Author: Terry

Amundsen, Roald – Pioneer Pilot

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Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, leader of the first expedition to successfully reach the South Pole, died on 22 June 1928 when his French Latham 47 Flying Boat crashed into the Barents Sea, in the Arctic circle. He was on route to Spitsberhen as part of an international team to rescue the crew of the crashed airship ‘Nobile’. Although rescuers saved nine of the sixteen members of Noblie’s crew, no one ever fund the body of Amundsen or the five others aboard the flying boat.

Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser

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Although technically a three-seat aircraft, the Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser (ATC 780) was more usually used and regarded as a deluxe two-seater, and differed from the J-5C only in a number of cosmetic refinements including two wing tanks.

Dimensionally little had changed from the J-5C, and having the same 100 or 108 hp Lycoming O-235-C engine, the PA-12 had a maximum speed of 183km/h at sea level.

The prototype was flown in December 1945 and attracted so much attention that the company soon had an enormous backlog of orders at $2,995 in 1945, and $3,205 in 1947 (both less radio, starter and generator).

After the J-5, the type re-entered production in 1946 in refined form as the PA-12.

When production of this version ended in 1948 3,758 had been built. Lock Haven more than 3,500, Ponca City more than 250.

First around-the-world lightplane flights by City of Washington (p: Clifford Evans) NX2365M, and City of Los Angeles (p: George Truman) in 1947 NX3671M.

Piper PA-12-125 Super Cruiser

Engine: Lycoming O-235, 100 hp @ 2600 rpm
Prop diameter: 76 in
Wingspan: 35 ft 6 in
Wing area: 179.3 sq.ft
Length: 22.8 ft
Height: 82 in
Gross weight Normal: 1750 lb
Gross weight utility: 1500 lb
Empty weight: 950 lb
Fuel capacity: 38 USG
Power loading: 17.5 lb/hp
Wing loading: 9.8 lb/sq.ft
Baggage capacity: 41 lb
Tire pressure: 18 lb/sq.in
Max speed: 114 mph
Cruise: 105 mph
Stall: 42 mph
Rate of climb: 600 fpm
Service ceiling: 12,600 ft
Absolute ceiling: 15,500 ft
Cruise range: 600 sm
Fuel burn: 6.5 USG/hr
Seats: 3

McCready Solar Challenger

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The Solar Challenger was a solar-powered aircraft designed by Paul MacCready’s AeroVironment. The aircraft was designed as an improvement on the Gossamer Penguin, which in turn was a solar-powered variant of the human-powered Gossamer Albatross. It was powered entirely by the photovoltaic cells on its wing and stabilizer, without even reserve batteries, and was the first such craft capable of long-distance flight. In 1981, it successfully completed a 163-mile (262 km) demonstration flight from France to England.
The Solar Challenger was designed by a team led by Paul MacCready as a more airworthy improvement on the Gossamer Penguin, directly incorporating lessons learned from flight testing the earlier aircraft. As with the Gossamer Penguin, construction was sponsored by DuPont in exchange for publicity for the company’s patented materials incorporated in the design. AstroFlight, Inc. supplied the motors and solar panels, designed by Robert Boucher. The plane’s wings carried 16,128 solar cells yielding a maximum solar power of 3,800 watts. It was flight tested in Western USA in winter 1980–1981.

First flown on 6 November 1980, at Shafter, California, the Solar Changer then made several training flights including one of 90 minutes on 14 November 1980 reaching 1600 ft / 488 m. For these initial flights an electric battery was carried providing for an output of 3 hp for less than 30 minutes, the remainder of the flight using soaring techniques. Subsequently 15,000 solar cells were fixed to the wing and tailplane with the capability of producing similar power, and further flights were made in December 1980 including one of nearly 2 hrs and another to 3500 ft / 1067 m.

All flights to February 1981 were made by Janice Brown.

On July 7, 1981, the aircraft flew 163 miles from Pontoise – Cormeilles Aerodrome, north of Paris, France to Manston Royal Air Force Base in Manston, United Kingdom, staying aloft 5 hours and 23 minutes, with pilot Stephen Ptacek at the controls. Currently the plane is owned by the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum.

The Solar Challenger was designed to be sturdier, more powerful, and more maneuverable than the Gossamer Penguin so as to be able to withstand sustained high-altitude flight and normal turbulence. It was over three times as heavy (without pilot) as the Gossamer Penguin and had a shorter wingspan, but was proportionately more powerful, with electricity supplied by 16,128 solar cells powering two three-horsepower motors. The solar panels were directly affixed to the wing and large horizontal stabilizer, both of which had to be flat on top to accommodate them. The two motors, each 3 inches wide and 17 inches long and incorporating samarium-cobalt permanent magnets, operated in tandem on a common shaft to drive a single, controllable-pitch propeller. The design incorporated advanced synthetic materials with very high strength to weight ratios, including Kevlar, Nomex, Delrin, Teflon, and Mylar, all supplied by the aircraft’s sponsor, Dupont.

Powerplant: 1 × solar-powered electric motor, 2.75 hp (2 kW)
Wingspan: 47 ft 0 in (14.3 m)
Length: 29 ft 0 in (8.8 m)
Empty weight: 205 lb (90 kg)
Gross weight: 350 lb (159 kg)
Maximum speed: 40 mph (64 km/h, 35 kn)
Service ceiling: 14,300 ft (4,360 m) demonstrated
g limits: +6, -3
Rate of climb: 150 ft/min (0.765 m/s)
Seats: 1

Baldwin, Thomas Scott – Pioneer Aviator

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Born in Missouri, 1854.

Baldwin’s was orphaned at an early age, he became an acrobat at 14 with a traveling circus and then progressed, step-by-step, to prominence in aviation. He made his first balloon ascent in 1875 and soon became a star attraction at county fairs, but after 10 years and thousands of shows the novelty began to fade. Searching for a daring new exhibition specialty, he rediscovered the rigid parachute invented a century before, redesigning it and making it flexible so it could be packed. With this he offered to parachute from his balloon, at the rate of a dollar a foot, and his services were eagerly bought, a thousand feet worth, at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. On Jan 30, 1885, it one of the first times in history that a man descended from a balloon in a parachute.

Again the luster faded and he set out in 1900 to devise an act of even greater daring, with a motor-driven balloon. On finding a lightweight engine to power his elongated airship, it was Glenn Curtiss’ motorcycle engine that powered his new dirigible, California Arrow, on Aug 3, 1904, in the first circuitous flight in America. The Army was impressed and offered to pay $10,000 for a practical means of aerial navigation. His creation was 90′ long, powered by a novel Curtiss engine, and was accepted and designated SC-I, the Signal Corps’ first such craft, which set the design for all the dirigibles of the time.

By then another craft had staked the promise for the future, and interest faded in all but the Wright brothers’ flying machine. In 1911 Baldwin built the first plane with a steel framework and christened it Red Devil. Showman that he was, he knew that people around the world wanted to see an airplane fly, and formed a troupe of performers in 1913 to tour the Philippines and the Orient, where in most cases an airplane had never flown.

Just before WW1 his interest turned to dirigibles again and he designed the Navy’s first successful dirigible,the DN-I. Training fliers was also the need, so he managed the Curtiss Flying School at Newport News, where one of his students would later become the unsung champion of the air service, General William E “Billy” Mitchell. When the US went to war, although 62 years old, Baldwin volunteered his services to become Chief of Army Balloon Inspection and Production, personally inspecting every balloon and airship used by the Army in the war. His final employment was with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co, continuing the design and manufacture of airships.

Enshrined in National Aviation Hall of Fame 1964.