Vintage Airplane - Jul 1980

8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 1980

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STR IGHT ND LEVEL

When we look back on Oshkosh 79 and the wonderful weather, tremendous crowds, the hospitalityand fellowship generated, we often wonder if therecould be any possible improvement for the 1980 Convention. The answer is yes , definitely , and withgusto Each year we attempt to correct the errors andmistakes made in previous years. Our goal is to present the most enjoyable Convention of all, for you,your family and friends.The Antique /Classic Division schedule for Oshkosh80 is basically the same as those of previous years,but we are proud to announce that some changeshave been made including the addition of new andinteresting events.

The forum tent will be located with the other forumtents in the area adjacent to the Commercial DisplayArea. In the past the general public has been prohibited from attending Antique/Classic forums becausea flight line pass was needed to get to the locationnear the Red Barn. Now, all who attend the Convention can also attend forums on the older aircraft. TheAntique / Classic Division Forum schedule will beposted daily on the bulletin board outside the Division headquarters barn.

The annual Division picnic will again be held in Ollie s Park, with the festivities beginning about 7 p .m .on Tuesday , August 5th. Be sure to purchase yourtickets early for the picnic bash. Bring the family andyour friends and enjoy the fellowship. The attendanceat the annual picnic has increased each successiveyear.

The annual Parade of Flight will be flown on Wednesday, August 6th and will be part of the daily air show.Many of you will be contacted to participate in thisenjoyable venture. The Parade of Flight Committeewill start programming the event on the first dayof the Convention and we request that each of youwho are asked to participate make a concerted effortto attend the pilot briefing and have your aircraftavailable for this fantastic event.

On Friday evening , August 8th , the Convention

awards presentation will again be held at the newoutdoor pavilion in Ollie s Park. Plans ar e underwaythis year to assure that the presentations are of sig-nificant importance to the recipients and of special interest to the audience.Now that the main entrance for EAAers entering theairport from the campgrounds has been moved to thenortheast corner of Ollie's Park, a tremendous in crease in pedestrian traffic past the Red Barn hasbeen noted. We need to capitalize on this exposurein ways to benefit both the Division membership andthe EAA membership in general. Often, we haveoverheard E members expressing their thoughtsthat the area around the Red Barn was an exclusivearea for antiquers only. How wrong this is. We needto invite all E members to visit with us , browsearound the Barn and join in the fellowship we cherishso much. Let this be a challenge to each Antique /Classic Division member to extend our hospitality toall visitors in the area. A glance through an issue ofThe VINT GE IRPL NE should entice many of ourvisitors to become a member of the Division .

Something new will be added to the area this year .Occupying the space where the forum tent previouslywas will be a tent for use as our Division hospitalityarea. It will be available for members of the OX-5Aviation Pioneers , QBs, old timers , or any group thatwishes to use the facility for informal gatherings concerning antique and classic aircraft. The informationbulletin board wil: also be placed in the hospitalitytent and chairs will be available. We need to pass theword around that this facility will be available. Yourpersonal contact with the various groups as listedabove will be the only communication we will have toadvise them of this hospitality facility.

How many times have you heard an interview overthe Convention P system and wished you werethere to see as well as listen to the proceedings?Usually , by the tim e one gets to the Interview Circle ,

the program has ended. We have now been allocatedan area across the paved road east of the Red Barnfor use as our own Antique /Classic interview area. Wewill have our own P system and the use of this newfacility should enhance the prestige of the Divisionand draw further attention to our special activities.Saturday, August 9th will mark the annual membership meeting of the Antique /Classic Division. Themeeting will start at 10:30 a.m. in the hospitality tentadjacent to the Red Barn headquarters . All Divisionmembers are urged to attend and we wel come theguests of our active members. The floor will be openfor pertinent business concerning the managementand activities of the Antique /Classic Division. We lookforward to seeing and visiting with each of you atOshkosh this year . Fly safely , have fun and enjoyyour Convention .


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ditorialStaffPublisherPaul H.Poberezny

EditorGene R.ChaseChaseNick Rezich from Rockford, Il l inois announc ing one ofthe dai ly air shows at Lakeland, Florida s Sun n Fun 80Fly- In .

Associate Editors: H. Glenn Buffington, Edward D . Wi l liams, Byron(Fred) Fredericksen, Lionel SalisburyReadersare encouraged tosubmit storiesand photograp hs .Associate Editorshipsare assignedto th ose writers who submit five or more articles which are publi shed in THE VINTAGE AIR PLANE during th e current year. Associa te s receive a bound volume of THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE and a free one-year membership in the Divisio n for their efforts. POLICY-Opinionsexpressed in artic les are solely those of the au thors. Responsibility for accuracy in reportingres tsentirelywith thecontributor.

DirectorsClaude L. Gray. Jr . Morton W. les ter9635Sylv ia Avenue P.O. Box 3747PRESIDENT No rthridge.CA91324 Martin sville ,VA 24112W.BRADTHOMAS, JR .301 DODSON MILL ROAD Dale A.Gustafson Arthur R. Mo rganPILOT MOUNTAIN ,NC 27041 7724 ShadyHill Drive 3744 North 51stBlvd.919/368-2875 Home In dianaooli s, IN 46274 Milwau kee.WI 532 16919/368-2291 OfficeRichardH. Wagner John R. TurgyanVICE PRESIDENT P.O.Box181 1530 KuserRoadJACKC.W INTHROP Lyon s. WI 531 48 Trenton .NJ 08619ROUTE1,BOX 111ALLEN,TX750022141727-5649 AIKelch66W.622 N. MadisonAvenueSECRETARY Cedarburg.WI 53012M .C "KELLY " V IETS

7745W. 183RDST. AdvisorsST ILWELL,KS 66085 John S. Copeland StanGomoll Gen eMorris913/681-2303 Home 9 Joanne Drive 104290th Lane .NE 27 Chandell eDrive913/782-6720Office Wes tborough. MA 01 581 Minneapolis,MN 55434 Hampshir e. Il 601 40TREASURER

Rob ert E Kesel George 5. YorkE. E. "BUCK" HI LBERT Ronald Fril z2896Ro osevelt SI. 455 Oakridge Drive 181 Sloboda Ave.P.O .BOX 145 Co nklin .MI 49403 Rochest er . NY14617 Mon sfield. OH 4490"UN ION, IL60180815/923-4205THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE (ISSN 0091-6943)is owned exclusively by EAAAntique/Classic Division, Inc .,and is published monthly at Hales Corners, Wiscon si n 53130. Second class Postage paid at HalesCorners Post Office , Hal es Corners, W isconsin 53130, and additional mailing off ices. Membersh iprates for EAA Ant ique /Classic Div ision, Inc .. are$14 .00 per 12 month period ofwhi ch $10.00 is for thepublication of THE VINTAGEAIRPLANE.Membership is open toall who are interested in aviation .

~ V I ~ T A t 3 ~ A I l V L A ~ ~OFFICIALMAGAZ INE

EAA ANTIQUE/CLASSICDIVISION INC.of THE EXPER IMENTALA IRCRAFTASSOC IAT ION

P.O. Box229, Ha les Corners, WI53130Copyright4l 1980EAAAntique/ClassicDivision,Inc.,AllRightsReserved .JULY 198 VOLUME 8 NUMBER 7(On The Cover. 1942 Fairchild PT-23, N54375 owned by Ed Earp, Jr., of Hou ston , Texa s. See story onPage 5. Photo by Ed Earp .(On The Ba ck Cover. Outstanding exa mple of aWacoUPF-7. N29368 was manufactured in 1940 andisowned by Arnold Nieman,Oca la , Florida. Photo by Gene Cha se.

TABLE OF CONTENTSStraight and Levelby BradThomas ............................................... 2A/CHot LinebyGene R.Chase... .. . . . . . . ,.. . . . ,..... ... .. .. ... ..... . .. .. . . . . .. . 4PT- 23 Easiest PlaneTo Flyby Edward Earp, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . . . . ... . .. 5Dou glas DC-4Giant Of The Air by EdwardD .Williams .... ... ... ... . . . . . . ... .. . . . . 6JesseOrval Dockery .. . 'A FlyingSilver Eagle' by RobertG. Elliott . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . 12TheC unningham-Hal lGA-36by Gene Chase.. . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . 17Rebirth Of ATaylorcraft by Bob Moo re. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... _.. . . ... . . . . . . . 18Szekely Aircraft And EngineCompany by PhilMi chmerhuizen . . . . . . . .. . . . ... . . . . . . 20Calendar Of Events .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. ... .. . . .. .. .. . 23Borden's Aeroplane Posters FromThe1930's by Lionel Salisbury .. .. . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . 24

EAA ANTIQUE/CLASSICDIVISION MEMBERSHIPoNON -EAA MEMBER - $22.00. Includes one yearmembersh ip in the EAA Antique /Class ic Divi sion , 12 monthly issues of THE VINTAGE A IRPLANE ; one year mem

bership in th e Experimental Air craft Associati on and se parate membership cards.SPORTAV IATION magazinenot includerl .oEAA MEMBER - $14_00. Includesone year membership in the EAAAntique/ClassicDiv ision , 12 monthly iss uesof THE VINTAGE AIRPLANE AND MEMBERSHIPCARD.(Appli ca nt mu st be cur rent EAAmember and mustgiveEAAmembership number .)

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CESSNA 170 CONVENTION TO BE IN MILWAUKEETh e In ter national Cessna 170 Association, In c., ha s

scheduled its 12th Annual Convention for August 10 ~ L I ~ ~ c jPIPER WING STRUT ASSEMBLIES

The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended to th e FAA that immediate in spec tion bemade on all lift strut forks on Piper mod els PA-12,PA-14 , PA-16, PA-18, PA-19, PA-20 and PA-22. Also all)-4, )-5, AE-1 and HE -1 series aircraft. In the past twoyears th ere have been two fatal accidents as a resu Itof the failur e of cut threadbolts on these forks. Replacements should use rolled threadbolts.

NAVY ALERTS GENERAL AVIATION PILOTS TOCOLLISION HAZARDS CREATED BYSAN DIEGO TCA

Officials of North Island Naval Air Station at SanDi ego are concerned that the tunnel through th e newTerminal Control Area is in direct conflict with theapproach path to the primary arrival runway at theNaval Air Station as well as to Outlying Field Imp erialBeach.The Navy objected to the FAA about the lo ca tion of

~ ; e tunnel, b eca use they felt it would crea te adangerous mid-air collision potential.

There hav e already been two mid-air collisions in asimilar tunnel through the Los Angeles TCA .

NEW ANTIQUE/CLASSIC CHAPTER INEUGENE, OREGONEAA m emb ers in Eugene are in th e process of form

ing a new Antique /Classic Chapter. They 've he ld th eirin i tial m ee ting, elec ted officers, selected a nam e, andstarted work on a res toration project. Th e project is arare 1934 Stinson SR-5E Reliant which was donated tothe group last sp ring.Most of th e m emb ers belong to Eugene 's EAAChapter 34, which is a large and active group. In Ap

ril, they he ld th e ir First Annual Oregon Aviation FilmFestival and in May, their Annual Maintenan ce Clinicand Designer 's Forum .A lawyer has been co ntacted rega rding the filing ofincorporation papers for the new group, and whenthe paperwork is in order, a chapter charter will beissued from EAA Headquarters. Thos e interested injoining th e new group should contact the Oregon Antique and Classic Aircraft Club, P. O. Box 613, Creswell, OR 97426 .

NO 80 OCTANE FUEL AT OSHKOSH

Basler Aviation reports that an adequate supply of fuel is available for Oshkosh '80, but thatno 80 octane fuel will be available. Payment willbe accepted only with the following creditcards: Shell, Master Charge, or Visa.

horo y Don Pratt)Pretty in flight shot o( Howard Twibell , EAA 3343 1, o(Oskaloosa, Kansas fl ying his 1942 Cu lv er LCA Cade t, sin393 over th e fl at Kansas arm coun try.

16 at the Red Carpet Inn across the street from Milwaukee's Mi tchell Fie ld .

The event features forums, a flight rally, and toursincluding the Miller Brewery, the Air For ce Reserveand Air National Guard facilities and the Paul H.Poberezny Air Museum .

For furth e r information, contact: Ri chard To masello, 1333 Wagner Drive, I Cajon, CA 92020.

CESSNA 120/140 CLUB TO OSHKOSH '80Re cent issues of the monthly newsletter published

by the West Coast Cessna 1201140 Club have contained information which should be useful to allpilots making their first flights (except via airlines) tothe EAA Convention at Oshkosh.As noted in the March , 1980 issue of The VINTAGEAIRPLANE, this club is planning a mass fly-in to theConvention from Northern California. They extend aninvitation to others to join them along the way.

They've rec eived confirmation from several airportsalong the way, assu ri ng th em that " red gas", ti edown and camping facilities will be available . In pastissu es of their newsletter , based on previou s experience, they've listed specific items to bring along, in cluding clothing , tools, camping equipment, and personal gear. For th i s informat ion, se nd $2 .00 toOshkosh Package , P. O. Box 891, Menlo Park, CA94025.For information about the mass flight to Oshkosh,contact: Barker and Williams, 25636 Franklin #1,Hayward, CA 94544. Telephone 415/581-7083.

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PT 23 ...Easiest Plane t Fly

by Edward Earp , Jr .EAA # 33228, AIC # 3480P O . Box 2 766

Hou ston, TX 77 7PHOTOS CO URTESY OF THE AUTHO R

I purchased th i s aircraft in 1975 from a friend inHouston . At that tim e, N54375 was a Fairchild PT-19and I had known of it for over 20 years, never dream-ing that one day I would own it.Right after I bought the Fairchild , I stumbled upona PT-23 engine mount , engine, and just everythingfrom the firewall forward that I would need to co nvert a 19 to a 23. As you know, a PT-19 and 23 areidentical from th e firewall back . I had the conversiondone by Chuck Nichols in Brenham, Texas.Originally the plane had an inertia starter and Iknew that as long as I could wind it up, I co uld certainly pass my flight physical. After watching me gothrough th i s windup one hot sum m er day , my wifehad an electrical sys tem in stall ed which I mu st sa y I

Ed Earp , Jr , in his winter f lying tog s

Ed Earp, Jr ., enjoying flight over the South Texas coun-tryside in his bea utiful Fairchild PT-23.

think is pretty keen.Surely this mu st be one of th e eas iest aircraft in the

world to fly. It has no bad habits but there is no messing around when it quits flying .. . it really se ttles. Ihave slow rolled it , snap roll ed it , looped it and spunit but I do n t do this anymore. Let s face it , the oldbird was built in 1942.

About all I can sa y is that it is a joy to fly. In thesummert ime my standard uniform is a parachute ,swimming trunk s and tenni s sho es. Flyin g in thewinter requires a ski jacket , gloves, boots and bluejea ns and you are ok in the front cockpit but forgetabout the back oneTh e Fairchild is based in Hou ston at Genoa Airportwhich is right nex t to Ellington Field. In fact we are soclose that we fly a 400 pattern .

At the present time , I have more than enough partsto build at least thr ee more PT 2 3s and I hope to startconstructing one of them this coming year. I have acomplete set of plans for all models of PT-19 andPT 23 aircraft, including all modifications.

,Fro nt cockpit of the PT-23 . Windshield has t inted glass .

I he 22 Contin ental eng ine isex tremely low tim e5


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GI NT OF TH E IRy Edward D. Williams, Associate Editor

E #51010713 Eastman DriveMt. Prospect, IL 60056u sForty-one years ago a one-of-a-kind airplane went

on a coast-to-coast tour and gave the American publi ca view of the advance d aviation te chnology of theday . The plane was a giant air transport, with a revolutionary tricycle landing gear never before usedon a plane that size, and it ushered in a new era inair transportation.

But that historically significant plane is not visibletoday in any museum or collection of antique air craft .It rests ignominiou sly on the bottom of Tokyo Bay.

The plane was a triple-tail prototype of the Dou glasDC-4 , which was destined to serve this country wellas th e C-54 and R5D Skymaster military transport ofWorld War II before donning civilian livery with man yof th e nation 's airlines .

In 1935, when the famed Dougla s DC-3 was queenof th e skies, William C Mentzer , a United Airlines

engineer, was assigned by United 's president, WilliamA . Patt erson , to prepare specifications for a super airliner. Th e new aircraft was to have four engines andcarry three or four times as many passengers as thetransport planes then in use .After Mentzer worked out his sp ecs, they were presented to various aircraft manufacturers for consideration. The Dou glas Aircraft Company became in ter es ted in building the air giant, and four other airlines - TWA , Eastern , American and Pan Am joined United in splitting a $300,000 engineering costto get the project underway. It was a noteworthy collective effort by the airlines involved.

United s Pat Patterso n later explained how hehad gotten the other airlines to cooperate in the venture . At a meeting with hi s competitors top management , he explained, I said United we fly and dividedwe lo se money.

Mentzer, meanwhile, moved to Santa Monica,California, in March , 1936, and took an office in theDouglas factory . He remained there until November,1938 , watching and participating in day-to-day building of the new plane , which was rolled out of the factory in June, 1938. When United took it over for flighttests on its coast-to-coast system in May, 1939, he accompanied the plane , noting its performance. Theplane showed itself to be well ahead of its time in1939.

But the triple-tail giant was never to make it intoairline service. After a number of design changes , theDC-4 became a smaller airplane with one a singlerudder instead of three, and the unwanted prototype ,designated the DC-4E, was sold to the Japanese government as a VIP transport.


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An ea rl y tes t fli ght of th e prototype Douglas D 4 . Propell ers are fea th ered on engin es 3 and 4. No te th e in teres t-ing wi re stru cture below th e ventral fin , pr obably to w arnthe pi lot in case of over-ro tation on takeoff.

O n it s f ir st tes t fli ght by Jap an ese pil o ts, th e proto typ e plun ge d in to To kyo Bay wh ere it s ru stin g hulkremain s to thi s day.Exp ectati o ns had run hi gh fo r th e u se of th e g iantD C-4 in a ir l in e se rv ice, M aur i ce Ro dd y, av ia tionedi t or of th e Chi cago Tim es, w ro te o n April 30, 1939:Every lesson and experi ence gain ed b y th e comm er-cial transp ort operators in th e country have been in corpo-ra ted in to th e amaz in g sk y g iant , whi ch has a g ro ssw eight of 32% to ns.O ne hundred and sixty-fiv e stru ctural tes ts requiring2 1 000 eng in eerin g and shop hours w ere made. Morethan 500 000 eng in eering hours are represented in thecomp leted pl ane.To ta l cos t of deve l opm ent w as app rox imat el y$ 1,500 ,000 , and man y tes ts centered around th e tri cyclelanding gea r deve loped to give thi s tremendous ship asmoo ther landing. Th e thi rd wh ee l is loca ted in front ofthe center of grav it y and th e plane ca n be brought int o alanding field at a steeper angl e and taken off more rapidlythan th e familiar type. Lu xur ious appo intments are featured throughout th e plane which has also a bridal suit e.Th e pr o to type airplan e had a win g span o f 138' 3and a fuse lage 97' 7 long and 24' 4 h igh. Its crui singrange with a full load was 2,200 mil es . It had a to pspeed of 240 mi l es p er hour , a cr ui se sp eed o f 2101mil es p er hour and a gross w eight of 65,000 p oun ds.It s se rv ice ce ilin g was 22 ,900 fee t , and its absolutece iling 24,500 fee t. It w as abl e to main tain f light o n it stw o Pratt and Whitn ey R-2180 eng in es at 8,0 00 fee tabove sea leve l . Th e u se ful loa d was 20,000 p ounds,and i t ca rri ed th ree to ns of mail , exp ress and baggagein additi o n to th e passenge rs.O n e of i ts out standin g featu res was th e inn ovativ etri cycl e landing gea r. In additio n to th e many technica l advant ages, th i s typ e o f landin g gea r pr ov id edex tr a co mf o rt for th e pa ssenge rs by ass uring leve llanding of th e ship- and making it p oss ib le to se t th epl ane d o wn at ni ght with out aw ak enin g th e occ up ant s in th e ir berth s.Th e D C-4 was bor n w ith a co ntr ac t da ted M arch 23 ,1936. Parti cip ants we re th e D ouglas A ir cra ft Co . , In c.,Uni ted Air li nes Transpo rt Co rp ., Transcontinental and

W es tern A ir , In c. , Am eri ca n Airlin es, In c., Pan Am erica n Aviati o n Supply Co rp ., and N o rth Ameri can Aviati on, In c.D o ug las A ir c raft Compan y eng in ee rs and o p era-ti o ns executiv es of th e airlin es held monthly conferences durin g th e co nstru ction of th e pl ane. Valuabledi scu ss io ns o f eve ry con ce ivable requir em ent to o kpl ace at th ese con ferences, and o ft en th e id eas werein corp o rat ed i nt o the plan e. Nin e th o u sa nd paragraph s made up th e contract under which th e planew as built.Th e D C-4 E wa s des ig ned for 42 passe nge rs by day(and 30 by ni ght) and a crew of f ive - two pilots, afli ght eng in ee r , a stew ard and a stew ard ess. Ca ll edth e Fly in g Ho tel , it boasted of a co mfor tabl e ladies 'loun ge , m en 's dr ess in g room , a pr ivate co mpartm entup front ca ll ed th e bridal sui te and a lu xur ious gallery amid ships.

Its fo ur Twin H o rn et eng in es, with a to tal of mo reth an 5,600 ho rsepow er , took its pamp ered pa sse ngersalo ng at a speed greater than th at of any bo mb er ofthat era.Th e years required in th e developing o f thi s giantairliner - it too k 18 months ju st to build - fr o m th edr awin g boa rd to th e fini sh ed p ro du ct, rep resent edno t so mu ch th e difficulti es and pr obl ems o f bu i ldinga large airplane as th e ca reful resea rch and tes ting ofpa rt s and new fea tu r es. A tes tin g labo rato ry and outstanding engi nee rs we re kept bu sy fo r more th an tw oyea rs deve loping in fo rm ation on th e new pr obl emsenco un tered in th e co nstru cti o n o f th e pr o to typ eD C-4 . Pa rt s w ere tes ted for every poss ib le co nditionand many o f th em w ere tes ted to des tru cti o n to determin e th e limit of th e ir endurance . Sp ec ial expensive machinery was co nstru cted fo r th e tes ts.Th e DC-4 Es gestati o n was lo ng - and expensive.M o re th an 500,000 hours w ere sp ent in eng in ee rin gand des ign and anoth er 100,000 hour s in ground andlabo rato ry tes tin g . Mo re th an 20,000 d if ferent pi ecesof metal w ere made in differ ent shap es , and m o reth an 1,300 ,000 riv ets w ere used in it s co nstru cti o n.Th e to tal cos t w as a wh opping $1,634,612. Of th is,$992,808 was for labor and engin ee rin g and $641 ,804fo r mate ri als and ove rh ead .There w er e many n ew pr obl em s of d esig n. Thepressurized fu se lage from th e p i lo t' s co ntr o l room toth e rea r-m os t to il et comp artm ent required th e mo stca reful des ign . Wind shi eld , w ind ow s, and doors carri ed th e pr essur e different ial res ultin g fro m an alt itud e pr essur e o f 12,000 fee t in sid e th e ca b in at anac tu al altitu de o f 20,000 fee t. Th e bl o w ers, saf et yva lves, and aut o mati c pr ess ur e regul ato rs - fo r mainta inin g th e pr essur e in sid e th e ca bin at a littl e mo re

th an half of that outside - had to be d es ign ed andthorou ghl y tes ted .H ydr aul i c control surface lo c ks h ad t o b e de velo p ed wh i ch would prevent wind gu sts actin g onth e hu ge sur faces and overp owerin g th e pil ot duringtax ii ng and ye t w ould permit him to op erat e th e contr o ls eas ily un der normal w ea th er co nditio ns.Po w er units w ere d eveloped for furni shing 110 voltelec tri cal cu rrent to op erate if1stru ment s, radi o , cookin g, and li ghting and for th e developm ent of entirelynew and improved radio equipment.Fro m th e beg innin g, th e size of th e D C4E ca usedpr obl em s. A whol e n ew engine co ntr o l sys tem had tobe dev ise d becau se each of th e two outboard enginesw as 70' fr o m th e co ckpit . Th e n ew sys tem u sedpu sh-pull rods and ca ble s whi ch ran through th e insid e o f th e win g.A n ew fuel sys tem al so was des igned whi ch gaveth e pl an e extr a pow er - ab out th e sa me ho rsepoweras tw o d iese l locomotives - fo r takeo ff. Th e systemincluded a 100-gallon tank of tak eoff fu el and a 300-gall o n tank fo r crui se for ea ch eng in e.

And to day 's ai rlin e pilots can th ank D o ug la s en g in ee rs fo r an innovation for th e D C4 , th e fli ght eng in eer's stati o n . Th e designers put dupli ca te engineco ntr o ls and h ydrauli c sys tem co nt ro ls on a secondco nt ro l panel ju st behind th e pilots' stati o n , and thef light eng in eer wa s born .Th e size of th e D C-4E is illu str ated by th e fa ct thatit s co ntr o l surf aces, it s a il e r o ns, rudd e rs andelevato rs, w ere bi gge r than th e wings o f tr aining aircraf t D ouglas w as bUilding. But Doug las gav e DC-4pi l o ts fin ge rtip co ntrol by app ly in g co ntr ol bo osters.It repl ace d th e standard contro l ca bl es with smalldi am eter hydraulic lines and elec tri c mo to rs divingpumps.Th e di s tin c ti ve tripl e-tail o f th e pr o to t yp e wa snecessa ry for th e D C4E for great er lateral stability.But th e id ea w as abandoned fo r th e small er , pr oducti o n mo dels o f th e DC4 .To redu ce dr ag in fli ght , f lu sh ri ve ts were perf ectedfo r all ex tern al skin surfaces .In tern ally, eve n th e seats w ere th e res u It of month so f th e mos t in tensiv e design to pr ovide th e ea sily adju stabl e seat and th e reclinin g and reversin g ba ck thatare so essenti al to th e ease o f th e passeng er on alo ng f light. Th e se ats al so had th e ca pability of beingfo ld ed with a minimum of effo rt in to beds.

Full size m oc k-up s w ere used to p erf ec t th e arrange m ent o f th e pi l ots' co mp artm ent and co ntrols ,p asse nge r accomm odati o ns, and po wer pl ant in stallati o ns. Pain staking and alm os t end l ess detail s of thew ind tunn el mo d el tes ts w ere record ed , and every7


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aspect of the new design had been thoroughlystudied.The strength of the structural design had beendemonstrated by complete tests of many importantstructural parts , and by a proof test of the assembledexperimental airplane before the first test flights .Loads totaling 60% of the ultimate design load hadbeen applied to the airplane by means of jacks andlead weights distributed as nearly as possible like theactual weights and air loads. By this mea ns the mostsevere loads likely to be encountered in service hadactually been placed on the airplane and it hadshown that it was eas ily capable of withstanding suchloads .

The tricycle type of landing gear had neve r beforebeen used on an airplane of that size, and a programwas carried out involving tests on a scale model cartowed by a truck, and later , tests on a twin- enginedDouglas Dolphin airplane. These tests showed thatthis type of gear offered the advantages of better control on the ground through its inherent rolling stability. It also was free from rebound during landing resulting from the sudden drop in wing lift caused bythe reduction of the angle of attack at th e mo ment ofcontact as the airplane settles on the nose wheel.And it eliminated the possibility of nosing over with'sudden application of the brakes.The design of the tricycle landing gear proved successful from the start. A United Airlines report onJune 15, 1938, states:

On the first take-off the plane had a gross weightof approximately 53,000 pounds , or about 12,000pounds under what is expected to be its maximumgross weight. The take-off appeared normal in eve ryrespect. The nose wheel was pulled off of the groundapproximately 500 feet after the start of th e run andthe airplane was in the air after a total run of approximately 1',000 feet. The landings made with th e tricycle landing gear proved very satisfactory.

Although it was the largest plane in th e air at thetime, the DC-4E was a pilot's dream. United test pilotBenny Howard (designer of the Mi s ter Mull iganaircraft) said that Flying the DC-4E is about as exciting as a game of solitaire. In a tes t f l ight atCheyenne, Wyoming, Howard head ed down therunway - with an elevation of 6,200 feet - ca lmlycut two engines on the takeoff, and th e plane took tothe air as if it didn't know the difference. A Unitedofficial wat ching the demonstration smiled broadlyand said, That's the plane for us .

Un d er it s con tract with Douglas , United had theoption of purchasing the prototype (NC18100, ser ialnumber 16010). The plane, with four Pratt and Whit

ney R-2180 engines , was test flown by Douglas for sixmonths before being awarded its Approved Type Certificate in May, 1939. Then , painted in United co lors ,it began another five months of rout e tes ting flightsby United.

No passenger s were carried, but demonstrationflights were mad e across the country by Douglas andUnited flight crews. While the prototyp e proved to bea great technical success, the route test ing showedthat it was too large for economical operation. Consequently, the prototype was return ed to Douglas,who sold it to the Japanese in October, 1939.

Meanwhile, the DC-4 design was red u ced in size ,left unpressu ri zed and repowered with a mo re dependable Pratt and Whitney R-2000-2SD engin e andredesignated the DC-4A. Most not ab le of th e design ,changes was the use of a single vertical tail instead ofthree with th e initial orders from Eastern and United,the highly-improved DC-4A was now ready for production . But it now was scaled down to a wing spanof 117' 6 and a leng th of 93' 11 .

On January 2 1940, the Douglas Aircraft Companyproudly announced at Santa Monica, California, thatCo mm ercial aviation in the United States will beginthe new year with th e largest and most signifi ca nt

(United Air Lines Photo)Th e prototype Douglas DC 4 fl i es over th e a liforniacountryside. Here it car ri es an NC number in place of theoriginal NX. Note the change in the shap e of the ventralfin .

airplane order in th e history of pea ce-tim e flying.Douglas announced it was starting construction of

40 product ion-model DC-4 aircraft valued at$14,000,000.Thirty-nin e of these modern , four-engine, sky

giants already were covered by contract in the finalstages of negotiations with leading airlines in thiscountry and in Europe.With understandabl e pride, Douglas once sa id th eDC-4E design rep res ents Douglas ' co ntribution tothe science of aeronautics.Th e performance of the production DC-4 was expect ed to surpass that of the prototype DC-4Eairplane. The forty DC-4 airplanes ordered into production at the end of 1939 were faster and more co mfortable than the prototype that pav ed th e way fortheir appearance.Th e story of the production of th e DC-4 was not toend until August 11, 194 7, when DC-4 number 1242,th e last of th e famous Skymasters to be built, rolled


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off th e Douglas asse mbl y lin e and was delive red toSouth Afri ca n Airways.Th e delive ry mark ed th e co nclu sion of a five-yea rmanu fac turing program wh i ch pr odu ced 1163 militaryand 79 pos t-w ar co mm ercia l tr anspo rt s o f th e DC 4type.Th e D C-4 in 1947 o utnum be red a ll o th er fo ur eng in ed tr anspo rt s about seven to o ne a Doug lassurv ey di sclo sed and th eir se rvi ce record o f on e bil-

lion mi les of depend abl e fli ght was un app roac hed byany o th er air craft in that category .

With more th an 1000 in u se in 1947 Douglas se r-vice anal ys ts pr edi cted th at DC-4s wo u Id be f lyi ng fo rat least ano th er 10 yea rs.Ho weve r some DC-4s are s till fl yin g today.Th e fir st pr odu cti o n Skymaster a military C-54 actually fl ew eight weeks after Pea rl Harb or . Wh en th eUnited States was plun ge d in to war Do ug las hadstarted pr odu cti o n of DC4 s for comm ercial airlines.Nine air craft were in advanced stages of co nstru cti o nwh en th e Arm y dec ided th e DC4 with few modifica ti o ns w ould mee t its requirements fo r a longrangetr oo p and ca rgo ca rri er. Chan ges were m ade dur ingpr odu cti o n and th e Arm y C-54 and Navy R5D we rebo rn .

The DC -4 proto typ e at Ne w ark, New Jersey being in sp ected by the publ ic during i ts coas t to coas t tour in1949.During WW /I Douglas modified the DC-4 to meet themilitary s need for large transports. Th e plexiglass domebehind th e loop anten na ove r the pilots compartm entserv ed th e nav iga tor while he took sun and star shots forceles tial nav iga tion .

(United Ai r Lines Photo)Th e original D C-4 w ith its distin cti ve triple tail , is show nabove in a rar e photograph amid a l in e-up of D ouglasDC -3s . Th e prototype later was designated the D C-4Ewhen the sin gle ta il DC-4A w ent into production.

It wa s necessa ry to install th e tailskid p edestal assembl ybefo re loading or un load in g the C-S4 IRSD aircraft as itwas p oss ib le to get an aft cg condition while handli.nghea vy military equipment.

Wartim e C-S4 taking off at Guadalcanal in 1944 . Planesin the background include 8-24 s a Noordyn Norsemanand a Stin son L- 1.9
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Because of the war, early service of the fourengined sky giants, then the largest mass-producedtransport plane, was veiled in secrecy. But confidential reports reached Douglas from scattered points ofthe globe indicating that the C-54 was proving theArmy's faith in the aircraft was well justified .

As the war progressed, production was stepped upat the Santa Monica plant and later at a new factoryestablished in Chicago on the present site of O'HareInternational Airport.

Shattering prev ious concepts of time and distance,the C-54 and R5D proved the feasibility of global airtransportation by land-based aircraft. Skymastersmade more than 2 round-trips a day for months overthe stormy north Atlantic. They conquered sand andheat to maintain an African supply line. They flewover the treach erous hump . In the China-BurmaIndia theater of operations they carried preciousplasma and whole blood to battle-scarred Pacificatolls and returned to the United States with thewounded .

They accomplished this with an amazing record ofsafety. Figures compiled by the Army Air TransportCommand and the Naval Air Transport Serviceshowed that in making 79,642 war-time ocean crossings, only three C-54s were lost. One was a deliberate ditching and the other two were unexplained.

Because of their record of dependability , DC-4swere used to carry top Allied statesmen and militaryleaders to historic conferences which shaped thecourse of victory. They were used as personal planesby such notables as General Douglas MacArthur,General Dwight Eisenhower, General Hap Arnoldand Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

It was a C-54, with a special interior , which becameworld famous as the personal airplane of PresidentFranklin D . Roosevelt. Until it was succeeded by aDouglas DC-6 , the same plane served as the FlyingWhite House for President Harry Truman .

One of ihe most spectacular jobs the C-54 wascalled upon to do was to transport two divisions of occupation troops from Okinawa to Tokyo in ten days.Taking off at five minute intervals, 250 C-54s made1,400 flights of five hou rs du ration withou t a si nglemishap or casualty.Air Transport Command records show that betweenJanuary, 1944 and April, 1947, C-54s had flown a totalof 350,049,900 miles. No accurate records were keptbefore 1944 .

The Naval Air Transport Service had logged,68,000,000 mil es on Douglas R5Ds in four years withonly one fatal accident.10


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Pil ots coc kpit of the DC-4A. h e wheel mounted hor izo ntall y on top of the instrument panel is the rudder trimco ntrol.

The DC-4 with a single vertic l fin nd rudder instead ofth e triple tail as on th e prototype w ent int o se rvi ce withth e airlines after I duty as th e C S 4 and RSD mili-tar y transport .

During 1946, the Pacific Division of the ATC flewC-S4s the equivalent of 1,200 times around the earthwithout a single passenger fatality. Thi s perfect safetyrecord involved the transportation of nearly 110,000passengers on approximately 20,000 separate Pacificcrossings.

Converted C-S4s and new DC-4s flew over globalairways daily as commercial .airliners. Of the morethan 500 surplus C-54s sold o r leased by the government, more than 220 entered the service of scheduled domestic airlines. For example, of the 47 aircraft operated by United Airlines, only one (N10204)was a DC-4 . The others were C-54A, Band G aircraft. The so le DC-4 was a postwar civilian planeproduced by Douglas.

Recognizing the outstanding record and the assured future of DC-4 type transports, the U. S. PostOffice Department in 1946 pictured the four-enginedDouglas airliner on the five cent airmail stamp. Anu mber of foreign cou ntries have given the planesimilar recognition.

In a final analysis, the name S kymaster was amost appropriate one. And it all is owed to a tripletail giant which possibly is interred forever in a saltwater tomb near Tokyo, Japan.

NC7IIos

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b y Robert C. E l iollPART IJ SS ORV L DOCKERY . . EAA 85 45 A IC 32967 O akw ood AvenueA FLYING SILVER EAGLE (p ho tos From Th e Co ll ec tion O f /. O. D oc kery) Day tona Beach , FL 32074

Wh en a stranger vi sits with j .O. Dock ery , he is im mediate ly engul fed in So u thern hospitality , al l th ewh i l e en thral led w i th Dock 's ea sy co untry -styl ehumor .H is ' escapades', as he re fers to his flying experi ences , encompass the fath e rin g of c rop du st ingtech niq ues together with a life-time of flying , country and city living , a ho st of aviator friend s from overthe years al l brought to th e fore by a needlesharp memory, sa l ted with wit.j .O. is easy goi ng, a family man , proud fath er andstill flyi ng at ag e 7 f rom his o ld ai rport in Stuttgart ,Arkansas . The take-offs and landi ngs of his care ersince he was born on February 26 1909 have award edhim with a dedicated wife, Iren e, and two daughtersBunny Carolyn Scott and joyce DeMain e. Th e fa ctthat Bunny was M iss Arkansas in 1977 and 1978 wasfrosting on the cake.

Two Cessna Skyhawks pr.ovide the mea ns for Dockto sc hedu le sin gle and multi-engi ne checks a modes tnumb er o f charter f li ght s and o cca sion al stud enttrainin g. Though retired, he hasn 't stopp ed flying.

j .O., 1 as ked , wh en did yo u f ir st become int eres ted in avi at io n? W ell , h e dr awl ed , I w as bo rn in Texas in th eyear 1909. My fa th er was a Texas land baron. He had700 acres of th e mos t barr en land in Texas. Th en,about tlie tim e o f WWI , in 1916 and 1917 my fo lk smoved to Lawton , Ok lahoma, and of co ur se, PostField at Ft. Sill was nearby. At th e time i t was o ne ofth e few airport s in th e co untry.

Two Harley Dav idson moto rcy cle buffs in Pin e Bluff A rkansas . D oc, with pin stripe suit in fro nl age 74 andFreeland M eye rs mechani c for H arley Dav idso n . At thi sage D oc rode from Pine Bluff to Stullga rl, Arkans as to fl yWW 1 p lanes for a mechani c-ow ner . Th e pi lo l, Joe C lassbeing afraid to fl y them for tes t or de li very to th eir newown ers w as enco uraged wh en D oc vo lun teered to do so .. . and collec ted h is rightful pa y for th e opp o rtunit y.12


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"My father owned two cafes there as well as severaljitneys . . . now known as the airport limousines. Thej itney that ran to the airport passed right by myschool, so every evening when I got out of school I'dhail one of the drivers and go to Ft Sill."Well , in as much as the jitneys were running inand out so often, the guards let me pass right onthrough and I 'd get off out at the hangars. Therewere times when I'd stay the whole evening. t wasn'tlong before I was considered a mascot by some ofthe pilots."I learned about the airplanes, their parts and theworkings inside and out. Often I would be asked tocrawl back in close places when the mechanics werestringing cables, in places too small for them toreach.

' 'I 'd hate to tell you how many left handed monkeywrenches and buckets of compression I toted forthose guys, but I'd wander off to find themnone-the-Iess."

Interrupting his line of thought for a moment,asked "What were the types of planes there atthe time?"

"Oh, Jennys, Cannucks, DHs, Tommy Scouts, Barl-ing bombers, the old WWI airplanes," respondedJ.O "and as I say I learned all the parts, butthey couldn't take me up for a ride. I was just a kidand a civilian."It was pretty hard to get a ride, fact is . . . I neverdid get a ride during the time I spent helping out atFt. Sill.

"But the folks moved us all down to Corpus Christilater, and it was in 1921 that I got my first ride. Myfascination with airplanes continued, but they beingso scarce, I didn't see one often. Then, this one day,just coming out of school, I saw a plane flying overtown and I watched it till I saw it descending over thesouth side of town. I jumped on my bicycle and hurried out to have a look.

"The pilot was Barney Flowers and he said'Son, if you'll stay here and watch this airplane andkeep the cows off it, I' ll give you a ride, providingyou loan me your bicycle to ride into town.'"I said, 'that's a deal' but you know . hedidn't tell me he'd be gone three days. t got rightcold down there in south Texas at night, but I wrapped up in the motor cover and my brother was kindenough to bring me some food. Anyway . afterthree days Barney came back and he sez . 'youready to take that ride?' and I sez 'Yes sir.'"Man, I was quivering with anticipation." Barney had returned in a Model T truck with cans

Charli e Hays in light plus-fours and Doc, leaning on anOX-5 Wa co used to adverti se Fargo Foods in 79 7 Charli e was a form er WW I fighter pilot.

of gas in the rear, and tied on behind was my bike.We hid the bike in some mesquite clumps and gotaboard ."He sez 'Well, we'll run over to Alice, Texas',so he started the thing up and we took off headingfor Alice."He had dual controls in it so I fol lowed himthrough all the way. Now bear in mind, I had learneda lot about planes at Ft. Sill so I knew pretty wellwhat he was doing. We got to Alice, landed in a field,and again he asked me to watch the plane while hewent into town. He stayed a little while I'm outthere making sure the cows and people stay awayand back he came. We took off and flew down toMcAllen that gave me another hour, hour and ahalf dual time."

"By the way, if you've ever flown a Hall-Scott 4Standard cross country, you can build up a lot of timegoing practically nowhere. As a matter of fact, I'vemade the remark in later years, I watched one farmwoman throw out three dish waters before passingout of view. Another time I watched a man plow aten-acre field with a single horse turning plowand if you didn't watch yourself, you'd be going theother way, backing up."But anyway we made this tour from CorpusChristi, down to Alice, over to McAllen, then Har-

Two new short-nosed American Eagles at Meridian, Mississ ippi in February 7928 Standing at Doc s left was thePres ident of M eridian Airways who was also the localFord dealer. Do c had quit Meridian Airways before hesoloed the boss in order to be home for the birth of hisfir st daughter. The boss th en decided he d had sufficientdu a l in structionpromptly spun in. so he soloed himself one day and

M ~ j iAN


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l ingen and back into Corpus Christi . . . and wehadn't been there but a few hours when he sez'Son, I ' m gain' to ask ya another favor said . Iwant you to watch this airplane while I run up toHouston . I' m going up to get an airplane and when Iget back I' ll give you another ride.'Yes sir. I' ll be glad to do it , so I stayed thereanother couple of days.Now during that wait . my brother came outwith some of my friends and we were talking aboutthe plane and my flying with Barney. I no doubtbragged a bit about my abil i ty to fly, cause mybrother said Whyn't ya stop telli n' people thatsort of thing you cain ' t fly no airplane ""Oh-h-h yess I can too," I said If you'lljust pull that prop through for me I' ll show you ."Well, I 'd learned that you turned on the switchand hit that booster when you rocked the propand it started. I was a mite surprised because I didn ' tthink he could pull it through.But it was ticking over, so I yelled out . . . 'Comeon, get in,' . . . and he shouted 'Oh no, you fly it

lemme see you fly it first .'"Well, I thought, I'd just taxi down to the end ofthe field and taxi back claiming some mechanical

problem, which would get me off the hook. So I gotmoving down the field and with my weight, about 120pounds wringing wet and little gas I got offthe ground . and the first thing I knew I was treetop high."I made a big turn way round to the south and gotl ined up with this big pasture when it quit. Onlything in my way was a few mesquite clumps andTexas longhorns. I hung onto the stick and it landedby itself. My brother came running down and said . .. 'What's the matter?' and I said 'Alfred, I'm outof gas,' so he went and got me a couple of buckets which we put in. With that, I knew I 'd haveenough for a couple of swings over town, which Imade.

"You know , I had forgotten about how peoplewould run out to the field if there was an airplaneflyin' over, and the first thing I knew, I had three orfour hundred spectators out there waiting for me tofly some more."Along about this time Barney came in from Houston with an OX Standard and I thought . 'Whoa,he's gonna wonder wh o ' s puttin' on the air show.'So, I went over to Barney's plane and said, 'Barney, Iwant to tell you this before somebody else doesI've been flying your airplane:"He sez, 'You have?'

"He got right out of the back seat of that OX Stan-dard, got up in front turned around and sez . . . 'Giveme a ride.'"I took off with him, flew around the field and thenbegan to worry about landing , and how good itwould be but I didn't drag it, and made the mostbeautiful landing you ever saw."He unbuckled his belt, turned around in the seaton his knees and sez Who taught you to fly?' . .. I sez . . . 'You did,' he sez I did?' I sez,'Yes sir, I followed you every step from here to Alice,McAllen, Harlingen and back to Corpus Christi.'"He sez . . . 'Well you do a pretty good job .give me another ride '

"So we took off and I went around the field againand fortunately I made another good landing.

"Next day we went over to Kingsville and carriedpassengers all day, Saturday and Sunday."J.O . and I were recording a few of the early eventsin his aviation career while sitting comfortably insidethe mobi le home at Bob White's ai rport nearZellwood, Florida . We had to stop now and thenwhen a plane took off, but after things became morequiet he continued.

About 1922 after flying about a year fish spottingwith the OX Standard, near Corpus Christi over theGulf of Mexico, the folks moved back to Pine Bluff .Course, I was still in school there too, but there wereno airplanes around. This made me pretty fidgety . Iknew of one at Little Rock that Carroll Cone had. Heran for Governor and he owned a Jenny. Then, therewas a fellow in Little Rock, named H. C Alexander . .. so I hopped on my motorcycle and sped over towork up a deal to fly his airplane, but he'd hiredRolly Inman.

"During the summer vacation I went out to Oklahoma City and worked for Burl Tibbs . this wasin '23 as I recall. When I first talked with him, I toldhim I could fly, and he sez . . . 'Well, I' ll give you ajob as helper.'"What it really amounted to was being baby-sitterfor his two little girls to keep them out of the spinning props .

After maybe two weeks, I finally said 'Burl, Iwant to fly'. Ole Burl was an easy going sort of bigfella and he sez . 'Come on over here, Orval, andwe'll go fly. I've got to fly this Cannuck you cantake me for a ride.'

Well . . . after I flew him around for a while hesez y golly you really can fly, can't you?' SoBurl let me start doin' all the flight instruction . Earlier,when I'd told him I'd done this and that, ole Burl had

-t.

.--..,S {\Thr ee cronI es at Jackson i ss iss ippi inin dark suit Doc and Martin Jensen.taken it all with a grain of salt, but after I flew withhim, he became fully confident in my ability. I wasonly around fourteen years old at the time. As ayou ng kid I never did play tops or marbles I rodemotorcycles and learned about airplanes. Nothingelse interested me very much. After this surprise beginning, I spent two of my school vacations workingfor u rl."In the Spring of 1924, Alan Scott and I were downat Finklea Brothers at Leland, Mississippi. They owneda Hisso Standard which we were flying . The GeneralManager of the Delta Pine and Land Company, thelargest cotton plantation in the world . a Mr.Young . . . came by and wanted to know if we couldpour some poison on the worms that were comingout of the small grain and eating up the cotton . Theyhad twenty-four thousand acres of young cotton ,anywhere from one to two inches above the ground.

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Th e worm s were eatin g it up and th ey didn ' t want tor eplace it all with th e turnin g plows used back inthose days.Generally th eir meth od of fi ghting th e wo rm s w as

to suspend a hi cko ry po l e ov er th e bac k o f a mul e.Help ers would hang gunny sacks full of du st on th eend s and th e jostling would fl oat th e du st down on toth e worm s. Mr . Young thou ght that if we co uld pourth is po i son out of a sa ck fr o m th e plane he' d haveb e tt er cov erage, but w e t o ld him , ' th at w o uldn ' twork , it 'd go in th e pilot' s face.'

So Alan Sco tt propose d th at ' If yo u ' ll guarantee us enou gh work , we' ll pull th e front sea t out andput a gin-bell . . . or a hopp er . . . in it s pla ce.'H e agreed to a deal , so w e took th e sea t out andput in two M odel T gas tanks in th e cent er section ,cove red th em ove r with fabri c and put th e hopp erb elow with a bi g six in ch pipe go in ' out th rough th ebo ttom with a ga te slip valve you kn ow . witha shovel handl e on it. Of co ur se, li ke tw o kid s woulddo w e' d matched to see wh o' d fl y it fir st. W ell , Iw on . so I f lew it fro m Le land up to Scott wh ereth e pl antati o n headquarters was.

Th ey im m ediately put 500 poun ds o f du st in it andtold m e to go over to th e bend in th e riv er. Th erew ere 200 acres of cotton with th e worm s eating it up.W ell , I got th e Standard in th e air and after findin gth e bend in th e riv er , went down ove r th ose bi g cypr ess trees and pull ed th e shovel handl e and thatwas the last time I co uld find it. Th e prop w ash puffedth e du st ri ght up into th e co c kpit so I w as finallystanding up , tl y in g in a circl e ov er that half moonshap ed fi e ld . Wh en I got through th ere was a deepfog settling in th ere and th at ti ckled Mr . Youn g noend .

I headed back for our landing fi eld , my eyes andm outh full o f du st and spitting mud and co tt o n itseemed li k e. Ab out that time, Alan cam e up drivingth e old Mo d el T, hollerin ' . ' I' m next : and I sez' Yep , you ' r e next .' I f igured th ere was no use ex pl ainin g to him , let him find out himse lf what w as th ematter.So they put anoth er 500 poun ds of du st in th ehopp er and to ld him to go out th ere al o ng th e fronto f th e strip and put it out. H e ca me diving in , openedth e gate and pull ed up abruptly. H e wa sn' t as tall as Iw as, and couldn ' t ge t up out of th e sw irling cockpitdu st. H e co uldn ' t f ind th e hand l e eith er , so h e pulledup and dumped it from a pr ett y hi gh level. Wh en heca me down h e to ld Mr. Youn g, 'W e've go t to sealth is thing up so me way .'

Af ter som e f iguring we put in a bulkh ea d and seal edaround it whi ch improved th e op erati o n co nsid erabl y. With thi s and oth er m odifi cati o ns, w e w er eabl e to w o rk th ere over a mo nth puttin g out th atpo ison . To th e bes t of my kn owl edge th at was th ebeg innin g o f crop du stin g w ith an airplane. Now th eGo v ernm ent had run so me tes ts with sa dd l e gun shu n g ov er th e sid e . . . cranking it out. Dr . B. R.Coa d at Talul ah was in charge of th e ir so-ca ll ed experim ental stati on and pes t co nt ro l. He had a coup l eof Army DH s with nets th at hung betw een th e wings.He'd f ly ar ound th e country sid e and scoop up th ebu gs in th ese nets for hi s labo rato ry experiments.I' ll never fo rge t . . . h e had Sergeant's An ge l andMi tchell fl yin g th ose DH s. W e found out th at HenryElli o tt and Doug Culv er had bought th e manu facturin g right s and jigs to build th e o ld Huff-Puffe rs. Th eyhad start ed du stin g ove r in Ge orgia, but th ey rea lizedin th e Sum m er of 1924 th at th ose p ea patch sizedf ie ld s were no pl aces fo r airplanes . so th ey movedto M o nroe, Lo ui5iana th at fall. Th ey set up a bu sin essin an o ld WWI ca moufl aged tent hanga r . By 1925 th eyw ere ready to du st , but th ey we re br o ke. The fa rm erswo uldn ' t let th em was te th eir po iso n fl yin ' aroundand dumpin g it.So a f e ll ow ca m e al o ng and pr o mo ted a newco mp any. He go t so me bank ers some g inners som echemi ca l co mp ani es and start ed by takin g in H enr y El-li o tt and Doug Culv er . Henry and Doug go t sto ck in

the new co mp any fo r th eir air p lanes and equi p ment ,besides ge ttin g a year-round job . That was th e beginnin g o f De lt a Air Co rp o rati o n . Th ey di d thei r fir stcrop du stin g in th e Sprin g of 1926 and were th e onl yco mp any exclu sively equipp ed for crop du sting. Th enin 1928 th ey start ed th eir f ir st airline w ith J6-9 Trave lA ir s f lyin g fr o m M onr oe to Dallas and Atlanta. M onroe was headqu arters. Later th ey go t a few Tri -mo to rStin son 'T' s and th ey also had o ne o r tw o Stin so nlow -wi n g 'A 's with re tr ac tab le gea r . O nl y a sh o rtwhil e later th ey add ed several ten-twelve pl ace Lockh eed Elec tras. Later o f co ur se , th ey gradu ated to th eDC-2's , DC-3's and have g row n to th e renown ed airlin e of today.Doc and I th ought it tim e for a br ea k in th e tapingsess ion , so w e visited fo r a whil e with two croni es ofhi s, Cle m W hittenbec k and O lin ' Papp y' Lo ngcoy. O nth is day a num be r of members of th e Fl orid a Spo rtAv i ati o n A nt i qu e and Class i c Associa ti o n w e regath ered fo r a fri endl y fly-in p icni c.

Wh en he had hi s second win d, J.O . co ntinued hi sre miniscences.

}. O. ockery with foo t on lower wing of OX-5 Eaglerockwith wife Irene lea nin g on lowe r wing.

I had a forced landing with an OX-Swallow about It didn ' t make any difference, be cause he took So he said 'Well , it's not goin ' to stick any-


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1926. The engine iced up . well that is , Ithought it iced up it was quittin '. When I landedin a corn fi e ld . . . it was too little to land i n, I fell in

The ole boy who was with me , Rowe Soward, theAssistant Manager of the Long Bell Lumber Co ., ofPine Bluff, immediately started ge ttin g chills andfever . I did too, but it didn't show.

The funny part was . he was so sick , we puthim on a train for the trip back home. I went back tothe plane and found I had a troublesome magneto,so after getting that fixed, we had to pull the planeover to th e road and up a hill to a field . I took offdown the hill, round the curve, up through somepine trees and came on out. I then landed at SmootField at Monroe and got some gas from Henry andwent back to Pine Bluff. I got there in time to meetthe train , got Rowe Soward off the train with his chilland fever and took him home.Back in those days, there was no such thing as asteady job in aviation. You had to create on e. Sonaturally, we had created the crop dusting, but thatonly lasted about sixty days out of the year. We 'ddust for boll weevils and worms but the farmers justhadn't taken to it yet . the dustin' . theycouldn ' t feature anyone flying around dumping outtheir poison and having such methods be effective.Of course, we were getting ten cents a pou nd or aminimum of two dollars an acre for doin ' it. But wecouldn ' t rig our planes for just dustin ' and have themidle the rest of the year . We ' d clean them up forbarnstorming , air shows and passenger rides, pickingup what money we could .You know, back in 1927 they came out with thefirst rules and regulations . called themselves theDepartment of Commerce, Aeronautics Branchand they gave me a license to fly. None of us believed that it would stick who was gonna enforcerules in the air? Shorty Cramer was the first inspector.He came out to Houston and gave Benny Howard,Frank Hawks , Bert Pitco, Bert Eison , Bozo Moore andmyself our lic enses.Like I said . Shorty Cramer was the first inspector in the field. He had Letters of Authority numberedfrom 101 to 200. Eleven of us took our transportexamination after which he issued numbers 190 to200. When we learned he had numbers 101 to 200,the first to be iss ued to any pilots except governmentpilots we asked if he would issue us numbersfrom 101 up. But no he wouldn ' t do that becausehe wanted tho se in his portfolio so that aft er takingthem off th e top , he could tell right off how many hehad left.16

mine back anyway. Later, I found my first numberwas re-is su ed the next week to Bill Berry inShreveport , Loui s iana . All the in sp ectors , onehundred of them , had gone into the field with onehundred numbers , so you understand why not manywere issued in numerical order .A short tim e later an incident occurred relating tomy former comm ent that Shorty took my li cense backanyway.

Shorty had to make a flight to Houston, San Antonio, Wa co and back, and when he was landing atHouston , I was right behind flying a Super LeRhoneStandard . He was flyin ' this ole J-4 Stinson biplane ,the first airplane I ever saw with brakes . Soon as Ihad my plan e shut down , I got out and walked overto talk with him and asked . 'Shorty , how youdoin '?'

He said . ' Doc , I'm fine, but what're you doin'flyin' that unli censed airplane? '

Right off, I said 'Well , I'm a married man andI 've gotta make a livin ' , an this is the only job I canfind around here .'He sez 'Why you're a licensed pilot and that'san unlicensed airplane and you ' re subject to a yearand a day in the Federal pen and a thousand dollarsfi ne or both .'I countered Now wait just a minute,' andI reached into my pocket and pulled out the Letter ofAuthority and said . 'You know what you can dowith this piece of paper don ' t you? ' and I gave itback to him and went on flyin ' that Super LeRhoneStandard which had an old rotary engine converted toa stationary engine .I wo n ' t tell you what we called those engines inthose days because each time we'd start on e of 'em,we'd have to fill a suction gun full of castor oil andsquirt it into the hollow crankshaft and hope to Godit'd hit on all cylinders when we got off the ground.In thirty days of flyin ' those Super LeRhone StandardsI had fou rteen forced landings.

At that time I was flyin ' for J C Tipps and Co .,and I told 'em that I thought I was gonna qu it. Cap-tain Tipps didn ' t know why I wanted to quit , andasked me why to which I said . . . ' I don ' t thinkI ' m gonna liv e long enough to spend another thirtydays at this sort of thing,' . so I quit and went towork for Captain V. C and Phoebe Omlie at Memphis, Tennessee.First thing Captain Verne did was ask if I had alicense. I said . 'Well-I-I . . . I had on e,' . . . andthen told him th e story .

way.I went ahead and flew for him . He had a coupleole OX and Hisso Standards, but he also had a brandnew Waco 7, fully licensed. I'd been ther e about twoweeks wh en some guy came out and wanted to fly toLou isville , Kentucky .

Verne sez . ' D()c, you'd better take the Waco ,you wo n ' t get up t h r ~ in those Standards.'So I took the man to Louisville, let him out andcame back to Memphis, landed and two men walkedout from th e hangar. They introduced themselves asMr. Sandy Willets and Mr. Bettenger . and thenrequested my li cen se.I told th em the story and then heard . 'Mr.Dockery, you 're subject to a year and a day in theFederal pen and a thousand dollars fine or both .You ' re flying a licensed airplane and you ' re an unlicensed pilot but they continued . 'We ' re notgonna press thi s pilot violation, we want you to takethe flight examination over again .'

Well . . . as I told you, each inspector went intothe field with a hundred Letters of Authority . For in stance . . . Sandy Willets . . . I found out later .had numbers 401 to 500 and Mr. Bettenger had numbers 2401 to 2500.

He gave me the examination over again and is-sued me number 2418 , and that ' s the one I have today, becaus e by that time , I figured the rules weregoin ' to stick.

Doc and I had to take a break for a minute while Ichanged tape in my tape recorder and during thesemoments he mentioned that also during 1927 he waschief test pilot for Clyde Cessna for a while .Editor s Note Robert Elliott's story about J O. Dockery will be concluded in the August issu e of TheVIN TAC E ARP AN EIrene Doc kery lea ns aga in st short nosed OX A meri canEagle No ti ce the beautiful burnished co wling and wh eelcovers


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- '

In the mid-thirt ies the Cunningham-Hall AircraftCorporation of Rochester, New York designed andbuilt a good looking low-wing aircraft which provedto be far ahead of its time . Designed by Randolph F.Hall it was to have both high and low speed capability.The GA- 36 built in 1935 was the outgrowth of previous designs . It was powered by a Warner SuperScarab engine and had full span flaps plus other highlift devices on the wing.

It was flown by several pilots who all spoke well ofthe craft. The GA-36 was fully aerobatic and had excellent slow speed flight ability. Apparently it wasoverbuilt and overweight, however , and did not farewell when its climb and top speed was comparedwith the performance of other 2 place planes of theday. It could have made good use of a controllablepitch propeller but one was never fitted.

The project was not continued and when theCunningham-Hall Aircraft Corporation failed to bidsuccessfully on government plane contracts, theymanufactured aircraft parts and gun mounts duringVVW II.

In the meantime , the GA-36 sat in a hangar at theRochester, New York Airport until 1941 when theMeyers Aircraft Company in Tecumseh , Michiganpurchased the plane for its engine .Among the pilots who were flying at the RochesterAirport at the time was a you ng man named Robert E.Kesel . Bob greatly admired the GA- 36 and he and hisfriends considered it to be the absolute epitome of asport plane .

TH CUNNINGHAM-HALLGA-36

by Gene Chase

Ph oto Courtesy of Bob Kesel)Th e 1935 Cunningham-Hall GA3 6 was ra cy lookingmachin e. Som e of the STOL devices on th e wing are vi sible in this photo Company tes t pilot Otto Enderton is atth e controls.

Bob is now an active member of Antique /ClassicChapter 6 of Rochester and through the years hadnever forgotten the plane . On June 28, 1978, quite bychance, Bob and some of his friends learned that theGA-36 still existed and was located at the Tecumseh,Michigan Airport where AI Meyers, of Meyers Aircraft, had removed the engine some 37 years previously.The aircraft was obtained along with a complete setof factory drawings and now is the restoration projectof Antique/Classic Chapter 6. This group is activelymaking the airplane airworthy and they are in need ofdonations. A major item needed is the Warner engine , either 145 or 165 hp. They have located two forsale, but the prices are beyond the group's means .

For donation purposes the group has formed anon-profit corporation called the GA-36 Association,Inc. The purpose of the restoration is to insure thatRochester regains its proper place in the history ofaviation during the days when real pioneering workwas being done .Bob Kesel and other Chapter 6 members will bepromoting their project at Oshkosh '80 by manningbooth number 7 in the North Exhibit Building. Theywill display photos of the original plane as well as thecurrent restoration. They will also have scale modelsof the GA-36 on display, and kits for sale for building1/24 scale paper models of this beautiful aircraft.For those interested in more details of the GA-36,the Summer , 1971 Journal of the American AviationHistorical Society contains a story of theCunningham-Hall Aircraft Corporation by Randolph F.Hall, who was vice president and chief engineer ofthe company.

Ph oto by R Strau )Th e GA -36 as it lay in th e weeds for man y yea rs at theTecum seh Michiga n Airport

7


18/28

In the Summer of 1969 I heard that there were twoplanes for sale at the airport in Beaumont, Texas.One was a )-3 Cub and the other was a Taylorcraft,both in need of rebuilding . I fell in love with theT-craft when I saw the round control wheel and bigtachometer . The owner wanted 1 ,200.00 for the Cuband 500.00 for the T-craft. While checking over thelogs I fou nd that the latter had only 442 total hou rson the engine and airframe . Also , it hadn t beenflown since 1965. Thi s Taylorcraft, a BL-65 was manufactured on February 10, 1940, and powered by aLycoming 0-145-B2 of 65 hp .

At the time I owned a Volkswagen Van, whichmade an ideal platform for carrying wings safely. Myfamily and I loaded other parts inside the van. By removing the tail wh ee l and using a big bolt throughthe tail spring and the trailer hitch on the bumper,the fuselage towed nicely. This caravan attracted a lotof attention.

We stored the T-craft behind my garage as I was inthe process of covering a Piper Colt. I am an Airframeand Powerplant mechanic and hold an I.A . rating .Since 1967 I have reb uilt and covered 30 planes and88 Stearman wings. The oldest plane I have workedon was a 1935 German Focke Wolfe 44 Biplan e. Iwork on planes as a hobby. My main job for the past25 years has been with BF Goodrich Chemicals in PortNeches , Texas .I received my aviation training in the U. S. Navy. Iattended Aviation Structural Mechani c School atMemphis, Tennessee. My duties included working onall parts of an airplane, except the engine, electricalsystem, and radios. My first duty assignment was withthe Blue Angels, from April, 1952 to February , 1954.Besides doing airframe work I was squadron painter.I n February of 1954 I was tran sfe rr ed to Fighte rSquadron VF-111 at the Naval Air Station in Miramar,California. I served four month s with them. Th e rest

M

of my time in the Navy was spent with Fleet Air Service Squadron Twelv e at Miramar. I was Petty Officerin charge of the aircraft paint shop.

While in the Navy I painted at least one of the following types of aircraft; Grumman Panther , Cougar ,Bearcat, McDonnell Banshee, Phantom, Beech 18,and finally a Grumman TBF Avenger. I really enjoyedthe chance to work on the military aircraft, but myfirst lov e is the old fabric planes.As the years went by I worked on my T-craft as wellas seve ral planes. The fuselage needed to besandblasted . Some nut painted the wing spars withzinc chromate and thi s had to be stripped off. As thefuel tank had some lea ks I sloshed the tank withsloshing compound. I replaced th e following items:co ntrol cab le s, shock cords, windshield, windows,sea ts , seat belts, and prop. The wings and tail sur faces were covered with Grade A co tton . Th e covermaterial came with the ship. The fuselage was cov

.. . .

RE IRTH F Ay Bob Moore E 7737 6, Ale 3808 976 South 72 Street Nederland TX 776 7

18


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ered with Stits dacron. Th e first tim e I painted th eplane it end ed up white with blu e and go ld trim , andw ith bi g numbers o n th e wings. I didn ' t li ke thi s so Ir e painted it o range /yell ow with whit e trim and bl ackpin stripin g.

I m ajo red th e eng in e and eve rything w e n t bac kstandard . Th e bi gges t pr ob lem w ith th e eng in e jobw as th e pr i ce I had to pay fo r part s. Th e o nl y p lace Ico uld f ind any parts was in O klahoma. Th e rod b earings cos t $99.00 in 1975.Th e T craft f in all y f lew in 1976, af ter eleve n yea rs ofb eing grounded . Th e fir st f light was un eventful butyet a rea l thrill fo r me. Af ter about four h our s f lyin gtim e th e eng in e quit o n takeoff w hen I was ab out 100fee t up . Th e run way here is ove r 5,000 fee t lo ng so Iw as abl e to land safe ly . Boy, did it ge t qu i et - I couldh ear my h eart p oundin g Thi s w as my fi r st fo rce dlandin g. Th e fu el line w as p lugge d w ith th e sloshi ngcomp oun d w hi ch was sh eddi n g fro m th e sid es of th e

fu el tank . Needl ess to say I purchased a new tank . Ih ad to d isasse mbl e th e fr o nt of th e pl ane to installth e new tank .

In th e m ea ntime, I h ad starte d wo rk o n a Stea rmanand th ere w as n 't mu ch tim e to fl y my p lane. Th e newtank b egan to leak aroun d th e fittin g on th e bo tt o mwhi ch I had install ed usin g tef lo n tape . It see ms th atthi s tap e all ows yo u to over ti ght en th e fitting wi th outyou be in g aw are of it. Later , so meo ne to re th e fabri co n b o th win gs by dr agg in g ano th er p lane ove r it.Th e Taylo rcraf t th en sa t fo r 26 month s w hi l e I mad ea Stea rm an ou t of thr ee. Nex t I recove red a Citab ri a,a PA 11 and a 7EC Champ .It was n ' t until Ap ril of 1979 th at I f in ally go t bac k tomy ow n p lane. As th e eng in e had to co me off aga into repair th e leak in g tank , and th e fabr ic o n th e w in gshad to be re pl ace d , w e bro ught th e pl ane h o me .W hil e th e eng in e was off we in stall ed br ake pedalso n th e ri ght sid e of th e pl ane. Th ese we re d es igned

and w elded up by Tomm y Fo nt eno t, th e Pres id ent ofEAA Chapt er 223. Tomm y is building a So nerai Two,and does some of th e bes t we ld ing I have seen . I go ta o ne tim e app rova l from th e FAA o n thi s install ati o n .The main reason we in stalled th e new bra ke syste m isth at m y so ns w ant to l ea rn t o f ly. Al so, To mm yneeded so me tai ld ragge r tim e.N ex t I recovered th e w in gs and tail surfaces w ithSti t s dacro n . Th e p lane is n ow pa in te d wi th Sti t sAero th ane in tern ati o nal o range wi th whit e trim andb lack pin stri ping. I in stall ed an air dr ive n ge neratorand a G enave rad io , and w heel pa nt s.I w eigh 225 Ib s., and th e T craf t w ill do 90 -95 mphwith me alo ne. The engin e burn s 34 gall o ns of gas anhour. It ' s a lo t of fun to f ly and cheap eve n at today spr i ces.

RCR FT YLPhotos b y Wyne re

9


20/28

These early ('28) overhead valve engines differed covered 920 miles in nine hours and 18 minutes at 38mpg.


21/28

from later production engines in several ways. Themounting flange for the engine consisted of a roundmachined pilot fitting into the engine bracket on theplane. The engine was held together with six thrubolts, and the cylinder and head were cast as one,with spark plugs on the sides and the exhaust protruding out the front of the cylinder.A Holland Sentinel clipping of june, 1928 notes,The company's airplane motor set a record when it

Phil Mi chmerhuizen and his Szekely eng in e.

By the Fall of 1928 Szekely was producing smallplanes at the 12th Street factory overlooking BlackLake. The aircraft called the Flying Dutchman wasof tubular welded steel and the cantilever style wingwas of wood construction. Both were fabric covered.Wing span was 26' length was 18'. Test pilots flyingthe plane were familiar sights as they zoomed in theskies over Holland, waving to persons on the ground.One of the Sentinel clippings stated that one of thefirst Holland-made planes, carrying the name of Flying Dutchman flew to California under the directionof james R Williams , manager of the company,where it was exhibited.

Apparently only one or two airplanes were actuallybuilt, and these may have been other airplanes withSzekely engines. The FAA files do not record a Flying Dutchman airplane and I assume it was nevercertified.

Liedtke, who was superintendent of the local plant,remembers Szekely as a fine man . We used to go along time without wages but we liked him and weworked for many weeks and finally he paid us ourwages, said Liedtke .

Lohmann, on the other hand, became disenchantedwith Szekely and in the Fall of 1928 left the firm. Henow lives in Florida in retirement.

Szekely's decision to build a five-cylinder radialengine was a big mistake, wrote Lohmann in 1972.The required tests with the government ate up lots

of money.Production of planes, engines and piston rings increased and an addition to the 12th Street plant wasstart ed in February, 1928. The story-and-a-half addi

t ion with arched roof to the west of the existingbuilding allowed for the fuselage department on theground floor and the wing department in the balcony. A sales brochure stated that by july, 1929, withthe new addition in operation, the plant was producing 24 planes a week and 72 complete engines.

In june, 1929, Szekely Aircraft & Engine Corporation dedicated its own airfield north of Holland along136th Avenue, boasting two 2,200 foot runways andtwo ,500 foot ru nways.Sales offices were opened in San Francisco, KansasCity and New York to meet the expected demand ofthe private aircraft industry.

Within months the stock market collapsed and thegreat depression set in. In july, 1930 Szekely attempted to quiet rumors of financial ruin, but declined tooffer any details. At that time the plant listed 150employees.

The Zeke making sw eet music. usher prop s blowing oiland grease away rom th e op eratorSzekely travel ed to Eu rope, retu rni ng in janu ary,

1931 to assure local people his aircraft plant wouldremain in Holland. He also made plans to go to Indianapolis to confer with parties interested in affil iating with Szekely.

The Vice President of the Szekely Company, jackWhitaker, went to New York, Detroit, and the Cleve-land National Air Races in 1931 to promote the enginesand planes. But the company did not prosper and onMay 10, 1932, Szekely Aircraft & Engine Companyfiled voluntary bankruptcy in Federal court at GrandRapids, Michigan. Liabilit ies were placed at$129,859.24 with assets of $136,784.60. The liabilitiesincluded $1,868.45 in unpaid taxes and $6,396.63 inunpaid wages.

Szekely moved his family to Elmira, New York andthen to Philadelphia where he became connectedwith the Navy. In 1950 he operated a factory in Commerce, Georgia which produced secret items for theNavy. Later Szekely moved to Florida where he died afew years ago.

It is interesting to note the various engines thecompany hoped to produce.

jane's All the World's Aircraft of 1929 lists threeSzekely engines, the three-cylinder at 40 hp; a five-cylinder at 70 hp; and a seven-cylinder at 100 hp.One year later, jane's All the World's Aircraft of1930 again listed three engines, a two-cylinder at 22.5hp; a three-cylinder at 40 hp and a five-cylinder at 70hp. The seven-cylinder engine was not mentioned .

2

AIRCRAFT POWERED WITH SZEKELY ENGINESRef: U. S. Civil Aircraft" by Joseph Juptner - Vol. 3,4, 5

Chet Miller was good enough to make an aluminumcap and gave me the thrust bearing number I needed
http:///reader/full/129,859.24http:///reader/full/136,784.60http:///reader/full/1,868.45http:///reader/full/6,396.63http:///reader/full/129,859.24http:///reader/full/136,784.60http:///reader/full/1,868.45http:///reader/full/6,396.63


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A.T.C.Aircraft No.American Eagle "Eaglet" 380Curtiss Wright " Junior " 397Buhl " Bull Pup " LA-1 405Rearwin " Junior" 3000 434Alexander "Flyabout" D2 449American Eagle Lincoln "Eaglet" B-31 450Rearwin " Junior 3100" 481Taylor " Cub" H-2 572

The 1932 "Aircraft Yearbook" shows front and sideviews of the 3-35, 3-45 and 3-55 series of Szekely engines. It can be seen from these views that the 55 hphas the valves and rockers enclosed in aluminumcovers cast with the head.I doubt that the two-cylinder or seven-cylinder versions were ever built; and after talking with men whoworked at the Szekely plant it appears that only fiveor six of the five-cylinder engines were built and testrun, trying for certification .Besides, the above mentioned engines , all of whichused overhead valves, the company was supposed tohave built both three and five-cylinder L-head engines. I have never seen the L-head version but 80American Eagle "Eaglet" airplanes A.T.e. No. 380used th e SR-3L-30.It is difficult to come up with exact production figures for Szekely engines . One reference source is"U. S. Civil Aircraft" by Joseph Juptner, Volumes 3, 4,and 5. Assuming that all of the following aircraft weredelivered with Szekelys installed 645-plus engines canbe accounted for in the chart above.I know that some engines went overseas to powerlight planes in Europe. Other en& nes were used onprototype airplanes such as the first Funk and thetwin-engined Fuller-Hammond. Both aircraft werepowered with 45 hp Szekelys.

In my search for a Szekely engine, I spent aboutthree and a half years of writing post cards and making long distance phone calls chasing down rumorsand leads, only to find out I was anywhere from acouple of days to five years too late.

Then one day I received a post card from someonewho heard of my search for an old airplane engine.He wrote that about five years ago he had heard arumor in upper Michigan of a three-cylinder and aseven-cylinder engine in a shed. I called fellows in

ProductionEngine RunSR-3L-30 80SR-3-0 (45 hpj 270

Szekely 45 100+Szekely 45 17SR-3-0 45 hpj 14Szekely 45 3Szekely 50Szekely SR-3-50 149Holland who go fishing up north and they gave methe name of a man who worked up there. I calledhim and he didn't know who would have one, but hewould check around.About a week later I received a call from a JimHammel. " I hear you are looking for an old threecylinder 'Holland' engine. Well, there's one in theshop that hasn't run for seventeen years. Yeh, I guessI'd sell it, don't know what I'd do with it, had it on asnow sled.

Three days later my wife and I started out for upperMichigan . We found Jim 's place, waited for him tocome home from work, then trudged through kneedeep snow to the shed. Sure 'nuff, there was a"Zeke" It turned over, looked fair, had no carburetor or data plate but we agreed on a price thencarried the little engine to the truck Oh yes, I checked- there were no airplanes around, or the sevencylinder engine rumored to be there tooBack home, because I had run ads in the Sentineland over the radio requesting Szekely information Ithought I would stop by and show my friends withthe news media what I had found. Later, when an article came out in the newspaper, one former factoryemployee, Ed Scholten , had to see that engine thevery next morning. He told stories of working in thenew plant in March with no glass panes installed inthe open windows.

John Emmons, a good fr iend and experiencedmechanic (though not on Szekelys) and I were successful in getting the engine apart without breakinganything. We found the engine to be in surprisinglygood condition internally. The cylinders had only .005taper, and the rings had very little wear. We had thecylinders honed and magnafluxed along with thecrankshaft and rods. I made new gaskets. Gene Morris sent a valve stem end and valve retainer clips foruse as patterns and Carl Kallunsrud made six more .

for the oil pump assembly. I also had three newexhaust valves made.

Then another exciting trip took place. In October,1978, I was paging through Trade-A-Plane and noticeda " Zeke" to be auctioned off on the following Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. Friday evening after work weheaded for Columbus, arr iving at a motel at 2:30A.M. I was up at 7: 00 A.M. and one of the first at theauction. By 12: 30 P.M. the engine was mine andanother "Zeke" was on its way back to Holland.

This 45 hp engine had a data plate, 3/8"cablearound the jugs; and other needed parts, including acarburetor, carb spacer, oil lines and oil tank. I doubtif the engine mount was "aircraft" as it was built ofangle iron and tubing; the splintered Sensenich propwas from an American Eaglet, B-31 and was nailed together at one tipI had the recently acquired carburetor and magsoverhauled , then built a test stand for the engine. Atlast John and I were ready to assemble the first"Zeke". As this engine had been used on a snow sledup North, it had really been abused when comparedwith aircraft standards . John had to solve many littleproblems as he went. The previous owner had usedan old tractor carburetor and had stripped several ofthe mounting holes. Then, as we were priming the oilpump before starling the engine, oil was running o.utof the front of the crank. I know that many old radialengines slobber oil, but this was too much. Sureenough, someone had used a wheel puller and haddriven the welsh plug right into the crank. If anyonecan fix it, I thought, John can, and three hours laterwe were ready once again, to try to make the "Zeke"run.I wish I could say that it started on the second orthird pull. The truth is, we worked with it about anhour on a Friday night, a couple of hours on Saturdaymorning, and finally on Saturday afternoon John andI were all smiles - the little "Zeke" was running. It 's agood thing the engine had a pusher prop or John andI would have been covered with grease and oil. Suddenly we didn't notice our sore arms, with that sweetsound coming from all three cylinders. And best ofall , despite the rumors about Szekelys, the enginedidn't even throw a jug.Now I'm looking for a plane on which to mount theSzeke ly, such as a Curtiss Wright Junior or an Alexander Flyabout - or even a Fuller-Hammond I dohave two e n g i n e ~ remember Up to now I don't havea single hour flying behind a Szekely, but I hope toremedy that situation.

22

tact: Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), P.O. Box 229, HalesCo rners , WI 53130. Telephone: 414/425-4860. SEPTEMBER 19-21 - VINCENTOWN, NEW JERSEY - lAC Con test Sponsored by lAC Chapter 94 for the Sportsman and Int ermediate


23/28

CALENDARO EVENTS

JULY 3-6 - BOWLING GREEN, OH IO - Ercoupe Owners Club National Fly-In,Wood Co unty Airport .Forfurther information, pleasecontact: Carl Hall, Bowling Green State University, School of Art ,Division of Design , Bowling Green , OH 43403. Telephon e: 4191372-2640.JULY4-6 - ALLIANCE , OHIO - 1980Tay lor craft Reunion , sponsoredby th e Taylorcraft Owners Club at Barber's Field. For further information, please contact: Allan Zollitsch, 37 Taft Avenu e, Lancaster, NY 14086. Telephone: 716/681-1675.JULY4-6 - COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA - lAC Contest - Sponsoredby lA C Chapter 80 for the Sportsman and Unlimited ca tegories.For further information , pleaseco ntact: Earl Sanford , 5416 PacificStreet , Omaha ,NE 68106.JULY 4-6 - HUNTS VI LLE, ALABAMA - lAC Contest - Sponsoredby lAC Chapter 44 for th e Sportsman ca tegory only. For furtherinformation , pl ease co ntact : Robert Austin, 701 Fagan SpringsDrive, Huntsville, AL35801. Telephone: 205/534-8146.JULY 4-6 - GA lNESVI LLE, GEORGIA - 13t h Annual " Cracker" FlyIn. AAA North Georgia Chapter. For further information , pleaseco ntact : Jim Clarkson ,1649Avon Avenue , Tucker ,GA30084.JULY 11--13 - ACME, ALBERTA, CANADA - EAAC National Co nvention . Contact G. W. Le May , 5003 Bulyea Rd., NW , Calgary , Alberta T2L 2H7or T. Fitzgerald,33 11 Ca ribou ,Alberta T2L OS4.

JULY11-13- OWOSSO, MICHIGAN - lAC Contest - Sponsored bylA C Chapter 88 for the Sportsman and Unlimited categories. Forfurther information, please contact: David E. M cKenzi e, 21141H. C. L. Jackson, Grosse IIle, MI 48138 . Telephone: 313/671-1837.JULY 12 - TECUMSEH,MICHIGAN - M eye rs OTW Reunion - Backto Factory. For further information , pl ease contact: Dick Martin ,Rt. 3, Aerodrom e Road, Green Bay, WI 54301 or Har o ld Losser,41 5 Eighth StreetPla ce, Des Moines, IA50313.JULY 13 - EASTON, PENNSYLVANIA - 4th Annual Aeronca Fly-In,EastonAirport. For further in formation,pleasecontact: JimPolles,2151759-3713 nights and weekends.JULY17-20- OnOWA , KANSAS- lAC Contest - Sponsored by lACChapter 15for theSportsman and Unlimited ca tegories.For furtherinformation , ple ase co ntact: Patricia G. Brown , 10614 West 108Terrace, Overland Park ,KS 66210. Telephone : 9 3 /492-7581.JULY 18-20 - MIDDLEFIE LD, OHIO - lAC Contest - Sponsored bylA C Chapter 34 for the Sportsman and Unlimited categories. Forfurther information, please contact: John T. Meyers, 9089 SkylaneDrive , Wad sworth ,OH 44281. Telephone: 2161336-7479.JULY 18-20- MINDEN , NEBRASKA - The National Stinson ClubFourth Annual Fly -In will be held at Pioneer Field. For further information, please contact: Bob Near , 2702 Butterfoot Lane, Hastings,NE 68901 .Telep hone: 402/463-9309.JULY19-20- LEWISTOWN, MONTANA - 3rd Annual Montana Chapter AAA Fly-In at BeaconStarAntique Airfield. For further information , please contact: Frank Bass, Star Route, Moore, MT 59464.Telephone: 406/538-7616.

AUGUST 1 - HARVARD , ILLINOIS - Vintage Ultralight Fly-In atDacy Airport. 1941 or ea rli er , 60 hp or less. To conclude with agroup flight to Oshkosh on August 3. For further information,please contact : Richard C. Hill , P. O. Box 89, Harvard , IL 60033.

AUGUST 2-9 - OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN - 28th Annual EAA Convention and Sport Aviation Exhibition - the world's largest andmost exciting aviation event.For further information, please con

AUGUST 10-16- FOND DU LAC, WISCONSIN - The Int ernationalAerobatic Club's annua l aerobatic competition. Biggest field anywhere for an aerobatic contest plus greatest variety of aerobaticaircraft. For further information , please contact: Herb Cox , Contest Chairman, 812 Taylor Avenue, Mt. Vernon , IL62864.

AUGUST 10-16 - MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - 12th Annual Co nvention of the Int ernational Cessna 170 Association at GeneralMitchell Field. For further information, please con ta ct: RichardTomasello, 1333 Wagner Drive, I Cajon, CA92020.AUGUST 17-30 - OSHKOSH , WISCONSIN - World Aerobatics '80.For th e first tim e ever, the U. S. will host the World 's AerobaticChampionships. Fourteen countries will participate. Don ' t missthis historic event. For further information ,pleaseconta ct: WorldAerobatics '80,P.O. Box229, HalesCorners, WI 53130. Telephone:414/425-4860.AUGUST 22-24 - COFFEYV ILLE , KANSAS - Funk Fly-In. For furtherinformation, please contact: Ray Pahls, 454 South Summitlawn ,Wichita, KS 67209, or G. Dale Beach , 1621 Dreher Street , Sacramento , CA 95814 .AUGUST24 - WEEDSPORT, NEW YORK - Fly-In sponsored by EAAChapter 486 at Whitfords Airport Field. Airport closed from 1:00p.m. to 5:00 p.m. for air show. For further information, pleasecontact: Herb Livingston, 1257 Gallager Road, Baldwinsville, NY13027.AUGUST30 to SEPTEMBER 1- CALHOUN COUNTY , TEXAS - PortLavaca-Calhoun County Chamber of Com mer ce sponsors an airshow at Calhoun County Airport. For further information , pleaseco ntact:Preston Van Hanken ,Port Lavaca Chamber of Commerce ,P. O. Box 528, Port Lavaca,TX 77979. Telephone: 512/552-2959.SEPTEMBER 5-7 - MARION, OHIO - 15th Annual Mid-EasternRegional EAA Fly-In at Marion MuniCipal Airport. For furthe

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Vintage Airplane - Jul 1980

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