vintage airplane - feb 2003

8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Feb 2003

1/36


2/36

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.


3/36

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


4/36

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;

e-mail

[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]


5/36

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


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


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


8/36

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.


9/36

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

VINT GE AIRPL NE 7


10/36

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.


11/36

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 .......

INTRODUCING

EAA

Flight

Pia

n

n r™

EAA, in an agreement with AeroPlanner.com, is pleased to announce

an exciting new Membership benefit for EAA Members .

EAA

Flight

Planner Take advantage of the newest

Member benefit by heading over to

c

ww.eaa.org.Click on the "Register Now

link, get registered, and log onto

EAA

Flight Planner to plan your next flight.

FREE FOR

EAA

MEMBERS

EAA

Flight

Planner:

• Files , stores and retrieves your

•

Checks

weather along your route

flight plans with or without

DUATS

• Calculates weight and balance

• View and print IFR approach plates

• Stores multiple aircraft profiles

• Displays your flight plan on an

interactive sectional map

• Provides a flight planning

''Wizard'' for more flexibility

• "Auto-route" based on your

preferences

• Checks NOTAMs,

TFRs

and MOAs

along your route

-

Maximize Your

Membership

•

FLIGHT

Check Out

the

EAA

Flight

Planner

PLANNER

at www.eaa.org Todayl

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 9

http:///reader/full/AeroPlanner.comhttp://www.eaa.org.click/http://www.eaa.org.click/http://www.eaa.org.click/http://www.eaa.org.click/http://www.eaa.org.click/http:///reader/full/www.eaa.orghttp:///reader/full/AeroPlanner.comhttp://www.eaa.org.click/http:///reader/full/www.eaa.org


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

[email protected].

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.


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

mail

[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


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. .......


15/36

inste

The 1920s were Special

RTICLE

ND P OTOS

BY

GILES ULI RD


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


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


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

vintage airplane - feb 2003

Documents