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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 2163.PDF
498 FLIGHT International, 20 September 1962 8PORT AND BUSINESS of what Americans have accomplished under a fairly liberal amateur- aircraft regulation system may in time make the lot of the European amateur less onerous. In the same breath it should be mentioned that American amateurs do have their worries and problems involving their activity under the very large and powerful FAA. A group * of FAA officials from the Washington and Kansas City headquarters attended the fly-in and went away very much impressed indeed with the workmanship and airmanship of EAA people. This year, too, final judging was completed in the EAA Design Competition, which was announced over five years ago and has not progressed exactly as hoped. Judging was originally scheduled for 1960 but in that year only two qualified entries appeared, not enough to make it a contest. This year, as of May, some 18 builders signified intention of appearing at the fly-in, but when the time came only six showed up. Some did not meet provisions set forth in the rules and were disqualified. A few had undesirable flight characteristics which had not been cured by contest time. Scoring sheets covered many important items, such as good flight qualities, availability of materials, simplicity of amateur construction, quality of plans and so on, and when things had been tallied the winner of the first place proved to be the Fly Baby, an all-wood, wire-braced, low-wing design by Peter Bowers of Seattle, Washington. Second place went to the cantilever low-wing of Eugene Turner, while third prize went to Leonard Eaves for his folding-wing version of the Cougar two-seat cabin monoplane. Turner is from Fort Worth, Texas, and Eaves from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. A fine aerial entertainment programme was featured. Using a handsome 200 h.p. Warner-engined Great Lakes biplane of 1930 vintage, Harold Krier put on a well-polished acrobatic demonstra tion which showed that he has truly earned a place among the elite group of top acrobatic flyers, and Bill Adams "shook 'em up" with a roaring performance in his 450 h.p. modified Stearman PT-17— the noise of which made his dives, zooms and snap rolls seem all the more dramatic. Cole Palen, the World War One aircraft collector of Rhinebeck, N.Y., had his Spad pursuit plane on hand and flew it prudently as befits its age, followed by 74-year-old Arthur Hartman in his Curtiss JN-4D. Fabulous Old Ford John Louck and crew again sold joy-rides in their venerable, white-painted Ford Trimotor and were kept rather busy; on one day the old plane made 42 flights, each time carrying a full load of 15 passengers. In fact, personnel of the scheduled Ozark Airlines which serves Rockford became so envious that they rolled out a DC-3 and started selling rides at the other end of the airfield . . . but the perverse public preferred the fabulous Ford. The bellow of its three 450 h.p. Pratt & Whitney engines on takeoffs every fifteen minutes or so has become an integral feature of the fly-ins. Henry Ford did not know what he was starting when he made the Tin Goose! Even more aerial activity was afforded by a continuous series of glider flights put on by sailplane enthusiasts of the midwestern region, and demonstration Goodyear midget races each evening by such well-known racing pilots as Steve Wittman in his little yellow Bonzo and Bill Falck in his red-and-yellow Rivets. Both ships date from the heyday of 190 cu in racing in the late 1940s; the race-horse starts and vertical banks of three or four of the class in mock races gave the crowd an idea of what those races were like. In regard to the amateur-built aircraft themselves, it was readily observed that the most common aircraft on hand were straightforward and proven types such as the Corben Baby Ace, the Stits designs such as the Playboy, Sky Coupe and Flut-r-Bug, the Mong and Smith Miniplane midget biplanes, and the Wittman Tailwind and Nesmith Cougar midget cabin two-seaters. Most of the builders are chaps who want very much to get into the air for fun and are not vitally concerned with the thesis that each new machine to take to the air is sinful if it does not represent an advance over all others. On the contrary, it often appears that they will select a relatively old design for the sake of its character and general sportiness. Cole Palen taxies-out his Spad—genuine 1918, not a reproduction. Below, a doughty old Ford Trimotor, once oxned by Pan American, was kept busy giving joy-rides. An Aeronca C-3 taxies past in the background One can grow weary of the stylized, usually subdued colour schemes used to make a suitable impression on customers in the executive aircraft field, and accordingly revels at an EAA fly-in in the bold, individualistic colour schemes on these little airplanes. A sporty white with red trim seems a favourite choice, but here one sees a 1929 Spartan in bold blue and orange, there one sights a 1935 E-2 Cub in lemon yellow and black, overhead is an all-red biplane, and just behind one sits a Baby Ace in yellow with white sunburst on its wing, or an ivory Miniplane with gold struts and upholstery. It is quite refreshing. Scattered among the "stock" designs, however, are an agreeable number of original types. These are often hot little bumblebees, built by men who know how to handle real airplanes. Drawing much attention this year was the Mini-Mustang of Charles Linn. Patterned after the P-51, it resembles the large aircraft amazingly well in spite of the unavoidably large cowl of the opposed engine and the blister type cockpit canopy. This little sizzler arrived in what appeared to be a perfectly normal caravan (or house trailer, in Americanese). But the back of the trailer opens up and the little plane rolls out, minus the outboard wing panels! When those have been attached and the plane is airborne, the trailer becomes a fly-in home for the owner. Then there is El Chuparosa (The Cricket) built by Ray Hegy cf Texas. Ray has been a professional pilot since the 1920s and built this one for himself. Rather a slight person, he built the ship to fit, and its biplane wings span only 12ft. All-red and with 65 h.p., it cruises at 120 m.p.h. and is, along with the Ford Trimotor, about the most common sight in Rockford skies. Each year, two or three original or replica Pietenpol Air Campers show up; this design dates from the early 1930s and is a very simple, over-strength, docile all-wood parasol with tandem open cockpits. There had been hope that the design competition might have produced something as suitable for general sport flying but embodying modern improve ments. The real amateur builders do not hesitate to build proven old designs and copy them faithfully. The trained designers, imbued with the commercial spirit of progress above all else, have not the courage to go back a little bit but must press ahead. There is thus no happy blend of the old and new to provide the amateur with a fine little airplane, despite the incentive offered by the EAA's $5,000 Design Competition. But everyone had a grand time, nevertheless, and the sheer size and vitality of the tenth annual international fly-in is in itself proof that a powerful force is at work which, given time, could produce astonishing results.
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