Vintage Airplane - May 2007
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G OFF RO ISON
PRESIDENT VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION
Together
w
move
forward
Spring has now finally arrived in the
Midwest. This, of course,
is
a welcome
event that has finally, thank goodness,
brought that long, cold winter of '07 to
an
everlasting end, although as I write
this, a massive winter storm is bearing
down
on the
East Coast I am trying
to be optimistic
about the
weather
in
May, hoping that we will see a dramatic
change over what we experienced so
far in April. I am writing this month s
column just days before the beginning
of
the Sun ' n Fun Fly-In at Lakeland,
Florida, and I just
hung the phone
up
with a friend in Albert
Lea,
Minnesota,
and
he
said
the
area
is
expecting up
to
10 inches of snow yet tonight. I also just
received
an
e-mail from
Oshkosh
and
was told it was snowing there again
at
this very moment.
The big debate
on the
new
FM
fund
ing initiatives we have been hearing so
much about of late continues inside the
beltway in Washington, D.C.
Key
mem
bers
of
Congress seem to continue to
be successful
in
debunking
the FAA s
plan and properly labeling it
as
mostly
dysfunctional. I will reserve my final re-
marks
on
this important issue for when
visions, the affiliate [NAFI], and the two
councils) does not function well. The
worst of the matter is the fact that we are
not
doing
a good job
of
providing the
membership with an appropriate level
of satisfaction. We know this thanks to
some comprehensive survey work done
by
EM,
and by comments and requests
sent to us from the membership.
Having collectively recognized that
fact, it truly is time for some change. We
are working
toward
real
changes
that
will positively impact our members' sat
isfaction with EAA, as well as all of
the
divisions and all of the affiliated special
interest groups
that
exist under
the
flag
of
EM.
The process was begun by all
of
the
division and special-interest groups
in
conjunction with
EAA.
We prepared a
list of issues
that
we felt were the most
relevant and critical to
improving
our
ability to deliver the benefits and pro
grams our members expect. We came to
realize just how convoluted a process it
can be to do any kind of business with
the EM, from becoming a member
of
the
organization to renting a display
booth
during
the
convention. I'm sure
That's still a little difficult to quantify
at this moment.
But
what
is interest
ing to
point out
at this juncture is the
fact
that
the leadership
of
EM and all
the different
divisions
and affiliated
special-interest groups are communicat
ing
at
an all-new and refreshing level.
The makeup of the leadership represent
ing all of the different divisions and
the
affiliated special-interest groups is rep
resentative of some of the very best vol
unteer leadership ever to be assembled.
Be
assured, these are not simple is
sues we as an organization are facing. In
a lot
of
ways a great deal
of
these pro
posed changes have
the
potential to
not
only enhance our
following,
but
also
address a large number of the offerings
that an
association of this type should
be routinely providing to its member
ship. And that s potentially the most
exciting part of this initiative. So, stick
with us and come along for the ride. I
truly believe we are prepared to move
forward to a much stronger
and
effec
tive organization in
the
near future. I'll
continue to keep
you posted
on our
progress in the months ahead.
Remember, now
is the
time to begin
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N E
M
VOL 35 , NO.5 2
7
ON ENTS
I
Fe
Straight
&
Level
Togeth er we move forward
by Geoff Robison
2
News
5
AeroMail
6
Restoration
Corner
Steve Wittman on taxi test
s,
first flight , and de
bu
gging
by No
rm Pe
te
rs
en
8
Just Plane
Tomm
y
The story of the Thomas-Mo rse Aircraft Cor pora tion
Part I
by Al Kelch
4
The
Fl
y
ing Pemberton
Family
Like fa th er,
li
ke son, like son
by Sparky Ba rnes Sargent
9
DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver
Ma
king a silk
pur
se
out
of
a
?
by Bu
dd
Davisson
24 Mystery Pl
ane
Extra
The
Bris
tol Prier
by Wesley Smith
3 0 The Vintage Instructor
Airmanship
by Doug Stewart
33 Pass
It to
Buck
Complicat ions
by Buck Hilbert
y
ST FF
EAA Publisher
Tom Poberezny
Director
of
EAA
Publications
David
Hipschman
Executive Director/Editor H.G.
Frautschy
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;
AIHVENTUHE
O S K O S
AIRVENTURENEWS
Beach Boys to Make Encore
Performance at World s
Greatest
Aviation Celebration
With warmed up weather let s get to-
ge
ther
and do it again.
From
Do it Again by Brian Wilson/
Mike Love
(1968)
AeroShell Square will once again
be rockin'
to the
sounds of endless
summer on opening day
as
the Beach
Boys return to perform
at
EAA Air
Venture Oshkosh 2007. The legend
ary
inventors
of
the
California surf
sound will appear from 5:30 to 7:30
p.m., free to all AirVenture guests on
Monday, July 23, courtesy of Eclipse
Aviation and Ford Motor Company.
The band thrilled the standing-room
only crowd last year.
We're thrilled to welcome the
Beach Boys back to EAA AirVenture
Oshkosh 2007, said
EAA
President
Tom Poberezny. Last year's perfor
mance was definitely one of our ma
jor highlights and set the stage for a
four and a half decades. They were in
ducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 1988 and received the Lifetime
Achievement
Award
from the National
Academy of Recording Arts and Sci
ences in 2001. In 2006, the band also
celebrated the 40th anniversary of its
groundbreaking album, Pet Sounds.
year
with our
expanded
square
footage , said KidVenture Chair
man Dan Majka, who coordinates
volunteers from some 25
EAA
chap
ters. A large hangar will offer protec
tion from
the
weather for high-tech
equipment. More room will be avail
able
outSide , which
means
more
space for activities allowing kids to
experience
many different aspects
of flight.
Features this year include:
• Flight-training sessions with Na
tional Association of Flight Instruc
tors certificated flight instructors.
•
Radio-controlled
and control
line air show flying.
• Kids can build and fly their own
balsa gliders in the skunk works area
or design an aircraft
on
the computer
with DaVinci Technologies software.
• KidVenture Heroes Stage returns
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aimed at young children. And Thurs
day through Sunday, ham radio oper
ators will set
up equipment and allow
kids
to communicate with
other far
away operators.
More information about KidVenture
can be
fo
und at
www AirVenture org
Speakers Forums
and
offering airfare discounts during
EM
Workshops Galore AirVenture Oshkosh 2007.
As
of
press
tim
e
we re
stil l final The
discounted
fares are available
izing the
exte
nsive
speaker
,
forum,
co
urt
esy of
the
participating airlines,
workshop, and
other
sched
uled ap which include
American
, Midwest,
pearances for EAA AirVenture Os
h-
and Northwest . Discounts are sub
Create Your Own
kosh 2007,
but by
the
tim
e you read ject
to
individual airline restrictions.
E AirVenture Photo Gallery
this, all
the
details should be ava il For more
information
, visit www
Get yourself in that Oshkosh state able
at
www AirVenture org
A
ir
Venture org/
7
/f/ying/air line_
of mind by visiting the new interactive Schedule
your day in advance by
discounts html
photo
gallery
on the EAA
AirVenture
searching
the
database by personality,
website. View selected images from 2006 sub ject, time, date, and venue . And Bonanzas Cessnas and
and 2OOS, and create your own personal each day during the convention the
Mooneys Plan Group
Arrivals
favorites
ga
ll
ery and slide show. up-to-date
sc
hedule of events will ap
Traditions stretc hin
g
from
two
You
can
also rate the photos you
pear
in AirVenture Today so
yo
u
can
years to nearly two decades con
tinu
e
view. Click for a larger view and see catch
any
late changes.
this
year as several airp lane
groups
specific image information, including
are planning mass arr ivals to this
the
title name of photographer,
and
Airlines
Offer
EAA
AirVenture
year's
EAA
AirVenture
Oshkosh
on
a brief photo description. Search the Oshkosh
Discounts
Saturda
y
July
2l.
gallery by title, description, file name, For those not flying into Wittman The granddaddy of them all , Bo-
and photographer. Regional Airport
or
who live
too
far
nanzas to Oshkosh (B20sh), will
Go
to the EM AirVenture Photo
Gal
to drive
to
the World's Greatest Avia
make its
18th
group flight from Rock
lery link located at www AirVenture org tion Celebrati on, several airlines are ford , Illinois, to EAA AirVenture this
~ ; ; ~
M A1rV
entu . Oshkosh Photo allery
http:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.orghttp:///reader/full/www.AirVenture.org
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Cessnas arriving at
E irVenture
Oshkosh 2006
year. New flight leader Larry Gaines
says
75
aircraft are c
urrently
sign
ed
up to participate, but he
anticipates
100 airplanes this year.
There's nothing quite as thrilling
as flying in before the crowd at Osh
kosh,
he
said, recalling his first
trip
to
OSH
in
1998
in
a Beech Muske
teer. Learn more about B20sh at www.
B20sh.org.)
The
10th Mooney Caravan
fea
tures as many as 48 aircraft flying
in
eight groups of six. They will again
stage at Madison's
Dane County Re-
gional Airport for the flight. For more
on the Mooneys visit www.Mooney-
Caravan.com.)
Cessnas to Oshkosh (C20),
which
organized
for
the
first time in 2006
to celebrate
the 50th
anniversary
of
the C-172/182, plans its second flight
in 2007. Aircraft will gather at Dodge
The
Mooney Caravan plans
a 3:30
p.m.
departure from Madison
and
a
4 p.m. arrival in Oshkosh. Times for
C20
have
not
been announced.
The normal Ripon-Fisk VFR arrival
as described in the 2007 EAA Air
Venture
notice to airmen (NOTAM)
will be in effect
when the group
ar
rivals are
not
in
progress. Visit www.
A rVenture.org/2007/f/ying/index.html
for more
information and to order/
download your NOTAM copy.
New irVenture rrival
TIS Frequency
Several
pilots responding
to an
FAA
survey
about AirVenture proce
dures last year reported difficulty re
ceiving
the
arrival
ATIS
at a distance
from
Oshkosh.
So
this
year the FAA
will use a higher-power transmitter
at
the
Fisk Approach Control location
We'll list all
submitted
type club
events
during EAA
AirVenture
Osh-
kosh 2007. Submit your club's infor
mation online
at
https://Secure.EAA.
org/airventure/type_clubs .html. We'll
post all events submitted by July 14,
and run
them in
the daily
AirVenture
Today
as well.
f you
have questions,
call 888-322-4636, ext. 6112, or e-mail
Type Club
dditions
We have a couple
of
additions for the
type club list.
Cessna T-50 "
The
Flying Bobcats"
Jon
D
Larson
PO Box
566
Auburn,
WA
98071-0566
Dues:
By
donation
Newsletter: Quarterly
http:///reader/full/B20sh.orghttp://www.mooney/http:///reader/full/Caravan.comhttps://secure.eaa/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:///reader/full/B20sh.orghttp://www.mooney/http:///reader/full/Caravan.comhttps://secure.eaa/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]
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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
More
on Curtiss Reynolds
I really enjoyed Ken McQueen's ar
ticle on Curtiss-Reynolds Airport.
During
the
1933
event,
I worked
as a "go-fer" for the press group. At
the time, I was
an
Eagle Scout,
and
six
of us were hired by the
Chicago Daily
News one of the
sponsors for
that
duty
. Needless to say, we met all the
high-profile pilots of the day, as we
helped set up interviews for the press.
One
of the men met
was
Maj.
Udet, who became a
high-ranking
official
under
Hitler
for
their
air
force. Of course I also
met
Roscoe
Turner
who
had a lion cub as a mas
cot Later, as a United Airlines
pilot
member of our
UAL
speaker panel, I
was assigned to appear on a program
with Roscoe in French Lick, Indiana.
At
that time
he
was still running his
FBO
in Indiana.
Relative to Curtiss-Reynolds, it
was here I had my first airplane ride.
Our family went out to the field after
dinner
on
a summer evening. Some
pilot had a Ford Tri-Motor and was
always kept an eye out for them . One
day, flying for United in a DC-3, one
showed up near Sandusky, Ohio. I
kept an eye out for it and eventually
found
i t
was based at Put-it-Bay Is
land
(South
Bass)
in
Lake Erie,
and
was flying into Port Clinton. In 1947
we
were visiting in
Ohio
, so we drove
to Port Clinton and met the owner,
Milt Hershberger, and flew to
the is-
land in
the
lO (first officer 's) seat.
On arrival,
I
had
him
sign my log
book for the :15 flight time. He then
gave us a tour of his facility.
After a fine lunch in town, we
bought a mixed case of wine at one
of the wineries. The owner drove us
back to the airport.
When
the
Ford came in , we sat in
the rear with our wine. Milt looked
back
and
saw me,
told
me to come
up, which I did.
He sa
id I
want
you
to
sit
up
here. There's a guy on the trip
I have to talk to . Told him I'd been
drinking. Forget it he said . That stuff is
so weak no one cou ld get high on
it
Well, Milt made the takeoff,
Aviation
is
still a pre tty small com
munity. As a result, we keep bumping
into the same people wherever
we go
Unfortunately
, H.G ., some keep
dropping off at
the
back end.
Like
you,
we
are going to miss Dorothy Hilbert.
Keep the blue side up
Don
&
Mary Toeppen
Sun City West, Arizona
Recommendation From aMember
Dal
Donner
EAA
102228 lAC 3787
Restoring
an antique
airplane calls
for many
different
kinds
of
skills .
And, like most people, I found myself
deficient
in
some categories. Wood
working was the
biggest
problem,
both from an
experience level
and
having tools to make complex parts.
My
current project
is
a Fairchild
24W, and it has a lot of wood which
has suffered neglect and exposure to
the elements.
I t
would
have been convenient
to
go to the nearest Fairchild store to
buy some of these wood
parts.
But
the "Fairchild Store"
is
as much of the
past
as
the
hand
craftsmanship
em
ployed to build this old airplane back
in 1939.
Fortunately I know a young man
who is a furniture maker. In fact, he's
a
third generation
wood craftsman
and has studied
under
American and
European artisans.
He
works with
hand
tools
as
well
as
power tools.
He primarily
builds
elegant cus
tom furniture from old-growth, tight
grained wood which is highly figured.
His work
is
like the fine art you 'd ex
pect
to
see in a well-known gallery.
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Editor's Notes:
This
is the 12th and
final installment of
the
current series of "Restoration Corner" articles. The intent of
the
series was to present information of a general rather than highly detailed nature: therefore, more could have been
written on each subject. We encourage readers to share their restoration techniques with us for future "Restoration
Corner"
articles.-Gene. R.
Chase
While Gene and Norm wrote these words nearly 20 years ago, they still hold true today.
We
're
only as
good
as the
information
and
experiences our members share with us. Feel free
to
drop us
an
e-mail
at
vintageaircraft@
eaa
or
g
or drop us a note in
the
mail. The address is
on
the contents
page.-H.G
. Frautschy
Steve Wittman on taxi tests, first flight, and debugging
I t
is
one
thing
to spend
years re
storing an airplane with
attendant
sore hands, tired muscles, and a flat
pocketbook-only to suddenly
re
alize
that
now
you
have to fly
the
critter To
enlighten
us
on the
many
details of flying a newly rebuilt air
plane for the first time, we asked the
old master
, Sylvester "Steve"
Witt
man,
to
give us his
thoughts on
the
proper procedure.
The first
item
on the agenda, ac
cording to Steve, is to properly rig the
airplane
during
final assembly. This
includes putting in the proper wing
dihedral
and wing incidence
. And
when establishing
incidence,
don't
forget the
all-important
wash-out
at
the
wingtips per
the
manufacturer's
recommendations.
"Wash-out"
tips
the trailing edge of the
wingtip
up
ward, allowing the wing to stall first
BY
NORM
PETERSEN
transit, or incidence board
. A final
measurement to determine
that
both
wings
(or
four on a biplane)
are
square with each other
and the
fuselage
is
most important.
And
along this line, make sure the stabi
lizer has the proper incidence (most
often
negative).
Don't
be
lulled
i
nto using
the old
eyeball"
method.
Use proper means
to
establish
the necessary
measurements,
be it a plumb,
land for
the
National Air Races,
only
to
read a story in the
evening paper
claiming that it couldn't fly Suppos
edly, there was insufficient aileron to
offset
the
huge amount of torque The
newswriter estimated that 300 mph
was necessary before
Bonzo
would fly
straight
and level I
am most
happy
to report
that
such was
not
the
case "
Steve
went on to
explain
that when
you have a
midwing
aircraft using a
thin wing section with a large chord,
the
propeller slipstream is anti
torque" as it goes by the wing, allow
ing
the
aircraft to be nicely controlled
by the ailerons about the roll axis.
Once
the
rigging is
determined
to
be okay, the taxi tests may begin. This
is
almost an art in itself
and
should
only be
attempted
on a
taildragger
if you
have
tailwheel experience.
Without
experience along this line,
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the
throttle
and
lowered the
tail. The resulting increase
in angle of attack caused the
Twister to leap some 10 feet
into the
air.
The pilot
was
so surprised he "lost it" and
proceeded to wrap
the
small
biplane into a ball .
According to
Steve,
his
normal procedure
is
to take
off
and climb
for altitude,
watching
the
temperature
gauges closely.
Once he has
1,
500
feet AGL,
he
checks
for
wing
heaviness and pro
ceeds through stalls
and
slow
flight. This helps to relieve
the tension about coming in
for a
landing.
If the aircraft
will stall at the proper nose
high attitude,
h e
knows
it
will
make a
three-point
landing. (And a minimum of
1,500 feet is
the
best insur
ance you can have when do
ing these maneuvers.)
Some years ago, Steve was
invited to fly
another
racing
airplane,
only
to discover in
flight that it had a vicious
stall and would not get into a
normal three-point attitude
Steve Wittman and a 40 hp Taylor E 2 Cub
a red and silver Porterfield. Anxious
to take it up for the first flight, he tax
ied
downwind to the
far
end of
the
hard surface runway.
As
he
came to
the end of the runway, he stepped on
the brakes .
in
that
same
instant
he
remembered
he
had not
connected
the brakes The
Porterfield
went
The
only option left was to
make a tail-high wheel land
ing,
which
he did with the
usual
Wittman finesse. After
the flight,
he wondered
what
might
have
hap
pened if
the
engine had failed, as it
would have been an absolute bearcat
to land
without
the power. Curiously,
the owner never gave so much as a
hint of the weird flight characteristics
abrupt stall-just
like
someone had
cut the string "
When queried
about
the age-old
question of toe-in versus toe-ou t, Steve
thought
a
minute and
answered, "Toe
in is the worst of the two, as it exacer
bates
the
swing of a turn
and
makes
it worse. Toe-out
is
easier
to
control;
however, on hard-surface runways it
will wear out a set of tires in noth
ing flat I have always liked 'straight
ahead' the
best with neither toe-in or
toe-out . I love grass over hard-surface
runways, as you can fly for years from
a grass
runway
and
never
wear your
tires out. The inside
of
the tire carcass
will look like new after many years,
while
the outside gets all
weather
checked
and
cracked."
When it comes time
to
get your
nicely
restored classic
or antique up
to its advertised cruising speed, Steve
says there are many little things to
consider.
Close-fitting
fairings are
important
along with
eliminating
lumps,
bumps, and extraneous
pro
tuberances. Be very critical of
any
in
tersections of less
than
90 degrees,
as
they
create
extra
drag. Round
tubes should
be
fa ired to a stream
line shape, and gaps should be sealed.
Good
common
sense will help a great
deal in "
tweaking
" your
airplane
to
optimum
performance. Even a close
look at a Wittman Tailwind will give
you a number
of
clues as to making
an
airplane go fast. A look at
the
strut
stub reveals a cleaner juncture, since
the bolt head and nut are moved out
of
the high-speed air Even the wing
roots and
the
wingtips are tapered
down in size to save drag on each
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The
story of
the Thomas-Morse
Aircraft
Corporation
Part I
Y AL
KEL
CH
Preface
two-part story in two 1960 issues ofAmerican Airman ex
1982 The following three-part article on
the
Thomas-
tensively researched by Frank Strand with a great deal otorigi
Morse Aircraft Corp. although extensively edited
and
further nal contact with William Thomas
Sr.
researched
by
me should be credited to Robert G Elliott of Frank had permission to use all
of
the material he had gath
Daytona Beach Florida who sought out William T Thomas ered to put together one more article specially tailored tor Vin-
Jr. still
living in
Daytona
Beach.
Mr.
Thomas generously
tage Airplane
magazine on the Tommy-Morse Scout atWorld
shared pictures and recollections of his father plus some ma War I tame. For the real Tommy buffs
it
would pay to seek
out
terial from the personal collections of Paul D Wilson one of his extensive two-part story in the
American Airman
tor June
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The modified Model
TA with dual
controls for in
struction
The Model TA 1911 during its second
fl
ight powered by a
flights.
It
was
powered by a 50-hp
six
-cylinder
Kirkham
en
22-hp Kirkham engine. gine. Note the two narrow
radiators
mounted vertically.
Walter Johnson pilot in the
Model TA with the 50-hp
six
Bud Carey piled up a 1911 pusher on
frozen
Cayuga
Lake.
The
cylinder Kirkham
engine
used for many
exhibit
ion flights.
plane was rebuilt within several
days and
successfully flown.
W.T. Thomas stands at
left
of pilot.
airplane industry began to bud.
In
the
early part
of
1909
Thomas
came to America, where he used his
qualifications to obtain
a job
with
Glenn
Curtiss in the
drafting
room.
His first assignments were in working
out
designs for
motorcycle
engines
and dirigible engines.
I t
was here he
got
his first
taste
of
aircraft
design
craft in America. On June 14, 1910,
final assembly
and
checking
of
this
first Thomas airplane was completed
on
the
Page
Farm,
near Canisteo,
New
York
Initially
the
airplane relied on di
hedral ailerons
wing
warping) for
control
and had two vertical panels
between
the
outer interplane struts
York, with Walter
E Johnson
as the
test pilot.
Somewhere during this period, Wil
liam s brother, Oliver Thomas, joined
the
efforts.
With
the
continued
in
tent
to
manufacture the airplane, a
suitable factory was located at Bath,
New York. The
two brothers
formed
the Thomas Aeroplane Company for
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The 1911 Model TA pusher with Walter Johnson at the
con
trols during exhibition and
races at
the New York State Fair
Syracuse.
Glenn
Curtiss flew
an
80-
hp
pusher and
Walter
Johnson beat
Curtiss
in
a race with his
65-hp
powered TA.
The
state
fair
buildings appear
much
the same
today as
they
did in 1911. The
original
Kirkham
engine
was a geared
drive. The day before the race the gearbox failed so Char
lie
Kirkham
worked
all
night converting
the engine
to direct
drive
and
replacing the prop
.
W.T. Thomas also added addi
tional
fairings to
reduce
drag.
patience
and
a lot of elbow grease. After great effort, with
many
modifications
and
changes
the
airplane finally
became airworthy and accomplished a flight of
about
6
miles on September
20 1910.
The obvious use of an airplane in this period being for
exhibition,
Mr.
johnson
the
company
aviator,
attempted
a show on September 27, 1910, at Binghamton, New York
to thrill
county
fair-goers .
Unfortunately the
machine
hit the cattle tent
on
takeoff
and
was damaged . There is a
substantial lack of data concerning
the
welfare of
the
cat
tle housed within the tent; however, one can imagine the
havoc and scrambling
of those
Wide-eyed,
snorting
cattle
running
loose among
the
fair patrons.
The ensuing repair was rushed, which permitted Walter
johnson to make a circular flight over Concklin Field near
the Binghamton fairgrounds on October 11, 1910. This
successfu l exhibition flight was the 10th flight for test pi
lot johnson.
Later that month at Rochester, New York William
and
his brother, Oliver, witnessed the
International
Air Meet
at Belmont Park, New York. Immediately following that
flight, Thomas
and
johnson accompanied by a mechanic,
trucked the airplane to Rochester, New York, where
john
son
made
demonstration flights
on
November 3 and 10,
1910. The month of December 1910 saw William Thomas
again at Bath, New York,
where
the airplane was fitted
with a single rear elevator. Flights were made
over the
wintry
countryside
from Burleson Field
near
Lake Salu
bria. On
january
27, 1911, Walter
johnson
flying from
the
frozen surface
of the
lake
and
with
only the
22-hp
Kirkham
engine
for power, carried Florence Scrafford as
a passenger. During this period a further modification of
the machine
was made to a
twin rudder configuration
which allowed greater control in flight.
Early in March, William Thomas ,
johnson
and Gene
Bell, their mechanic, departed for Morgan City, Louisiana,
to further continue
their exhibition
flights in a warmer
climate . A ballpark had been reserved in Morgan City,
which proved
too
small upon examination and the dem
onstration was moved
to
a larger field, where all went well
until johnson crashed into a stump on landing. Repairs
were
minor
, allowing time for a circular flight
the
same
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I called, you quoted, I bought.
As
easy
as
1 .
Not
only
easy, but competitive. It's a pleasure doing business with you.
Actually I didn't call, I used your online quote system It was
quick and easy.
- Paul Isakson
Paul sakson
mery
,
WI
• Owner of
a 939
Cub J3F-50
and
a 937
Ryan
ST-A
• Member
of
AOPA and f
since 986
•
Plans
to
add
his
oldest
daughter
who
wants
to be
a
professional
pilot
to
his
policy in the near future
• Whole
family
has been to six out
of
the last eight AirVentures
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Pilot
Fred
Eells W.T. Thomas with anns crossed and Earl
Beers
by
the prop pose
with the plane that achieved an endurance flight record
on
October 31 1912.
the first school chartered by the New
York State Board of Regents.
The earlier
p l
ane with the four
cylinder
Kirkham engine was modi
fied as a preliminary trainer having
been rebu
i
lt
for
dual
instruction.
Many
exhibition flights with the re
built
airplane
continued around
the
New York area.
At
Sylvan Beach near
Syracuse, the
TA
was flown. After be
ing
broken it was
only natural
for
the
Thomas
machine
to be included
for its share of honors.
Johnson
flying a
TA
model
with
a
larger 65-hp engine, and with a school
mechanic as his passenger, established
an
American endurance
record of
three hours, 51 minutes 15
seconds
at
Bath, New York . The flight was be
tween Bath and Savona, New
York
a
Pilot Walter
Johnson and
Earl Beers demonstrate the manner
Glenn Tate at the controls in
about
1912.
The
aileron
of seating in which pilot and
passenger endured
the cold
to
control cable
recessed in a groove
circled
the steering
establish
the
endurance
flight
on Halloween 1912.
wheel.
Note the
sing1e foot pedal.
on
May 7 and 8. From
there
William
Thomas, Johnson and Bell went to
Mississippi and performed at the Delta
Fair in Granville, where their exhibi
new model. This produced much bet
ter flight characteristics,
and
16 miles
were flown from
Savona
to Ham
mondsport in 18
min
utes. The
return
distance
of 235 miles.
The
passenger
weighed 150 pounds. This weight fac
tor was a requirement by the American
Aero Club, under whose supervision
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ike
father, like son, like
so
ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY SPARKY BARNES SARGENT
trio of Stearmans landed
annual invitational fly-in. only completed their family, but the
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Far left: Jay
Pemberton
prepares to fly
the
Wendy
May.
Ryan Pemberton flew this 275 hp
Jacobs-powered Steannan, owned by
a
family friend, to the
AAA
Fly-In
in
Blakesburg, Iowa.
When
their big
radial
engines
had fallen quiet
the three pilots
climbed
out
of
their respective
cockpits and
with
big
smiles
stepped o the
ground.
from Poly-Fiber, and
they
would tell
their teache
rs that
their father had to
go
fly and
make a dope run "
Equally proud of
both
of his sons,
Addison felt
quite
comfortable
with
their
fl
ying skills on
their
long cross
country adventure. Even
as
they
all landed at Chamberlain, South
Dakota, where
the
winds were gusting
to 35 knots, he
wasn t
worried about
them
ground-looping-he
just
hoped
he
wouldn t.
Twenty
-f
our-year
old
Jay
(who has already launched
a successful
career and
is now able
to finance
his
own
flying) soloed a
glider
at age 15
and
has
acquired
nearly
2,200
hours total
time,
with
about 330 of that in Stearmans. He
s
earned the same
certificates
and
ratings as his father-commercial for
multiengine land
and Single-engine
seaplanes,
instrument, and
a flight
instructor
rating-with the
exception
of
an
airframe and powerplant
certificate. Twenty-year-old Ryan ,
who soloed on
his
16th
birthday,
has
logged
about 800
hours
total
time,
with around
260 Stearman
hours
. He's
earned
a seaplane rating
and, according
to his father, didn t
even fly a
nosewheel
airplane until
he had
the
opportunity
to fly a 8
24 Liberator
two
years
ago
for the
Collings Foundation.
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The
Pemberton s Square Tail Stearman 4DM Sr. Speedmail.
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SQUJlR TJULS
Square Tail Stearmans
were
showcased at Blakesburg
in
2006.
Ron
Rex s 1931 Western Airlines Stearman 4D heads
up
the
lineup of Square
Tails.
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smiling as he conveys his enthusiasm
for
the
flight. "It was really neat for
me, because this is the first time I've
flown an airplane to Blakesburg. And
of course, to fly on my dad's wing
and
have
my
brother on the other
side, it was really special.
As
we were
planning the
arrival here, I could just
see my dad starting to get all proud
and
he was really excited."
Speedrnail
Square
Tail Stearmans
were
showcased
during
AAA s 2006 fly-in,
and seven of the 18 flying Square
Tails were on
hand
for the occasion.
Of
those
seven, four were Speedmail
Model 4s,
including
Addison's
Stearman 4DM Sr.
Speedmail.
He
bought
it in 1989 as a $4,000 basket
case and flew it in 1992 after
an
8,000
hour family restoration effort. "There
are only nine Speedmails
in
existence
today, seven of
which
fly actively.
There were
no
drawings for
any
of
them when
we were
restoring this,
he recalls,
then
I met Ben Scott,
and
through our
correspondence, I
reverse-engineered his Speed mail 4£
to build many parts of
mine
."
Addison's 1931 Speedmail has a
top
cruise
of
150
mph and
carries
six hours of fuel. It was originally
manufactured for American Airways;
it was based in
Chicago and
flew
to
Dallas every
night
on
the airmail run.
In the early 1930s, it was also featured
in the movie right Eyes starring
Shirley Temple. Then, in 1934 it
went
back to
the
factory
and had
a front
seat installed so it could be flown as an
instrument trainer. In 1936, it became
apartment with
running water. The
hangars
of the
past only had 'walking
water,'
as
Wendy says. It's been really
nice. So I have a day job,
and
then
a night life
that's produced
all these
great things
over
the
years. The
Pemberton's long-standing
family
Addison named
his 450-hp
ratt
Whitney-powered
Stearman
Boeing)
5
the
Wendy
May
n
honor
ofhis wife,
and the
number
4 9 on
its
cowling
helps him per
when her birthday
is.
business is
also
aerospace-related;
Scanivalve Corporation manufactures
instrumentation
for
the flight-test
and
wind-tunnel markets.
modified
AT-6
canopy
for
the
rear
cockpit,
and
a
tow
hitch for
glider
or
banner
towing. It
has
a standard
airworthiness certificate, which I'm
very proud
of tha t
was quite an
accomplishment to
get
this airplane
out
of an experimental and
into
the
standard category."
Wendy, having learned
the
art
of
dope and fabric along the way, is also
involved in
the
restoration projects.
And she, too, is mighty proud
of her
sons. The excitement
that
my boys
have
in
aviation
has
given th em a
direction, a purpose, and
an
awesome
gro up of people to be around. Pilots
are great folks. The boys never really
had the awkward teenage years where
they never had anything in common
with their
dad, because
there were
always airplanes to talk about. Aviation
is such a diverse field; there are always
new airplanes and
new
challenges,
she reflects, and adds with a dazzling
smile,
"I feel
very
lucky,
because
normally
when
kids
get to
be
20
years old, they're off living their own
life and you don't see
them
as much
anymore-but we
haven't experienced
that.
Jay is 24 years old and he's still
with the family, and it's
just
very
exciting for me as a
mom.
We
do
eat
dinner down
at
the hangar, because
that's where the guys want to be, and
if that's where my family wants to be,
that's fine by me I would rather be
down there with them
than
be home
alone, wishing I was with
my
family."
As the Pembertons ' fleet of
airworthy
vintage and
antique
aircraft continues to
grow
through
their immaculate ,
step
-b
y-step
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f w
pristine Beavers
th t
spent at least
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o
D
as
an
ignoble end for a movie star-it
You can
carry plenty
in a working machine
such as
this
us plane
smart-
looking Beaver
logo
is embroidered
on
the aft
bulkhead
with a
beefy
cargo net
installed to keep the baggage where
it
belongs.
over. Doug doesn t
think this actual
crash was used in the movie, but the ap
proach was. The airplane was crudely
yanked out of the water and then spent
a few years
as
a pile of parts languish
ing in various
locations
before Doug
DeVries came
into the
picture.
Doug
got
into aviation
shortly af
ter
graduating from
Cal Poly
with
a
degree in mechanical engineering.
"A friend
took me
up,
but
I was
pretty
broke and at
the
time couldn t
do
much more
than
take ground
school,"
he
says.
A
few years later I got
my
private pilot's license
and
rented
for a year or so before going into part
nership in a Grumman Tiger."
Then, as is often the case, career
and other interests
took
precedence.
From the beginning he had wanted to
and the clerk started asking me ques
tions
about what
I was
doing.
Half
hour
later, it
came out that the
clerk
had at one
time
raced
P-S1
Mustangs
at
Reno,
but in
a freak accident
got
a
thistle in
his ear
while
camping
in
the
desert,
got permanent vertigo,
and
lost his medical
and
flying privi
leges forever. His story
motivated me
to start
the
Stearman project now,
as
one can
lose
the
privilege to fly
in
a
moment s notice.
"I
decided waiting
was
the wrong
thing
to
do and
started looking for a
Stearman project."
Doug dragged an incomplete N2S-3
into his shop, and
when
it rolled out
several years
later
and
he flew i t
to
Oshkosh 2000, he took
home
the Best
WWII Trainer trophy. Not too shabby
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I've always loved
the airplane and
decided it would be
my
next project,
so I started look-
ing around. I finally
fou nd the one in
pieces that had been
wrecked
in
the movie
and looked like a
good possibil ity,
so
I
went to look at it."
so I started looking around . I finally
found the one in pieces that had been
wrecked in the movie and looked like a
good possibility, so I went to look at it.
The airplane needed total rebuild
ing from one end to the other because
had to do some serious investigating
to make sure we found all
the
corro
sion. The rear of the fuselage, includ
ing the back bulkhead, was pretty bad,
but the rest was surprisingly clean, con
sidering its history, which made little
difference since so much of the metal
had to be replaced anyway
to
repair
damage. They must have hosed it out
immediately after pulling it out of the
water. However, everything electrical
was useless./I
Doug is very much a hands-on
re
rough and tumble market that included
both civilian and military/governmen
tal bush -type operations . uring its
nearly 20-year production span (1948
1967) 1,657 airplanes were built, but
many of the customers were military
or government departments (the U.S.
military, among many others, operated
hundreds as L-20s , so spares were also
produced by the truckload to support
them.
De
Havilland apparently recog
nized the types of operations in which
the airplane was likely to be involved
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available, Viking Air of Victoria, British
Columbia, purchased all of the avail
able production tooling for the airplane
and has been producing those replace
ment parts that aren't readily available.
In addition, in February 2006 Viking
Air
purchased the type certificate for
the machine from Bombardier Aero
space, which gives it the exclusive right
to manufacture new Beavers. Does that
mean we'll be seeing a new generation
of DHC-2 Beavers in the future? Given
the cost of production and the supply of
older airframes, that doesn't seem
likely
but anything is possible in aviation.
Even if his
airplane hadn't
gone
swimming, the sheet metal
on
Doug's
bird was typical of Beavers worldwide:
It
showed
the dents and
dings
that
come from being gainfully employed
for
more
than five decades. Beavers
have never been relegated to
antique
status, and nearly all
that
are still flying
are still working for a living. In Doug's
case, however, between
the
saltwater,
damage and wear and tear a lot of sheet
metal had to go.
He
says, Around 90 percent of
the
fuselage skins are new along with a lot
of internal structure, especially in
the
cabin area. To straighten
the
fuselage,
I built a jig in accordance with dimen
sions given in the original de Havilland
drawings and used the jig to fix the
precise locations of
the major
attach
points, such as the wing connections.
And yes, it does
fly
straight. There are
a lot of structural frames and string
ers and such in the top of the cabin
that
were damaged, and if the compo
nent needed was a bent-up part and we
couldn' t find NOS we just made it new
field approved,' as ours were dried and
hard.
We
did find a crack in one of our
gear legs but that repaired fairly easily.
11Th
ere are 10 type-written pages in
the
logbook, which
is
actually three
three-ring binders (since condensed to
a mere single three-ring binder)
that
describe the repairs.
Once
he had repaired
the
damage
and
removed the IIpatina that 18,000
hours of hard work had left behind, he
could start working
on
the fun stuff.
There
is nothing
original
on
the
panel. I planned
on
flying this airplane
a lot,
not
just to fly-ins,
so
I wanted it
as
modern
and
as
usable
as
I could make
it. I modeled it in 3-D
on
the computer
in Solid Works and set it up to optimize
the ergonomics from
the
pilot's posi
tion. This included slanting
the
radio
stack toward the pilot so I have a direct
view of the radios.
The cockpit still includes the unique
Beaver oil system: the dipstick is in the
cockpit
and
you can add oil in flight,
something
that's probably important
when flying an
R-985
on long flights.
We had
to
get 22 337s for
things
we modified, ranging from
extending
the
cockpit to installing modern avi
onics. The entire process worked fairly
smoothly because we had
an
excellent
FAA rep
that
worked with us, rather
than
against us.
The paperwork on the airframe work
may
have gone
smoothly,
but
Doug
had another
paperwork situation
that
most definitely didn' t go smoothly.
The title paperwork we got with the
project didn't actually match the data
plate on our airplane.
It
showed a se
rial number which the records showed
and they verified
that
they belonged to
SN799. We combined the ir letter with
photos
of
the airplane
in the
movie,
and the
FAA
relented and issued autho
rization for a replacement data plate.
I thought
long
and
hard about
just staying with the existing
SN
pa
perwork, because by opening that can
of
worms the FAA could just as easily
have said that we looked as if we were
trying to do something fraudulent (and
in fact they did at
one
point), and we'd
have
no
airplane at all. The real turn
ing point came when a safety inspector
came
through
our shop
to
take a look
at the airplane.
He
saw how profession
ally we were approaching the project
and
that
we weren't trying to pull a fast
one
on
them.
Kenmore Air is renown for its exper
tise on the R-985 Pratt Whitney, so
Doug's decision on who should rebuild
the engine was a no-brainer.
IIWhen Kenmore did the engine, we
were surprised to find the inside of the
engine to be in good condition consid
ering the time it had spent underwater.
The original cylinders, which had been
full of saltwater, were reused, although
they were chromed. Major components
replaced were all the pistons, crank
shaft, crankcase, blower, rear case, and
the impeller shaft assembly.
IIWe replaced the two-blade
prop
with a slightly smaller diameter, STC'd,
three-blade McCauley, mostly because
of noise considerations. I'd be working
off Lake Washington, which is ringed
with houses, and I
didn't
like the idea
of being 'that noisy floatplane. '
While Doug was in the rebuilding
process he bought another Beaver to
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y
EXTRA
The
photo of the
February 2007
Mystery
Plane
is identical
to
that
which
appears in The Aero ("The Bris-
tol Two-Seated Monoplane, Volume
5
Number 104, November 1911, page
231). Most likely, this is one of the first
series of Bristol Prier military mono
planes, shown
later in
the February
1912 issue of he Aero ("50 hp Gnome
engined
Bristol Military Monoplane
on Salisbury Plain," Volume
6
Num
ber
107,
page
43) and
described
in
detail in
the
June 1912 issue of Aero-
nautics (London, "The Bristol Mono
planes," Volume
5
Number 82, pages
174-179).
The 1911-12 Bristol Prier series be
gan
as
the 1911 Bristol Prier
P.1
mono
plane
(works number 46) during the
summer of 1911, when M. Pierre Prier
joined the Bristol firm in June 1911.
Bristol (The British
and
Colonial Aero
plane Co. Ltd.) was originally formed in
February of 1910 by Sir George White,
who was at that time chairman of the
The Bristol Prier
Y
WESLEY
SMITH
at
the
British Bleriot school
and
also
served in
the
same capacity for Bristol
at
both of
its Brooklands
and
Larkhill
flying schools.
Three P.1s were built. In addition to
number
46, works numbers 56
and
57
were built during 1911. Both numbers
56
and 57
differed somewhat
from
number 46. As originally built, all
P.1s
were fitted
with
air-cooled
50-hp
Gnome
Omega rotary radial engines.
Numbers 56
and
57 were intended for
use in
the
1911 Circuit of Britain
Race
and
later,
number
56 was temporarily
modified for use in the 1911
Number
2 to be raced in the British Empire Mi
chelin Cup
and
was to be flown by Brit
ish pioneer aviator James Valentine.
In this form, number 56
had
a seven
cylinder, air-cooled 50-hp Isaacson ra
dial installed in order to make the air
craft "all-British." Unfortunately, prior
to
the
race, number
56
was wrecked
by Prier and Number 57 was disquali
fied because of a complicated affair in
ing 18 cylinders.
The nine-cylinder
rotary had a
rating of
100
hp
at
1200
rpm and
displaced 930.69
cu
bic inches; the twin-row version had
double the horsepower and displace
ment. The 50-hp Isaacson radial fitted
to
Bristol Prier P.1
number
56 appears
to have
been
the first
engine
type to
have
been built by
the Isaacson En
gine Co., Boyne Works at Leeds.
First displayed at
the
Third Interna
tional Aero Exhibition at Olympia, the
engine
displaced 312.06 cubic inches
and
produced the rated power at 1600
rpm
(800
rpm at
the propeller shaft).
The engine had a 2-to-1 gear reduction
and forced lubrication was
supplied
by a pump, the engine consuming 1.1
pints per hour. The
overhead
valves
were mechanically operated
by
push
rods,
and
carburetion was supplied by
a White
and
Poppe carburetor attached
to the rear of t};fe crankcase. Fuel con
sumption
was 0.48 pints per hp-hour.
Isaacson also
produced
a twin-row
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ing the original Gnome
Omegas. Theonlyexcep
tion
to
this was
number
56, which in addition to
being
temporarily fitted
with
an
Isaacson, plans
had been
made
to in
stall a
40-hp Clement
Bayard. However, this
if
g was never done.
>
Construction
of
the
original Bristol Prier P.ls
Above:
These
three
angles show an
early
two place
was fairly conventional.
Bri
st
ol
Prier.
visited
the
Henley Royal Regatta and
proceeded
to
shoot up
the
river in a
dangerous manner (Brett, Dallas.
is-
tory
British Aviation Volume
1,
page
109). Gilmour then dove on
the
river,
dragging his wheels in the water, be
fore pulling up just in
time to
miss a
crowd. He then made a rather
abrupt
landing
in
a field near
the
riverbank.
For his transgressions, Gilmour was
called before the Royal Aero Club to
answer for his misdeeds.
As
a result, his
license was suspended for one
month.
Bristol
then
interceded on his behalf by
filing a writ to lift the injunction. This
was unsuccessful, and Bristol appealed
Flight
( The Bristol Mono
plane, 30
September
1911, Number 144, Volume 3, Num
ber 22, pages 839-841) is undoubted
ly
the
best description
of
the original
Bristol Prier P.
l.
The 23-foot
I-inch
fu
selage was of conventional wooden
construction,
utilizing
ash
longerons
and
spacer struts to form a piano wire
braced box girder structure. The Aero
is
believed to list the most accurate fu
selage
length-22
feet 11.875
inches
although this apparently applies to
the
initial two-place
variant.
The
overall
length was 24.5 feet, including the
nose skids.) Unique features of
the
P.l's
construction
included the use
of
pat
ented wood-cored steel tube wing spars
square spade
handle
attached to the
top . Wing warping of the P.I was quite
similar
to
that
of the
Bleriot Type
XI
monoplane, the front
spar being
se
curely fixed in sockets mounted to
fit-
tings attached to the appropriate ash
uprights. The rear spars, however, were
free to pivot at their
attachment
fit
tings . The 3/16-inch
stranded
wire
wing-bracing for the forward spar was
affixed
to
a dorsal cabane pyramid of
oval steel tubing
that
was placed im
mediately ahead of
the
cockpit. Differ
ential wing-warping cables (for
the
left
and right
wing panels) connected to
the stick ran
to
a rocking lever arm lo
cated at the apex of a ventral vee-strut,
located just under the cockpit. The lat
eral control cables from
the
stick were
in turn attached
to
the appropriate
triple warping cables
that
ran to
the
underside of each
rear
wing
spar via
the rocking lever arm. Return carry
through
cables attached to
the
dorsal
side
of
the rear spars completed the
warping control
system. These
ran
from the top of each wing's rear spar
through
tubular
guides brazed to the
rear side of the upper cabane pyramid.
All control wires in the P.ls were dupli
cated in case of failure . The triple brace
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quite sensitive to any pitch input. The
vertical rudder
was
arranged
in the
same
manner
as the stabilator, being
mounted on a steel tube shaft. The sta
bilator of the
P.1
measured 7 feet in
length
(chord),
had
a
span
of
4 feet 2
inches (same as the distance between
the main landing gear skids), and an
area of 16 square feet. The stabilator
had an
interesting
wire bracing sys
tem . Small horns were mounted verti
cally
and
placed on
opposite
sides of
the fuselage. They served as an attach
ment
point
for two cables
that
ran
to
the trailing edge of the stabilator, on
both the dorsal
and
ventral sides.
Additional brace wires
were
at
tached
to each
apex of
the
triangular
stabilator wedge (the central
segment
was removed to allow the stabilator to
fit around
the
fuselage) .
The
vaguely
trapezoidal vertical rudder measured 2
feet high above the fuselage to the top
of the mounting tube
and
was 3 feet 9
inches wide,
which
gave it a total area
of
about
7 square feet. Like the stabila
tor, the entire surface
moved
and was
mounted
on
a centralized tube that
served as the pivot point.
Another
unique
feature
of
the
P.1s
were the
landing
gear
nose
skids.
These
extensions of
the landing gear
strut
skids were intended to
prevent
the
aircraft from
nosing over. On
the
P.1,
the
skid
extensions
were
sharply curved
and incorporated
a
helical spring held
in compression in
order
to
allow
the extensions to
flex
in the event of any
nose-over
mis
hap. The
main
landing
gear
wheels
were held
in
place
by
steel fittings at
tached
to
the main
skids
and through
became school machines. Apparently
the P.1s were fitted with an 8-foot di
ameter Normale mahogany propeller,
which
on
subsequent
machines was
replaced by a Bristol propeller of 8.1
foot diameter.
An
aluminum
cowl was
used on all Bristol Priers,
some
cover
ing the fuselage as far aft as the cockpit
area.
t
least the first P.1 had an aux
iliary fuel tank located
immediately
ahead of the cockpit. The
auxiliary
tank had one of two instruments that
were fitted to the P.l: a fuel gauge (the
other
being
a
tachometer).
The
main
fuel tank of the
P.1
was located imme-
BECAUSE OF ITS
PROFOUND LACK OF
STABILITY AND
CONTROLLABILITY,
FULTON WAS QUITE
UNIMPRESSED
BY
THE
P.1
.
diately aft
of the
pilot's seat. Location
of
the oil
tank
for the
Gnome
engines
is unclear but
was probably just aft
of
the
engine. The
seats
of
Bristol Priers
were of
aluminum construction and
were mounted
on
cables
that ran
be
tween
uprights
on
opposite
sides
of
the fuselage. The fittings that held the
suspension
wires
allowed
the seat(s)
to be
adjustable-both
vertically and
horizontally.
On the
initial
three P.1s
director of fortifications at the British
War Office, but it seems to have had
little impact as Bristol works
number
75 from the first batch of two-place
military machines was subsequent
ly
purchased
for
850
pounds
in Janu
ary of 1912. It was delivered to Larkhill
on February 17, 1912. This aircraft
was
assigned
the
serial number B6
and was assigned to Number 2 (Aero
plane) Company, Air Battalion, Royal
Engineers. Demonstrated by Prier dur
ing
a brief six-minute flight, it was not
flown
by
an
Air
Battalion pilot
until
March 17, when Lt. H.R.P. Richards
made an equally brief eight-minute
flight. B6 was flown again on April 26
whenitmadeamuch longer 37-minute
flight, but it crashed
on approach
fol
lowing an
engine
failure.
The
aircraft
was
then returned
to Bristol's
Filton
works for repair before
being returned
to service on
June
20. A second engine
failure
on
that same day resulted in yet
another crash, with serial number
B6
nosing
over and ending up on its back.
The
aircraft was
returned
to Filton for
a second
time.
The lack of
sufficient
stabilator
control
resulted in improve
ments
introduced at
the
suggestion
of
Bertram Dickson. These improvements ,
incorporated
in most subsequent
Bris
tol Prier types, included a 2-foot 6-
inch
longer fuselage and a redesigned hori
zontal
stabilizer and elevator
of more
conventional
design.
The
new hori
zontal
stabilizer was
of roughly
semi
circular
planform, and the elevator
was roughly a rectangular single-piece
surface
mounted at
the rear.
Well
before
B6 was
purchased,
Bristol
had begun product ion
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upRace or in the Circuit of Britain, the only remaining
race of note in the United Kingdom was the British Empire
Michelin Cup, Number 2 The race began
at
Brooklands
on
July 11, 1911, but despite the planned participation ofjames
Va lentine in number 56 (with the Isaacson radial), th is event
proved to be abortive. In fact, the
on
ly British aircraft
to
com
plete the 1,0lO-mile cross-country flight was flown by Ameri
can expatriate (and naturalized British citizen) Samuel Franklin
Cody, who placed fourth, flying his 1911 Circuit of Britain
biplane. Nevertheless, despite the disappointing showings in
the United Kingdom, a Bristol Prier was the only British ma
chine to be displayed at the 1911 sa
lon de I
aeronautique when
it opened at Paris on December 16. Offered for sale at the price
of 950 pounds,
the
Bristol Prier generated
much
interest af
ter a flight over Paris by James Valentine two days prior to
the opening of the show. During 1911, Bristol trained a to tal
of 53 pupils, 18 at its Brooklands school
and
35 at Salisbury
Plain . The limited success of the Bristol Prier had in no way
affected the success
of
Bristol's highly successful Boxkite bi
plane, which proved to be an excellent trainer.
By
January 1912, Bristol had 100,000 pounds of working
capital. Bristol pilots Howard Pixton
and
Harry Busteed were
henceforth dispatched
to
Spain. t
an
airfield near Madrid,
Pix
ton
gave
demonstration
flights before
the
king of Spain
(Alphonso XIII),
demonstrating
that
the
Bristol Prier could
land and take off from fresh ly ploughed fields . Busteed made
the first aerial crossing of Madrid at an altitude of 5,000 feet,
winning the Avia
up in
the
process.
Pixton
pressed
on to
Johannisthal in Germany where he demonstrated
the
Bristol
Prier to the fledgling German aviation corps, giving flights to
some of those present. Later, Bristol was to sell Prier
mono-
planes to Spain, Italy, Germany, and Turkey and opened flying
schools in Italy and Germany. Several of the initial batch of 11
Bristol Priers went to Spain and Italy. Additionally, it is worth
noting
that
works number 73 (number 14 painted on the rear
fuselage) was fitted with a complex clothesline
antenna
for
wireless experiments conducted
at Hendon
in 1912. In this
configuration,
number
73's antenna
arrangement
was sup
ported by beams attached to
the
dorsal cabane and
the
verti
cal rudder support tube, respectively, which incorporated one
additional diagonal strut for support. Between the two beams,
four wires fitted with ceramic insulators were strung in tele
All
three above:
The Prier P.I
as shown in the
September
30 1911 edition
of he Aero
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2.875 inches for the initial two-place
Bristol Priers. Like the discrepancy
in
fuselage length, this is minor; how
ever, the span of the initial production
batch was apparently increased from
the 30 feet 2 inches (span of the origi
nal three Bristol Priers) to 32 feet 9.5
inches for the initial two-place pro
duction machines. That said, the next
production batch of
eight
two-place
machines (works numbers 82, 85, 87,
89, 91, 130, 155, and 156) appears to
have incorporated the longer Dickson
fuselage
and
conventional
horizontal
stabilizer and elevator. This
is
unfortu
nately contrary to the
Aeronautics
ar
ticle that shows
the
older
empennage
in its drawings.
There was also a different wing area,
possibly due to an increased wingspan
and almost certainly due to an increase
in wing chord. Both Peter Lewis' Brit-
ish Aircraft 1809 1914
and the more
re-
cent
British Aircraft Before the Great War
list
the
span
as
34 feet . I have been un
able to confirm this in the contempo
rary sources, but it
is
possible that one
or
more
of the second two-place pro
duction batch were built with a greater
span
. Aeronautics
indicates
that
the
chord was increased
to
6.4 feet,
and
the
fuselage length was increased to
23.6 feet. The wing area was now stated
to
be 200 square feet , an increase of 7
square feet over
the
older two-place
military variant, which is stated by
The Aero to have
had
a
wing
area
of
about 193.754 square feet (this source
gives the area as 193 square feet, 108.5
square inches).
The
term
military
is
somewhat loosely applied,
but
it per
tains to all tandem-seat,
two-place
M.
Prier is
shown
in
this photo of
one
of
the first three P.ls
retrofitted
with a three cylinder Anzani for flight
school
work.
88.5 pounds of fuel (13.6 gallons). In
any case,
the
1912
two-place Bristol
Prier military had an empty weight
of
670
pounds and
a gross
weight of
1,200 pounds. Both two-place versions
are stated to have an identical max
imum airspeed
of 60 mph, 8 mph
slower than
the
P.1 fitted with a Gnome
Omega
British Aircraft 1809 1914
lists
a speed of 68 mph). The
Aeronautics
article makes
the
interesting distinc
tion of
mentioning that the
two-place
machine
can
be flown in either one
place or two-place
configuration
due
to
the
proximity of the passenger seat
to
the
center of gravity. In
any
case,
number
91
of the second
batch of
eight
two-place
machines was
also
purchased by
the
British War Office
and was subsequently serial numbered
as number 261 in military service.
As
in
the
earlier two-place version,
the
engine
of
the
later two-place Bristol
Prier military was a standard
50-hp
Gnome
Omega. The sole exception to
this were two machines based on works
number
82
that were
constructed
for
Turkey.
These
two machines
(works
numbers unknown) were fitted
with
70-hp
Gnome
Gammas.
The popular one-place
Bristol
Prier
school
machine mentioned
in
ently had a somewhat shorter span
of
29.5 feet
(the
Aeronautics
drawing
confusingly states that it is 10 me
ters, or 32.81 feet). This indicates that
the span was approximately 8 inches
less
than
that
of
the
original
P.1s.
The
wing chord may also have been
slightly less (the
Aeronautics
text states
that it was 6 feet). Whatever the actual
case,
the
stated wing area is
slightly
less than
number
57, being
given
as
160 square feet. The fuselage length
also closely matches
that
of the origi
nal three
P.1s,
the popular length
being listed as 23 feet,
the
longer Dick
son fuselage extension
not
being used
on this
variant. While
the
engine of
the popular is stated to be a three
cylinder 28-hp Anzani, most sources
give
the
actual horsepower as 35
hp.
Empty weight of the one-place popu
lar
is
listed as
450 pounds, and the
loaded weight
is
given
as
750 pounds.
The final Bristol Prier variant listed
in
the
June 1912
Aeronautics article
is a two-place school
machine.
How
ever, other sources refer
to
this Bristol
Prier variant as
the
sociable because
of
its side-by-side
seating arrange
ment.
After Prier
had
left Bristol,
and
Henri
Coanda
(see the November
2006
Mystery Plane) had
joined
the
company
in
January of
1912, Coanda
decided to modify Prier's fuselage de
sign
to
the side-by-side
arrangement
used on the Bieriot Type XI-2. While
the Aeronautics article gives a
span of
41.2 feet (12.55 meters listed
on
the
article's drawing), British Aircraft
Be-
fore
the Great War states that the span
was
34
feet.
In
any case, the Bristol
Prier sociable retained the longer
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the Hendon meet held on April 20-21,
1912, 22,000 admissions were paid to
witness the racing event. James Valen
tine placed first in the pylon race but
was disqualified for overtaking B.C.
Hucks
on the
inside. Valentine never
theless made good
on
the Bristol Prier,
later winning the Whitsun Race at
Hendon. Bristol Priers were also flown
in the Daily Mail's First Aerial Derby,
James Valentine pi loting a Bristol Prier
with
the
race
number
7 for the 460
pound grand prize.
Toward
the end
ofjuly
1912, Bris
tol was forced to temporarily close
its flying
school at
Salisbury Plain
for
the
1912 British military aircraft
competition. Most aircraft were trans
ferred to
the
Brooklands school
and
were placed under the control of Bris
tol
instructors
Hotchkiss and Mer
riam. However,
M
Jullerot,
Gordon
England, Howard Pixton,
and
Harry
Busteed stayed
on
at Salisbury Plain
to
look after the Bristol entries in
the
competition. Determined
to
make a
good
showing at
Brooklands,
eight
Bristol machines flew 20 pupils over
a one-week period, making more
than
300
flights
totaling
40
hours.
Typically, flying began at 4 a.m.
and
continued all day into the evening
hours
. Some
students
are
reputed
to
have
been
roused from
their noctur
nal slumber by
the
instructors waking
them with the aircraft . In any case,
on average, one brevet was awarded
each
day.
Among those who
soloed
during
this period
were
Maj. J.F.A.
Higgins, Capt. C.P.
Michaels,
A.M.
MacDonnell, Lt EE Waldron, Lt K P
Atkinson, Sydney Picks, R.G. Holyo
finally hit the ground. The aircraft was
not very badly damaged,
but
Camp
bell was thrown against
the
padded
cockpit
coaming
and
was fatally in
jured. He was not using a seat belt.
Following
the
trials at Salisbury
Plain, B6 was returned to service on
August 22,
1912,
now sporting
the
new
Royal Flying
Corps
(RFC) se
rial number 256. When tested
by
Capt. C.R.W. Allen
and Lt
C.A. Bet
tington it was
found to climb and
handle well
with the
new
fuselage
extension
and empennage.
I t
was
subsequently assigned
to
Number 3
Squadron, and
on
September 17 was
joined
by the
second
RFC
Bristol
Prier military, which was assigned
the serial
number
261 (Bristol works
number 91).
I t
is unfortunate
that
the
monoplane ban went into effect only
a
short time
later,
and
as such, little
flying was
done with either
of
the
machines.
However, they
were
still
listed on charge
on
December 21,
but by March
28, 1913, they were
listed as
unallotted to
squadron.
They were held at the RFC Flying De-
pot
until
they were finally struck off
charge
on
August 5,
1913
.
Interest
ingly, Jack Bruce's
Aeroplanes o the
RFC Military Wing) gives
the span of
Bristol Prier
military
number
256
as
32 feet 9.5 inches
and
lists
the
length
as
23
feet
7.5
inches. (The span
matches that of the initial produc
tion
batch, but the length is slightly
greater.) He also states
that
the
wing
area was 200 square feet and lists the
empty
weight as 670
pounds
in origi
nal form,
with
a gross weight of 1,200
pounds. (These figures would seem to
the
ground
from 100 feet altitude. He
had only
been
flying for two months
at the time of the accident.
This was followed
by
a
second
ac
cident barely six months later.
On
January
26, 1914, Bristol instruc
tor
Warren Merriam was
flying
a
Bristol Prier sociable fitted with
an
80-hp
Gnome Lambda
at
Salisbury
Plain. His
student,
G.L. Gipps, had
taken his certificate (number 513) on
June 23, 1913. The aircraft was not
equipped with any instrumentation,
and
neither
person
was
strapped in
nor were they wearing crash helmets.
According
to
witnesses, the aircraft
completed
one
circuit of
the
field at
80 feet altitude. The aircraft
then
per
formed
a violent flat turn, stalled,
and dove into
the
ground. Gipps was
killed,
and
Merriam was severely in
jured
but
recovered.
The accident
is
said to have been caused when Gipps
resisted Merriam's rudder
input.
Gipps
then
relaxed his leg,
which threw the
vertical rudder hard-over, causing the
crash. Whatever
the
cause, little more
was heard
of
the Bristol Priers.
It is
somewhat
difficult to ascertain
exactly
how many
Bristol Prier vari
ants
were
built. According
to Peter
Lewis, three sociables were built,
with
works
numbers 107, 108, and 109.
However, unless one also
counts
the
sociable
destroyed in the
Merriam
Gipps aCCident,
the total doesn't
agree with his total
of
33. British Air-
craft
efore
the Great War
states
that
34
were built. Kenneth Munson's
book
Pioneer Aircraft 1903 1914 states that
there were three
original
machines,
followed
by seven one-place
mili
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Y
DOUG STEW RT
Ainnanship
Seeing as
how
the wind was blowing strongly enough
to rattle the windows of my office (located in a trailer at
the
Columbia
County
Airport), I
thought
of
filing a pilot
report PIREP) stating, Moderate turbulence reported by
a trailer parked beside the ramp ... The wind was blowing
so strongly on this post-frontal day
that
my client and I