vintage airplane - aug 2011

8/20/2019 Vintage Airplane - Aug 2011

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Remember, We’re Better Together!

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Aviation insurance with the EAA Vintage Program offers:

Lower premiums with payment options Additional coverages Flexibility on the use of your aircraft Experienced agentsOn-line quote request available AUA is licensed in all states

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Dealing in any way with AUA is an old-time pleasure. Theyare, courteous, pleasant, thorough, personable, businesslike,competitive, and on top of that - they love old airplanes andtalk the language too.

— Ev Cassagneres

Ev CassagneresCheshire, Connecticut

■ Commercial Pilot

■ Flying since 1945

■ Ryan Aircraft Historian

■ Author

a n s A U


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2 Straight & Level Embracing change by H.G. Frautschy

3 News

6 Making an Old Friend New Again Envy of the airport—he flies an Aeronca by Sparky Barnes Sargent

14 Carburetors Are the Difference by Steve Krog, CFI

20 Light Plane Heritage The Unique Longhead S-1

by Bob Whittier

26 The Vintage Mechanic Engine cowls for drag reduction—Part I by Robert G. Lock

30 The Vintage Instructor Flight reviews make them fun—Part II by Steve Krog, CFI

34 Mystery Plane by H.G. Frautschy

37 Classified Ads

39 Making a Ramp Check a Short-Order Event by Steven W. Oxman

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 1

A I R P L A N E A U G U S T

C O N T E N T S

S T A F FEAA Publisher Rod Hightower

Director of EAA Publications Mary JonesExecutive Director/Editor H.G. FrautschyProduction/Special Project Kathleen Witman

Photography Jim KoepnickCopy Editor Colleen WalshSenior Art Director Olivia P. Trabbold

EAA Chairman of the Board Tom Poberezny

Publication Advertising:Manager/Domestic, Sue Anderson

Tel: 920-426-6127 Email: [email protected] Fax: 920-426-4828

Senior Business Relations Mgr, Trevor Janz

Tel: 920-426-6809 Email: [email protected]

Manager/European-Asian, Willi Tacke

Phone: +49(0)1716980871 Email: [email protected]: +49(0)8841 / 496012

Interim Coordinator/Classified, Alicia CanzianiTel: 920-426-6860 Email: [email protected]

C O V E R S

Vol. 39, No. 8 2011

FRONT COVER: The jaunty Aeronca Champ restored by Frank Jacobs cruises the skies of

east-central Wisconsin. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Champ and i ts sibling, the

Chief, have been favorites of Aeronca restorers, thanks to their simple structure and fine fly-

ing characteristics. Many Champs and Chiefs now qualify for operation by operators with sport

pilot certificates. Read about Jacob’s Champ in Sparky Barnes Sargent’s story beginning on

page 6. Photo by EAA Chief Photographer Jim Koepnick

BACK COVER: “A Course In Aviation for Fifteen Cents a Month” the cover copy crowed

about Model Airplane News , now the longest running model airplane magazine published

under the same same name. Model Airplane News ran this cover featuring the Nor thrup

Alpha mailplane in January of 1933.

14

6


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2 AUGUST 2011

While President Geoff Ro-

bison attends to some ur-

gent family business, I’d

like to take this oppor-

tunity to thank each of you who at-

tended EAA AirVenture 2011, and if

you’re a VAA or EAA volunteer, you

get a double “Thank you!” for your

efforts. We really could not do it

without you!Every year Theresa Books, VAA’s

administrative assistant, and I en-

joy the hectic month of July as our

friends and fellow volunteers head to

Oshkosh from all over North Amer-

ica, and some even come to Oshkosh

from overseas. It’s always good to see

so many great folks, many of whom

we get to see only once a year. Some

are faces we’ve seen for more than 20

years, and others are newer volun-

teers. It’s a great mix of people whoall have enthusiasm for aviation as a

common interest.

So many of us in the EAA family

have strong interests, and this wide

world of aviation is part of what

makes it so interesting. So many of

our fellow VAA members have an

equal interest in homebuilt airplanes,

and quite a few have one or more

of each in their hangars. Within the

VAA family, we’ve got members who

really like antiques best of all, andothers who really love their contem-

porary or classic airplanes. Addressing

the needs of each of these groups has

been one of the most challenging as-

pects for the offerings from the VAA.

Each of them has particular needs,

and at times it can be quite a juggling

act to ensure we’re doing our best to

meet members’ expectations with the

resources at hand.

Every day means change; some

changes are for the better, some “just

happen” without active work on our

behalf. We have gone from fairly rudi-

mentary cellphone communications

to multi-media wireless communica-

tions we can access nearly anywhere.

The Internet as we know it was really

just getting fired up, and since most

of us were just getting started with

using a 56k phone modem, it was a

good thing that those early websiteswere pretty rudimentary!

Now we have access to various fo-

rums and websites that allow us to

share information and enjoy the

social aspects of being involved in

aviation to whatever extent we de-sire. With all this change, it leads us

to ask, on a regular basis, what it is

our members desire from the VAA.

Vintage Airplane magazine has long

been your primary member benefit,

along with an outstanding insuranceprogram administered by AUA Inc.

We’ve had a website for more than

a decade, and we have an active and

growing component of EAA’s online

community on www.Oshkosh365.org .

But as we all know, change is inevi-

table, and if we don’t actively man-

age the change, some of it may not

work out for the better. Oshkosh365.

org will see some changes in the near

future to enhance its usability, and

we’re actively working on getting allof Vintage Airplane available in an on-line archive where members can read

or download any issue.

This fall, we’ve been planning on

surveying the VAA membership on

a variety of subjects related to their

expectations and desires, and to

help enhance the knowledge gained

by that survey, I’ve got a few ques-

tions for you, and I’m looking for-

ward to hearing from as many of

you as possible.

If you could add one more thing to

the member benefits you receive as a

Vintage Aircraft Association member,

what would it be? Why?

Is there a current member bene-

fit that you don’t feel is worth keep-

ing? Why?

Besides Vintage Airplane magazine,

what other means of communica-

tion would you like to see offered byVAA? What would you like to see in

those communications? How-to vid-

eos? Profiles of vintage aircraft restor-

ers? Historical pieces of a particular

aircraft or personality?

If you’ve got an idea or comment

about anything related to VAA and

its activities, including the annual

fly-in and convention, please feel free

to send them as well. As EAA mem-

bers, you have access to a wide vari-

ety of member benefits, and while wedon’t want to duplicate their efforts,

if you have a suggestion on how we

can “fine-tune” an offering to make it

fit better for your needs, please don’t

hesitate to make a suggestion. Feel

free to send us a response using what-

ever method you prefer, either mail or

e-mail. Our mailing address is:

Vintage Aircraft Association

PO Box 3086

Oshkosh, WI 54903

Or e-mail us at [email protected] .

Once again (we can never say it

enough!), “Thanks!” to each and ev-

ery one of you who is a member of

the VAA, and to each of you who en-

hanced their membership experience

by volunteering for the VAA. On be-

half of Theresa Books and me, we’d

just like to say that you folks are the

best, and we enjoy helping you enjoy

your love of vintage airplanes!

H.G.

H.G. FRAUTSCHY

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VAA

STRAIGHT & LEVEL

Embracing change


5/44

VAA NEWS

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 3

Marion Cole

Longtime EAA and Vintage Air-

craft Association members who

recall one of the earliest pilots fly-

ing a 450-hp Stearman in an air

show act will be saddened to hear

of the passing of Marion Franklin

“Master” Cole, who lost a coura-

geous battle with pancreatic can-cer on Friday, July 8, in Louisiana,

at the age of 86. Marion, EAA

Lifetime 48 and a founding (No.

9) IAC member, was a part of the

famous Cole Brothers Flying Cir-

cus for 17 years, then flew the lead

Pitts with Bob Heuer and Gene

Soucy in the original Red Devils

formation team. He is a past U.S.

National Aerobatic Champion

and competed as a member of the

U.S. Aerobatic Team at Magde-

burg, East Germany, in 1968. As

an aerobatics instructor, Marion

provided training for many of the

great names in competitive and

air show aerobatics.

“Marion was a longtime sup-

porter of EAA and one of the most

outstanding aerobatic pilots I ever

met,” said EAA Founder Paul Po-berezny. “Especially in the 450-hp

Stearman—in my opinion, Mar-

ion was top of the line in the pre-

cision handling of that aircraft.

He served as a role model for the

entire aerobatic community, just a

wonderful man.

“Time flies too rapidly for us

human beings.”

Mar ion Co le was bo rn on

December 9, 1924, in Toulan

Township, Illinois. He became

a “hangar brat” at an early age,

cleaning airplanes and hangars—

anything to earn a ride with a lo-

cal pilot. He soloed at age 16 and

never looked back.

Marion joined the serv ice as

soon as he was of age and be-

came a flight instructor in the

Navy. Following World War II,he flew with his brothers in the

Cole Brothers Air Shows, then

formed Marion Cole Air Shows,

with which he performed until

the early 1990s. Marion was alsoan aerobatic inst ructor, flight

instructor, FAA examiner, a cor-

porate pilot for 32 years, and

a national and world aerobatic

competitor. In all he logged more

than 31,000 flight hours.

Marion was a founding mem-


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ber of the International Aerobatic

Club, taught aerobatics at the ba-

sic and advanced levels, and tu-

tored many young aerobatic pilots

for more than 50 years. He flew air

shows throughout the continental

United States from the late 1940s

to the early 1990s. He retired from

the air show circuit but continuedto council, tutor, and announce

for young aerobatic hopefuls and

attended several air shows, in-

cluding AirVenture, each year.

He is survived by his wife of 66

years, Charlene; sons Bill and wife

Norma, Larry and wife Terri, How-

ard and wife Donna, Don and wife

Sharilyn; grandsons Kevin and wife

Tiffany, Aaron and wife Maegan,

Ray, and Justin; and great-grand-

children Kennedie and Collin.

Enroll in an EAA Webinar! Jo in the thousands of people

who have participated in free EAA

webinars (web-based seminars).

All you need is a computer and a

broadband Internet connection to

receive live streaming interactive

multimedia programs at home.

For instance, on August 10, 2011,

maintenance expert and EAA Sport

Aviati on columnist Mike BuschA&P/IA will offer his insight on

owner-produced parts for cer-

tificated aircraft, and even if you

can’t be there to participate live,

you can always watch the archived

webinar. You can sign up for up-

coming webinars at www.EAA.

org/webinars (you’ll be redirected

to a page on EAA’s Oshkosh365

website), and you can also watch

archived webinars starting from

that website.

4 AUGUST 2011

Hall of Fame

John Underwood

Vintage Aircraft Association

EAA will welcome and honor five new members to its Spor t

Aviation Hall of Fame on October 29, 2011. All EAA members

are invited to attend the induction ceremony and dinner that

evening in the EAA AirVenture Museum. For tickets, please call800-236-1025.

VAA’s 2011 inductee will be John Underwood of Glendale, Cali-

fornia. Author of 10 aviation books and numerous ar ticles con-

cerning aviation history, John has had a lifelong fascination with

airplanes since his was a little boy of 7. Later, as an aviation tech-

nical writer and illustrator, he earned a living in the industry, all the

while amassing a vast collection of photographs and aeronautical

materials. His work in the center of one of aviation’s most active

locations, the Los Angeles basin, gave him access to a number of

aviation luminaries, including Lockheed’s Kelly Johnson, test pilot

Tony LeVier (with whom John was partners in a Monocoupe), airracing and test pilot Gordon Israel, Alden Brown (designer of the

Brown racer), and even Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan.

John’s dedication to “getting history right” often sees him lend-

ing materials and photos to other authors so more people can be

made aware of exactly what happened when.

VAA is pleased to include him in its Hall of Fame, honoring his

contributions to the modern-day efforts to keep the world of vin-

tage aircraft alive and vibrant through his writings and research.

Do come join us to honor him at the induction ceremony on Octo-

ber 29, 2011.

Bill Turner (left) presents the Cliff Henderson Award (c.1995) to

John Underwood.


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VINTAGE AIRPLANE 5

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

Mail nominating materials to:

Remember, your “contemporary” may be a candidate; nominate someone today!

www.VintageAircraft.org

CALL FOR VINTAGE AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION

NominationsCall for VAA Hall of

Fame Nominations

To the left is our informationfor nominations for VAA’s Hall

of Fame, which is presented each

year during a special dinner. This

year’s dinner will be held Friday,

October 28. We’ll have more on

this year’s inductee, John Under-

wood, in a subsequent issue of Vin-

tage Airplane. If you are interested

in purchasing tickets to attend the

dinner to honor the inductees,

contact EAA’s Matt Miller at 920-

426-6886 or [email protected] .We would like to take this op-

portunity to mention that if you

have nominated someone for the

VAA Hall of Fame, nominations

for the honor are kept on file for

three years, after which the nomi-

nation must be resubmitted.


8/44

6 AUGUST 2011

Making anOld Friend

Envy of the airport—he flies an Aeronca

BY SPARKY BARNES SARGENT

JIM KOEPNICK


9/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 7

Fr ank J acob and h i s

Aeronca Champ have

been buddies for a long

time—and he just in-

vested three and a halfyears restoring it to

make sure they’ll continue their

friendship for several more de-

cades. Frank, a soft-spoken gentle-

man with an amiable smile, flew

his newly restored Champ from

Lafayette, Louisiana, to Sun ’n

Fun, International Fly-In & Expo

at Lakeland, Florida, in the spring

of 2010. His Champ and two oth-

ers composed a friendly flight

of three, and they enjoyed fineweather all the way to Lakeland.

He knows N84856 from the in-

side out, having owned it for 34

years. “It has gone through a lot in

its lifetime,” he says with a smile.

“I found all the old records of

what all the previous owners did

to it when I got the file from the

FAA in Oklahoma City.” Frank has

also gone through quite a bit in his

own lifetime, making aviation his

profession in one way or another.“I flew various airlines that went

bankrupt, went out of business,

and all that sort of thing,” he ex-

“The money isn’t really

the reason for any of this.

It’s fun!” —Frank Jacob


10/44

plains. “I did

maintenance work for Ozark for

a year in St. Louis and put in fouryears of maintenance work in the

Air Force. I got my A&P at Spar-

tan in Tulsa, and I was going to go

through the flight engineer course,but the airl ine on the West Coast

that Spartan had contracted to give

us the flight training went out of

business, so I got my multiengine

instrument instead.”

Frank first became enamored

with Aeronca Champion airplanes

in 1951. “That’s what I did my first

flying in, and that’s what I soloed,”

he recalls, with a twinkle in his eye,

“and I like the airplane!”

Champion History“So safe—so simple—now any-

body can fly” boasted Aeronca’s ad-

vertising of the era, along with the

declaration that the Champ was

“America’s No. 1 Low-Cost Plane,”

and its pilot was the “envy of the

airport.” The tandem AeroncaChampion trainer was designed

by Raymond F. Hermes and man-

ufactured by the Aeronca Aircraft

Corporation in Middletown, Ohio.

More than 8,000 were built, andjust like its predecessors all the way

back through the 1930 Aeronca

C-2, it incorporated aeronautical

engineer Jean Roché’s unique trian-

gular fuselage structure.

In February 1946, as produc-t ion was about to begin, the

Champ was advertised as “the easi-

est plane you’ve ever flown…with

far greater maneuverability and

greatly broadened range of visibil-

ity. …Just wait till you see Aeron-

ca’s luxuriously finished interior…

the extra room and comfort…the

wide safety-swing door! Improved

brake system and tie-down rings

that are built in.”

Features also included 300-degree visibility from the cockpit,a 38 mph landing speed, and stan-

dard oleo landing gear. So it was

easy for a pilot to let his gaze roam

over a pastoral landscape and the

open sky, thanks to the Champ’s

low-profile nose, a one-piece Plexi-

glas windshield, and rather large

side and rear windows. And with

its slow landing speed and shock-

absorbing gear, the Champ could

alight as softly as a flower petal

floating to earth. With its 35-foot

wingspan, and 21-foot 5- inch

length, the Champ had excellent

handling characteristics from

taxi through landing. It offered

a respectable performance

among its contemporaries—

its Continental A-65 pow-

ered a top speed of 100 mphand a 90 mph cruise while

sipping from a 13-gallon fuel

tank for a range of 270 miles.

N84856Unlike many Champs of the

day that were used as trainers,

N84856 went into service as an

agricultural sprayer for Vanda-

lia Flying Service Inc. in Van-

dalia, Illinois. It installed an

Aero Spray King Model A2 unitand converted the plane from

a model 7AC to a 7BCM by re-

moving the Continental A-65-8

and wood propeller and install-

ing a C-85-12F with a Hartz-

ell ground-adjustable propeller.The Champ changed hands several

times, and its Grade A cotton fab-

ric was replaced in 1951. Five years

later, while it was in Oklahoma, the

Champ was converted back to a

7AC model. By 1958, it needed newfabric again, and this time, its fuse-

lage was covered in cotton, and the

wings and tail were covered with

Irish linen.

N84856 continued flying from

owner to owner through the years,

experiencing a few mishaps (such

as ground loops) along the way.

Then in 1975, Frank Jacob became

its new caretaker, and N84856 has

remained in his capable hands

ever since. An A&P and CFI, Frankexplains with a chuckle that he

learned to fly “in west Texas where

the wind blows pretty hard, and

they say instead of a windsock,

they use a logging chain. If the log-

ging chain is standing straight out,

then it gets to be fun.”

He had a bit of work to do on

the Champ when he first purchased

it—but after all, the airplane only

cost him only $3,000. “The gear

had been wiped out from the fuse-

8 AUGUST 2011

“

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a

i

d

Aan

a

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lage one time, and the doorway was

cut down to just a hole. I thought

I was going to put the hinge pinsin place and put the door back on,

but instead I wound up having to

take fabric off around the bottom

to weld a new door frame,” Frank

recalls, then adds with a smile, “An

FAA man came up behind me while

I was welding on the airframe, and

he thought he’d caught somebody!

He said, ‘Let me see your A&P li-

cense,’ and I pulled it ut to show

him—then he just walked off.”

Research and Resources

By 2004, Frank decided, some-

what apprehensively, to start restor-

ing his aging friend. He had helped

other folks with their projects, but

he hadn’t tackled a full-blown res-

toration. So the first year, he cau-

tiously decided to fabricate a new

cowling. With that accomplished,

he says, “I kept doing a little more,

a little more, and finally it was time

to take the wings off—then I was

committed! So I got serious about

it and put in two and a half years

of work.”

Myriad questions sprang to

Frank’s mind as he examined the

condition of numerous airframe

components and contemplated

such things as par t s replace -

ment, so he sought answers from

technical, personal, and cyber re-

sources. “A little bit of research

can really do a whole lot for you,”

he shares. “There’s a ton of infor-

mation on the Internet from the

various Aeronca flying clubs; Bill

Pancake [well-known Aeronca

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 9

SPARKY BARNES SARGENT

BRADY LANE

Frank says his Champ is probably about 90 percent original.

Frank Jacob


12/44

10 AUGUST 2011

“guru”] is super friendly; and

John Houser, who worked at the

Aeronca factory, has the drawings

for the wing spars and fuselage.

[Editor’s Note: After decades of faith-

ful service to Aeronca enthusiasts,

John no longer prov ides th is he lp .

See the note at the end of this article

for information regarding sources of

data for the Aeroncas.—HGF] I used

the Poly-Fiber fabric-covering pro-

cess, and I dealt with Dondi and

Jim Miller [of Ohio]. They were su-

per helpful and mixed the original

Champ colors for me.”

Frank incorporated a few modi-

fications to his Champ, by means

of various STCs. Through his re-

search, he discovered one from

Cashmere Aviation Inc. (STC No.

SA4760NM) that allowed him to

use Marson Klik-Fast blind rivets to

attach the wing fabric to the ribs,

as opposed to using the original

PK screws. Another handy one was

from Rainbow Flying Service (STC

No. SA00860SE), which allowed

the installation of that company’s

fuselage formers. Additionally,

Frank also used two more STCs:

one for the Champ’s fabric instal-

lation (Poly-Fiber Aircraft Coatings’

STC No. SA1008WE), and one sohe could burn autogas in the 65-

hp Continental (STC No. SA732GL

[airframe] and STC No. SE634GL

[engine]).

Snafus and ChallengesRemember tha t new cowl -

ing that was the genesis of the

Champ’s restoration? Well, as it

turned out, Frank had to rework it

just a bit. Explaining with a good-

natured chuckle, he says, “I madethe new cowling first, and later

on, I installed new rubber engine

mounts, which lifted the engine

up about an inch. Then the new

cowling didn’t fit right! So I had to

modify it, because the engine was

in the proper position when I fin-

ished the airplane.”

One of the most challenging

situations Frank encountered was

installing the leading-edge metal

around the wing ribs. “That wasbecause I had to get to the [pre-

drilled] holes in the ribs from in-

side the wing, in order to align

them with the placement of holes

on the leading edge, and that

metal didn’t want to bend around

the nose ribs. So I had to hold the

metal down while reaching inside

the wing with a pencil and making

a little mark on the metal. Then I

took the metal back off and drilled

one hole. I did that for each hole,all the way across the wing lead-

ing edge. That took a long time,”

recounts Frank with a wry smile,

“and that’s the thing—when I first

took the airplane apart and looked

at it, I thought, ‘Boy, this is going

to take a whole year to do!’”

Frank endured an odyssey of

sorts when he ordered the Sitka

spruce to make new wing spars. He

says, “My first order was shipped

in a cardboard box, and they

The Champ at the beginning of the restoration.

The refurbished fuselage, replete with stringers and formers.

C O U R T E S Y

F R A N K

J A C O B

C O U R T E S Y

F R A N K

J A C O B


13/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 11

[the wood] rattled on the back of

a truck until the cardboard was

worn through, exposing the wood.

I took the wood to a professional

shop, and he ruined the wood,”

Frank recalls, adding, “so then, I

bought a second batch of wood

from the same place, and it came

and it was worn terribly, so I soldit back to the trucking company.

Then I bought a third batch from

a different source (Wicks Aircraft

Supply), and they shipped it in a

wood box. That spruce was so per-

fect; it had exactly 90-degree grain

instead of 45-degree, and the grain

was perfectly straight for 16 feet—I

didn’t think a tree could grow that

straight! It was the most beautiful

wood I’ve ever seen in my life, and

we built the spars out of that.”When it came time to strip

the airframe tubing down to bare

metal, he tried using a heavy-

duty commercial sandblaster at a

boat yard, but its force was strong

enough to pepper holes into one

elevator, which necessitated weld-

ing repair. Since the fuselage was

in decent shape, Frank had it

Sponge-Jet blasted (an environ-

mentally friendly type of abra-

sive blasting), and he sandblastedthe smaller parts in his hangar.

He used two-part epoxy primer to

protect and preserve the cleaned

metal components.

Finishing TouchesFrank wanted to make his Champ

as original as he could, and overall,

he thinks it’s “probably about 90

percent original.” In summary, he

used all new hardware and cables,

some new ribs and drag wires fromWag-Aero, new aluminum leading

edges, and new spars and stringers.

He also installed new side windows

and simply reused the windshield,

since it was still in good shape. In-

terestingly, the Champ’s original-

style hubcaps came from the island

of Guam; one of Frank’s friends

found them on eBay.

When he started on the inte-

rior, he consulted Bill Pancake, who

helped him identify the correct col-

New and old ribs are mounted on the new spruce spars.

The wings, ready for fabric.

The fabric-covered fuselage and wings, coated with Poly-Brush.

C O U R T E S Y

F R A N K

J A C O B

C O U R T E S Y

F R A N K

J A C O B

C O U R T E S Y

F R A N K

J A C O B


14/44

12 AUGUST 2011

ors. The brown paint was locally available, and the co-

ordinating brown crackle coating on the instrument

panel was available in a handy spray can from Ken-nedy Manufacturing Company (it makes tool boxes) in

Van Wert, Ohio.

Frank purchased the interior flocking kit from DonJer

Products Corporation in Winnebago, Illinois. The kit, he

says, consists of “one spray gun with glue and another

spray gun with powder. You spray the glue on the sur-

face; then you spray the powder and it sticks to it,” ex-

plains Frank, adding, “Any excess falls off, and eventually

it looks like suede. I had everything ready to spray, but I

had the wrong fitting to plug the spray gun into the air

hose. So I ran to town and went to all the places I could

think of, but nobody had the right fitting. It was late inthe day, and I was discouraged, so I just brushed it on the

cabin wall. So now, if you get the light just right, you can

see little brush marks. Spraying is the way to go!”

Engine and MagsBack when Frank started the Champ’s restoration,

the A-65-8 engine was running so well that he merely

took it off the airframe, pickled it somewhat and used

dehydrator plugs, and hung it on the wall for three

and a half years. At that time, it had a little more than

1,000 hours since major and 200 since top overhaul.

With the airframe completed, he reinstalled the engine

Note the neat upholstery and “flocking” on the

cabin wall.

S P A R K Y

B A R N E S

S A R G E N T

B R A D Y

A N E

P H O T O S


15/44

and crossed his fingers. “It started

after three flips of the prop,” he

says happily, “and has been run-

ning good ever since—I’ve flown it

about 100 hours since June 2008.”

He spruced up the engine com-partment by painting it and powder

coated the black rocker box covers.

Since the Continental has the old

Bendix magnetos, he’s recently de-

cided to buy a magneto with an im-

pulse coupling, to facilitate hand

propping the engine.

Flying the ChampFrank describes flying N84856

by saying, “Generally you want to

lift off at 50 mph, climb at 60, andcruise at 80. As for landings, if you

have a nice, calm day, it’s going to

be all three-point landings, until

you get used to the airplane,” he

explains, emphasizing, “Basically

you want to become part of the air-

plane—you want to feel it. When

most people land an airplane that

has a nose wheel, as soon as they

touch down they sort of relax and

the airplane goes straight down the

runway. But in this airplane, you

ought to be relaxed until you touch

down—and then you get serious

and have to work at it to keep it

straight. I like to wheel land in a

strong crosswind, because you have

a lot more control.”As a flight instructor, he feels that

simply learning how to correctly taxi

the tailwheel Champ is a good step

in transitioning from a nosewheel

airplane. “If you’re just starting out,

mainly you want to get used to the heel

brakes, which are unusual for most

people. You turn the airplane with

full rudder, and if that’s not enough,

then add some brake and then some

power—you’re just working every-

thing when you’re taxiing. And youshould always be conscious of where

the wind is when you’re taxiing, be-

cause you’re flying it when you’re on

the ground. You’ve got to feel the air-

plane to see what it’s doing.”

An Eye to the FutureFrank is affectionately attached

to his Aeronca Champion—and

with good reason; his own personal

history is inextricably entwined

with it. “My daughter, Cathy, first

flew with me when she was 10 years

old,” he reminisces, with a twinkle

in his eyes, “and she used a cushion

so she could reach the rudder ped-

als. I never thought she would do

much with flying…and today she’sflying internationally for Delta. My

son, Don, soloed a few days after

his 16th birthday but didn’t con-

tinue with flying. But the kid across

the street, every time I drive in the

driveway, he wants to go flying! So

you can never tell with kids.”

Father and daughter still occa-

sionally share the joy of flying to-

gether in the faithful Champ, and

Frank proclaims with a smile, “I

plan to give it to her when I finishwith it. I hope to wear it out before

then! I tell her I’ll restore it in an-

other 40 years.”

So it isn’t surprising that Frank

won’t consider selling it. With a

gentle laugh, he shares, “I have put

$17,000 of parts in it, and all those

hours that I can’t count. If some-

body wants to buy it, I say, ‘No way,

I don’t care how much!’ The money

isn’t really the reason for any of

this. It’s fun!”

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 13

JIM KOEPNICK


16/44

14 AUGUST 2011

Ever wonder why your J-3 Cub,

identical to your friend’s Cub in

every way (i.e., engine, prop) just

doesn’t perform like your friend’s

Cub? You’ve checked everything,

including compression, timing, and

identical Stromberg carbs including

the same type of fuel, but still your

Cub is continually outperformed.

The empty weight for both Cubs isnearly identical, and you and your

friend are within five pounds of

one another. Why does your Cub

seem so sluggish on takeoff, but the

other Cub just leaps into the air?

This issue has puzzled Cub own-

ers for decades, but finally there ap-

pears to be a cause and solution on

the horizon. It’s the carburetor!

I recently had an opportunity to

sit down with Robert Kachergius,

Uni-Tech Air Management Systems

Inc. Bob has an engineering as well

as aviation maintenance back-

ground including an A&P and IA,

and for the past number of years he

has specialized in the rebuilding of

Stromberg carburetors.

For years if not decades most

aviation mechanics have been frus-

trated by the Stromberg carbs. If you

get a good carb, they run beauti-fully. But they often cause mechan-

ics much frustration and gray hair.

Consequently, many Strombergs

have been removed and replaced

with a Marvel carb. Now, thanks to

Bob’s research, the cause and solu-

tion have been found.

Bob was asked to take a look at

a Stromberg carb that had been in-

stalled on a Continental A-65 en-

gine. The owner stated the engine

started easily and idled smoothly,

but when full power was applied,

the engine just was turning up. The

normal things had been checked

but made no difference.

The carb was carefully disassem-

bled and all parts checked for wear

and correct assembly. Everything

seemed to be in order. The float

drop was then measured. It should

measure 0.048 inch in all Strom-bergs. However, this float was only

dropping about 0.032 to 0.033

inch and didn’t meet that specifi-

cation, causing the engine to run

lean on partial power. Upon closer

examination it was determined the

float was coming in contact with

the main metering jet, restricting

float drop. In normal operation,

the float will rest on a castin-posi-

tion 45-degree bevel at the bottom

of the float bowl, thus clearing and

Carburetors

BY STEVE KROG

To highlight the special attention that must be paid to even the simplest of mechanical

items like the reliable Stromberg carburetor, the photos are of the work per formed by BobKachergius of Uni-Tech.


17/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 15

not hitting the edge of the main

metering jet. Operating under

these circumstances the float was

restricting fuel flow, so the engine

was only producing about 60 per-

cent to 65 percent power due to

restricted fuel flow.

Bob had a number of the Strom-berg carbs on hand and pulled sev-

eral of them apart to check float

travel and drop as well as clearance

near the main metering jet. Bob fur-

ther disassembled each of the carbs

to carefully measure the position,

angle, and height of the main meter-

ing jet. Nearly half of the carbs had

restricted float travel due to contact

with the main metering jet. It be-

came quite apparent that a number

of these carbs had been incorrectly

Above and below: The three-legged fuel level measuring tool must be used in conjunction with the

proper amount of fuel feed pressure, or “head,” so the needle and seat will be set properly. Before the

carb is reassembled, the parting surfaces of the carb are carefully checked for flatness using a granitesurface block.

For more explanation on the reason for the fuel level sitting at an angle in the float bowl, see

the photo on page 18.


18/44

16 AUGUST 2011

machined during manufacture

when the main metering jet open-

ing was drilled into the bottom of

the carb fuel bowl. There appeared

to be a large machining variation.

With that finding it bec ame

clear as to why one Stromberg

carb performs as expected, while

the identical carb runs and per-forms poorly causing the me-

chanic and owner fits.

If you’re experiencing lethargic

performance from your Stromberg-

equipped airplane, don’t go tearing

Fuel Drip—WhoGets the Blame?

By Bob Kachergius

As we all know, a lot of Strom-

berg NA-S3 carburetors truly do

drip when the plane is sitting

there, not running. It appears that

the poor little Stromberg is always

blamed as the culprit in this situa-

tion. That’s not always the case.

There are two other factors that

contribute to the fuel drip, but most

of the time they are overlooked.

It could be that the primer or fuel

selector valve is leaking, causing

the problem. Two tests can quickly

and easily solve the puzzle:

First: Disconnect the small primer

line from the fitting on the fuel in-

take spider. Make sure the primer

is seated in its “park” position on

the instrument panel and not par-

tially out. If the primer line continues

to drip, the primer assembly needs

service or replacement.

Second: With the fuel selector

valve turned to the off position, dis-

connect the fuel line at the carbure-

tor. If the fuel line drips, the culprit

here is a leaky fuel shut-off valve.

Repair or replace it.

So, in the end, the poor little

Stromberg that “drips” may not al-

ways be the cause of the problem.

Any time you experience a fuel drip,

do these two tests. They are fast

and simple to perform. The tests

should always be part of a 100-

hour or annual inspection.

Completely overhauled and ready for installation after Uni-Tech’s Bob

Kachergius has given it a thorough going-over. As is typical for most instal-

lations of the Stromberg with the back-suction mixture control installed, the

control lever for the mixing disks is either safety wired in the closed posi-

tion, or, as in this carb, had it removed and replaced with a simple cover

plate. The yel low dot indicates the carburetor has had its fl oat chamber

vent hole repositioned per a Stromberg service bulletin.


19/44

into your Stromberg carb just yet.

There is a simple check that you can

do. Remove and inspect the spark

plugs. If the probe ends are a nice

even chocolate brown, your carb is

probably performing as was intended.

However, if your plug ceramic insula-

tors are white to light gray in color,

you are running a lean mixture thatis probably caused by this float/fuel-

flow restriction. In this case you may

want to have your carb thoroughly

inspected and corrected.

Bob has developed a “fix” for

those carbs experiencing float

travel restrictions. He has devel-

oped machining so that the main

metering jet orifice can be counter-

bored slightly, thus allowing full

float drop and proper fuel flow.

When done properly and legally,

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 17

Stromberg NA-S3 Carburetor—Helpful Hints

By Bob Kachergius

They say in life there are two ways to get a job done—doing it the

easy way or the hard way.

When removing and then re-installing a Stromberg carburetor on a

small Continental engine, because of the lack of room, it becomes an

act of frustration in trying to get the castellated nuts and cotter pins

started on the intake spider studs. Doing this while the intake spider is

mounted to the engine becomes, at best, very time-consuming. That’s

the hard way.

Try this instead:

Remove the intake spider from the engine (two AN6 nuts and wash-

ers, four rubber intake tubes and clamps, one primer line connection)

and then easily re-install the carburetor to the intake spider while it’s

on the workbench; it’s fast and simple. This is the easy way.

You will find, in most cases, that the rubber intake tube sleeves are

pretty old, dry, and cracked and in need of replacement anyway.

Stromberg Carb Information Chart

CARB MODEL ENGINE MFR ENGINE MFR ENGINE MODEL HORSEPOWER FUEL FEEDSETTING NUMBER

NA-S3A1 series carburetors with mixture controlA18033B CONT 3628 A-65 65 GRAVITY

A-75 75 GRAVITY

A-80 80 GRAVITY

A30177 CONT 4631 A-75 (Stinson) 75 GRAVITY 50” HEAD380162 CONT 40059 C-75 75 GRAVITY380167 CONT 40590 C-85 85 GRAVITY

380171 CONT 36019 C-75 75 PRESSURE

380172 CONT 40636 C-85 85 PRESSURE

380174 CONT 24716 C-75-12 75 GRAVITY

380231-3 CONT ------ C-9012F 90 GRAVITY

380231 CONT ------ C-90 90 PRESSURE

391090 CONT ------ C-90 90 GRAVITY

391156 CONT ------ C-90 90 GRAVITY

391229-1-2 CONT ------ C-90-14F 90 GRAVITY

391257 CONT 531157 C-90-14F 90 GRAVITY

391716-1 CONT ------ A-50 50 PRESSURE “ “ “ A-65 65 3 PSI /

“ “ “ A-75 75 .048” FLOAT

“ “ “ A-80 80 DROP

392458 CONT 4805 A-80 80 GRAVITY

NA-SO3A1 (rarely seen )380168 CONT 50335 A-100 100 GRAVITY

380175 CONT 36020 A-100 100 PRESSURE

NA-S3B (no mixture control)380155 CONT 35885 A-50 50 GRAVITY

“ “ “ A-65 65 “

380205 CONT 36109 A-65 65 PRESSURE

“ “ “ A-75 75 “380206 CONT 36109 A-65-8 65 PRESSURE

This chart details the proper engine/application with the model number stamped on the carb body.


20/44

18 AUGUST 2011

the float restriction is no longer a

problem and the carb can be re-

turned to service.

Bob also does several other things

to a Stromberg to get it to run prop-

erly. He finds that in all the carbshe gets in for overhaul, almost ev-

ery one has the old neoprene needle

and seat. These needles were the sec-

ond generation from Stromberg and

were designed to eliminate the fuel

drip common to Strombergs. These

needles came out in 1943 after the

war, and some can approach 60-plus

years in age. They get very brittle

and will crumble when squeezed

with a long nose pliers. It is also

common knowledge that when us-

ing auto fuel containing ethanol,

many of these needles can swell up

and cause real fuel flow problems.

There were three other manufactur-

ers of the neoprene needles along

with Stromberg, and it is impossibleto differentiate as to who made the

needle. The three clone needles were

made of an inferior-grade neoprene

and did swell up. The OEM Strom-

berg needle did not. Thus, at over-

haul, Bob will use the latest stainless

steel or Delrin needle and seat, elim-

inating the neoprene headache.

Another interesting find is that

when dismantling the carbs for

overhaul, Bob finds that whoever

worked on the carb in the past had

grossly overtorqued the six 1/4-

20 fillistered head screws holding

the upper casting half to the lower

one. The normal torque specified

in the Stromberg overhaul is only

35-45 inch-pounds. This puts ex-cessive stress on the casting and

warps them, causing possible vac-

uum and fuel leaks. Bob has to

custom lap each casting parting

surface on a granite lapping plate

to get perfectly flat mating surfaces,

guaranteeing a positive seal. This

procedure is done on every carb he

overhauls.

Another situation exists contrib-

uting to fuel drip. The Stromberg

was originally designed for the Er-

The steel needle and its corresponding sharp-edged

brass seat.

An original and aftermarket set of neoprene-tipped

needles, illustrating the brittleness that occurs as the

needles age.

The Delrin needle used in many Stromberg carbs

seems to offer the best of both worlds.

Here is a 12-degree wedge plate Bob uses to show how

the fuel level sits in a taildragger after the float level was

set to 13/32 inches wet in the bench. It shows how the

fuel sits at an angle in the bowl, and, even when the

float level is proper at 13/32 inches level, the rear of the

main gasket can get “wet” and seep a little fuel at the

casting parting line, causing a blue stain. This is why Bob

always turns the fuel selector off after every shutdown.


21/44

coupes, which sat on tricycle gear and level to the

ground. Now, install the Stromberg on a taildragger,

and it no longer sits level, causing fuel to drip out

of the carb float bowl vent opening. This vent port

is located in the lower casting about 1/4 inch be-low the parting surface. Stromberg came out with a

service bulletin to effect a fix. This involves sealing

the lower casting port opening and relocating the

port to the upper casting half, approximately 1/4

inch above the parting surface. This raises the float

bowl vent 1/2 inch higher than original and elimi-

nated float bowl drip. Bob makes this modification

on every carb he overhauls. The easy way to see if

this mod was done to your carb is to look and see

if there is a 1-inch-diameter yellow dot painted on

the face of the float bowl as recommended by the

Stromberg service bulletin. If this mod isn’t done,your carb will drip. Bob has found that on almost

every carb that comes in for overhaul, none have

this modification installed.

Another situation occurs when someone in the

field attempts to set the float level of 13/32 inch

(all Stromberg carbs) below the lower casting part-

ing surface and doesn’t dry mechanically. This is

impossible to do accurately. The float level has to

be set “wet” with fuel fed to the float bowl with the

recommended gravity flow pressure head. This has to

be done on a flow fixture device to be accurate. Fuel

float level is done by randomly stacking variable-thickness special gaskets under the brass needle seat

to attain the proper level.

The Stromberg carburetor is an excellent unit and

will perform flawlessly if inspected, overhauled, and

maintained properly. Bob’s diligence in really figur-

ing out the manufacturing variances in the original

parts is to be commended. His company, Uni-Tech

Air Management Systems, located at 13221 Wind-

ward Trail in Orland Park, Illinois, specializes in

overhauling only the Stromberg carburetor. Bob can

be reached at 708-267-7111 to answer any questions

you may have on your Stromberg.VINTAGE AIRPLANE 19

THE “STROMBERG SPECIALIST”

R.E. “Bob” Kachergius A&P/IA

UNI-TECH AIR MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, INC.

Call: 708-267-7111 Mail: 13221 WINDWARD TRAIL

ORLAND PARK, IL. 60462 E-Mail: [email protected]

Does your Stromberg NA-S3 carburetor Drip - Leak - Perform poorly ? ? ?

Have it Overhauled & Restored to “Grand Cham-

pion” standards and quality by us…

WE: Dismantle & Inspect –

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new AN hardware,

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& seat – proper metering

jets & venturis… Float level

is set “wet” to 13/32” – Stromberg service letter

procedure installed to raise float bowl vent position

eliminating fuel drip – prepare a log book entry

sheet…

All for $850.00+ $25.00 freight & handling

Before re-assembling the Stromberg carb, the cast-

ings are carefully inspected and finished, with the

mating surfaces trued up on a granite surface plate.

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22/44

20 AUGUST 2011

Light Plane Heritage

published in EAA Experimenter October 1991

Editor’s Note: The Light Plane Heritage series in EAA’s Experimenter magazine often touched on aircraft and concepts

related to vintage aircraft and their history. Since many of our members have not had the opportunity to read this se-

ries, we plan on publishing those LPH articles that would be of interest to VAA members. Enjoy!—HGF

THE UNIQUE LONGHEAD S-1BY BOB WHITTIEREAA 1235

In the autumn of 1918 the feel-

ing became widespread that the

long and bloody conflict we called

World War I was at last moving to-

ward its end. This prompted lively

discussions to take place in a mod-

est aircraft manufacturing shop lo-

cated in the California seaside town

of Santa Barbara.“What are we going to do after

the war?” was the gist of the talk

that went on between the brothers

Allan and Malcolm Loughead and

their associates John Northrop and

Anthony Stadlman. They finally

agreed that they should turn their

quite impressive mechanical and

engineering talents to developing a

small sportplane that would appeal

to the thousands of men who had

learned to fly during the war.

Before getting into the story of

the Loughead S-1 (for Sportplane

No. 1), let’s say something about

the two Lougheads. The name, bythe way, was and is pronounced

“Lockheed.” They came from a fam-

ily of Scottish origin and were born

in the late 1880s. They had an older

half-brother, Victor, from their fa-

ther’s previous marriage. He had

formal training in engineering and

as early as 1909 was writing books

on aviation and aircraft design.

The two younger Lougheads be-

came expert automobile mechan-

ics during the first decade of the

20th century. Then living in San

Francisco, the three spent much

time discussing aviation. This led

Allan in 1910 to move to Chicago,which at that time was a beehive

of aeronautical activity. There he

became a good aircraft mechanic

and taught himself to fly by acci-

dent. That is to say, an airplane he

was taxi testing picked up enough

speed to become airborne, oblig-

The young lady gives an idea of the

Loughead S-1’s dimensions as it sits on

display in front of the San Francisco CityHall in 1920.


23/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 21

ing him to “fly” it as best he could

in an erratically circular path so as

to return to the field from which

he had departed. Since the landing

injured neither the plane nor him-

self, that made him into a pilot by

the standards of that time.

Early in 1912, Allan returned

to San Francisco and persuadedbrother Malcolm to join him in

building an airplane. Malcolm

had remained in Cal i fornia ,

where he worked as an accom-

plished auto mechanic and de-

veloped what became the widely

used Lockheed hydraulic brakes

for cars. Between 1912 and 1916

the two divided their time among

assorted aviation projects and

prospecting for gold. In 1916 they

relocated to Santa Barbara, wherethey set up a modest aeronautical

shop in a garage.

Here they built a small number

of flying boats. The aforementioned

John Northrop and Tony Stadlman

had also been active in the heady

early days of aviation and during

the war joined the Loughead shop

to help build a small number of na-

val flying boats. Between them the

four possessed very considerable

practical and engineering knowl-edge. As mentioned previously,

they began to brainstorm their

ideas for a postwar civil airplane.

Now, in the year 1918 nobody

foresaw clearly the enormous impact

that thousands of war-surplus mili-

tary planes would have on the post-

war civil aviation scene. Not realizing

that the aircraft manufacturing in-

dustry would be severely depressed

for several years by this vast supply of

cheap surplus airplanes and engines,the quartet enthusiastically drew up

a list of desirable characteristics for

their new plane.

Of course, there were often

strong differences of opinion while

all this talk was going on, but in the

end they agreed on what it should

be like. It would be a single-seater,

partly so that a small and therefore

economical engine could fly it satis-

factorily, but in retrospect probably

also because they felt that the typi-

cal returning military pilot would

be one who was accustomed to fly-

ing a fast and nimble single-seater

or at least being in total command

of a two-seater.

Airplane fuselages of that time were

tediously put together from wooden

longerons and cross-members

held together with a great many

intricate metal fittings, braced

against bending and twisting with

many crisscrossing steel cablesand trued up by expertly adjust-

ing a multitude of turnbuckles.

All of this was much too labor-

intensive for a plane meant to be

sold to civilians at the lowest fea-

sible price. For this reason they

developed a more suitable form

of construction, which will be de-

scribed shortly.

They also decided that their

plane should perform well enough

to have a reasonable chance of sat-isfying pilots accustomed to flying

lively military planes, within the

limitations set by an economical

selling price. Yet at the same time,

because real airports with good

runway and hangar facilities were

at that time still very few in num-

ber and far apart, they agreed that

their plane would have to be able

to take off from and land on what-

ever modest-sized clearing owners

might be able to find.

Because the g lues and var -

nishes available in those long-ago

days were rather lacking in water-

resistance, the new plane would

have to be designed so that its wing

folded for towing behind a car to a

garage or barn for storage.

While some European war-

planes such as the German Fokkers

had fuselages put together com-

paratively quickly by welding steel

tubing of suitable length and di-ameters, the technique of building

this way was not very well under-

stood in the United States. Also,

expert oxyacetylene welders were

scarce in California.

Much thought and experimen-

tation went into the method set-

tled upon for building the fuselage.

They knew of other airplanes that

had wooden fuselages of the mono-

coque-type construction. That

word is of French origin and is pro-nounced monoKOK. It means es-

sentially “a stiffened sheet of metal,

veneer, plastic, etc. to bear loads.”

Various other fuselages of this

type had been built using tech-

niques familiar to builders of light-

weight boats. Typically strips of

veneer would be laid onto a suit-

able building form made of bulk-

heads and stringers. One of the

problems was to end up with an

acceptable smooth, sound, and

Obviously the result of a lot of pattern work and concrete mixing, the fuse-

lage molds for the S-1 were solid and durable. While books on the Lockheeds

claim birch plywood was used for lamination, material visible to the right looks

more like some kind of veneer.


24/44

22 AUGUST 2011

strong laminate using whatever a

builder chose in the way of tacks,

staples, and glues. Sometimes lam-

inations sprung apart before the

glue set adequately.

They were not, by the way, the

only ones looking for an alterna-tive to the wood-and-wire type

of construction. While they were

building their S-1 in early 1919,

the Curtiss company on Long Is-

land in far-away New York built

a number of Curtiss Oriole three-

seater biplanes that had fuselages

made with Curtiss’ version of the

laminating process. The fuselage of

an Oriole can be seen and studied

today at the Glenn H. Curtiss Mu-

seum at Hammondsport in centralNew York.

The Lougheads came up with

the idea of using large concrete

molds in which to laminate right

and left shells from which to as-

semble a complete fuselage. While

very heavy, concrete was inexpen-

sive and admirably rigid. The glue

most generally used for aircraft

construction in those days was

of the casein type, made of dehy-

drated milk curds ground into a

powder and then mixed with wa-

ter for use. Commercial glues of

this kind usually had additives in

them to impart desirable charac-

teristics. While water-resistant for

periods of time reckoned in terms

of a few days immersion, it wasnot truly waterproof.

Information in available litera-

ture is vague and confusing, but

it appears the Loughead team

gradually devised a method of

preparing materials and position-

ing them in the concrete molds.

Three layers of very thin spruce

plywood were laid up, and one

old book claims that layers of thin

cloth were spread between them

to serve as binding membranes.When the laminating materi-

als were in position in the mold,

a rubber bag was laid in place and

the mold capped with a bolted-

on cover. Air pressure then forced

the rubber against what would be

the inner surface of the finished

molding. This applied necessary

pressure to assure proper bond-

ing of the glue, absence of voids,

and a smooth outer surface. When

the glue had cured, right- and left-

hand moldings were joined to-

gether with longitudinal bonding

strips to form a light, strong fu-

selage. The finished laminate was

1/8 inch thick.

The structure and shape of the

tail surfaces were made to fit onthe torpedo-like tail end of the fu-

selage. This characteristic look ap-

peared some years later on the

Lockheed Vega, Sirius, Orion, and

Altair designs.

The Santa Barbara experiment-

ers originally intended to use an

English Green engine on their new

design, but had to give up this idea

when the manufacturer went out

of business. So expert mechanic

Stadlman designed a two-cylinder,horizontally opposed engine that

he and Allan built in their shop.

At that time designers and found-

ries were much more familiar with

the technique of casting deep,

closely spaced air-cooling fins. So

this new engine was water-cooled.

A radiator of crescent shape was

made to fit neatly under the fu-

selage below the firewall. The en-

gine developed 25 hp.

To get acceptable takeoff and

This view of the S-1 in flight suggests that the German Albatros of World War I could have been the inspiration for its

overall shape.


25/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 23

climb performance from this en-

gine, the plane’s wings were given

the ample span of 28 feet for the

upper one and 24 feet for the lower

one. While at first sight appearingto be a biplane, the S-1 was actu-

ally a sesquiplane. “Sesqui-” means

“one-and-a-half,” and so this now

seldom-encountered aviation term

refers to a two-winged aircraft in

which the area of one wing (in this

case the lower) is one-half or less of

the other.

The top wing was of conven-

tional two-spar, fabric-covered

wooden construction and had no

ailerons to simplify manufactur-ing of the ribs. The wingtips were

of very pleasing and efficient semi-

elliptical shape. Lower wings were

of single-spar construction. V-

shaped interplane struts connected

the two spars of the upper wing

panels to the single spars of the

lower ones. This layout originated

in the famous French World War I

Nieuport fighters as a result of de-

signer Edouard Nieuport’s strong

feeling that the number of wing

A Hint From Boat BuildersMonocoque construction has been little used in homebuilt aircraft or re-

storers, but offers possibilities for experimenters having a working knowl-

edge of stress analysis and weight control. For example, using certain

modern techniques, a fuselage could be made without the need for an

expensive mold, and the method could be adapted to such things as tail

booms, seaplane floats, and flying boat hulls.

Epoxy resins that develop full strength without the need for great clamping

pressure are now available. They are used in a method of amateur and cus-

tom boatbuilding called cold molding, from the fact that these resins cure atroom temperatures. A study of this boat-building technique could be produc-

tive. But a word of caution—poorly chosen lamination schedules can result

in unacceptably heavy or costly aircraft components.

In copies of WoodenBoat magazine, you’ll find advertisements of epoxy

suppliers such as Chem Tech and Gougeon Brothers and get prices for their

how-to literature and trial samples. WoodenBoat has a catalog that among

other things lists books on lightweight wooden boat construction. Their ad-

dress is Box 78, Brooklin, ME 04616. Write to Forest Products Laboratory,

One Gifford Pinchota Drive, Madison, WI 53705 and request copies of “List

of Publications on Veneer and Plywood” and “Glass and Glue Products – List

of Publications.”

Veneer used for cold-molded boat hulls is about one-eighth inch in thick-ness and produces laminates too thick and heavy for aircraft. Being an ex-

pensive manufactured product, there’s a question if it’s economical to buy

thin plywood and slice it into strips for lamination work. When homemade ve-

neer is produced by running planks through a table saw, much of the raw ma-

terial one has purchased is turned into wor thless sawdust. Veneer is made

by special machines in which very large blades slice wood from logs without

producing sawdust.

Builders of fiberglass boats use a wide variety of special foam plastic and

balsa wood core materials that add thickness and rigidity to laminates. A

successful epoxy-based monocoque aircraft structure would be the result of

careful study of the many special materials and techniques available today.

The S-1’s wing assembly was really

unique. Lower wings pivoted to act

as ailerons, and tipped on edge to

clear the fuselage when the wings

were folded for towing and storage.


26/44

24 AUGUST 2011

struts and brace wires should be

kept to a minimum for the sake of

minimizing wind-resistance while

retaining the strength and rigiditycreated by trussing biplane wings

together with a system of struts and

crisscrossed wires. The Germans

imitated this approach in their Al-

batros fighters, and we can see a re-

semblance to the Albatros’ lines in

those of the Loughead S-1.

The S-1’s lower wings also had

no ailerons. Because each had but a

single spar, it was feasible to make

fittings that attached them to the

fuselage in such a way as to al-

low these wings to pivot about the

spanwise centerlines of their spars.

The control system was designed to

make the lower wings move exactlyas do conventional ailerons. In ef-

fect, the smallish lower wings were

the plane’s ailerons.

The control system incorporated

another feature. By pulling a lever

just after touching down on a land-

ing, the pilot could cause the lower

wings to rotate 90 degrees, with

leading edges poi nting straight

down and trailing edges straight

up. This presented the lower wings’

full surface broadside to the air and

provided dramatic braking effect.

The cleverness of the wing struc-

ture’s overall design is further il-

lustrated by the fact that wing rootfittings also allowed right- and left-

hand assemblies to be folded back-

ward (on the ground, of course!) to

make the ship narrow enough to

be towed tail-first behind a car over

the road from landing field to stor-

age building.

Extensive test flying was carried

out during 1919, and the plane at-

tracted much favorable attention

when exhibited and demonstrated

at the 1920 San Francisco Aeronau-

Two workmen easily hold the partly completed fuselage of the S-1. In the original 8-by-10-inch photo, strips of veneer

of verifying widths could clearly be seen running in a straight fore and aft direction.

It’s a widely acknowledged truth that each new airplane design is based at

least in part on lessons learned from previous aircraft. In 1927 the Lock-

heeds (having changed the spelling of their family name) based the fuselage

of their Vega on the construction method used for the 1919 Loughead S-1,

combined with Anthony Fokker’s method of making wooden cantilever wings.


27/44

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 25

tical Exposition. Empty weight was

only 375 pounds, all the more im-

pressive when we remember that it

was fitted with a water-cooled en-

gine with its radiator and coolant

weights. Weight fully loaded was

an equally impressive 600 pounds.

Top speed was 70 mph; landing

speed a very useful 25 mph. Rate ofclimb was 700 fpm, which is very

good for the power available.

This interesting plane was a tech-

nical and operational success, but

a commercial disappointment. Af-

ter investing $29,000 in healthy

1919 dollars in its development,

the Lougheads were very disap-

pointed when not a single order

came in. They went out of busi-

ness in 1921, engaged in a variety

of other enterprises, and becausepeople persistently mispronounced

their name in such ways as “Log-

head,” changed the spelling to the

phonetic Lockheed. Theirs was but

one of the many firms that suf-

fered from the flood of cheap, war-

surplus airplanes.

As the 1920s wore on, new and

vastly improved aircraft engines ap-

peared on the scene. Notable was

the very reliable Wright Whirl-

wind nine-cylinder radial engineof 200 to 220 hp, which powered

the planes of Adm. Byrd, Charles A.

Lindbergh, Clarence Chamberlin,

and others. Designers began to re-

alize that the drag of biplane wings

handicapped these better engines

and turned to monoplanes. Most

monoplanes of the late 1920s were

strut-braced.

Despite their setback, the Lock-

heeds maintained their interest in

aviation and in 1927 came up withsomething really good. By combin-

ing Anthony Fokker’s method of

building low-drag cantilever wings

of wood with their method of mak-

ing the S-1’s fuselage, they came up

with the very sleek and fast Lock-

heed Vega. In the hands of intrepid

pilots like the Wilkins-Eielson

team, Wiley Post, and Amelia Ear-

hart, it made many daring and dif-

ficult flights.

Developed from the high-wing

Vega, the low-wing Sirius led tothe retractable-gear Orion and Al-

tair low-wings that introduced

high speed and reliability to airline

scheduling. Lessons learned while

building stressed-skin Lockheeds of

wood taught lessons to designers

like John Northrop that stood them

in good stead when in the early

1930s they began to design all-

aluminum aircraft of monocoque

fuselage and cantilever wing design.

So despite its lack of commercial

success, the innovative LougheadS-1 contributed greatly to aeronau-

tical progress. It even passes along

two important lessons to those

who are working with amateur-

built aircraft today. One is that

there is always more than one way

to do something, and the other is

that when well-informed experi-

menters start brainstorming, no

one can predict to what surpris-

ing developments their efforts will

eventually lead!

This set of general-arrangement drawings, done by Patricia and Monty Groves,

originally accompanied an article by them concerning the history of the S-1,

and the building of a scale R/C model. It appeared in the October 1972 issue

of American Aircraft Modeler .


28/44

26 AUGUST 2011

One of the first designs, whichproved successful in dealing

with the problem of engine drag,

was the Townend ring cowl. De-

signed by British engineer B.

Melvill Jones, this cowling was

intended to reduce cooling drag

but did little for improved cool-

ing, thus it was strictly for in-

creased airspeed.

I l l u s t r a t i o n 1 s h o w s t h e

Townend ring cowl (also called a

speed ring), when installed prop-erly, reduced drag by as much

as 11 percent. However, the

Townend ring impeded visibil-

ity while taxiing on the ground.

Engineers and researchers be-

gan to explore improved designs

that would address the issues of

drag and visibility. In 1928, Fred

Weick (pronounced Wyck), an

engineer from the National Advi-

sory Committee for Aeronautics,

led the development of what wasto become known as the NACA

low-drag engine cowling. Weick

had access to the NACA Propeller

Research Wind Tunnel at Lang-

ley, Virginia. Weick and his team

won the 1929 Collier Trophy,

the first of five Collier awards

for NACA. One of the four Col-

lier trophies received by NASA’s

Langley Research Center, Hamp-

ton, Virginia, was in 1929 for the

development of the cowling for

radial air-cooled engines. By theend of September 1928, tests of

Cowling No. 10 in the Propeller

Research Wind Tunnel, shown

here, demonstrated a dramatic re-

duction in drag.

Illustration 1

Weick (Illustration 2) authored

a number of technical papers for

NACA regarding his research on

engine cowlings, both full-pres-

sure cowlings and speed r ings.

Weick was also interested in de-signing a safe aircraft, one that

would not stall or spin. His de-

sign was wind tunnel tested in

the Langley facility, and a full-

size aircraft was constructed and

flown as a proof-of-concept ve-

hicle, but it never went into pro-

duction. Weick and his staff made

numerous wind tunnel tests of

various configurations and instal-

lations of engine cowlings. All

showed a tendency to reduce par-

asite drag by smoothing out theairflow around cylinder heads,

but there was a penalty in engine

operating temperature. As the

team continued the experiments,

it became apparent that some-

thing other than the cowling

was needed. Intercylinder baffles

directed the air more efficiently

around cyl inder barre l s and

heads for better cooling. For the

speed ring or Townend cowl, it

was the angle to which the cowl-ing mounted to the engine cylin-

ders. The following charts show

Weick’s experiments on cowling

configuration. Weick was head of

the Propeller Research Wind Tun-

nel section from 1925-1929.

Illustration 2

BY ROBERT G. LOCK

Engine cowls for drag reductionPart I

THE VintageMechanic


29/44

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28 AUGUST 2011

Illustration 3 depicts experiments with a wide

and narrow speed ring configuration shown with

mounting locations forward and aft on the cylin-

der heads. The location of the speed ring would

give varying drag decreases and would also affect

engine cooling. Early experiments were carried out

using a Wright J-5 radial engine, but were expanded

to other radial engines of the time. Oscar W. Schey

and Ernest J ohnson authored NAC A Technical

Notes No. 334, and Melvin Gough authored No.

335 dated February 1930.

Illustration 3

Illustration 4 shows NACA Technical Note No.

355 authored by Melvin N. Gough and detailing

the tilting of a speed ring +6 to -20 degrees to the

longitudinal axis of the aircraft. These experiments

were carried out on Curtiss SF7C-1 aircraft.

Illustration 4

Illustration 5 shows a photograph of experimen-

tal military aircraft used for flight testing and vali-

dating the NACA speed ring engine cowlings. Not

only was drag measured but also engine cooling.

Early cowling experiments tended to reduce drag

but increase the engine-operating temperature, es-

pecially the oil temperature.

The full-pressure NACA cowl installed on a Cur-

tiss AT-5 aircraft, ready for another test flight in the

early 1930s, is shown in Illustration 5. The develop-

ment of this speed ring was a major breakthroughfor all World War II aircraft.

Illustration 5

On a test flight, the NACA speed cowl or Townend

cowl can readily be seen in these NASA photo-

graphs. The aircraft is a Curtiss P-3 Hawk with a

Townend ring cowl.

Early cowling

experiments tended to

reduce drag

but increase the

engine-operating

temperature, especially

the oil temperature.

NASA


31/44

Illustration 6

Curtiss P-3 Hawk with Townend

ring cowling.

Illustration 7

Curtiss P-3 Hawk with NACA

cowling.

Engine cowlings became a method

to increase performance of an air-

craft, both in speed and range. This

invention was to have a profound

effect on future aircraft.

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 29

As the team

continued the

experiments, it

became

apparent that

something

other thanthe cowling

was needed.

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What Our Members

Are RestoringAre you nearing

completion of arestoration? Or isit done and you’rebusy f l y ing andshowing it off? Ifso, we’d l ike tohea r f r om you .Send us a 4-by-6-inch print from a

commercial source(no home printers,please—those prints just don’t scan well) or a 4-by-6-inch, 300-dpi digital photo. A JPG from your 2.5-megapixel (or higher) digitalcamera is fine. You can burn photos to a CD, or if you’re on ahigh-speed Internet connection, you can e-mail them along witha text-only or Word document describing your airplane. (If youre-mail program asks if you’d like to make the photos smaller, sayno.) For more tips on creating photos we can publish, visit VAA’swebsite at www.vintageaircraft.org . Check the News page for ahyperlink to Want To Send Us A Photograph?

For more information, you can also e-mail us at [email protected] or call us

at 920-426-4825.


32/44

30 AUGUST 2011

In the last issue of Vintage Airplane magazine I offered

a brief overview of “Rock,” a local general-aviation,

pleasure-flying pilot in need of a flight review. Much

of the article was told in a “tongue in cheek” manner,

but it was more real than fiction. This article will dealwith a flight review and some of the considerations I

like to use when conducting a review.

The requirements of a flight

review consist of one hour

(minimum) of flight training

and one hour (minimum) of

ground training. It should

include:

• A review of the current

general operating and flight

rules of Part 91, and

• A review of those maneuversand procedures that, at the

discretion of the person giving

the review, are necessary for the

pilot to demonstrate the safe

exercise of the privileges of the

pilot certificate.

There Is No “Pass or Fail”

The flight review should

not be viewed as a necessary

evil. Rather, approach it as a

means of making you a better,safer pilot. If should be fun

and, yes, even challenging,

depending upon how much

flying you do annually. It is not a pass-or-fail test!

This is what I like to do when I conduct a flight

review.

Review the aircraft paperwork. This gives me an

opportunity to ensure the airplane is legal to fly and

point out discrepancies, if found. Does the airplane

have a current weight and balance sheet? If so, is it kept

in the airplane as it should be? Or is it with the logbooks

and other paperwork? If it is not in the airplane with

the airworthiness certificate and registration, I’ll make

several copies of the sheet for the individual, making

sure one is installed in the plane and the other copies

kept safely with the logbooks. This exercise helps pilots

make or keep their airplane legal should they everexperience a ramp check.

If the airworthiness certificate is tattered and torn?

I’ll usually make several copies

of it and suggest that the extra

copies be safely kept with the

logbooks. If the airworthiness

certificate is lost someday, or if

it blows out of the airplane (I’ve

had this happen), it’s quite easy

to get a replacement from the

local flight standards district

office if you can produce a copyof the old certificate.

N o w t h a t t h e F A A h a s

converted to the new registration

system, I find it a good idea to

look at the registration and

remind the pilot of when he

or she can expect to receive a

new registration notice from

the FAA. (You would be amazed

at how many individuals

are confused by this new

registration system.)I ’ l l n e x t r e v i e w t h e

individual’s logbook, discussing

the type of flying as well as how

much flying the pilot has done in the past two years.

Is it local flying never beyond 50 miles from home?

Or is it one or two cross-country flights annually? This

information will help me decide what to cover when it

comes time to fly.

I then like to discuss the new style of NOAA sectional

charts, pointing out various changes that have been

made both in color usage as well as chart symbols.

If you haven’t recently looked at one, you will be

BY Steve Krog, CFI

THE VintageInstructor

Flight reviews make them funPart II

Most pilots with

whom I’ve worked

with on a flight

review will be

quite candid and

want to talk

about things in

which they may

feel weak.


33/44

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32 AUGUST 2011

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