Aircraft

Welch Aircraft Industries

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USA
Founded in 1927 as the (Orin) Welch Aircraft Co, Anderson IN.
Fixed-base operator Orin Welch built aircraft for his West Virginia Flying School in late 1920s.
In 1928 became the Welch Aviation Co.
Refinanced in 1931 as Air-Craft Corp of America, 1406 S Meridian Ave, Anderson and Portland IN.
Introduced his aircraft Falcon OW-5 in 1931, of which about 65 built, at South Bend, Indiana, between 1935-1940.
Became Welch Aircraft Industries Inc, 1720 Mishawauka St, South Bend IN in 1936.
In 1940 was acquired by Aircraft Corp, La Porte IN as Welch Aircraft Developments, 221 Conyham St, Wilkes Barre PA.

Wells 1910 Glider

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An aerodynamic design built by Daniel D. Wells of Jacksonville, Florida, during 1909/1910. Wells, an early inventor, patented the skid (US Patent 935075) and claimed to have made models with wing-warping already in 1897.

An aerodynamic design, designed and jointly built by a local mechanic, Daniel D. Wells, and a 21 year old machinist of the Seaboard Airline Railroad, Robert Kloeppel, who had just come to Jacksonville from Germany a few years earlier.

Unable to afford an aircraft engine at the time, they installed a Franklin automobile engine.

Kloeppel had received no flying instructions except those he read in a mechanics magazine, yet he shortly prepared the flimsy craft for takeoff. Flexing his piano wire controls he applied power and the plane moved rapidly about 75 feet and rose briefly four or five feet in the air, but when he sought to gain altitude by applying full power, the crankshaft suddenly broke and the plane settled down to earth, a complete wreck. Kloeppel was uninjured but never again built another plane or attempted to fly one.