was
powered
by
a
180-hp
Wright-Martin
Hispano-Suiza
engine. The aircraft
is notable
for
having been
flown
in
the 1927 Internat
i
onal Aviation
Peace
Ju
b ilee,
which
was
sponsored joint
ly
by
the
Santa
An a Air
Club
and The
Aero
Club of
Hollywood.
I t
was
held
at
the Eddie Martin Airport
at
Santa Ana, California,
Ju ly 2-4, 1927. This
event
incorporated
various aerial
events,
including
races
and
parachute jumping
. A rear
view of the Martin-Boyd appears
in viation
("Interna
tiona l Aviation Peace Jubilee Draws Large Attendance:
S
tu nting,
Parach
ute Jumping and
Air Races Make Up
I
nteresting
Program,"
July
25, 1927, Page 203). I re
gret
t h
at
I
have been unable to unearth any
further
deta
il
s on this attractive
and
interesting monoplane;
however,
many
years later, Millard Boyd was involved
with
t
he
design of
the
Ryan SCM."
Wes' response was
the only one
we received.
ERO CL SSIC
"COLLECTOR SERIES"
Vintage ires
New USA Production
Show off y
our
pride and joy with a
fresh set of Vintage Rubber. These
newly minted ti res are FAA-TSO'd
things are better left the way they
were, and in the 40 's and 50's, these ti res were perfectly in
tune to the exciting times in aviation.
Not only do these ti r
es
set your vintage plane apart from
the re
st
,
but
also look exceptional on all General
Av
iation
and speed rated to 120 MPH. Some
8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2008
36/44
The
abbreviation DA means
different
things to
different folks.
For people
who
get involved
with
court proceedings, it brings to mind
a
state or county prosecutor.
For
those who
grew
up in
the '50s,
it
might
evoke a hairstyle resembling
the
posterior of
a
waterfowl.
But
for pilots it
should mean only one
thing: density altitude.
Unfortunately,
I
have found
not
only
as
an examiner
asking
an
applicant
to describe what density
altitude is during
a
practical
test,
but also as
an interested pilot
pe
rusing
the
National Transportation
Safety Board (NTSB)
accident
re
cords-that many
pilots really
don't
understand what density altitude
is.
And
without that understanding,
many are
getting themselves
i