One Stits SA-3A Playboy builders eventually sold his project to a young aviator who rebuilt the wing, getting rid of the struts and converting it from a fabric covered wooden frame to an aluminum wing in 1965 (and calling it an RV-1). The rebuilder was Dick VanGrunsven and his first airplane has been rebuilt and will be donated to the EAA museum this summer.
VanGrunsven was further inspired to build an airplane of his own design — the RV-3.
In 1910 John Van Pomer built a single-seat copy of Curtiss A, one of the undocumented first attempts by early home-builders. Based on the then-popular Wright design, power was a 35hp Kemp engine.
A colleague, who as a teenager helped with the construction, said that he once had ridden on the wing in one of its short flights, which were always downhill and never involved turns.
The aircraft was located in a barn and recently restored to display condition at Empire State Aerospace Museum, Schenectady County airport NY.
Designed and built by Marinus Van Meel in 1913 in Holland, the Van Meel Brisk biplane was the first Dutch military airplane.
A one-off French-built light civil utility aircraft of the late 1950s, the Van Lith VI was a two/three seat light high-wing cabin monoplane of conventional wooden construction. The wing was a two-spar structure with plywood and fabric covering. The fuselage was of rectangular section with plywood cladding. The main undercarriage with fixed legs, wheels, brakes and tailwheel were adapted from those of the Stampe SV.4. The pilot and passengers were seated in tandem with an access door on each side hinging upward for entry and exit. The slotted ailerons could be drooped together to function as flaps. Designed and built by Jean Van Lith it was initially flown with a single fin, but this was replaced with twin fins.
One example of the design was completed. In original form the Model VI had the main wheels and wing struts of a Stampe (Nord) SV-4 biplane, one 125 hp Lycoming O-290-3 engine and a small third central fin. In this configuration the aircraft flew on 30 August 1958, registered as F-WINX. It completed it test flight program at Toussusle-Nobel on October 6, 1959, and was subsequently reregistered F-PINX.
The aircraft was later re-engined with one 150 hp Lycoming O-320, and also received with a steel sprung cantilever undercarriage, while the central fin was removed. The aircraft remained active well into the 1980s and later went to the RSA Museum, but was destroyed in an accident. This one-of-a-kind aircraft was also nicknamed the Bébé Broussard, because of the external resemblance to the Holste Broussard.
It was flown by the constructor from airfields at Toussus-le-Noble and Guyancourt near Paris. It was still registered to Jean Van Lith in 1964, but is no longer extant.
Engine: 1 × Lycoming O-290-3, 135 hp (101 kW)
Capacity: 1 or 2 passengers
Length: 20 ft 0 in (6.10 m)
Wingspan: 35 ft 5 in (10.80 m)
Height: 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Wing area: 140 sq ft (13 sq.m)
Empty weight: 1,285 lb (583 kg)
Gross weight: 2,127 lb (965 kg)
Maximum speed: 124 mph (200 km/h; 108 kn)
Cruise speed: 106 mph (92 kn; 171 km/h)
Service ceiling: 13,780 ft (4,200 m)
Rate of climb: 785 ft/min (3.99 m/s)
Endurance: 6 hr
Crew: 1
Melvin Vaniman built his own aeroplane in 1906… a triplane, in fact… the first ever triplane. Made of three arched planes, supported by a frame of steel tubes, each measuring 11 meters (36-feet) in length and 2 meters 20 cm (7.2-feet) in breadth. Total surface area: 72 (square) meters (775-square-feet). 70/80 HP Antoinette engine with 8 cylinders driving a propeller with two arms placed to the rear. The length is six meters (19.7 feet). In front, two elevators (or rudders): one horizontal and placed in the lower part, serves to control the altitude; the second, vertical, placed about 2/3 of the height of the machine, controls the direction and the turning, whether one tilts to the right or the left. The function of warping the wings is made by means of an arrangement placed on the shoulders of the aviator, and the direction to the right or the left by means of two pedals. Total weight: 500 kilograms (1,102.3-pounds).
There seems to be some discrepancy over whether or not his triplane actually flew. In 1907 Vaniman appears to have given up on aeroplanes saying: “I once had great faith in aeroplanes… I am firmly set in my belief that the aeroplane will never be a cargo carrier.”
Vaniman did not participate in the 1909 Reims air show… because he was already heavily at work on his dirigible, and therefore, there is no way anyone anywhere saw him fly at Reims some 150 meters (492 feet).
The 1911-series of 75 Aviation cards from Wills’s shows the Vaniman triplane in flight… and despite the date, it actually shows the earlier machine… perhaps more for what they hoped it actually represented… a triplane…
The two machines are basically the same: a triplane, with twin-boom outriggers, a high rectangular vertical surface, a single pusher propeller. But the two Vaniman triplanes are otherwise quite different.
Span: 36’1″
Length: 19’8″
Weight: 1100 lb
The Vanguard Omniplane was an American approach to vertical operation and high cruise speed. The ducts contained vertical thrust propellers that could be closed by venetian blind shutters to form small wings in forward flight. In forward flight, covers above the rotors and louvers below sealed the wing for aerodynamic lift.
The design, apparently not registered, used a 25-ft long Ercoupe light plane fuselage and weighed 2,600 lb. The round wings each housed a 6 ft diameter three-bladed propeller that was mechanically driven for vertical flight by a 265 hp Lycoming O-540-A1A six cylinder piston engine.
Thrust was produced by a 5′ shrouded prop in the tail, elevator and rudder behind the rear fan-controlled pitch and yaw, while differential propeller blade pitch affected roll in hover.
Ground tests, starting in Aug 1959 and including tethered hover trials, were followed by NASA full-scale wind tunnel testing.
Modifications in 1961, including a 860hp Lycoming YT53-L-1 turboshaft, improved control system, and 5′ nose extension to house a third lifting prop, led to the redesignation 2D. The nose prop improved control in pitch, as well as in yaw through the use of movable exit vanes. 2D completed tethered hover tests, but was damaged by a mechanical failure and discontinued in early 1962.
Engine: Lycoming O-540-A1A, 265hp
Wingspan: 22’0″
Length: 25’6″
Useful load: 500 lb
Max speed: 190 mph
Range: 150 mi
Seats: 2
In 1936 Frank Van Duzer of Waukegan, IL. built a two place, open cockpit monoplane, registered N14882. It was powered by a 60hp Anzani engine.
In 1982 Peter D Van Dine of Annapolis MD. Built the Merganser. It was a two place cabin, mid-wing, canard flying boat registered N5001S.
Engine: 81hp Revmaster 2100D
Wingspan: 17’6″
Length: 14’2″
Useful load: 447 lb
Max speed: 165 mph
Cruise: 147 mph
Stall: 54 mph
Seats: 2
In 1923 William Vanderford of Gladbrook IA. Built a single place, open cockpit, high wing monoplane, powered by a 2-cyl Harley-Davidson engine, which was not the only motorcycle part used. Open frame fuselage.
On the first run of the engine the airplane spun around, ran over a small tree, and almost made it to the neighbor’s porch. Taxiing trials were made, but the airplane would not rise, so it ended up instead as a powered sled.
The second try at flying by Vanden Plas was the “Médiaplan”, subject of Belgian Patent 237.925 of 22 July 1911. It was built by the Laurent firm at Leuven, which built propellers and other aviation parts. It was shown at Ans on 15 June 1911, flown successfully by Westerlain, although it is reported it ran out of fuel and had to land in field. It was displayed at the XI Salon in Brussels in January 1912 and it was reported that flying would resume in Kiewit, but nothing was heard of it. It was powered by a Vivinus engine, later by a 50 hp Gnôme.
All Aero 