Vintage Airplane Vol.40 No.02 (2012-02)

FEBRUARY 2012

Vintage F

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Remember, Were Better Together!

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2 Straight and Level by Geoff Robison

3 News

5 Great-Granddads Airplane Eric Rearwin: When personal and aviation histories cross by Budd Davisson

13 The Liberating Sky Pioneering black pilots broke barriers and climbed to new heights, Part 2 by Philip Handleman

20 Light Plane Heritage Twelve Thousand Miles in an Avro Avian, Part 2 by Bob Whittier

26 The Vintage Mechanic Monocoque Structures by Robert G. Lock

30 The Vintage Instructor Some things you learn after getting your certifi cate by Steve Krog, CFI

32 Mystery Plane by H.G. Frautschy

34 Antiques Over the Chesapeake by Roger Thiel

36 From the EAA Archives Steve Wittman and the Standard J-1: A barnstormerss biplane earns its keep by H.G. Frautschy

37 Don Winslow of the Navy by Bob OHara and H.G. Frautschy

39 Classifi eds

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 1

A I R P L A N E F E B R U A R YC O N T E N T S

S T A F FEAA Publisher Rod HightowerDirector of EAA Publications J. Mac McClellanExecutive Director/Editor H.G. FrautschyBusiness Manager Kathleen WitmanCopy Editor Colleen Walsh

Publication Advertising:Manager/Domestic, Sue AndersonTel: 920-426-6127 Email: [email protected]: 920-426-4828

Senior Business Relations Mgr, Trevor JanzTel: 920-426-6809 Email: [email protected]

Manager/European-Asian, Willi TackePhone: +49(0)1716980871 Email: willi@fl ying-pages.comFax: +49(0)8841 / 496012

Classifi ed Advertising Coordinator, Jo Ann Cody SimonsTel: 920-426-6169 Email: [email protected]

C O V E R S

Vol. 40, No. 2 2012

FRONT COVER: The Rear win Speedster , one of aviations most r ecognizable airplanes, a fact made even mor e remarkable when you nd out just how few wer e made. Eric Rear win, great-grandson of Rae Rear win, the founder of the rm, teamed up with awar d-winning restorer Tim Talen to tur n out this exceptional example of this rar e Rear win. EAA photo by Steve Cukierski. Read all about it in Budd Davissons ar ticle beginning on page 5.

BACK COVER: One of aviations legends, Steve Wittman (left) poses with an Atwater Kent radio perched on the horizontal tail of his Standar d J-1, which was used, in this case, to adver-tise the high-end radio brand for a wester n Wisconsin dealer . For mor e on the photo, tur n to the article on page 36.

5

For missing or replacement magazines, orany other membership-related questions, please call EAA Member Services at 800- JOIN-EAA (564-6322).

13


With the fl ying season and the holidays well behind us now, I find myself in Oshkosh helping to ac-complish more restoration work on the Harold Neumann Monocoupe project. It is currently in the VAA hangar in Oshkosh. We were able to make some real progress on the fu-selage last summer; we installed the 90AW Warner engine and the fully re-stored engine cowl. This all-volunteer initiative has been well-supported by many of the local members of VAA Chapter 37 based in Auburn, Indi-ana. The project lead volunteer is Phil Riter of Defiance, Ohio. Every time I look at the reworked engine cowl on this aircraft, I fi nd myself staring at it in total amazement. Before Phil got his hands on it, that cowl looked like it fell off a truck going 55 mph. The result of Phils hard work is noth-ing short of amazing. Good luck with those wheelpants, buddy!

This week we are working on get-ting a finish coat on the wing and flight controls. We are fortunate to have access to the paint booth at the EAA maintenance facility in Camp Scholler. This makes the job so much easier to complete. The 32-foot one-piece wing is so long it doesnt fi t un-less its set up diagonally to the corners of the paint booth, so you can at least walk around one end of it. As I write this, we now have nearly all of the con-trol surfaces in silver, and by the end of this week we will have everything painted in white. Then this spring, during one of our Vintage work parties in Oshkosh, we will have a suffi cient number of VAA volunteers available to assist us with mating that large one-piece wing to the fuselage. This will be

a great day! So, be sure to come inside the Vintage Hangar during AirVenture to check out the progress on the resto-ration of this truly historical aircraft.

User FeesLast week the hot topic again be-

came user fees. Here we go again! I really hate to have to say it, but, I told you so. It was just last month in this column that I openly stated that the issue was likely far from over, and low and behold, there are those in Con-gress who have begun to discuss the idea of proposing new legislation rec-ommending a $100 per fl ight user fee on GA aircraft for certain users.

It seems like it was just last month that we waged this battle on user fees, but in spite of a high level of biparti-san opposition in the Congressional GA Caucus, it would appear that this issue is far from over. Even though the initial concept seems to exclude piston engine aircraft, we all really need to pay close attention to the fact that the devil is usually in the details of a negotiated piece of legislation that could likely have a very differ-ent odor to it. When I think of the potential results of legislation of this nature, it virtually makes me stutter.

The primary issue that strikes fear in my heart is the idea that if user fees eventually become a reality to our seg-ment of aviation, a large segment of GA pilots will simply avoid using the system, and this will, without a doubt, compromise safety. Of course, there are more issues with user fees that make them ominous. To start with, the cur-rent fuel tax approach to funding the system is really working pretty well. Then, straight from the White House we hear, We all need to do our part to

help develop funding that would sig-nificantly impact the federal deficit. Pardon me? For the life of me I just cannot embrace the relevance of these two distinctly different issues when it comes to funding the ATC system. I better stop there before you all think I have completely fallen off the rail. Be assured that EAA remains on the front lines of battling these user fee initia-tives that could signifi cantly challenge our ability to exercise our right to en-gage in recreational aviation. Now is the time for all of us to pay very close attention to the details of whatever legislation gets proposed, and if need be, we need to again let our collective voices be heard inside the beltway.

ChangesLastly, I wanted to mention here

that I arrived in Oshkosh the day after EAA President/CEO Rod Hightower and the EAA Executive Committee an-nounced a great number of changes in the structure of EAA staffi ng. I have been privileged to have had the op-portunity over the past 10 days to interact on these critical issues with the EAA board of directors and several members of the senior staff at EAA, in-cluding Rod Hightower, our founder Paul Poberezny, and the Executive Committee. I have walked away from this experience with a great deal of confidence that EAA will now be in a much better position to, as stated in one of EAAs recent communications, to align our resources with our priori-ties, which will allow us to more effec-tively meet the needs of our members, donors and aviators.

2 FEBRUARY 2012

Geoff RobisonEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VAA

STRAIGHT & LEVEL

Restoration and change


VAA NEWS

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 3

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2012 Advance Purchase Tickets Now AvailableAdmission, camping, and air-craft rides

Advance purchase of admission tickets and camping are now avail-able for EAA AirVenture Oshkosh

2012. The 60th annual gathering will be held July 23-29 at Wittman Regional Airport.

Both EAA members and non-members may purchase tickets in advance via a secure website, al-lowing them to speed through the admissions process when they ar-

rive on-site. Daily and weekly ad-missions are available; discounts are available to those who prepur-chase AirVenture tickets online be-fore June 15, 2012, including $2 off daily adult admissions and $5 off weekly adult admissions.

Advance purchase camping for Camp Scholler, which opens on June 22, 2012, provides the convenience of express registration at the camp-ground entrance, including specially designated lines on peak arrival dates.

Additionally, attendees can pre-purchase flights on EAAs historic B-17 Aluminum Overcast or a vin-tage Ford Tri-Motor to avoid the lines and get more out of their Air-Venture experience.

To access the advance ticketing area, visit www.AirVenture.org and click on the Buy Tickets link. Ad-vance online purchasers can also select from limited edition AirVen-ture merchandise.

Advance admission ticketing is made possible through support from Jeppesen.

Reser ving your AirVenture 2012 adventur e is only a few clicks away .

Top Performers Make Early Confi rmations for AirVentureThe worlds top air show per formers are con rming for

AirVenture Oshkosh 2012. Scheduled to appear ar e Chuck Aaron and the Red Bull aer obatic helicopter, the Aer oShell Aerobatic Team, Matt Younkin and his Twin Beech, Bob Carlton and the Jet Sailplane, and the W arbird Spectacu-lars (including expanded shows featuring pyr otechnics on

Friday and Satur day).Also appearing will be Sean T ucker and his Pitts,

Gene Soucy and his Showcat, and Mike Goulian and his Extra. In addition, Gr eg Koontz and the Alabama Boys will help celebrate the 75th anniversar y of the Piper

Cub, as will the r eturn of Kyle Franklin ying in his PA-18 Super Cub comedy routine.

Additionally, the wildly popular Night Air Show and Fir eworks will be held on Saturday, July 28, to thrill attendees with a mix of aer obatics and pyrotechnics all musically chor eographed. Final schedules will be available in the weeks prior to EAA AirV enture and will be announced on www.AirVenture.org.

Daily air shows at EAA AirV enture are presented by Rockwell Collins.

Matt Younkin Twin Beech

DEKEVIN THORNTON

JIM

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4 FEBRUARY 2012

Chapter WebsitesIn early summer last year, EAA

of f ic ia l ly launched the long-awaited Chapter Website pro-gram, which helps ensure that every chapter has an online pres-ence. The websites are provided free of charge (including design and hosting) and are supported through Webs.com.

The sites feature:Easy-to-use tools (no experi-

ence required)Professional designCustomized content for indi-

vidual EAA chaptersOne of the first steps all chap-

ters should take is to make sure your events are entered into the EAA Calendar of Events. The cal-endar software automatically feeds your chapters website. It is an easy way to keep your membersand potential membersupdated on your chapters events. Not only will it post them automatically, it removes them after the event is over, so old news never appears on your home or events pages. You can view a few chapter web-site examples by logging on to:

www.1246.EAAChapter.orgwww.252.EAAChapter.orgEAA Online Community Man-

ager Hal Bryan hosted a webinar on the chapter websites in mid-July. You can watch it online by logging onto http://bcove.me/zwmrk3xw. Bryan explains the ba-sic features of the sites and pro-vides some valuable tips to help you start customizing your site. This chapter benefi t is made pos-sible through the Peter Burgher Chapter Development Fund. For more information on this great enhancement to our chapters pro-gram, you can contact the EAA Chapters offi ce at [email protected] by phone at 920-426-4876.

To nominate someone is easy. It just takes a little time and a little reminiscing on your part.Th ink of a person; think of his or her contributions to vintage aviation.Write those contributions in the various categories of the nomination form.Write a simple letter highlighting these attributes and contributions. Make copies of newspaper or magazine articles that may substantiate your view.

If at all possible, have another individual (or more) complete a form or write a letter about this person, confi rming why the person is a good candidate for induction.

Th is years induction ceremony will be held near the end of October. Well have follow-up information once the date has been fi nalized.We would like to take this opportunity to mention that if you have nominated someone for the VAA Hall of Fame; nominations for the honor are kept on fi le for 3 years, after which the nomination must be resubmitted.

Mail nominating materials to: VAA Hall of Fame, c/o Charles W. Harris, Transportation Leasing Corp. PO Box 470350 Tulsa, OK 74147 E-mail: [email protected]

Remember, your contemporary may be a candidate; nominate someone today!

Find the nomination form at www.VintageAircraft.org, or call the VAA offi ce for a copy (920-426-6110), or on your own sheet of paper, simply include the following information:

Date submitted. Name of person nominated. Address and phone number of nominee. E-mail address of nominee. Date of birth of nominee. If deceased, date of death. Name and relationship of nominees closest living relative. Address and phone of nominees closest living relative. VAA and EAA number, if known. (Nominee must have been or is a VAA member.) Time span (dates) of the nominees contributions to vintage aviation.

(Must be between 1950 to present day.) Area(s) of contributions to aviation. Describe the event(s) or nature of activities the nominee has undertaken in aviation to

be worthy of induction into the VAA Hall of Fame. Describe achievements the nominee has made in other related fi elds in aviation. Has the nominee already been honored for his or her involvement in aviation and/or the

contribution you are stating in this petition? If yes, please explain the nature of the honor and/or award the nominee has received.

Any additional supporting information. Submitters address and phone number, plus e-mail address. Include any supporting material with your petition.

Nominate your favorite vintage aviator for the EAA Vintage Aircraft Association Hall of Fame. A great honor could be besto wed upon that man or woman wor king next to y ou on your airplane, sitting next to you in the chapter meeting, or walking next to y ou at EAA Air-Venture Oshkosh. Th ink about the people in your circle of aviation friends: the mechanic, historian, photographer, or pilot who has shared innumerable tips with you and with many oth-ers. Th ey could be the next VAA Hall of Fame inducteebut only if they are nominated.

Th e person you nominate can be a citiz en of any country and may be living or deceased; his or her involvement in vintage aviation must

have occurred between 1950 and the pr esent day. His or her contribution can be in the areas of fl ying, design, mechanical or aer odynamic developments, administration, writing, some other vital and relevant fi eld, or any combina-tion of fi elds that support aviation. Th e person you nominate must be or hav e been a mem-ber of the Vintage Aircraft Association or the Antique/Classic Division of EAA, and pr efer-ence is given to those whose actions hav e con-tributed to the VAA in some way , perhaps as a volunteer, a restorer who shares his expertise with others, a writer, a photographer, or a pilot sharing stories, preserving aviation history, and encouraging new pilots and enthusiasts.

CALL FOR VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATIONNominations


VINTAGE AIRPLANE 5

Eric Rearwin: When personal and aviation histories crossBY BUDD DAVISSON

Great-GranddadsA I R P L A N E

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, SAYS ERIC

Rearwin, None of us kids ac-

tually knew that much about

what our great-granddad and

our grandparents had done. For whatever reason,

our parents just didnt talk about it much. That

chapter of family history was very hazy to me.

However, when my granddad started taking me to

fl y-ins with him and I saw airplanes with my last

name on them, it all became very real.STEVE CUKIERSKI


6 FEBRUARY 2012

The granddad hes referring to was Ken Rearwin, who was sales manager for the Rearwin Aircraft Company from 1929 until it was sold to Commonwealth in 1942. He was the son of the companys founder, Andrew Rae Rearwin, and both he and his brother, Royce, were active in the company.

While the name Rearwin isnt as well-known as Piper, Cessna, Beech, etc., the company was, nonethe-less, a serious player during the 1930s, producing more than 400 aircraft, almost all of which are bet-ter known to modelers than they are to the full-scale aviation com-munity. The modelers know them well because two of the Rearwin variants, the Speedster and the Cloudster, have such classic lines and are such good fliers that they are ready-made for free-flight and radio-controlled modeling subjects.

Looking back at the birth of the Rearwin Aircraft factory from this

point in history, its a little hard to put in context. For one thing, the year was 1929 and the economy was in the process of tanking. The stock market had split-Sed into the ground, and every economic indicator was massively negative. Sound familiar? Businesses were failing right and left, yet young businessmen with names l ike Cessna, Beech, and Stearman were taking huge leaps of faith and start-ing airplane companies. These were real American entrepreneurs in ev-ery sense of the word, and Rae Rear-win was right in the middle of the fray with them.

Rae was a little different than many of his aviation pioneer peer group in three prominent ways. First, he wasnt as young as the rest and had two grown sons, Ken and Royce. Second, he was an already established businessman/entrepre-neur, and third, he wasnt a pilot. What attracted him to aviation

was simple: He thought it to be a growing industry that would have plenty of room for a businessman with his acumen.

Rae hired the skills he needed, including the designers who de-signed the initial Rearwin, an open-cockpit biplane that was built in a garage and named after his sons, the Ken-Royce. The year was 1929 and only a few were produced, with reportedly only one surviving to-day. However, as he looked around, he saw the need for smaller aircraft. In 1930-31 he had the Junior, a parasol, designed, and around 1932 he commissioned the design of the 6000 Speedster.

Eric Rearwin says, The 6000 Speedster series were so sleek and good looking that they are what many people think of when they hear the name Rearwin. The original 1934 prototype S/N 301 had various problems in gaining certification, specifi cally the spin recovery. It ap-

One of the lost r ecognizable pro les in aviation, the Rear win Speedster , enjoys a r eputation that is lar ger than the relatively small pr oduction numbers would nor mally indicate. The sleek installation of the four-cylinder Menasco engine (or the Cir rus Hi-Drive in the pr ototype her e) made the airplane a favorite of model airplane enthusiasts.

STEVE CUKIERSKI


VINTAGE AIRPLANE 7

pears that rather than try to fix that airplane, they canceled the N number and used the fuselage re-numbered as S/N 302 for all further work. So, our airplane, even though numbered 302, actually is the origi-nal prototype and was retained by the company to be the factory dem-onstrator. The Cirrus Hi-Drive en-gine was used, but by the time the airplane was going to go into pro-duction, Cirrus was out of business. However, the 125-hp Menasco en-gine was readily available and, in truth, a much better engine. Better yet, it fi t into the Speedster with al-most no modifi cations.

Although the economy was suf-fering terribly, there was still a market for an airplane like the Speedster, but the company didnt have a Menasco-powered one to show to the public. So, many of the early Speedster ads actually featured the Cirrus-powered prototype air-plane, even though they were sell-

ing Menasco-powered Speedsters.From initial fl ight to production

of the 6000M (M for Menasco) four critical years had elapsed, al-lowing many other companies to move far ahead of Rearwin, so only a little more than a dozen Speedsters were built.

In typical entrepreneurial fash-ion, s ince one engine wasnt working out, Rae Rearwin went looking for others and in the pro-cess bought the LeBlond Engine Company in 1938. He quickly re-named it the Ken-Royce Engine Company, and they redesigned the older Junior with a cabin to take that little fi ve-cylinder, round mo-tor. Named the Sportster, at first, the engine hung mostly out in the wind with a narrow Townend speed ring attempting to streamline it. Then, in an effort to modernize the design, they completely redesigned the Speedster fuselage, widening it for side-by-side seating, changing

to the oleo-spring landing gear of the Sportster, and fairing the en-gine in with a complete cowling. That became the famous Cloudster, one of the cutest little airplanes of its day, and it was fairly successful, with more than 120 rolling off the line before World War II. [See the October 2010 issue of Vintage Air-plane for an article on the Cloud-ster and the January 2011 issue for a story on the Speedster.Editor]

In 1942 Rearwin sold the com-pany to Commonwealth, who pro-duced 275 of the Rearwin-designed Skyrangers through 1946. By that time they had settled on a more modern engine, the superlative Continental C-85. The Common-wealth Skyranger is still visible in the vintage aircraft arena, as quite a few have survived. However, the earlier airplanes, especially the Speedster, were rare to begin with and are almost nonexistent today.

Eric Rearwin says, My grandfa-

Tim Talen restor ed the Speedster for Eric Rear win at his Jasper , Oregon-based res-toration company , the Ragwood Refactor y.

With a Car well bubble-faced compass anchoring the center of the panel, the Speedster has the minimum required cadre of instr uments.

GIL

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8 FEBRUARY 2012

ther was periodically hunting down Rearwins of different models and getting them placed in museums. So, when I started spending time with him, I became aware of the history that each airplane repre-sented. As I got older, I didnt make a conscious decision to find Rear-wins, but, little by little, I guess the same thing that drove my grand-father took root in me. Also, Bill Wright wrote a book on Rearwins about that time, and that really got my interest going. So, in 2004, when I heard about a Speedster for sale in Washington, I was already thinking in that direction. When I learned it was a Cirrus-powered Speedster, which made it the proto-type, my interest was really piqued.

I took the train to Washing-ton, he says, to look at the air-plane, knowing full well that I wasnt qualified to tell how much work the airplane actually needed. However, I knew enough to judge how complete the airplane was. If it had been heavily modifi ed or many

parts were missing, Im not certain I would have continued with the project. Although, as driven as I was, the airplane would have had to be a real mess to keep me from following through with the project. The truth is, I couldnt not do it.

What I found, when I got there, was a very complete airplane that had been owned by the same gen-tleman for something over 30 years. He really loved the airplane but had fi nally come to the conclu-sion that he was never going to re-store it, so he sold it to me.

When we lost my grandfather in 2001, he left me a little inheri-tance, Eric says, and that was the seed money for this project. Even though the rest of my family tried to talk some sense into my head, I couldnt think of anything Id rather do with that modest sum than buy and restore a Rearwin. Especially one as historic as Speedster S/N 302. I didnt see it as an airplane so much as a family historical artifact that needed to be preserved.

So, now Eric had bought a tan-gible link to his familys past, but it was a tired, badly deteriorated link that was going to require a lot of TLC that Eric wasnt capable of giving. Besides not being a pi-lot, Eric knew he had neither the skills nor the time to bring the air-plane up to the level of perfection he was looking for and which the airplane deserved.

Eric says, I started looking around for someone to do the res-toration and almost immediately ran across Tim Talen. Besides be-ing well-known for a wide range of restorations, it turns out Tim had done a Rearwin/Commonwealth or two and actually knew S/N 302. So, Tim took a trailer from his shop in Jasper, Oregon, up to Washington and retrieved the airplane.

Tims company, The Ragwood Refactory (cool name, Tim!), has done award-winning vintage/an-tique restorations ranging from the fi rst Taylor J-2 Cub to leave the Lock Haven factory to hulking bi-

Tim Talen ies the tall high-winger near the EAA Seaplane Base southeast of Oshkosh.

STEVE CUKIERSKI


planes of all types, so he was an old hand at restoring vintage aircraft such as the Speedster.

Tim picks up the story and says, When we got the airplane home and started taking it apart, it became apparent that although the airplane didnt appear to have been in a seri-ous wreck in its lifetime, practically every square inch, both inside and out, needed total restoration.

The wings, for instance, he says, were not only badly dete-riorated but had a few things the later production airplanes didnt have. In fact, this was true for lots of parts of the airplane. It may have been the second one built, but it was still very much a prototype. For instance, the ailerons on 302 are welded steel tube structures, while the later ones are built-up wood. On top of that, the later wings had a slightly wider chord, so the aile-rons on 302, which were a carry-over from 301, have aluminum extensions fastened to the trailing edge to make them wider.

He continues, The wings them-selves were an interesting mess. I say interesting because besides the obvious deteriorationmost of the wood was delaminating or rottingthe ribs were modified, and I say modifi ed with quotes because what had been done was almost comical.

In the first place the ribs used a Warren truss pattern, meaning there are no verticals in the truss, only diagonals, so the truss pattern resembles a bunch of wide Ws side-by-side. This leaves long sections of the rib surface unsupported, and they apparently started to lose their curve and fl atten out. At some point in the old girls life a help-ful mechanic decided to put verti-cal members between each W. That would have been fine, but he did it without uncovering the wings. Essentially, he just poked a hole in the wings everywhere he wanted to put a vertical. Then he cut a piece of rib stock to size, lathered up both ends with glue, and pushed it through the hole. Not a very el-

egant, or structural, repair. The later production ribs went to the Pratt truss pattern that has verticals. So, we totally rebuilt the ribs. Plus the spars were delaminating and some of the splices were letting go, so we kept all the metal but replaced all the wood in the wings.

All of the wood work was done by Kenyon Solecki, a young high-schooler I took under my wing, but he didnt need much teaching, Talen says. He was just naturally good, and I only had to tell him something once.

Where the airplane sat in Wash-ington for so many years, Talen says, it rains every day, often all day, so the condition of the wood was to be expected. We expected the fuselage to be the same kind of mess, but, all things considered, it wasnt bad at all. It was about the same as any other tubing fuselage, meaning we replaced about 8 feet of the bottom longerons and replaced a few other small pieces, but that was it. The fuselage is wildly com-

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 9


plicated in terms of the number of tubing pieces in it, and if it had been as deteriorated as the wings, it would have been a nightmare.

The same thing was true of the landing gear, thank goodness. It was in decent condition, Tim says and laughs. No offense to Rear-win, but the landing gear looks as if it was designed in a bar and grill, and they never made it to the grill.

From the outside, with the fairings on it, it looks as if its a single-strut unit, but inside those fairings is a ton of tubing. Each leg is a V with another piece of tube in the middle that hooks into bungees. It is one of the most unique landing gears Ive ever seen, and now that Ive fl own it, Id also say its one of the bounci-est. If Im not right on my game, Ill get a bounce without even trying.

Incidentally, almost every piece of wood for the fuselage was there, but virtually none of it was usable. All of the plywood in the airplane, which includes the fuselage formers, had given up and was coming apart.

It took us forever to get the air-frame ready for cover, Tim says, and when we did, we used Poly-Fiber and Poly-Tone with Aero-Thane clear top coat, all the way through.

One of the major attractions to the Speedster series is the shape of the nose. The nose fits the name, Speedster, or vice versa, because it just screams speed. Besides its looks, one reason the modelers love it is because the nose shape is so easy to fi t almost any model engine into and keep total scale appear-

10 FEBRUARY 2012

Gilles Auliard captures the nar row fuselage pr o le and beautifully fair ed landing gear in this action shot.

GILLES AULIARD

No offense to Rearwin, butthe landing gear looks asif it wasdesigned in a bar and grill, and they never made it tothe grill.


VINTAGE AIRPLANE 11

ance. Unfortunately, as magical as the Rearwin Speedster schnoz may be, it is another nightmare, as Talen says, to restore.

The good news, he says, is that we had the entire cowling. All of it. The bad news is that it was a patchwork quilt of patches with new patches patching old patches. If thats hard to say, its even harder to repair. First, the cowling is made entirely of SO aluminum, mean-ing it is dead soft. So, you can bend it with your fingers. Also, it loves to crack, which it appears to have done at every opportunity during

its lifetime. So, while we had an en-tire cowling, there wasnt a single piece of it that didnt need welding, massaging, reshaping, or all three. Making it a lot worse was that the cowling is where your eye goes the second you see the airplane. So, we had to get it right. The only way to do that and avoid using tons of Bondo was to throw time and el-bow grease at it. And to not get in a hurry. The slower you work, the smaller your mistakes are, and you dont want to be constantly correct-ing your corrections.

The cowling was shaped to the

Cirrus, and of all the question marks in the airplane, the engine was certainly the biggest one. And still is. Only a small number of air-craft contemporary to the Speed-ster used the Cirrus in any form, the Great Lakes probably being the most common. But the so-called Hi-Drive Cirrus, meaning it was in-verted with the crankshaft on top, saw very little use partially because its reliability was so poor.

Tim says, Right from the begin-ning, we knew we had to pay special attention to the engine, since we expected to be fl ying the airplane a fair amount. When you know you have to cross the Cascades or Rock-ieswe can go up the gorge and avoid the Cascadesto get almost anywhere, especially to Oshkosh, you tend to be more serious about your engines. Curiously, the engine that was in the Speedster when we retrieved it, S/N 2062, is the actual engine that was in it when the air-plane was built. For an airplane that old, that is almost unheard of. And, even after all those years in the Pa-cifi c Northwests weather, it wasnt a rusty chunk of iron. This was be-cause the Cirrus is well known to be a leaker so it was totally covered in oily grime, and it couldnt have rusted if it wanted to. All we had to do was figure out ways around its weak points to make it into a reli-able engine, relatively speaking.

Most Cirrus problems are cen-tered around its top end, which is actually the bottom end on an in-verted engine because the cylinders point down. Everything having to do with the valve train on the en-gine is frustratingly fragile or poorly designed. So, we did our best to work around the known trouble spots.

Al Holloway in Quincy, Califor-nia, an antique engine specialist, was entrusted with building the en-gine, which included chrome cylin-ders and bringing all the specs up to new standards. When he was done, he bolted it to the test stand and put fi ve hours on it before shipping it to Tim, at which point the gotta-get-it-done-for-Oshkosh frenzy,

The wing tanks of the Rear win can also feed fuel to the Cir rus from both at the same time.

Like most of the airplanes of the 1930s and 1940s, the occasional car trim part is used in the constr uction of this antique airplane. This automotive window crank handle becomes the elevator trim handle for the Rear win.

GIL

LES

AULI

ARD

GIL

LES

AULI

ARD


12 FEBRUARY 2012

which seems so common in sport aviation, kicked into high gear.

We were working right down to the wire, literally, he remem-bers. When we left for Oshkosh, we had exactly an hour and a half on the airplane in two hops, and away we went.

Flying nearly halfway across the country behind a Cirrus is an ad-venture many people wouldnt want to be involved in, but Tim says, We did a round robin that included Oshkosh, Blakesburg the next month, and Reno after that without the Cirrus missing a lick. And I have to say that landing at Rawlins, Wyoming, with the den-sity altitude at 9,000-10,000 feet was wild! The sagebrush on final was just a blur as it flashed past. On departure headed home, it was just the reverse: Although it was an early-morning launch, I used a lot

of the 7,000-foot runway, and once it got off the ground, I had the op-portunity to closely inspect the lo-cal sagebrush, as I tried to coax the airplane into gaining altitude.

Tim says that based on his own experience with the Cirrus, hes convinced the engines reputation is based on old wives tales com-ing out of experiences pilots had in the 50s and 60s, when a lot of the engines were just cobbled to-gether. He says that most of the pilots who flew them when they were new in the 30s had the same experience he had.

He says, I think its probably only a 200-400 hour engine, but if it is rebuilt correctly and main-tained right, its as reliable as any engine from that period of time.

Summing up the trip, Tim says, At Oshkosh and Blakesburg, peo-ple really appreciated seeing the

airplane. We had a lot of good con-versations with people about it. At Reno, it was out of its element. The majority of people came to see the big iron, so it was understandable that they didnt know the airplane.

Eric Rearwin says, I didnt know what to expect, but I was really grat-ifi ed at the reception we received at Oshkosh and Blakesburg. It made it all worth it. I can take none of the credit for the restoration, but Im proud to see my great-granddads airplane out there again.

From this point on, Im hoping a museum will buy it and put it on dis-play. Maybe fl y it from time to time. Regardless, I accomplished what I set out to do, and we put a historic old Rearwin back into the air.

Those of us who had never seen a Speedster want to thank Tim and Eric for their efforts. Its wonderful to see an icon back in its element.

STEVE CUKIERSKI


VINTAGE AIRPLANE 13

Last months column provided an overview of the great strides made by the earliest African American aviators. The inspiring story of the succeeding generation of black pilots in pursuit of lofty dreams despite the enormous bar-riers that threatened to block the way is told in this second and concluding installment. These men and women of the air followed in the exemplary tradi-tion of those who had come before, and they upheld it for those who came next.

Proving Pro ciency and Sowingthe Dream: Cross-Country Adventurers

During the Golden Age of Flight, three two-man teams of African American fliers made headlines in the black press because of their precedent-setting long-distance fl ights. The fi rst of these was under-taken by pilot James Herman Ban-ning and mechanic Thomas Cox Allen. In September and October 1932, the twosome became the fi rst blacks to make a transcontinental fl ight. It was a harrowing trek that had hinged upon the mens ability to mine the depths of their charac-ter for every ounce of perseverance.

Growing up, Banning dreamed of becoming a pilot. However, when he set out to obtain fl ight in-struction in Chicago in the early 1920s he was rejected at every air-port in the city that he visited in a repeat of the unfortunate snubbing suffered by Bessie Coleman. Ban-nings break came when an Army aviator in Des Moines, Iowa, agreed to give him lessons.

Once certificated, Banning em-barked on a barnstorming career.

He fl ew a biplane emblazoned with the name Miss Ames, which re-fl ected his years at Iowa State Col-lege in Ames. As romantic as the life of a vagabond of the air may be in the abstract, fl ying the Midwest-ern circuit proved diffi cult in terms of making ends meet.

In 1931, Banning was persuaded to join William J. Powells Los An-geles-based fl ying circus named in

memory of Coleman. He dazzled audiences at the all-black air shows that Powell staged in southern Cali-fornia. By 1932, momentum had built for a fl ight across the country to showcase the aeronautical acu-men of black fl iers and thereby at-tract more blacks to the world of aviation. The idea fi t Powells objec-tives exactly, and Banning was the perfect pilot to pull it off.

The Liberating SkyPioneering black pilots broke barriers and

climbed to new heightsPART 2

BY PHILIP HANDLEMAN

James Herman Banning barnstormed in the Midwest. He named his bi-plane Miss Ames, re ecting his student years at Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa. The di culties in making a livelihood as a barnstormer eventually caused him to join William J. Powells all-black air shows in Los Angeles. In September and October 1932, he and mechanic Thomas Cox Allen became the rst blacks to y across the United States.


14 FEBRUARY 2012

The most serious impediment to staging the flight was a lack of funds. Allen, a transplanted Okla-homan, was chosen to ride along, for he brought two vital elements, expertise as a mechanic and a little extra cash. In fact, by the time Ban-ning and Allen took off from Dy-cer Field in Los Angeles on the fi rst leg of their cross-country jaunt, Al-lens monetary contribution had been largely expended on prepa-ratory aspects of the flight. At the launch, the fl iers wallets reportedly contained a combined total of only $25. They were committed to beg, borrow, and cajole along the way to complete the fl ight. It isnt without cause that they called themselves the Flying Hobos.

A black businessman lent the two fl iers his Alexander Eaglerock, a diminutive biplane noted for its long and slender fuselage. A ma-trix of thick struts and crisscrossing bracing wires connected the two

wings in a solid truss arrangement. The engine was temperamental and forced multiple emergency land-ings during the cross-country fl ight.

One of those episodes occurred while Banning and Allen neared St. Louis. On the ground, the two fl iers were virtually helpless to make the repairs, for they lacked the neces-sary parts and tools. Their historic odyssey was at risk of being aborted. Only a helping hand from local resi-dents could restore the biplane to airworthy status so the high-minded mission might resume.

In a remarkable gesture of good-will, white students at a vocational school in proximity to the disabled aircraft pitched in to get the airmen back into the sky. The incident was emblematic of a slowly emerging universality, attendant to the fly-ing milieu much as the pioneering pilots had dreamed. The trip con-tinued all the way to Long Island, New York, where after more than

three weeks of braving faulty equip-ment, storms, penuriousness, and assorted other adversities, the ad-venturers were welcomed as the toast of the town.

Black newspapers hailed the achievement, and New York Mayor Jimmy Walker presented the fliers with the key to the city. Their glory was short-lived, though, for the Ea-glerock was destroyed during the return fl ight.

Banning died the next year as a passenger in a plane crash. Allen, the luckier of the duo, lived to a ripe old age, happily immersed in aviation.

Its said that records are made to be broken. If that adage is true, then surely one of its proofs is the round-trip transcontinental flight by C. Alfred Anderson and Albert E. Forsythe in 1933. This was the first time black pilots flew across the country and back again.

Forsythe was an affl uent medical doctor in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Unlike most blacks who dreamed of fl ying during the Depression, he had the financial resources to pay for instruction. In the early 1930s, he was among only ten African Americans to hold a pilots license.

Well before William Powells book was published, Forsythe believed fer-vently in aviation as a means to a bet-ter future for the black community. He envisioned a fl ight across America to dramatize the point. When Ban-ning and Allen beat him to it, he rea-soned that a round-trip attempt, if successful, would constitute the next logical milestone in the evolving an-nals of black aviation.

Sharing Forsythes enthusiasm for such an ambitious undertaking was Anderson, the African Ameri-can pilot who had accumulated the most fl ight hours up to that point and the only one at the time to possess a transport pilots license. Anderson had been so determined to fly that when no flight school would take him as a student, he bought an airplane with his hard-earned savings and hired an in-structor for one-on-one lessons.

In the years to come, Anderson

In July 1933, C. Alfred Chief Anderson, left, and Dr. Albert E. Forsythe teamed up for the rst successful round-trip transcontinental ight by black pilots. The next year they organized a goodwill ight to islands in the Caribbean.

Vintage Feb 2012.indd 16 Vintage Feb 2012.indd 16 1/25/12 1:01 PM1/25/12 1:01 PM

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 15

gained a special place in the pantheon of black pilots. When the renowned Tuskegee Institute in Alabama sought to hire a chief fl ight instructor for its new civilian fl ight training program in the late 1930s, it was Anderson who got the job. Because of his posi-tion, he was often called Chief and the nickname stuck.

In March 1941, during a visit to the institute by Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson was tapped to give the fi rst lady a scenic fl ight over the local area in one of the schools Piper Cubs. A picture of a smiling Mrs. Roosevelt in the backseat, wearing one of her sig-nature fl owered hats and with Chief at the controls up front, was taken of the amazing scene. Shortly after-ward, the Army Air Corps started its historic flight training program for blacks at the institute.

Throughout World War II, An-derson oversaw the primary flight instruction for the aspiring pilots who later became known as the Tuskegee Airmen. But that was in the future. For now, Anderson served as the lead pilot for the round-trip transcontinental fl ight, and Forsythe, while assisting in flying duties, more importantly provided the platform, a newly ac-quired cabin monoplane.

Departing Atlantic City on July 17, 1933, the pair of aviators en-countered dense fog early in the flight. After a brief delay, they re-sumed their journey without fur-ther setbacks. They spread their message of aviations possibilities at refueling stops along the way. Upon reaching their destination of Los Angeles, they were rushed at the airport by an adoring crowd. Powell was one of the well-wishers. Celebrations followed and dignitar-ies praised the two aviators.

On the return leg, Anderson and Forsythe retraced the outbound route to their starting point on the East Coast. They landed 11 days after they had set out to establish the new record for black pilots. In doing so, they had reinforced the point that aviation was a field in which people of color could excel.

It followed that a pilots pigmenta-tion was extraneous.

The Anderson-Forsythe flight also showcased the rapidly advanc-ing technical progress in aeronau-tics. Flying was transitioning from a daring silk-scarf exertion to a pre-dictable workaday affair. The dif-ference in equipment and even clothing used in their fl ight versus what was used in the Banning-Allen flight of just a year before refl ected this fact.

Anderson and Forsythe made their flight in the highly regarded Fairchild 24, a high-wing design with an enclosed cabin. Old-style open-cockpit barnstorming was re-placed by a modern businessmans way of fl ying. Suits and ties substi-tuted for goggles and leather jack-ets. Moreover, while their flight in the Pride of Atlantic Cityas Forsythe had christened the Fair-childwas essentially a grassroots effort, it enjoyed the blessings of organizations like the National Ur-ban League, a leading civil rights group concerned with jobs and eco-nomic well-being.

In the fall of 1934, Anderson and Forsythe set out on an even more ambitious fl ight. To highlight their message of interracial harmony, they plotted a course to no less than ten islands in the Caribbean from Nassau to Trinidad. It was a bold gambit, involving long stretches of overwater fl ight at a time when nav-igational devices were still relatively primitive. Hazards included a leg of their trip that ran into the darkness of night and some landing sites that were nothing more than dirt strips.

For this is land-hopping ex-cursion they selected a Lambert Monocoupe. It had a similar con-figuration to the Fairchild, which involved side-by-side seating, but it featured a more streamlined fu-selage and was outfi tted with wheel fairings. At an elegant outdoor cer-emony attended by the Tuskegee Institutes second president, Robert R. Moton, they commemorated the memory of the institutes famous founder by naming the airplane the

Spirit of Booker T. Washington.At stops on the Pan American

Goodwill Flight, Anderson and Forsythe received friendly greet-ings from government offi cials and ordinary people. The black press cheered the long leaps to foreign territories. Here were a couple of fi ne men using aviation to engen-der warm relations with Americas neighbors offshore and well to the south. The U.S. State Department saw the value in such a mission and gave its full support.

The adventure, which had ac-complished most of its goals, came to an abrupt end on the return leg when the airplane incurred dam-age taking off from an improvised runway. In the booklet accompany-ing the authoritative Black Wings exhibit, the National Air and Space Museums curators summarized the flights impact by noting that it had attracted worldwide atten-tion. They concluded, At home, the fl ight provided the black com-munity with a sense of pride. Both Anderson and Forsythe hoped the long-distance flight would inspire black youth to see in aviation a new avenue for advancement.

Within a half-dozen years fol-lowing Colemans untimely death, devotees of the daredevil exhibition pilot were transforming Chicago into a center of black flying. One of the leaders in the movement was Cornelius R. Coffey, a studious and enterprising individual who had an aptitude for mechanical work. In 1931, he and his friend John C. Robinson graduated in the fi rst class to accept blacks at the citys Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical School. Coffey ranked at the top of his class and Robinson placed second.

Around this time the one Chi-cago area airport that had permit-ted blacks to fly was closed for good. In response, Coffey and Rob-inson led a handful of black pilots and supporters in the formation of the Challenger Air Pilots Associa-tion. The new group bought prop-erty for an airport on the outskirts of the city. Sadly the fl edgling air-


16 FEBRUARY 2012

port in the black township of Rob-bins southwest of Chicago was irretrievably damaged a year later when a severe storm blew down the hangar and wrecked the few light-planes stored on the premises.

Rather than give up, the group secured flying privileges from the enlightened operator of Harlem Airport situated a short distance to the north. Coffey formed his own fl ight school at the new loca-tion. He hoped to make it easier for blacks to learn to fly and thereby fulfi ll Colemans unfi nished dream of fostering more African American pilots. Some extraordinary person-alities came within Coffeys orb.

His friend Robinson left for Ethi-opia in 1936 to advise Emperor Hailie Selassie on aviation matters during the African countrys struggle to repel the invading forces of Ital-ian dictator Benito Mussolini. Willa Brown, endowed with a spunky de-meanor and striking good looks, became the first African American female to be certificated as a pilot

in the United States, and she served as a powerful booster of flying in the black community. Harold Hurd, a fellow graduate of the Curtiss-Wright school, had a distinguished aviation career that included a stint at Tuskegee during the war.

In the late 1930s, the possibility of global conflict intensified as the Axis powers increasingly fl exed their muscles. In recognition of the threat, the Roosevelt administration aimed to create a program that would pro-duce thousands of new civilian pi-lots eligible to serve in the nations military air arm. Black fl ying enthu-siasts, like those in Chicago, along with leading civil rights advocates, didnt want blacks left behind.

The Chicago group reconstituted itself as the National Airmens As-sociation, and one of the first or-ders of business was deciding to send a couple of their members on a flight to Washington for the purposes of lobbying Congress and rallying public support for the in-clusion of blacks. The two pilots

chosen for this high-profile flight could hardly have been more dis-parate. Dale Lawrence White was a quiet and serious man who ex-uded a Rock of Gibraltar steadiness, whereas Chauncey Edward Spencer was an effervescent charmer, gush-ing enthusiasm and favored with movie-star charisma.

Given the associations inade-quate finances, funding the flight was a real chore. By one account, Spencer raised $1,000 from the Jones brothers, prosperous black businessmen in Chicago whose var-ied interests were reputed to include a hand in the citys numbers racket. Reportedly, only after Spencer broke out in tears over the prospect of not being able to fl y to Washington be-cause of a lack of money did he suc-ceed in persuading the Joneses to make the donation.

On a crisp morning in May 1939, a rented and nearly worn-out crimson-and-cream Lincoln-Page biplane took off from one of Har-lem Airports grass runways, headed east in the direction of the nations capital. The fragile, decade-old ship was propitiously yet incongruously nicknamed Old Faithful. Spencer and White were on their way, carry-ing the hopes and dreams not only of their Chicago colleagues but of African Americans nationwide who followed riveting accounts of the fl ight in the black press.

Before the day was over, the weary Lincoln-Page had precipi-tated three forced landings, the last being the most serious. The engines crankshaft had broken at cruise, which turned the heavily laden ship into a faltering glider. White was the more accomplished pilot, so he was on the controls. He masterfully guided the stricken air-craft onto a farmers fi eld, narrowly averting collision with a barn.

The downed pilots were gripped by concern over how they would be received as black men dropping un-announced into a small Ohio farm community. As they dismounted from their disabled biplane, they felt heightened trepidation over the

A symbolic gesture by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had the substantive e ect of jump-starting the Army ight training program for blacks at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. While on a visit to the institute in March 1941, she went for a local scenic ight in a Piper Cub with C. Alfred Chief Anderson at the controls. Never before had a member of any rst family been taken aloft by an African American pilot.


VINTAGE AIRPLANE 17

prospect of meeting the farmer and his neighbors. If the community into which they had descended by a quirk of fate proved to be hostile, it might mean the end of the fl ight or worse.

Fortuitously the farmer harbored no racial prejudice. Edward Miller, a lifelong farmer whose German ancestors settled in the area many years before, heartily welcomed the two unexpected visitors who had quite literally fallen from the sky. In fact, Miller arranged meals and lodging for the fatigued pilots at a tavern in town. Meanwhile Spencer and White sent word of the needed repair to Coffey back in Chicago.

Two days later, after raising $54 for the needed parts, Coffey arrived by car to start work on the engine and get Old Faithful back into the air. The townspeople hadnt had excite-ment like this at any time in mem-ory. As word spread, they came to see the biplane and lent a helping hand with every opportunity. They also picked up the tab for the fl iers stay.

Millers children didnt want the fliers to leave. Spencer and White looked so gallant in their custom khaki flight outfits; they brought a previously unseen panache into the life of the sleepy farmstead. The ex-troverted Spencer especially evoked the swashbucklers persona. Indeed, more than a half-century later, one of those children said, The experience with Chauncey is the most wondrous thing that happened to me in my whole life. It gives you a good heart.

The fl iers were thankful for their re-prieve and resumed the fl ight as soon as the engine fi red back up. In his au-tobiography published 36 years later, Spencer wrote of his hosts: They were a gracious group of people . . .

During subsequent stops, not ev-eryone was so kind. At an airport in West Virginia, the two pilots werent permitted to stay over-night; they were shooed away. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, they had a run-in with authorities who threatened to ground them.

At their main destination of Washington, Spencer and White were escorted through the halls of

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Congress by Edgar G. Browna civil rights activist and representa-tive of government employeeswho knew his way around Capitol Hill. Among the Congressmen to whom the fliers were introduced was the silken-voiced Everett Dirk-sen, Republican of Illinois. Spencer was particularly put off by this en-counter because it seemed to him that Dirksen was interested only in the photo op.

Its entirely possible that Dirksen was motivated by expediency, but he did sponsor a nondiscrimina-tion clause in civil aeronautics leg-islation. Even more momentous, a generation later as Senate minority leader he threw his weight behind the landmark civil rights legislation masterminded by his political nem-esis President Lyndon Johnson.

The highlight of the lobby-ing effort came inadvertently. As the fl iers and their escort were be-tween Congressional visits, walk-ing down a stairwell, a little-known

senator from Missouri came upon them and recognized Brown. They talked, and the senator, Harry Tru-man, agreed to meet with Spencer and White at the airport across the Potomac where they had parked Old Faithful.

At the airport, the future president showed a genuine interest. Spencer and White offered him a ride, which he promptly declined. Instead, he peppered them with questions.

For their part, Spencer and White pleaded for equal treatment in avi-ation. This was their moment and they played it to the hilt. Beyond the civilian fl ight training being planned at the time, they asked that the Army Air Corps be opened to blacks.

For years to come, Spencer de-lighted in relating the answer. Truman, who had scrutinized the ragged-looking Lincoln-Page, re-sponded, If you had guts enough to fly that thing I see there, that plane, I got guts enough to fi ght to get you into the Air Corps.


18 FEBRUARY 2012

Passing the Torch:Flights to Freedom

Nine years after chatting with the pilots of Old Faithful, Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which in one fell swoop in-tegrated the armed forces and pro-duced a salutary ripple effect that continues to run through society. Historians have pointed out that Trumans memoirs dont men-tion the meeting with Spencer and White, nor do any of the exhaus-tive biographies on the president. In truth, there were various fac-tors bearing on Trumans decision, which was perhaps his most coura-geous in public offi ce. It was made in an election year that started out as an uphill proposition for the in-cumbent. Moreover, opinion polls showed the electorate overwhelm-ingly opposed to integration.

According to the historical con-sensus, the main factor that in-fluenced Truman to compel the integration of the armed forces was his revulsion over the violence that had been directed at some black veterans. As a veteran himself, Tru-man had a visceral distaste for the abusive way these former service members were treated. Years af-ter his decision, a previously un-known letter, written to a friend in the heat of the integration contro-versy, was discovered. In the letter, Truman referred to examples where black veterans had been affected by

race-related malevolence and stated that he would rather lose the elec-tion than not initiate the measure to end segregation in the military.

Of course, the undeniable air combat success during World War II of the Tuskegee Airmen, the Ar-mys first black pilots, must have been a contributing determinant. Additionally civil rights groups kept the pressure on. In the mix of factors impacting the process, its hard to imagine that the discus-sion Truman had with Spencer and White, despite its historical obscu-rity, didnt fi gure to some degree in

his paradigm-changing decision. At the very least, the impassioned

plea of the pilots of Old Faithful was a wave in the mounting riptide that eventually tipped the balance. Spencer and White were integral to the succession of dreamers who passed the torch from one to the next until the skys artifi cial barriers were removed. Each fl ight that nav-igated on the course to freedom, no matter how humble or faded in memory by the passage of time, contributed in some measure to the resulting benefi cence.

Until he died in 2002 at the age of 95, Spencer remained spry and continued to believe that his en-counter with the future president had made the difference. Be that as it may, a few months after he and White fi nished their epic Chi-cago-to-Washington flight in Old Faithful, they returned to the farm community in Ohio that had ac-corded them such warmth and friendship. For a day they gave the townspeople plane rides. Sharing the province in which their every breath savored freedom in its pur-est form was the ultimate expres-sion of their respect and gratitude for fellow citizens who had hon-ored their dream.

SOURCES AND FURTHER READINGHardesty, Von; Pisano, Dominick. Black Wings: The American Black in Aviation.

Washington, D.C.: National Air and Space Museum/Smithsonian Institution, 1983.Hardesty, Von. Black Wings: Courageous Stories of African Americans in Avia-

tion and Space History. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution/Harper Collins Publishers, 2008.

Hardesty, Von. Great Aviators and Epic Flights. Fair eld, Connecticut: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 2002.

Lamber tson, Giles. The other Harlem: at a small air eld in 1930s Chicago, blacks found the rst schools that would teach them to y. Air & Space/Smith-sonian, February/March 2010.

Laris, Michael. Fr eedom ight: Chauncey Spencer and Dale White risked life and limb to y a rickety, rented biplane from Chicago to Washington. But their real destination was the futur e. The Washington Post, February 16, 2003.

Powell, William J. Black Aviator: The Story of William J. Powell (reissue of Black Wings. 1934). W ashington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Pr ess, 1994.

Rich, Doris L. Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Pr ess, 1993.

Spencer, Chauncey E. Who Is Chauncey Spencer? Detroit, Michigan: Br oad-side Pr ess, 1975.

In May 1939, Chauncey E. Spencer and Dale L. White ew from Chicago to Washington, D.C., in a Lincoln-Page biplane nicknamed Old Faithful. Shown here being congratulated on their return, White is in the center shaking hands with Cornelius R. Co ey, a leader of African American avi-ation in Chicago. Spencer is second from right.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTThe author is grateful for the assistance of the Tuskegee Airmen Na-tional Historical Museum in Detroit, Michigan.


This years forecast: yellow skies and black lightning

The Oshkosh sky will become a sea of yellow this year as hundreds of Piper Cubs migrate to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2012. Its all part of the week-long celebration of the iconic aircrafts 75th anniversary.

The pioneering light aircraft will be honored throughout the week with special features and attractions, including two unforgettable air show acts.

You dont want to miss it.

Cub owners who wish to participate in the mass arrival can register at www.Cubs2Oshkosh.org July 23-29 | AirVenture.org/tickets


20 FEBRUARY 2012

The weather was now cold but clear, and it was a simple matter to follow the coastline south. The

volcanoes Vesuvius and Stromboli provided unmistakable landmarks. Along the eastern shoreline of Sic-ily he flew and then headed out over the Mediterranean toward the island of Malta. This was a 60-mile overwater fl ight. Presumably by the time he began to lose sight of Sicily astern, altitude made it possible for him to sight Malta ahead.

People at the R.A.F. field there gave him a grand welcome and much help. It rained all night, and in the morning the field was soggy. The Avian had old-style slim, high-pressure tires that cut into the soft ground and resulted in an apprehen-sively long takeoff run.

Ahead of Hinkler lay a 400-mile fl ight over open water to Benghazi in Libya. At least hed be heading for a broad coastline that he could, if need be, follow one way or the other to find that destination. Six hours later he touched down on North Af-rican soil, refueled, and headed east along the coastline for Tobruk. The approach of darkness obliged him to set down in the desert about 40

miles short of that city. He infl ated the rubber boat, overturned it, and found that it made a reasonably comfortable bed.

When morning came, local peo-ple pulled many bushes from the sand to clear a suitable takeoff path. And then at Tobruk, he learned that the Egyptian government now re-quired 15 days notice before over-fl ying or landing in that country. So from Tobruk he flew out over the Mediterranean far enough to give Egypt a wide berth. Eight hours later he decided to set down in the des-ert in a part of Palestine then un-der British rule and possibly what is now called the Gaza Strip.

Again locals helped him. He got airborne and followed the coast-line north to land at the R.A.F. field at Ramleh, a dozen miles southeast of Tel Aviv, where he ran into more problems with offi cialdom. There was a diphtheria scare in the region, and Hinkler had no health papers with him. This required a trip into town to get medical clearance. Then bureau-crats insisted that he must fill out a sheaf of customs papers. This wasted a whole day.

The following morning he took off and headed a bit southeast toward

Basra, 1,000 miles away over the vast Syrian Desert. He sailed over the Dead Sea and then began to climb to clear a 5,000-foot-high mountain range. The air was very hot, the engine was noisy, and sitting in one position for hours on end led to cramps. Then out over the lonely desert. Whatever cross-winds might do to his navigation, he knew that sooner or later his heading would lead him to the broad valley of the Euphrates River, which he could follow downstream to Basra. His spir-its leaped when at last he caught sight of green foliage far ahead.

At Basra he was informed that he was five days ahead of the Smiths 1919 time. Thus encouraged, he went over the Cirrus engine carefully be-fore going to bed. He did these checks just as often as he could, and they no doubt played a large part in the suc-cess of his fl ight.

He took off at dawn for Jask on the shore of the Persian Gulf. That was a tiny, bleak settlement maintained by the India-to-Europe telegraph company. Because it had a primitive landing fi eld a few miles out of town, and had telegraph facilities and a few British telegraph people in residence, it was a valuable stopping place for pioneer fl iers traveling the England-

Light Plane Heritagepublished in EAA Experimenter February 1993

Editors Note: The Light Plane Heritage series in EAAs Experimenter magazine often touched on aircraft and concepts related to vintage aircraft and their history. Since many of our members have not had the opportunity to read this se-ries, we plan on publishing those LPH articles that would be of interest to VAA members. Enjoy!HGF

TWELVE THOUSAND MILESIN AN AVRO AVIAN

Part 2BY BOB WHITTIER

EAA 1235


VINTAGE AIRPLANE 21

India-Australia route. The day was very hot and hazy,

the fl ying monotonous, and the en-gine noise incessant. The Cirrus had a short exhaust stack that ended sev-eral feet ahead of the cockpit, and its exposed valve rocker arms emit-ted a steady clatter to add to the mis-ery. Hinkler fought off hallucinations. Jask looked like paradise when the weary fl ier fi nally landed.

While refueling the next morn-ing, Hinkler was distressed to notice that the large fuel tank had started to leak. He counted the drops to cal-culate the rate of fuel loss, and it ap-peared that he could with luck reach the next stop, Karachi, on the west coast of India.

So he took off, and as hour after hour passed it began to appear that hed reach his destination. After a

nerve-wracking seven hours aloft, he landed with a sigh of relief at the R.A.F. field in Karachi. This meant that he was now halfway to Austra-lia. For the rest of the day and on past midnight he and R.A.F. mechanics worked to fi nd and fi x the fuel leak.

Someone passed along to Hinkler the welcome news that he had set a new lightplane record from England to India. He was also strongly advised

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In addition to being an experienced pilot, Hinkler was a superb mechanic. Car e-ful inspection and ser vicing of the engine befor e each leg of his long jour ney contributed much to its success.

Eight hours

later he

decided to set

down in the

desert in a part

of Palestine

then under

British rule

and possibly

what is now

called the

Gaza Strip.


22 FEBRUARY 2012

that his thin pilots helmet would cer-tainly not protect him from the blaz-ing Indian sun, and hed likely suffer sunstroke. So he obtained a topee, the Indian word for a pith helmet.

By now, newspapers had begun to notice what was going on and got excited. Some of them came up with such unfortunate phrases as Hus-tling Hinkler and Hinkle, Hinkle, Little Star! a sad play on his name and shortness. Things like that made him cringe.

He crossed the northern part of In-dia with a halfway stop at Cawnpore. While the topee warded off sunstroke, it left his ears completely unprotected from engine noise and he was totally deaf upon reaching that city. But in-side his head he could still hear the engines clatter.

Departing Cawnpore at sunrise, he fl ew over a mixture of jungle and green cropland, picked up the Gan-ges River, and followed it to Calcutta. There he worked on the engine until

after midnight by the light of a fl ash-light, which attracted very unwel-come insects. In the morning he took off for Rangoon in Burma.

The course he plotted took him 150 miles diagonally across the Bay of Bengal to pick up the Burmese coast near Akyab. Haze and smoke from forest fi res caused very poor visibility. Going by compass, he flew inland, crossed a mountain range, coped with various kinds of clouds, and landed on the racetrack at Rangoon.

The next day he flew 600 miles down the west coast of the Malay Peninsula to a very small town called Victoria Point. The airport there was a small clearing in the jungle. He overnighted in a rubber planters bun-galow and pressed on for Singapore.

A terrific thunderstorm obliged him to make a 50-mile detour, and the ground at the Singapore race-course was so soft the Avian almost nosed over as it landed. It was still raining the next morning, and af-

ter refueling the Avians tires sank so deep into the turf that Hinkler had to ask bystanders to push on the plane to start it rolling.

Again he followed the coastline and islands, using the large one of Banka as a checkpoint. Another go-rilla of a thunderstorm forced a two-hour detour, and Hinkler was happy indeed to glide into the Dutch Fly-ing School fi eld about 50 miles east of Bandung, in what was then Java but is now Indonesia.

Pressing along the length of this island country the next day, he climbed to 10,000 feet to fi nd cool air and incidentally viewed with awe a vast panorama of tropic and ocean scenery. He landed at a small town called Bima on the island of Sumbawa. There he spent a sleep-less, mosquito-plagued night.

The morning of February 22 was a critical one, for if all went well hed end that days flight at Dar-win in northern Australia. Ahead

Pilots of the 1920s did incr edible things with slow biplanes intendedfor training and having no avionics. On this map of Hinklers r oute by EAAer R.E. LaFollette, the distance fr om Por t Dar win to Bundaber g is 1,600 miles over jungle and deser t. Based on par ts from the war surplus RAF V-8 engine, the Cir rus that power ed Hinklers A vian had an over-str ength and ther efore very durable crankshaft, which gave r eliability on long ights. Incorporating les-sons learned from biplanes, the 1929 de Havilland Puss Moth monoplane was powered by an impr oved 100-hp Cir rus. This inver ted engine gr eatly improved forward visibility for navigation by landmarks. Cabin shielded pilots fr om buf fet-ing slipstr eam, cold, rain and tr opical sun, and did away with vital maps being blown overboard. Clean monoplane design boosted speed. Fat tir es were bet-ter for poor air elds.


VINTAGE AIRPLANE 23

of him lay a 900-mile hop over the Timor Sea. The islands of Sumba and Timor provided welcome check-points. Then for fi ve very tense and lonely hours there was nothing but empty ocean below. Hinklers spirits leaped like a kangaroo when at last he made out Bathurst Island on Aus-tralias northern coast.

Around midday a large crown be-gan to gather at Darwins airfield. They waited and waited. Around 5 p.m. many began to drift away in dis-appointment. Then, shortly before 6, a man with a telescope shouted, There he is!

When the Avians tailskid kicked up a plume of Australian dust, Hin-kler knew that at last he had made his 10-year dream come true. He had cut the Smiths time in half. He was hailed mightily by the people of Dar-win. It did not take him long to re-alize that he was to Australia what Lindbergh was to the United States.

Then he flew 1,600 miles over jungle and desert to at long last ar-rive at good old Bundaberg. There followed a tour of the country, with the modest Hinkler squirming through many a ceremony and re-ception where dignitaries tried to outdo one another with flowery prose. He received so many business proposals that it boggled his mind.

But in the end he decided to re-turn to England, where he hoped to realize another dream. The faithful

Avian became a prized display at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane. (The Avian is on display in the same gallery as the Sopwith Baby.)

Hinkler was struck by the many very poor airfields he landed on in the course of his long fl ights, and at the same time by the vast number of

bodies of water he had looked down upon. What civil aviation needed, he reasoned, was a good little amphibian.

Making good use of his many con-tacts in the British aero industry, he created what he named the Ibis am-phibian, a light, neat-looking two-seater powered by a pair of Salmson 40-hp radial engines made in France. They were mounted in tractor-pusher fashion in a nacelle above the wings center section.

It was a good, practical aircraft, but by 1930 the Great Depression that followed the Wall Street stock mar-ket crash of 1929 had all but killed off the manufacture of small planes. Hinkler went to the United States and Canada in 1931 hoping to fi nd back-ers, on the theory that the vastness of the North American continent might provide a market. But business was going from bad to worse.

In Canada Hinkler bought a three-seat, 115-hp version of the de Havil-land Puss Moth cabin monoplane and set up a charter service catering

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Following his r emarkable 1928 ight, Ber t Hinklers A vro Avian was put on dis-play in the Queensland Museum in Brisbane. It can still be seen ther e.

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24 FEBRUARY 2012

to businessmen. This, too, was a dis-appointment. Some people began to say Hinkler was never offered a job worthy of his ability. But the Depres-sion was hard on many, many other people, too.

In October of 1931 he gave up on North America and undertook what some felt was a last, rash effort. He flew the Puss Moth from New York to Jamaica in the Caribbean and pressed on to Natal on the Brazilian coast. There, telling people little of his plans, he sent a cryptic telegraph message to Nancy in London. It read, Heres hoping!

Then he took off. Twenty-two hours later Nancy received an-other telegram. It read, Landed at Bathurst, Gambia. O.K. Bert. He fl ew up the coast of Africa, crossed Spain and France, and landed at Hanworth Airpark in Middlesex. Aviation people greeted him as a ce-lebrity, but the business community in 1932 had about as much enthu-

siasm for light aircraft ventures as for a scheme to build bridges out of balsa wood. About all the very frus-trated Hinkler could think of was to try to get the useful Ibis into pro-duction in his vast homeland of Australia. Perhaps he was driven by desperation, as were so many oth-ers in those grim Depression years. Delayed by bad weather, he did not get off from Feltham aerodrome un-til 3 in the afternoon of February 7, 1933. He crossed France and headed down the Italian peninsula.

After surmounting the Alps he must have been chilled numb. A high wind was blowing, there were clouds and snow, and darkness had fallen. Not knowing where he was, Hinkler crashed into an Appenine mountain-side. Snow covered the wrecked plane and dead pilot, and it was not until late April that local mountain men came upon the scene.

Sympathetic Italians gave Hinkler a military funeral and buried him in

a Florence cemetery. There was talk of reinterring him in Australia, but nothing came of it.

A waste of talent? Undoubt-edly. Yet, other gallant airmen met their ends while striving mightily for achievement in the fi eld they so loved. Other fliers in small planes made remarkable long-distance flights in the 1920s and into the 1930s. Call them stunts if you wish; the fact is they taught many lessons and highlighted the great need for better airfields, radios, instruments, and planes.

The slow biplanes having shown what could be done, designers went to work on faster monoplanes. To-day, small planes make long fl ights as a matter of course. We owe pio-neers like Hinkler much respect and gratitude. What they did led to to-days growing use of aircraft to bring together people from all over the world in a spirit of friendship and mutual understanding.

Upon his ar rival in England after the 1932 ight from Brazil, Hinkler was given a r ousing welcome by avia-tion people, but the public paid little attention due to being preoccupied with a ver y depressed economy .

Aviation people greeted

him as a celebrity, but the

business community in

1932 had about as much

enthusiasm for light

aircraft ventures as for a

scheme to build bridges

out of balsa wood.


V E H I C L E P U R C H A S E P L A N

2 0 1 2 F o r d E x p l o r e r Drive one.

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The Privilege of PartnershipEAA members are eligible for special pricing on Ford Motor Company vehicles through Fords Partner Recognition Program. To learn more on this exclusive opportunity for EAA members to save on a new Ford vehicle, please visit www.eaa.org/ford.


26 FEBRUARY 2012

Monocoque (pronounced mon-o-cock) is a French word meaning single shell. The first wood shell monocoque structure was developed by the Swiss designer Ruchonnet and applied to a Deperdussin monoplane raced by Louis Bchereau in 1912. In the monocoque design, the skin carries all fl ight loads, re-sulting in a more streamlined airplane. Just look at this beautiful ship shown in Illustration 1.

ILLUSTRATION 1

The fi rst plane to break the 124-mph barrier, and the fi rst Schneider Tro-phy winner, was Armand Deperdussins mono-plane. It fl ew as the speed phenomenon of the years before the First World War. The plane was developed early in 1912 by Louis Bchereau, the designer for the Societe pour les Appareils Deper-dussin. Bchereau worked from an idea by Swedish engineer Ruchonnet and developed a streamlined monocoque plywood fuselage with a large spinner. To achieve maximum power, two Gnome rotaries were mounted on a common crankshaft. The first note-worthy achievement of this plane was the 1912 Gor-don Bennett Cup, which it won with a speed of 108.1 mph. The plane won the cup again the following year on September 29, 1913, in Reims, France. Maurice Prvost achieved an average of 124.6 mph. During this race the plane beat the world speed record three times, and its maximum speed was 126.7 mphan amazing feat almost ten years after the Wright Broth-ers fi rst fl ew a heavier-than-air ship in 1903. Powering the ship were two Gnome seven-cylinder air-cooled rotary motors mounted to a common crankshaft. One wonders how they did that! Illustration 2 is pho-tograph of this beautiful ship.

In 1918 in the United States, a young designer named John Northrop developed a new method to construct a monocoque fuselage for the Loughead S-1 biplane. Northrop and Anthony Tony Stadlman, Loughead superintendent of construction, began de-signing and building a dream plane for returning WWI pilots. During the months after the war, they fab-ricated a mold from concrete in which two plywood

half shells could be fabricated in a relatively short period of time. The Deperdussin technique required

that many small strips of ply-wood be glued over a form, a very lengthy process. Rather Northrop used three plies of spruce strips soaked with

glue and laid in a semicircular concrete mold. A release paper was

laid over the spruce strips, and a rub-ber bag was placed over the wood. Then a lid

was bolted over the mold, and the rubber bag infl ated to press the plywood against the mold.

Twenty-four hours later, after the glue cured, the bag

BY ROBERT G. LOCK

Monocoque Structures

THE Vintage Mechanic

ILLUSTRATION 2The 1912 version of the Deper dussin-Bcher eau Model D. Sitting in fr ont are four of its pilots, Guillaume Bus-son, Ren Vidar t, Jules V edrines, and Maurice Pr evost.


VINTAGE AIRPLANE 27

was defl ated and the lid removed to expose a smooth half-shell. Illustrations 3 and 4 depict the molds that produced left and right side shells, which reduced the time needed to produce skins from days to just 20 min-utes, not including cure time. The two half shells were less than a quarter-inch thick. Left, in this Lockheed archives photo, we get a peek inside the small factory building in 1919. In Illustration 3, workmen have just removed a fuselage skin from the mold. The lid can be seen hoisted above the heavy mold. This early process is very similar to modern composite fabrication using a mold; however, todays molds arent made from con-crete. For composite fabrication, composite molds are used.

In Illustration 4, two workmen hold the fuselage with one hand to demonstrate its lightweight construction. One-half of the outer shell has been glued in place to form a background to show the bulkheads. There are no stringers or other structural compo-nents in the fuselage.

Illustration 5 shows the Loughead S-1 folding wing biplane, constructed in 1919 by designer John Northrop. This molding process would be perfected and used later to produce the famous Lockheed Vega.

In 1927, Northrop designed the famous Lockheed Vega based on his experience with the S-1. In Illustration 6 is a shot of Lockheed Vega serial number 1. The design phi-losophy of the fuselage and empennage carried over to the Vega from the S-1. Note the similarity of vertical fi n and rudder planform. Northrop, Stadlman, and the Lougheads, Allen and Malcom, devised and patented a process to make molded plywood monocoque fuselage shells (U.S. Patent #1,425,113, August 8, 1922).

ILLUSTRATION 3

ILLUSTRATION 5

ILLUSTRATION 4

ILLUSTRATION 6

The fi rst plane to

break the 124-mph

barrier, and the

fi rst Schneider

Trophy winner,

was Armand

Deperdussins

monoplane.


28 FEBRUARY 2012

Illustration 7 shows the Lockheed factory located in Burbank, California, with Vega aircraft under con-struction. Cantilever wing is in foreground with aile-ron clamped to apply pressure to the glue. Fuselage bulkheads can be seen hanging from rafters with three ships under construction. To the right is a spar assem-bly ready for fabrication of another wing panel.

In Illustration 8, bulkheads are assembled on keel, ready to receive plywood skins in this Lockheed as-sembly line photograph. Note there are no stringers in the structure to aid in carrying fl ight loads. The stress skin carries all the loads. Bulkheads are fabricated from laminated spruce.

ILLUSTRATION 7

ILLUSTRATION 8


VINTAGE AIRPLANE 29

To the wealthy guy goes all the toys! Heres Los An-geles tycoon car dealer Earle C. Anthony, his 1920 Packard model 6-26 Runabout, and his Lockheed Vega. His deale

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Vintage Airplane Vol.40 No.02 (2012-02)

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