Post WW2

Baker Pete / Special

TerryLeave a comment

The 1948 Pete / Special midget racer was a single-place low wing monoplane; a modified and repowered Howard DGA-3 Pete, reregistered as NX400B.

Later known as Shannon-Buente Special, it was too large and heavy to compete successfully with Goodyear racers, it was used instead for aerobatics in Cole Brothers Air Shows until c.1950.

It was bought by EAA in 1953, and redesigned as Pober Little Audrey with a replica fuselage and Luscombe shoulder-wings. The original fuselage and tail, plus some miscellaneous parts, went into a rebuild of the 1930 configuration by Repeat Aircraft, Riverside CA.

Engine: 85hp Continental C-85
Wingspan: 20’4″
Length: 17’0″
Seats: 1

DFS 346

TerryLeave a comment

After the war, in common with many other German pilots, and engineers, Ziese was taken forcibly to the Soviet Union to work on aviation development. The Siebel Company had been building three prototype supersonic research aircraft at the end of the war. These were then transported, in a partially completed form, to Podberesje in the Soviet Union, and after competition, were flown by Ziese at speeds of up to 1100 kph (683 mph). His letters back to Germany were written in a cryptic code, but inferred that he never managed to break the sound barrier. After suffering a bad crash in the DFS 346, Ziese died (some say was murdered) in a Russian hospital in 1951.