vintage airplane - jul 2012

8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 2012

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july 2012


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Thanks to our presenting sponsor,

Piper Aircraft, with additional support provided by Univair!


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2 Straight and Level AirVenture—Where has the time gone? by Geoff Robison

3 News

7 Mike Araldi’s ‘Flying Diary’ An alluring Waco AGC-8 by Sparky Barnes Sargent

14 The Origin Of The Cub Happy 75th Anniversary to the Piper Cub! by Clyde Smith Jr.

19 Light Plane Heritage The Radial Engine Story by Bob Whittier

26 The Hunter Brothers, Part 2 A flying family from Sparta, Illinois

by Robert H. Hayes

30 The Vintage Mechanic Cantilever and Semicantilever Wings by Robert G. Lock

33 Chapter Locator

34 The Vintage Instructor Wind, takeoff, and traffic patterns, Part 2 by Steve Krog, CFI

36 Mystery Plane by H.G. Frautschy

A I R P L A N E J U L Y

C O N T E N T S

S T A F FEAA Publisher Rod HightowerDirector of EAA Publications J. Mac McClellan

Executive Director/Editor H.G. FrautschyBusiness Manager Kathleen WitmanSenior Art Director Olivia P. Trabbold

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

Vol. 40, No. 7 2012

7

14

JIM KOEPNICK

JIM KOEPNICK


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The t ime has come ! By

the time you receive this

month’s edition of Vintage

Airplane magazine, a large

number of the VAA volunteers will

already be on the EAA grounds of

AirVenture Oshkosh, frantically

working toward the opening day.

We have lots of challenges to meet

for this year’s event. As I informed

you earlier, your Vintage Aircraft

Association has taken on all of the

responsibilities related to the daily

operation of the EAA Aeromart at

AirVenture this year. Then, we are

hosting the dozens and dozens of

Piper Cubs that are scheduled toarrive for the 75th anniversary cel-

ebration of the venerable Piper Cub.

Where will we park them all? Don’t

worry, we have a plan!

And what a show it’s shaping

up to be. We have experienced a

strong response from a large num-

ber of Vintage members as well asnon-members who are planning to

attend. So, be sure to go to www.

AirVenture.org and check it all out.

The EAA staff has again managed

to put together another exceptional

lineup of performers and events for

again looking good, as pre-sale (dis-

counted) tickets are selling at a fast

pace. For all you campers planning

to attend AirVenture again this year,

you will likely want to stop by the

VAA Red Barn and take advantage of

the VAA charging station for all your

personal electronic devices. This is

now the third year of operation for

this service, which is provided to all

attendees of AirVenture 2012. All we

and VAA administrative assistant The-

resa Books have been hard at work

throughout this spring getting the

VAA retail merchandise store up and

ready for AirVenture. Their much

appreciated hard work will again be

thoroughly enjoyed by our members

who come by the store each year to

shop the ever-changing lineup of VAA

shirts, caps, and all kinds of various

aviation-related products. Be sure to

stop by and visit with us at the Red

Barn store again this year.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Many of you are very aware of my

long-term involvement in the EAA’sB-17 program. This is a program that

I have always touted as one of EAA’s

premier outreach programs. This

program has touched so many peo-

ple who either served in World War

II, or those who had relatives who

served and were lost, or simply those

individuals we so fondly refer to as“the greatest generation.” So many

of these fine folks were scheduled to

come fly with us in Denver, Colorado,

during the second week of June 2012,

but fate stepped in and dealt the pro-

gram a serious setback when a com-

Geoff Robison

EAA #268346, VAA #12606

president, VAA

STRAIGHT & LEVEL

AirVenture—Where has the time gone?

Even us big kids ar esure to get a huge

charge out of

the ever popular ,

always enhanced,night air show on

Saturday with all

the pyrotechnics and

airplane noise.


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What’s in the Vintage Hangar? Monday through Friday you’ll

find your favorite airplane type

clubs, ready to talk Cub or Funk

or Stinson or Waco, and a host

of others. Come in and visit. The

metal-shaping workshops are in thesound-proof room on the south side

of the hangar. And your friendly

A&P-IA, Joe Norris, will be sharing

his knowledge of things you can do

to maintain your airplane. He’ll be

in the front of the hangar, in the

senting, where, and when can be,

in a word, challenging. The EAA

AirVenture Oshkosh website has an

online tool that can make this task

simple when you use the integrated

AirVenture schedule.

Located atwww.AirVenture.org

un-der “Attractions” and then under

“Activities, Presentations & Work-

shops,” the database includes all

the venues, subjects and topics, pre-

senters, and events from not only

Forums and Workshops, but also

print it out for future reference.

A quick link to this new schedule

is www.AirVenture.org/schedule.

Grass Runways and FuelAlso on our VAA website, we

publish a list created by VAA mem-ber Kris Kortokrax.

Kris flies a variety of old bi-

planes that are more pleasant to

fly when they are flown from grass

strips, and he and his buddies from

Shelbyville, Illinois, do their best to

VAA NEWSTo help members who fl y in to

understand the layout of the con-vention area administered by the

VAA, we’ve prepared this simpli-

fied map. As you can see, Cub

camping star ts at Row 74 on

the east side of the main nor th/

south road (Wittman Road), with

the areas to the nor th of that line

set up to handle display-only vin-

tage aircraft. That’s why you maysee open areas as you taxi south

to your camping location. Pilots

who arrive early for a camping

spot on the west side of the r oad

will begin camping star ting in ap-

proximately Row 61; our Flightline

Safety staf f may have to adjust

the exact row number depending

on demand for antique parkingand antique camping spots.

Once you arrive, you’ll need to r egister your aircraft and/or campsite. In addition to r oving registration vehicles, ther e is one main

Showplane Registration building, located just south of the V AA Red Barn (see map). The EAA convention campgr ounds are private

campgrounds and ar e not open to non-EAA members. Each campsite must be r egistered by a cur rent EAA member .

Another immediate benefi t of VAA membership is your fr ee VAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2012 Par ticipant Plaque, which you can

pick up in the r ear of the Red Bar n.

EAA and VAA memberships ar e available at both Showplane Registration and the membership booth located under the V AA Wel-

come Arch, northeast of the Red Bar n at the cor ner of Wittman Road and V ern Avenue as well as inside the Red Bar n, near the in-

formation desk.


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Our thanks to Kris for sharing his

list. Let us know if you find it useful!

VAA’s Portable ElectronicsCharging Station

Do your rechargeable personalelectronics such as your cell phone

or computer go dead before AirVen-

ture’s over? VAA has the solution to

your problem!

Immediately west of the VAA Red

Barn we will be providing the ability

to revitalize those indispensable cell

phones, computers, iPods, etc. Turnoff your item and bring it and its 120

VAC charger to our charging station.

Leave it with the attendant—we’ll

give you a claim check. Bring back

the claim check in a few hours and

receive your equipment all charged

up and ready to go. VAA and its vol-

unteers are providing this service to

EAA members for whatever dona-tion you feel is appropriate.

Breakfast and a Briefing The VAA Tall Pines Café will be

in operation again this year withan expanded schedule prior to

convention, and fly-in-style pan-

cake and egg breakfasts duringEAA AirVenture Oshkosh. Starting

on Friday morning, July 20, and

continuing through Sunday, July

22, the VAA Tall Pines Café will be

open for breakfast (6:30 a.m. to

9:30 a.m.) and dinner (4:30 p.m. to

7:30 p.m.). Starting Monday, July

23, only breakfast will be served

at the Tall Pines Café (6:30 a.m. to

9:30 a.m.) through Saturday, July

28. Just to the north, a flight ser-

vice station (FSS) trailer will be lo-

cated near the café. At the trailer

you’ll be able to check the weather

name badge. We can also point

out the location for the Ford Tri-

Motor rides. If you have any ques-tions, feel free to ask for Theresa

Books, the VAA administrative as-

sistant. If you need to reach her inadvance of your arrival, call her at

EAA Headquarters, 920-426-6110.

Our thanks to each of you who

have contributed to the VAA Friends

of the Red Barn 2012 campaign.

We’ll have the list of contributors on

a large poster at the Red Barn during

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, as wellas in the October edition of Vintage

Airplane. We also update the total

listing on the Internet in October.

VAA Picnic andCubs 2 Oshkosh Dinner

Join us for the annual VAA pic-

nic, which will be a joint event with

the Cubs 2 Oshkosh dinner. It will

be held Wednesday, July 25, at the

EAA Nature Center. Tickets will be

available for sale at the VAA Red

Barn and in advance at the Hart-ford, Wisconsin, airport during the

Cub celebration activities hosted by

the Cub Club. Tickets must be pur-

chased in advance so we know howmuch food to order. The delicious

meal will be served from 5:30 p.m.

until approximately 8 p.m; this

year, to accommodate an increased

demand, there will be two seatings

for the meal. If you need transpor-

tation, trams will begin leaving the

VAA Red Barn around 5 p.m. and

will make return trips after the pic-

nic. Type clubs may also hold their

annual banquets during the picnic.

Call Jeannie Hill (815-245-4464),

and she will reserve seating so your

type club can sit together.

sometimes nothing works betterthan a hand-scribbled note!

Shawano Fly-OutThe annual fly-out to Shawano is

Saturday, July 28. The sign-up sheetwill be at the desk at the VAA Red

Barn, and the briefing will be at 7

a.m., the morning of the fly-out.

The community of Shawano, ap-

proximately an hour north of

Oshkosh (as the Cub flies), puts

forth a lot of effort to sponsor

this event. Shawano’s residents doa great job of hosting us, and we

hope you’ll help us thank Shawano

by joining us on the flight.

VAA Red Barn StoreThe VAA Red Barn Store, chock-

full of VAA logo merchandise and

other great gear, will be open all

week long, Monday through Satur-

day, 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Early-bird

arrivals can shop on the pre-con-

vention weekend as well, during

limited hours.

VAA Volunteer OpportunitiesAre you an ace pancake flipper?

If you’re not one yet, we can help!The VAA Tall Pines Café is looking

for volunteers who can help pro-

vide a hearty breakfast to all the

hungry campers on the south end

of Wittman Field. If you could lend

a hand for a morning or two, we’d

appreciate it.

If that’s not your cup of tea, feel

free to check with the VAA Vol-

unteer Center, located just to the

northeast of the VAA Red Barn. The

volunteers who operate the booth

will be happy to tell you when your

help is needed each day. It doesn’t


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Aeromart, the world’s largest air-

craft parts swap, will now be admin-

istered and run by the volunteersof the Vintage Aircraft Association.

This great venue allows you to turn

old parts into cash, with the addedsatisfaction that you have helped

other EAA members complete their

restorations or projects. Aeromart

is located in a great spot right next

to the northeast corner of Camp

Scholler—making it easier for

campers to transport their parts to

the tent for consignment sale. Sim-ply bring over the parts you wish

to sell when you arrive and regis-

ter. Just pay a $1 per sales tag fee

to Aeromart, and we’ll sell the part

for you. Twelve percent of the sale

supports EAA and its Vintage Air-

craft Association. Before you leaveEAA AirVenture Oshkosh, stop by

to pick up any unsold items, then

a check for your sale (minus the

12 percent commission and 5 per-

cent sales tax) will be mailed to

you. It’s that easy! For more infor-mation about selling items, visit

www.Aeromart.webs.com. If you

are interested in volunteer-

ing at Aeromart, contact theAeromart chairman by e-mail

at [email protected].

VAA Judging Categories and AwardsThe VAA’s internationally recog-

nized judging categories are:

•Antique: Aircraft built prior toSeptember 1, 1945

•Classic: September 1, 1945 toDecember 31, 1955

•Contemporary: January 1, 1956to December 31, 1970

Any aircraft built within those

years is eligible to park in the

winners. Judging closes at noon

on Friday, July 27. The Awards

Ceremony will be held Saturday

evening, July 30 at 6 p.m. in theVintage Hangar just south of the

VAA Red Barn.

Designated Smoking AreasNear FlightlineSmoking on the flightline at EAA

AirVenture Oshkosh is prohibited

because it’s a hazard to all aircraft.

There are several designated smok-

ing areas with butt cans along theflightline, well away from aircraft

and refueling operations.

Designated smoking areas will

be south of the ultralight runway;

near the Hangar Café; near the

Warbirds area (northeast corner

of Audrey Lane and Eide Avenue);

the Wearhouse flagpole area; the

shade pavilion north of the con-

trol tower; and near the UltralightBarn. Locations will be indicated

on EAA’s free convention grounds

map. The admission wristband

also instructs visitors that smok-

ing is allowed only in designated

smoking areas.

More on the WebVisit www.AirVenture.org for

more information on EAA AirVen-

ture Oshkosh 2012.

EAA AirVenture Is Almost Here . . . Are You Ready?

Just a few short weeks from now,

many of you will make the annual

pilgrimage to Oshkosh for EAA

AirVenture 2012. Are you ready?

Here are several handy online

tools on the AirVenture website

that can help you take care of any

2012 VAA Hall of Fame InducteeLongtime Piper restoration ex-

pert Clyde Smith Jr. has been se-

lected as the 2012 VAA Hall ofFame inductee. The induction cere-

mony will take place the evening of

Thursday, November 15, 2012. His

expertise with regard to the resto-

ration and maintenance of the fab-

ric-covered series of Piper aircraft

is second to none. Smith’s willing-

ness to share his expertise is leg-

endary; since the 1970s he’s hosted

forums at the Sun ’n Fun fly-in and

the EAA fly-in in Oshkosh, and for

nearly two decades he’s conducted

a series of how-to seminars around

the country, teaching people what

to look for when restoring a Piper

and the skills necessary to recover

an airplane. Clyde was one of thepeople instrumental in the creation

of the yearly event that is now the

Mecca for Cub enthusiasts, Senti-

mental Journey to Cub Haven fly-

in which takes place every June.

A t t di t Cl d

CLYDE SMITH JR.


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Site Mapwww.AirVenture.org/planning/

schedules_maps.html

Where to Stay

www.AirVenture.org/planning/ where_to_stay.html

AirVenture NOTAMwww.AirVenture.org/flying

Alternate Airports and Waypointswww.AirVenture.org/flying/

alternate_airports.html

Get Your EAA AirVenture 2012NOTAM Booklet

With only a few days to go until

this year’s EAA AirVenture, if you’re

flying here to Oshkosh, you can

download copies of the EAA AirVen-

ture Oshkosh 2012 Notice to Airmen

(NOTAM) directly from the Inter-

net at www.AirVenture.org/flying .

The NOTAM contains the special

flight procedures in effect for Witt-

man Regional Airport and alternate

airports from 6 a.m. CDT on Friday,

July 20, to 11:59 p.m. CDT on Mon-

day, July 30, 2012. Please note a

change extending the NOTAM effec-tive time into Monday morning, and

there are changes to some of the VFR

arrival procedures from last year’s NO-

TAM. All pilots who fly into the event

are expected to know the special flight

procedures prior to arrival. EAA Air-

Venture Oshkosh runs from July 23

through July 29. For additional EAA

AirVenture Oshkosh 2012 informa-

tion, including advance ticketing pur-

chases, visit www.AirVenture.org .

Call for VAA Hall of Fame Nominations

To nominate someone is easy. It just takes a little time and a little reminiscing on your part.

•Tink 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, conrming why the person is a good candidate for induction.Tis year’s induction ceremony will be held near the end of October. We’ll have follow-up

information once the date has been 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 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 V AA 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.

Nominate your favorite vintage aviator forthe EAA Vintage Aircraft Association H all ofFame. A great honor could be besto wed uponthat man or woman wor king next to y ou onyour airplane, sitting next to you in the chaptermeeting, or walking next to y ou at EAA Air-Venture Oshkosh. Tink about the people inyour circle of aviation friends: the mechanic,historian, photographer, or pilot who has sharedinnumerable tips with you and with many oth-ers. Tey could be the next VAA Hall of Fameinductee—but only if they are nominated.

Te person you nominate can be a citiz enof any country and may be living or deceased;his or her involvement in vintage aviation must

have occurred between 1950 and the pr esentday. His or her contribution can be in the areasof ying, design, mechanical or aer odynamicdevelopments, administration, writing, someother vital and relevant eld, or any combina-tion of elds that support aviation. Te personyou 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 have con-tributed to the VAA in some way , perhaps asa volunteer, a restorer who shares his expertise

with others, a writer, a photographer, or a pilotsharing stories, preserving aviation history, andencouraging new pilots and enthusiasts.

CALL FOR VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

Nominations


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Mike raldi’s

Mike Araldi’sntiqueAntique

‘Flying‘Flying iary’ Diary’

An alluring Waco AGC-8

by Sparky Barnes Sargent


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his 1931 Great Lakes Special 2T1E and

1938 Custom Cabin Waco AGC-8.The Waco (NC 2312, serial num-

ber 5063) was selected as Reserve

Grand Champion – Antique at Sun

’n Fun International Fly-In & Expo

this spring, aptly reflecting the fact

that Araldi’s love for antiques hasn’t

waned from his early days. “My

brother and father and I just loved

old airplanes,” smiles Araldi, ex-

plaining “in high school, my brother

had an Aeronca C-3, and I had an

Inland Sport. When I was a senior

in high school I bought Stampe bi-

planes out of France and Belgium,

AGC-8

Araldi acquired the AGC-8 fromClark and Anna Pester, who owned

the grand-old cabin biplane for

about two decades—longer than

anyone in its history. “They were

delightful people,” recalls Araldi,

“and the airplane was just sitting up

in Hamilton, Ohio. It was in pretty

rough shape; it had started making

metal due to an engine bearing fail-

ure, so they pretty much parked it. I

bought it in December 1997 with the

idea that it was a project for my dad

and I to work on together. We started

on it, but then kind of stopped. I lost

then pushed the throttle to the fire-

wall. The custom cabin Waco thun-dered down the 3,000-foot grass

strip, abandoning terra firma and

climbing above the trees at the end

of the aerodrome. Home again!

NC-2312

Only 17 AGC-8s were origi-

nally manufactured, and just four

are listed on the registry today.

Aviation historian and author

Joseph Juptner, describing the 1938

custom cabin Wacos in U.S. Civil

Aircraft , writes that they “had that

subtle tailored look that reflected


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2,585 pounds and a gross weight

of 3,800. Its maximum payloadwas 560 pounds with 45 gallons of

fuel, or 260 pounds with the full

95 gallons. The biplane’s upper

wing spans 34 feet, 9 inches, and

its lower wing 24 feet, 6 inches. It

stands tall at 8 feet, 7 inches, and

measures 27 feet, 7 inches from

nose to tail.

According to Waco’s “Airplane

Equipment and History Record”

(document courtesy Andy Heins

of the National Waco Club), NC

2312 flew away from the factory

in Troy, Ohio, all decked out with

According to the aircraft records,

it was sold on September 20, 1938,to Transcontinental & Western

Air Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri,

and delivered two days later .

Unfortunately, it endured perhaps

a bit more than its share of mishaps

during TW&A’s ownership, as ev-

idenced by the replacement parts

(wings, spar, fin, rudder, landing

gear center brace struts, etc.) that

Waco shipped to them. Despite

that, a total of 773:09 flying hours

were recorded by October 1, 1940.

TW&A sold NC-2312 to Vultee

Aircraft Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee,

dozen private owners began, culmi-

nating with Araldi.

Araldi shares that NC 2312

served as “an instrument trainer

for both TW&A and Beard’s Flying

Service,” and that he has recently“met people who flew it back in

the 1940s. One gentleman, Lon

Cooper, flew the airplane back in

1942 and took his checkride in it;

he showed me his logbook entry.”

Restoration

This AGC-8 had been patchedand repaired num erous t imes

through the years, but it entered

its first complete restoration under

Araldi’s guiding and experienced

hands. He turned to fellow mem-

bers of the National Waco Club and

the Antique Airplane Association

for technical knowledge and re-

sources, as well as a certain gentle-man in Louisiana. “David Tyndall

owns the sister ship (NC 2329, S/N

5062, a 1938 EGC-8) to mine, and

he had done a lot of research and

was an enormous help to me.”

The main challenge Araldi expe-

rienced with this Waco’s restoration

was “the sheer size of it! It takes fivepeople to turn a wing over; the upper

wing panels probably weigh close to

300 pounds,” he chuckles, adding

“and they had 1,500 man-hours in

them. My neighbor, John McCloy,

is a master woodworker and did all

the work on the upper wings. The

airplane has brand-new spars and

ribs, the fuselage tubing has been

replaced as needed, and attachment

fittings have been repaired. I learned

how to do all the sheet metal work,

and I did a lot of the sheet metal,

welding, and woodwork myself—

JIM KOEPNICK

Mike Araldi

JIM KOEPNICK

JIM KOEPNICK


12/44

The AGC-8 was the first airplane

that Araldi covered using the Poly-

Fiber Aircraft Coatings system. “I

was always the dope and fabric guy,

and I’ve become a convert,” he

laughs good-naturedly, adding “the

only advice I can give is to follow

the directions in the manual. Don’t

try to change a thing—just abso-

lutely follow it to the letter. If you

don’t, it will end up being a mess.

We built a little paint booth here

at the airport, that the Waco would

not to install the cans through the

fabric with their aluminum caps on

the outside of the fuselage.”

Metal wheelpants were original

to this Waco, and that facet of the

project consumed about a month’s

time. First, Araldi contacted D&D

Classic in Ohio. “They made a re-

verse saddle and sent us the two

halves, then we put them together

and cut and fit them, along with

all the fairings around the gear.

I’ve got a planishing hammer and

Horsepower Radial Engines, LTD in Guthrie,

Oklahoma, overhauled the Jacobs

L-6, and an ADC oil filter system

was installed at that time, as well

as a Jasco alternator. “Steve and

Caleb Curry are good people and

suggested their fuel injection sys-

tem for the engine. The L-6 is a

good engine, but it’s one that can’t

be abused. You really have to stay

on top of it and keep the valves ad-

justed and mind your cylinder head

Poly-Fiber fabric is being installed

over the r estored fuselage frame.

Rear view of the fuselage in Poly-Spray phase. Ron Baumgar tner helped throughout the r estoration.

NC 2312 during r estoration.Installation of the new wing tank.

P H O T O S C O U R T E S Y M I K E A R A L D I


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sweeping glance—the burl walnut

finish on the instrument panel,

the handsome wool headliner,

the carpet-lined baggage compart-

ment, the Ford ashtrays in the door

panels, and the luxurious leatherand broadcloth upholstery (with

memory-foam cushioned seats).

“I got the styling from an original

brochure; there wasn’t much left

of the original interior in the air-

plane when I got it,” he explains,

laughing and adding, “Someone

had used velvets and shag carpetfor the interior back in the 1970s!

We had Mike Duncan of Duncan

Interiors here in Lakeland do the

carpets and upholstery.”

Araldi decided not to use the

homemade instrument panel and

modern instruments that came

with the Waco when he bought it.

So he journeyed back to the han-gar in Ohio, where he discovered

the original instrument panel, with

some of the original instruments

still in it (which he had overhauled

by Instrument Pro in California).

He also discovered TW&A’s origi-

nal fleet number plate with “231”

stamped on it. Since he wanted tokeep the original panel intact, he

says he “built a box that fits verti-

cally between the front seats for the

transponder, encoder, and trans-

ceiver. I can pull four screws and

easily stow it when I don’t need it.”

He wanted the panel itself to

look like burl walnut, so he learned

yet another new skill—how to suc-

cessfully apply a faux paint finish

that looks like wood. He went to

a one-day class offered by Grain-It

Technologies Inc. of Winter Haven

and learned the proper techniques—

Woodgraining

on MetalB Y H.G. F RAUTSCHY

For a number of years

the late Bennie Estes of

Florida offered his wood-

graining on metal ser vices to aircraft, boat, and automotive r estorers. Bennie had

purchased the actual printing plates and other tools fr om the original user—his for-

mer employer, the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio. Some memberswill remember that one of the most outstanding featur es of Densil Williams’ Aer onca

Super Chief r estoration done some years ago was the per fect instrument panel,

which was done by Bennie using the exact plate patter n (Zebrawood) and paints/

woodgrain compounds to match. Now you can do it yourself, thanks to a company

which has followed in his footsteps. Evan of Grain-It T echnologies points out on their

website that ther e were many people involved in the pr ocess when it was being done

in a factor y setting, and only minimal training was needed to get them up to snuf f

so they could do the work in a fast-paced pr oduction environment. Now, you can buy

a kit to do the pr ocess yourself. It looks like a gr eat skill to lear n and have fun with

as you create your own woodgrained metal piece. Y ou can reach them at: Grain-It

Technologies Inc., 334 Commer ce Cour t, Winter Haven, FL 33880, 863-299-4494,

www.Woodgraining.com

JIM KOEPNICK


14/44

Araldi readily shares that he did

enjoy full-time help throughout the

project from Ron Baumgartner—

who also helped him on other proj-ects. “In a 16-month period, we

restored the Waco, recovered the

1930 Great Lakes, my daughter’s

1939 Taylorcraft, and I’m just about

ready to fly a 100 percent brand-

new (kit) Swick Clip T!” he explains

breathlessly. But they did get a

chance to catch their breath—just

a bit—as they waited on the paper-

work for the Waco.

Paper ObstacleThe last restoration-related hurdle

for Araldi was locating an FAA em-

buy and sell them from all

over the world—and they

just weren’t in the an-

tique airplane mode,” says

Araldi, elaborating, “Then

finally I found Al Kimball

at the local FSDO, and

he walked me through

and got all my paperworkdone for me. He was just

phenomenal; he knew ex-

actly what to do.”

AirborneAraldi was thrilled to complete the

AGC-8’s ground-up restoration and

ecstatic to start flying it. He’s foundthat it burns about 19 gph and in-

dicates 145 mph at about 65 per-

cent power. When coming in for a

landing, he brings it across the fence

at 75 to 80 mph. “Flying the Waco

Cabin is fabulous!” he says. “My UEC

Waco flew very well, as did the VKF-

7, which was very heavy and didn’t

perform as well as I thought it would,

but the AGC-8 really surprised me—

the ailerons and pitch are relatively

light, the rudder is surprisingly very

sensitive in the air, and so far it has

no bad tendencies on pavement. I’ve

says, “you can trim it up, fly the air-

plane, put the flaps down, and as soon

as it’s at about 78 mph indicated, you’ll

hear a very distinct sound.”

Araldi ’s ‘F lying Diary’Now that the AGC-8 has found

its home, it will likely stay there for

years to come. Araldi simply plansto enjoy flying it (along with the

rest of his fleet). In a way, he feels

like NC 2312 was a grand finale,

of sorts. Laughing, he explains, “I

would never do another one—it was

just so consuming. But…I loved it! I

enjoyed every segment of it tremen-

dously because it was an adventure. Inever got in a hurry and very rarely

got frustrated. It’s kind of cool, be-

cause when I walk around it now—

like when I wipe it down or people

are looking at it—I look at certain ar-

eas of the airplane, and it’s literally

a living, flying diary. I mean, I can

remember when I did the tail, when

I built the boot for the tail wheel,

when I did this or that. It’s just like

reading a diary—and I can even re-

member the smells and the feeling of

sanding my fingerprints off and rib

stitching—just everything!”

JIM KOEPNICK


15/44


16/44

Back in the mid-1920s, when

aviation was still very much in

its infancy, two brothers from

Rochester, New York, were busy

investing their talents in what would

become a famous spot in the historyof aviation. Born to a father who was

a machinist, sons Gilbert and Gordon

Taylor rebuilt and modified a surplus

Curtiss JN-4 aircraft that Gilbert had

purchased and learned to fly. Gilbert

then taught brother Gordon to fly

the aircraft, and the brothers started a

barnstorming business.

In 1927, the brothers combined

their resources and went into the air-

craft manufacturing business with

their first airplane, known as the A2

Chummy. This was a two-seat, side-

by-side (chummy) conventional gear

knowledge under his belt, he decided

to design a production model similar

to the A2. This new model would be

called the B2 Chummy. With produc-

tion in mind and the realization that

the Rochester facility was insufficientfor the plan, a move to a better loca-

tion was decided.

In November 1928, just before

winter set in, a move was made to

the small northwestern Pennsylva-

nia town of Bradford. In earlier times

Bradford had been an oil-rich town,

but some of the wells were drying

up; a new business was welcomed

with enthusiasm and open arms.

One of the investors was an oil busi-

nessman by the name of William

Thomas Piper. He also joined the

board of directors of the new com-

and the general public. To keep re-

maining factory workers busy, Taylor

designed a single-seat glider known

as the D1 model.

William Piper had a vision and

wasn’t known as a quitter. He hadan understanding of the knowledge

and experience of Gilbert Taylor, and

along with his own business success,

he talked Taylor into designing a

simple, low-powered, two-seat train-

ing aircraft using some leftover parts

and ideas from the glider and the

Chummy models. This aircraft was

finished in August of 1930 as the firstModel E-2, registration NC10547 and

serial number 11.

The aircraft was a high-wing mono-

plane with two-place tandem seating,

and it had a conventional landing

Happy 75th Anniversary to the Piper Cub!BY CLYDE SMITH JR

The Origin Of The CubROGER PEPERELL COLLECTION


17/44

fortunately, there were no available

powerplants for the size and light

weight of this aircraft, or at least none

that were affordable and able to be

mass produced. During the search, a

company from Pottstown, Pennsyl-vania, known as the Light Manufac-

turing and Foundry Company, made it

known that they would like to have a

chance at trying a small, two-cylinder,

24-hp engine in the Taylor E-2 model.

An engine and sales engineer George

Kirkendall were sent to Bradford, so

the Taylor firm could install and subse-quently fly the new aircraft model. On

September 12, 1930, Kirkendall man-

aged to barely get the aircraft airborne

for a very short distance, but it did fly.

This engine was known as the

Brownbach Tiger Kitten, and to this

day it isn’t really known whether

George Kirkendall or Taylor Aircraft

employee Gilbert Hadrel made the as-sociation and suggested that if the en-gine was the Tiger Kitten, the airplane

it was installed on should be called a

Cub. Thus one of the most famous and

recognizable names in the history of

general aviation was born. A point of

interest is the fact that the Light Man-

ufacturing also made a six-cylinderradial engine of 90 hp known as the

Brownbach C-400 Tiger. This of course

was too much power and weight for

the little E-2. Though George Kirkend-

all passed away many years ago, this

writer can remember him at EAA Os-

hkosh, Sentimental Journey, and Sun

’n Fun, with his distinguished handle-

bar mustache and worn-out cap thatsaid it very plainly: “Number One Cub

Pilot.” He really was. To most people

who saw and talked with him, he was

just another old man; maybe some-

what of a dreamer, maybe just want-

But from a production standpoint theengine was too expensive, and it was

built using metric dimensions and

hardware, a rarity in the United States

in 1930. Parts and service would also

have been a problem. So the project

was delayed and the search continued

for another powerplant. Continental

Motors of Detroit, Michigan, devel-

oped a “flat” four-cylinder opposedengine in November of 1930. The

Taylor Company purchased one to

try, and installed it on the very next

aircraft, E-2 Cub serial number 12,

registration NC10594, manufactured

Florida Municipal Airport. The aircraftwas lovingly restored in 1988 by Gor-

don Fisher, a contractor from west-ern New York State. Stewart Millar,

owner of Piper Aircraft Corporation

at that time, and Fisher made a deal,

and a brand-new PA-18 Super Cub,

built in Vero Beach, was traded for the

E-2. The E-2 was flown by Millar one

time and then was used for public re-lations work for several years at avia-

tion trade shows. This famous aircraft

thankfully escaped total destruction

in a hurricane that hit the factory

complex, but was saved and now is

The ver y fi rst J-3 still spor ted the r ounded, unbalanced tail of the J-2, but

NX16792 is the ver y fi rst J-3.

One of the earliest E-2 Cubs on display during the fi rst years of the EAA

Fly-in in Oshkosh was this unique T aylor E-2 Cub. Restor ed by Dick Hill,

then a pilot for Nor th Central Airlines, it was completed in July of 1971.

The Cub is serial number 34, having been built by the factor y in Bradfor d,

Pennsylvania June 1, 1933. The color is all silver .

R O G E R

P E P E R E L L

C O L L E C T I O N


18/44

of 1935. The next Cub would be the

H-2. This model utilized a Szekely SR-

3-35 three-cylinder radial engine of

neering department. A young engi-

neering graduate came aboard by the

name of Walter Jamouneau. He was

work, and finding out that his origi-

nal design work had been modified,

Taylor clashed with Piper. From the

beginning, the business relationship

between Taylor and Piper had never

been the smoothest. In December of1935, the situation came to the point

where Piper bought Gilbert Taylor’s

shares of the company, and Tay-

lor packed up and left the company.

Soon after, however, he started an-

other company in Butler, Pennsyl-

vania, known as the Taylor Young

Aircraft Co. He designed a two-seat,side-by-side, high-wing airplane for

the lightplane market. Back at Brad-

ford, the new model that had created

all the ill feelings and instigated the

breakup was now free for new chief

design engineer Walter Jamouneau to

do with as he and Piper desired. This

new model was still known as a Cub,

but the model designation was the J-2. The changes amounted to such

items as a wider-stance landing gear

with redesigned shock struts and a

new wing design with rounded tips,

still using the non-Friese type aile-

rons. The new shape of the horizon-

tal tail surfaces was a change, along

with the revisions to the rudder andvertical stabilizer. The upper cabin

“birdcage” superstructure was faired

in to the aft fuselage turtledeck su-

perstructure, creating a closed cabin

configuration. Changes were a lso

implemented on the engine cowl-

ing, windshield, cabin interior, and

engine installation. The first produc-

tion J-2 was built in mid-Decemberof 1935, and thus the second model

of the famous Cub family went into

mass production.

Things were going quite well in

early 1937, with the exception that

This optimistic factor y photo depicts a far mer loading up his Cub with

sacks of “Dair y Feed”. Still, it highlights the fact that the Cub has, forover 75 years, often ser ved as the handy way to use a Cub to per form

work, or as a gr eat light airplane for quick jaunts into town fr om far-fl ung

ranches and far m strips.

The Linco Flying Aces team featur ed such well-known pilots as Mike Mur-

phy. In the years sur rounding World War II, people fl ocked to airshows,

and Cubs wer e often used for novelty per formances such as taking of f

and landing fr om a platfor m.

E A A

A R C H I V E S

E A A

A R C H I V E S


19/44

what was left of the facility in Bradford could never be suf-

ficient enough for the planned large-scale production. So a

search for a new location and better facility was begun. Af-

ter consideration of some locations, in June an abandoned

silk mill factory in the small central Pennsylvania town

of Lock Haven was chosen. This new facility of 100,000

square feet was next to a railroad yard, and it was virtu-

ally already on an airport. The move was made, and the J-2 went back into full mass production in July of 1937,

still under the Taylor Aircraft Corporation name. After the

major move and with Gilbert Taylor gone, a decision was

made to change the name of the company to the Piper

Aircraft Corporation. This name change became effective

November 1, 1937. No airplanes were built that day, but

one was built on November 2. The aircraft was J-2 serial

number 1937, with a registration number of NC20137.

This aircraft is attributed as being the first Piper Cub, andit is now on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of

the National Air and Space Museum. The last J-2 was built

in May of 1938, after 1,158 were produced under the two

different company names.

As with any company that produces products, changes

manufacture and horsepower range.

The engine manufacturers were Continental Motors

(J3-C), Franklin Division of Aircooled Motors (J3-F), Ly-

coming Division of AVCO (J3-L), and the Lenape (len-

a-pee) Papoose (J3-P, formerly Aeromarine). Horsepowerratings ranged from 40 to 65. By the time the J-3 went

into production, general aviation was established, and Mr.

Piper’s reputation was very strong, with his savvy sales

and marketing techniques. The J-3 Cub was actually in

production for 10 years after 14,125 were built. These

The J-3 Cub has pr oven to be a versatile airplane,

equally at home on wheels, skis or , quite often, on

pontoons. It’s wing str ut location, coupled with the

fold-down door, allows the pilot to pr op the engine for

star ting while standing on the right fl oat, right behind

the prop. Jack Br own’s Seaplane Base in Winter Ha-ven, Florida continues to use their Cubs, including this

one fl own by Jon Br own, current proprietor of the base

and son of founder , Jack Br own.

Cubs wer e so well known and popular in the years

before the war that they wer e used as grand prizes in

promotions by major corporations. This par ticular J-3C-

65, NC 37946, serial no. 6741, was built in 1941 and

was given away to a lucky winner who was a listener

of the “Wings of Destiny” radio pr ogram, sponsor ed byBrown and Williamson, a tobacco pr oducer. The contest

awarded a Cub to someone ever y week for an entir e

year. This beautiful example was r estored by Craig Bair

of Grenville, South Dakota. For mor e on Craig’s r estora-

tion, we’r e posted a copy of the ar ticle we published

about it’s r estoration in the Januar y, 2005 issue of Vin-

tage Airplane at www.vintageaircraft.org/featured/

J I M K

O E P N I C K

P H O T O S


20/44

were built at two manufacturing fa-

cilities: the main plant in Lock Ha-

ven and an assembly plant in Ponca

City, Oklahoma, which was a former

WWII training facility for British pi-

lots. The last J-3 was built at the LockHaven plant in November of 1946,

and the last one built in Oklahoma

was in March of 1947.

There were several notable varia-

tions of the J-3, each designed to fit

customer needs. The J-3 was approved

for skis and floats to satisfy the civil-

ian market, and it saw some use in the

military. It was adapted for the mili-

tary field in many ways. The first of

these would be the 0-59 model, first to

be ordered in November of 1941. Next

would be the L-4A, with a “green-

house enclosure,” first ordered in Feb-

ruary of 1942, followed by the L-4B,

L-4H, and L-4J. All were utilized by the

U.S. Army Air Forces. The U.S. Navygot into the act with the Model NE-1,

and NE-2 which was a modified L-4J.

The U.S. Army also expressed interest

in a glider version of the Cub, and so

Piper redesigned the Cub and made

a three-place, tandem-seated training

glider known as the TG-8 of which

253 were built in 1942 and 1943. Allin all, there were over 22,000 total of

the several variations of the J-3 built.

Truly the J-3 Cub is probably the

most popular, most recognized, and

most famous of any of the small air-

planes ever built in the United States.

It is also the most supported aircraft

of any of the obsolete antique and

classic fleet. Much of this is attributedto the efforts of current parts man-

ufacturing companies like Univair

Aircraft Corporation and Wag Aero,

along with some smaller companies.

Modern-day aircraft manufacturing

at the Ponca City plant. This new ver-

sion of the Cub was known as the PA-

11 Cub Special. The model was the

answer to all the additional compe-

tition Piper had after the war, when

general aviation hit an all-time highin popularity. The J-3 had been in pro-

duction for 10 years by that time, and

the design was kind of “wearing on.”

So the Piper marketing and engineer-

ing team joined went together and

worked over the old J-3. A new closed

engine cowling was utilized, and new

low-drag lift strut sections were used,

along with new streamlined metal

shock cord fairings. The fuel tank was

moved from the forward cabin area

to the left wing, and its capacity was

enlarged from 12 to 18 gallons. The

interior of the cabin was changed by

adding a new instrument panel, in-

stalling metal side wall panels instead

of doped fabric, changing both thepilot and passenger seat design, and

now that the fuel was moved to the

wing, the pilot would fly solo from

the front seat. The paint scheme was

changed to a blue and yellow design

for the 1947 and ’48 models, and yel-

low and brown for 1949. A new Con-

tinental C90 engine was availablefrom mid-1948 until the end of pro-

duction in November of 1949. A total

of 1,541 civilian PA-11s were built.

The military version of the PA-11 was

known as the L-18B, of which 105

were built for the U.S. Army.

In late 1948 the U.S. Army ap-

proached Piper to design a liaison/

training aircraft, similar to the PA-11 but with some modifications the

Army wanted. Piper answered with

the design of the model known as the

PA-19 of which three were built as

prototypes. The basic difference was

with the new model and began plac-

ing contract orders. The production

models of this military airplane were

known as the L-18C with a Continen-

tal C90, the L-21A with a Lycoming

0-290-D, and the L-21B with a Ly-coming 0-290-D2 engine.

Piper soon realized that if the mil-

itary was so interested in this new

model that the company would try

putting a civilian version on the mar-

ket. Since the number 18 had just

come available with the cancella-

tion of a previous program, this new

model would become the PA-18, and

it would be called the Super Cub.

What a very smart decision. With a

Continental C90 engine inside the

cowl, the PA-18 went into produc-

tion in November of 1949. Shortly

after, the Lycoming 0-235-C1 engine

was added, creating the PA-18-105.

In 1951 the PA-18-125 was developedwith a Lycoming 0-290-D, and in

1952 the PA-18-135, with a Lycoming

0-290-D2, came out. It wasn’t until the

1955 model year that the PA-18-150

was available with a Lycoming 0-320

engine. Piper also made a slightly

modified agricultural version of the

Super Cub with a model designationof PA-18A. As with all the Cub family,

these aircraft were approved with skis

and floats. The PA-18 went out of pro-

duction in Lock Haven, when the last

one was built in November of 1982

after 10,213 units were built during

a remarkable 33 years of production.

The PA-18 went back into production

at the Vero Beach, Florida, plant in1988, after businessman Stewart Mil-

lar bought Piper and put the PA-18

back into production. A total of 113

aircraft were built there from 1988 to

1994. It’s interesting to note that in


21/44

In aviation museums and at fly-

ins, air enthusiasts often see examples

of the “radial” type of engine. These

powerplants range in size from small

ones developing under 100 hp to up

to 3,000 hp for giants on warbirds.

Because manufacture of this type of

powerplant tapered off significantly

after World War II, modern aviation

literature seldom says much about

them. Yet, because an increasingnumber of younger persons see and

hear them at air shows without un-

derstanding what they represent, it’s

proper to devote an article to them.

They’re very much a part of aviation’s

great heritage.

They’re called radials because their

cylinders radiate out from central

crankcases much like the spokes of a

wheel radiate out from a hub. As far

back as 1902 Charles M. Manly was

working on a radial engine to power

the Aerodrome flying machine built

in 1903 by Professor Samuel P. Lang-

ley. Manly’s design was based on an

earlier radial by Stephen M. Balzer

and is often referred to as the ManlyBalzer. It was a light, five-cylinder, wa-

ter-cooled design which developed a

creditable 52 hp at 950 rpm.

When the Aerodrome was launched

from atop a houseboat on December

8, 1903, its wings promptly collapsed

and everything fell into the water.

When the Wrights flew at Kitty Hawk

just nine days later, Langley’s dream

of being the first to fly a powered air-

craft ended. To show that the Aero-

drome could have flown if the wings

had not collapsed, in 1913 Glenn H.

Curtiss rebuilt it—with some modifi-

cations—and successfully flew it.

Other radial engines were built be-

fore World War I, but seldom amountedto anything significant. However, it

must be pointed out that in France,

from 1908 onward Alessandro Anzani,

Robert Esnault-Pelterie, and some oth-

ers did manufacture what were called

“fan” engines, for the reason that their

Light Plane Heritage

published in EAA Experimenter FEBRUARY 1994

THE RADIAL ENGINE STORYBY BOB WHITTIER

EAA 1235

Left, Sperry Messenger was one

of the small courier-observation

planes to be powered with 60-

hp Lawrence radials in the early

1920s.

Right, 1916 Lawrence Model B

featured “hairpin” valve springs.

Lower left, the Albert was one

of many European lightplanes

powered by the tiny Salmson

AD-9 radial.


22/44

cylinders fanned, or radiated, out from

their crankcases. These differed from

true radials in that all of their cylin-

ders were positioned above a horizon-

tal line. The reason for this is at the

early stage of engine—and thus of pis-

ton ring—development, those design-

ers feared that an excessive amount ofcrankcase oil would get into the firing

chambers of cylinders located below

the horizontal line.

These “fan” engines had from three

to seven cylinders, and their firing or-

ders were thus irregular. Their exhaust

sounds were staccato, and their vi-

bration was hard on lightly built air-frames. They soon fell by the wayside.

At some point designers realized that,

in well-made engines, oil would not

get into the firing chambers of lower

cylinders while the engines were

running. One of the accompanying

illustrations show a succeeding three-

cylinder Anzani of the true radial

type, with cylinders positioned 120degrees apart and thus giving equal

spacing between power strokes.

Cylinders arranged in rows call for

long and therefore heavy crankshafts

and crankcases. Manly, Anzani, and

others recognized the weight-saving

possibilities in radiating cylinders

around a shorter and therefore lighter

crankshaft and crankcase. Further-more, such a layout would expose all

of the cylinders equally to the vital

flow of cooling air.

Because aluminum casting tech-

niques of 80 years ago were primitive,

it was hard for pioneer aero engine

builders to make finned, air-cooled

cylinder heads of this light metal.That is why the rotary type of en-

gine such as the Gnome and LeRhone

came into being and were much usedduring World War I. The whirling of

such engines’ crankcases and cylin-

ders about fixed crankshafts put the

hot, machined-steel cylinder heads

into the region of maximum airflow.

By 1917 and 1918 engine design-ers had become quite aware of the

many shortcomings of rotary engines

and started to experiment in earnest

with fixed radials. These looked much

like rotaries in that their cylinders

radiated out from their crankcases.

But they differed markedly from ro-

taries in that their crankcases were

attached firmly to the noses of fuse-lages and thus didn’t revolve. Instead,

their crankshafts revolved within the

crankcases, and the cylinders didn’t

whirl like pinwheels.

This arrangement offered manyadvantages. Cleaner, lighter recircu-

lating oil systems could be used. The

messiness and fumes characteristic ofcastor oil lubrication in rotaries were

eliminated. It was possible to install

exhaust stacks or manifolds on fixed

cylinders to make radial engines safer

and more agreeable to fly. Real carbu-

retors could be attached to crankcases

so as to feed directly into intake duct-

ing cast into crankcases. This afforded

much more positive and tractablethrottle control and made possible

Left, Manly radial engine powered Langley’s 1903 Aerodrome plane. Center, Water-cooling system of a Salmson engine. Right, Detroit-built 50-hp Albatross

dates from 1910. Note wide fin spacing on cast semisteel cylinders.


23/44

shorter, more direct and efficient and

induction systems. While crankshafts

and propellers still produced some gy-

roscopic effect, it was less than in the

rotaries and led to better and safer air-

craft control.

Radial engine cylinders and heads

of that time were based on design

and construction methods used inrotaries and had little or no cylinder

head finning. So they were plagued

by overheating problems. Rotary en-

gine cylinders benefited from the

combination of 1,200 rpm rotary

motion plus aircraft forward speed,

but radials had only the latter to sup-

ply cooling air.Several radial makers, notably

Salmson in France, used water cool-

ing. The 260-hp model used on Salm-

son-built, World War I observation

planes gave good service and helped

call designers’ attention to the advan-

tages of the radial layout.

In the case of in-line and vee-type

engines, it’s simple enough to pumpwater from the radiator into the lower

portions of cylinder water jackets, from

where it rises to the upper portions

and then back to the radiator. If steam

pockets form, they do so at the top and

can easily vent back to the radiator.

But as can be seen in an accompa-

nying drawing of a Salmson cooling

system, plumbing a water-cooled ra-

dial is not simple. Cool water entering

the lower cylinders gets progressivelyhotter as it rises to the upper ones.

Some piping systems contrived to

overcome this problem were weirdly

intricate. There is much flow restric-

tion and potential for leakage. One

small leak can soon put a liquid-cooling

system out of commission, but air-

cooled engines never run out of air.A vast amount of experimenting

was done. One English designer tried

plating the fins of steel air-cooled cyl-

inders with copper, hoping that the

conductivity of this metal would help

pull heat out of the steel. But this

didn’t work quite as hoped, because

the heat still had to travel through the

steel to get to the copper.A major problem was how to take

advantage of the light weight and

favorable heat conductivity of alu-

minum to make better air-cooled cyl-

inder heads. This soft metal would

obviously never make acceptable valve

seats. Bristol “Jupiter” radials of the

early 1920s had machined steel cylin-

ders with integral but unfinned heads.

The overhead valves thus seated on

durable steel. Finned cast-aluminumcaps called “poultice heads” were then

fitted over the steel cylinder heads to

pull out the heat. This involved prob-

lems with achieving and maintain-

ing the close fit necessary for effective

heat transfer.

Much effort went into solving

problems of various metals’ differentexpansion rates. A new alloy was de-

veloped to make lighter, more heat-

conductive aluminum pistons work

in steel cylinders. Everyone who has

worked on aircraft engines has seen

the name “Lynite” cast into alumi-

num parts. This alloy was developed

during the war to make possible the

manufacture of adequately strong pis-tons by the more versatile and reliable

permanent-mold process instead of

Left, radial engine cams had varying number of lobes and turned at different speeds, depending on each engine’s design. Center, early magnetos had fixed

magnets and rotating coils; adoption of fixed-coil, rotating-magnet design improved reliability. Right, text explains reason for use of “compensated timing”

breaker pint cam shown here.


24/44

the old sand-casting one. The more

rapid cooling of molten aluminum in

permanent molds produced stronger

and more uniform castings by devel-

oping a finer grain structure and more

uniform dispersion of the copper usedin the alloy.

The idea emerged that a compatible

and suitably hard kind of bronze could

make acceptable valve seats for alumi-

num heads. Various methods of in-

stalling such seats were experimented

with, including threading and pinning

the seats into place, machining the

seats and cylinder recesses with slight

“Keystone” taper to lock the seats in

place, peening the seats into place,

and chilling them in liquid nitrogen

to shrink them for tight press fits. The

final method of casting them in place

called for much study and experimen-

tation on the part of designers, drafts-

men, metallurgists and foundry men.It was common to design, make,

and test several cylinder designs be-

fore getting one that cooled adequately

and held up satisfactorily in service.

Many designers hesitated to try steel

cylinders and aluminum heads, fearing

that joints between two such dissimi-

lar parts would bring on much trouble.Textbooks rarely mention a major

difference between in-line and radial

engines. The big ends of the several

connecting rods of in-line or vee-type

engines run on their individual and

adequately sized crankshaft journals,

and so the power load is well spread

out. But all the cylinders of a radial en-

gine feed their power strokes into the

single main bearing installed in the big

end of the master connecting rod.

Much work thus had to go into de-

veloping these comparatively small

but heavily loaded bearings. The prob-lem was complicated by the small

amount of space available. Another

point seldom noted in textbooks is

that the problem was somewhat al-

leviated by lubricating oil pumped

through hollow crankshafts. As it

went into the crank journal it helped

to cool the metal in that vital area,

thus also helping the master rod bear-

ing that ran on that journal.

Early aero engines generally used

poured-in-place bearings of Babbitt

metal. This is an alloy of tin, anti-

mony, and copper named after its in-

ventor, Isaac Babbitt, a 19th century

machine manufacturer of Massachu-

setts. It was made in various alloyingproportions to suit different needs.

Pouring and then reaming Babbitt

bearings was slow work requiring ac-

curate tools and skilled labor.

And it could not stand ever-

increasing radial engine master rod

bearing pressures. For the master rod

bearing of the 400-hp Wasp devel-oped in the mid-1920s, Pratt & Whit-

ney worked with bearing specialists to

develop a steel-backed, lead-bronze

one. A sophisticated bearing for the

later Twin Wasp was made up of thin

layers of different metals to achieve

strength and durability. The final

layer, which ran against the crank-

shaft journal, was of very thin lead. It

worked well in the field but failed too

often in engines being run on factory

test beds. At first engineers thought

it was caused by erosion of the lead.

Months of work finally led to the real-ization that it was caused by corrosion

between dissimilar metals. It was real-

ized that test bed conditions made lu-

bricating oil become more acidic than

it did in field service, and this caused

corrosion between dissimilar metals.

Adding a minute amount of indium

to the lead “fortified” it and solved

the problem.

There were also crankshaft fail-

ures in the 1920s. Although radials

seemed to pilots to be smooth run-

ning, something they could not see

was happening.

Each piston’s power stroke sent an

impulse into the crankshaft. These

were instantly resisted by the inertiaof the heavy counterbalance weights

firmly bolted to the shafts, and the

resulting torsional stresses in time

caused crankshafts to snap. The idea

was hit upon to attach the weights to

the shafts with large but undersized

bolts that would allow the weights to

swing slightly against centrifugal forcewith each power impulse enough to

soften these blows.

A cylinder of 3-inch bore by 3-inch

stroke has a volume of 21.21 cubic

inches while one of double the size,

or 6 inches by 6 inches, has a volume

of 169.68 cubic inches, which is eight

times greater. Therefore the burning


25/44

of a fuel charge in this larger one re-

leases much more heat which has to

be dissipated by the air-cooling fins.

The quest for more power from ra-

dial engines thus resulted in much

effort to devise ways of casting evermore closely spaced and deeper cool-

ing fins in aluminum cylinder heads.

For strength, Pratt & Whitney took

to using forged cylinder heads. These

came out of the forging process in the

form of large shapes devoid of fins.

A specially designed gang saw then

milled many closely spaced and deep

fins into the forgings. The largest radi-

als built in the 1950s had 150 times

more fin area than did air-cooled en-

gines of 1910.

However, a point can be reached

where fins are so close together that

they begin to radiate heat from one

to another, and it becomes difficult

to make air flow through the narrowand very deep spaces between them.

Not even the most elaborate baffling

can help then. The laws of thermody-

namics are inflexible, and it works out

that because of cooling limitations,

few aero engines have cylinder bores

much over 6 inches. It’s true that big

marine and stationary engines havelarger cylinders, but they run at ap-

preciably lower speeds than do air-

craft engines.

That is why the quest for more

power led designers to develop two-

row and finally four-row radials. If

you can’t make your cylinders bigger,

then use more of them. The four-row,

3,000-hp radials had 28 cylinders.When one looks at a cutaway speci-

men of one of these engines in a mu-

seum, one has to marvel at how large

teams of engineers, draftsmen, tool-

makers, and production workers ever

valve mechanisms were out in the

open. It took time to learn how to

cast rocker arm shaft supports integral

with cylinder heads. Bolt-on rocker

arm supports were easier to cast sep-

arately—and often helped pull heatout of cylinder heads.

Rapid and prolonged pushrod and

rocker arm forces often caused bolt-on

supports to come loose while in flight.

However, the openness of the mech-

anism facilitated preflight inspection

and frequent tappet adjustment work.

Air flowing rapidly past exposed valve

stems and springs helped usefully to

keep these parts from running too hot.

Most aero engines used and still

use overhead valves, but a few had

what are variously called side-valves,

L-heads and flat-heads. Usually sup-

plied with overhead valves, the

1930-period, Michigan-made Szekely

three-cylinder radials could be fit-ted with L-head cylinders to reduce

the cost and complexity of overhead

valve setups. Because overhead valve

tappets and pushrods were positioned

behind the cylinders, the L-head

cylinders had to have their valves

located on the back sides of the cylin-

ders where cooling airflow was poorer.Also dating from the 1930 period,

the seven-cylinder, 150-hp California-

built McClatchie Panther used the

L-head design but had the valves on

the front sides of the cylinders for best

cooling. Mechanical simplicity and re-

duced frontal area were advantages.

This engine is described in the Septem-

ber 1984 issue of the Vintage Airplane.Some overhead-valve radials had

pushrods located ahead of the cyl-

inders, and some had them behind.

The smaller, simpler 220-hp Conti-

nentals have them behind, for exam-

cylinder heads and rocker arm hous-

ings could then be designed to coax

maximum cooling advantage from

the airflow.

Most radials had large, circular

valve-operating cams which had avarying number of lobes and revolved

at varying speeds, depending on their

designs. The three-cylinder Szekely

and five-cylinder Kinner engines had

individual cams for each cylinder,

much resembling the camshafts seen

in today’s four-cycle lawnmower en-

gines. How a particular engine was

designed sometimes depended on the

manufacturing facilities available to

its maker.

Early aero engines often had “hair-

pin” type valve springs. These looked

and worked much like the springs

on common mousetraps. This design

positioned the coils well away from

cylinder head heat and lent itself toshort and therefore compact and light

valve stems. Then neater-looking “vo-

lute” springs became popular. They

were made by winding flat strips of

spring steel into cone-shaped spirals.

A straight coil spring made of round

wire will compress just so far before

closing up and therefore must bemade long enough to avoid this from

happening. Because of the “stepped”

positioning of its spirals, a volute

spring can be made short and com-

pact and still not close up.

As wire metallurgy improved, the

type of coil spring now standard came

into general use. Partly for the sake of

keeping an engine going fairly wellshould one valve spring break, it’s

common to use two springs, one posi-

tioned inside the other. It’s also com-

mon to find that they are wound in

opposite directions. This is to relieve


26/44

of the way cylinders radiate out from

the crankcase, there is plenty of space

between their heads. This encouraged

designers to slant the valve stems. Theresulting dome-shaped combustion

chambers had more wall space and al-

lowed valve heads to be made usefully

larger. The slanting also allowed valve

stems and guides to be made longer

and more durable without increasing

overall engine diameter.

Much work went into the problem

of keeping exhaust valve head tem-

peratures within acceptable limits.

Stems were made hollow and partly

filled with sodium, sometimes called

“salt” by mechanics. Operating heat

made it melt; valve action then made

it slosh back and forth and carry heat

from heads to stems and thus out

through the valve guides. As radialengine design progressed, rocker arm

lubrication by oil can and grease gun

gave way to piping lubricating oil

from one rocker arm housing to the

next. This provided steady lubrication

the smaller, or articulated, ones.

Usual practice was to locate the

master rod in the top or vertical cylin-

der and then arrange a sump for col-lecting oil in the space between the

two lower-most cylinders for return

to the recirculating pump. But if it’s

variety you like, you’ll find it in the

world of radial engines.

The 12-hp, three-cylinder French

Salmson radial of 1923 had its verti-

cal cylinder at the bottom, giving it

a “Y” shape. We can only guess why.

This layout might have positioned

the upper cylinders’ heads far enough

outboard so that exhaust fumes and

droplets of grease from the valve

mechanisms would not fly back into

the cockpit area.

The five- and seven-cylinder British

Armstong-Siddeley “Mongoose” and“Genet Major” engines in the 100- to

150-hp range made in the late 1920s

also had this master-cylinder-at-the-

bottom layout. A reasonable guess is

that the designers thought some of

the bottom was that these vital parts

could suffer serious damage in even a

mild nosing-over landing mishap.

During periods of idleness, oil couldseep into the combustion chambers of

any radial’s lower cylinders. So it was

standard practice for pilots or me-

chanics to rotate propellers by hand

a number of times to blow excess oil

out before starting up. If this was not

done, when the first one of the lower

cylinders fired, the resulting extremely

high compression could blow that cyl-

inder right off the engine.

The big end of any radial’s master

rod, attached to the crankshaft jour-

nal, rotates in a perfect circle. But the

inner ends of the several articulated

rods attached to it rotate in slightly

different paths because of the geom-

etry involved. For this reason and tomake all of a large radial’s cylinders

fire at the same moment in regard

to piston travel, it was common to

fit magnetos with carefully designed

breaker point cams having slight dif-

A) Szekely radials came in both overhead-valve and flat-head models.

Latter shown here. B) A few radials such as this 12-hp Salmson of 1923

had downward-pointing master cylinders. C) 4-1/8-inch bore combined

with short 3.75-inch stroke made 60- to 70-hp LeBlond compact; 33-

inch diameter. D) Long-stroke (4.25-inch bore x 5.25-inch stroke)

100-hp Kinner K-5 was 44 inches in diameter. E) König radial now

manufactured in Germany is a 26-hp two-cycle radial intended for ultra-

lights. Text explains advantages of radial configuration. F) Short, stiff,

two-throw crankshaft of new German Zoche withstands diesel stresses.


27/44

Early magnetos were of the rotating

coil type. The coil was built onto the

drive shaft which connected a mag-

neto to the engine. While the magnet

surrounding the coils remained sta-

tionary, the coils themselves revolvedrapidly. This subjected them to both

centrifugal force loads and shock loads

coming through the drive train; it did

not help coil durability. During the

1920s magneto designers switched to

the rotating magnet design, in which

coils remained stationary and thus

stood up better. This step added signif-

icantly to the reliability of all types of

aero engines, including radials.

It was common for radial engine

manufacturers to offer engines in dif-

ferent power ranges, all based on stan-

dard cylinders. In the 1920s, Salmson

in France offered small lightplane en-

gines with the buyer’s choice of three,

five, seven, or nine cylinders. In theUnited States, the Wright J-6 engines,

which replaced the J-5 type, offered the

choice of five, seven, or nine cylinders.

As the number of cylinders in-

creased, there appeared the problem

of ensuring uniform mixture delivery

to all of them. Thus, the Wright J-1 of

the early 1920s had three carburetors.

Each fed into a manifold cast into the

crankcase, which served three of the

nine cylinders.The later Wright J-5 had a sin-

gle large carburetor which had three

throats built into it. Some engines such

as the Lycoming had a supercharger-

style impeller mounted in the intake

system and running at crankshaftspeed. While these offered no signifi-

cant supercharging effect, by impart-

ing a centrifugal action to incoming

mixture they ensured equal distribu-

tion to all cylinders. Intake pipes on

dial consisting of four rows of five cyl-

inders each.

When a three-cylinder radial of 40

or 50 hp was started, initial power im-

pulses sent shudders down along the

fuselage and rattled the tail feathers.But at cruising speed, the “threes”

were reasonably smooth. In the 1920s

the Bristol firm in England manufac-

tured what were probably the largest

three-cylinder radials ever made—

they produced 125 hp!

On the other hand, Salmson in

France made a 40- to 45-hp radial that

had no fewer than nine cylinders. It

ran so smoothly that pilots took to

calling it the “sewing machine” or

“watch charm” engine. It was only

26 inches in diameter. A fair numberwere imported to the United States.

One was tried out on the first Taylor

Cub but was too expensive for that

class of airplane.Radials proliferated in Europe dur-

ing the 1920s and 1930s but got off to a

slow start in the United States due to the

large supply of cheap, war-surplus Cur-

tiss OX-5 and Liberty engines. In 1916

one Charles L. Lawrence built a three-

cylinder, 35-hp radial, and over the next

several years he developed it into vari-

ous models producing up to 60 hp.

Lessons learned from making air-

cooled cylinders for them led in 1921

to his designing a nine-cylinder, 140-

hp radial for the Air Service. During

the war a company named Wright-

Martin had built French Hispano-

Suiza engines under license and had

a well-equipped factory at New Bruns-wick, New Jersey, whereas Lawrence

had no factory. So he and Wright

joined forces, developed the J-1 into

the 200-hp J-4 and the 220-hp J-5.

These very reliable engines made his-

nia Indian word meaning “a stream

having a sandy or gravelly bottom.”

Over the years a great many makes

of radial engines have been manufac-

tured in every country having an aero

engine industry. Jet engines appearedduring World War II and quite rap-

idly replaced the huge and very com-

plex radials that had been developed

for large and fast aircraft. Airline pas-

sengers loved their smooth running.

Propeller tip speeds had grown into a

major barricade in achieving higher

piston-engine aircraft speeds.

In the field of small commercial and

private aircraft, three things killed the

radial. No matter how refined a radi-

al’s cowling may be, the fact remains

that its substantial frontal area is a drag

producer. The fairly large-diameter

propellers fitted to radials became

more of a problem as the popularity

of tricycle landing gears grew. And intaildraggers, over-the-nose visibility

was so poor as to shock private pilotswho had learned to fly in planes pow-

ered by horizontally opposed engines.

At a fly-in, get into the front seats of

an Aeronca Champion and then of a

Cessna C-38 or 195.

Some people call radials “round en-

gines.” This reminds me of the phrase

“What goes around comes around.”

Radials still have appealing qualities

to some designers. For whatever rea-

sons, before it fell apart the old So-

viet Union decided to concentrate its

radial engine production in Poland.

Then Poland became an independent

country and found itself in possessionof a radial engine manufacturing facil-

ity producing PZL engines of Russian

Vedeneyev origin. The PZL organiza-tion is the only company in the world

still manufacturing traditional radial


28/44

he record-setting endurance flight proved profitable for the Hunter

family. In addition to providing the gasoline and oil for the endur-

ance flight, the Deep Rock Oil Company paid the Hunters an es-

The Hunter

B r o t h e r s PART 2A flying

Walter Hunter (in helmet and goggles) and his Travel Air 4000, NC 5241, which he purchasedMay 6, 1930 from Robertson Airplane Service. The other gentleman is Albert Hunter. The child,the son of Albert Hunter, is Herschel Hunter, who supplied many of the photos in this article.


29/44

lywood, the Hunter brothers appeared

on stage at Grauman’s Chinese The-

atre each day for several weeks.

Having completed their movie

contract and stage appearances in

Hollywood, the Hunters returned toSparta, making several stops and ap-

pearances on the way home. While

en route, they learned that Jackson

and O’Brine claimed that they had

established a new endurance record.

The Hunters stopped at Lambert Field

on their way to Sparta and extended

their best wishes to the men.

The Hunters stated publicly that

they would not attempt to make a

world’s record flight in 1930. They did

not wish to take notoriety from Jack-

son and O’Brine before they had an

opportunity to cash in on their fame.

The Jackson–O’Brine claim resulted

in a loss of between $100,000 and

$200,000 to the Hunters. Contractswere in the works that would have paid

that amount, had the Jackson–O’Brine

flight been delayed several months.

A newsreel film of the Hunters’ en-

durance flight was shown in Sparta at

the Grand Theatre on Friday, July 18,

and Saturday, July 19, 1930. This was

the first time the newsreel was shown

outside the larger cities.

The Hunter brothers appeared at

the Randolph County Fair in Sparta on

September 24, 25, and 26, 1930. Dur-

ing these appearances, they demon-

strated refueling City of Chicago from

Big Ben and other work performed on

the plane during the endurance flight.

That year, the Randolph County Fairbecame an “Air Fair” as many aviators

from airports throughout the Midwest

attended the celebration.After the endurance flight, both

John and Walter resumed their du-

officially recognized because the for-

mal report of the flight record was

not made properly. A rumor was that

the Jackson–O’Brine endurance plane

made a secret landing for repairs one

evening on a farm in St. Louis County.

On Sunday evening, May 17,1931, the Hunter brothers dedi-

cated their own flying field located

on a farm along Route 13, six miles

north of Sparta that was owned by

Albert Hunter. An “Airplane Rodeo”

Air Races in 1929 by Doug Davis, an

Atlanta, Georgia, Travel Air dealer.

The plane later won a race at Sioux

Falls, South Dakota. Curtiss-Wright

had purchased the plane in January

1930. On August 28, 1930, the wing

and a landing gear were damaged inan accident in Des Moines, Iowa.

Walter purchased the racing plane,

a Travel Air Mystery Ship, R614K,

from Curtiss-Wright in June 1931.

Walter moved the racing plane to

Refueling the the Stinson

SM-1 Detroiter “City of

Chicago” was a daunting,

windswept task, but nothing

compared to the walk on the

external catwalk to perform

engine maintenance!


30/44

nia, but lost out to Jimmy Doolittle

when the plane was forced down

south of Terra Haute, Indiana. Walter

continued with the plane to Cleve-

land, Ohio, where he entered the

Thompson Trophy Race. After mak-ing some adjustments to the racing

plane, on September 6 Walter took off

in the plane to fly the racing course

for familiarization.

As the plane lifted off, the engine

sputtered, Walter switched to another

fuel tank; suddenly flames shot back

into the cockpit from the engine.

The plane was less than 400 feet in

altitude. Walter bailed out, his para-

chute opening just as he reached the

ground, landing about 20 feet from

the crashed wreckage of his plane.

Walter suffered burns on his hands,

neck, and face. The accident ended

Walter’s participation in the 1931

Cleveland Air Races. John and Ken-neth Hunter flew to Cleveland to

watch Walter in the race, arriving just

after the accident. An article i

vintage airplane - jul 2012

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