All those weird and wonderful postwar homebuilt U.S. one-offs...

[KarlSack]

Hi. In doing research on the NRC Flying Wing tonight, I came across some weird fact about Larry Linville (of M*A*S*H fame) built a "Flying Plank"! I had to post but before I did, I searched this forum and found out someone had already posted about "Flying Plank" gliders so I thought I would tag along.

Here's some articles and pics...

Glider | larrylinville

trekgrrl.wixsite.com

I wonder if he called his glider "Hot Lips"???

 

[Mark Nankivil]

Hi. In doing research on the NRC Flying Wing tonight, I came across some weird fact about Larry Linville (of M*A*S*H fame) built a "Flying Plank"! I had to post but before I did, I searched this forum and found out someone had already posted about "Flying Plank" gliders so I thought I would tag along.

Here's some articles and pics...

Glider | larrylinville

trekgrrl.wixsite.com

I wonder if he called his glider "Hot Lips"???

Found this online about Larry Linville's tailless glider - sounds like a variation of a Bankstrom EPB-1 plank:

"Why not turn a hobby into a profitable enterprise?" Linville said. "I'm a nut about soaring and love to get out there in the wide open spaces on the weekend. One day, up there in the blue, I was struck with the idea for a tailless glider. So, I went to work with an aircraft engineer to design it."

He said he hoped the new glider would bring him prestige and profit in the aeronautics world. Having a role such as Maj. Frank Burns, which brought him new fame, didn't hurt either.

According to the article, he started building his glider around 1966 and collaborated with Al Backstrom, an F.A.A. Engineer.

His glider wings were made of spruce and plywood and covered with fabric. It extended 32.8 feet when attached to the 9.5-foot pod of the glider. It was a "flying wing" craft with a vertical, but no horizontal, stabilizer.

"Our glider, the Super Plank, will be the smallest, lightest, cheapest, and easiest to build sailplane ever assembled," Linville said in an interview with The Courier News.

According to the interview, the flying craft was expected to weigh about 220 pounds and cost around $500, which would be about $3,000 today.

Enjoy the Day! Mark

 

[sienar]

Cusick Special N3Y - made by a one Ray Cusick. From Flying Dec 49

 

[fortrena]

The following might be of interest...

In 1971, Boeing of Canada considered the possibility of producing a number of Bolköw Phoebus, a modern West German fiberglass sailplane, at its Winnipeg, Manitoba, plant. Given the high cost of building the molds used to manufacture the main components of the aircraft, Boeing of Canada needed a large order. It contacted the national coordinator of the gliding program of the Air Cadet League of Canada and asked if the league was prepared to pursue the possibility of ordering 100 Phoebuses.

It should be noted that, at that time, Canada's Department of National Defence subsidized the glider flying courses of about 180 air cadets each year .

The national coordinator of the gliding program, Lloyd Davies, loved the idea but added that the West German glider was a bit too cutting edge for inexperienced teenagers. The league could also have serious difficulties in paying and keeping a hundred gliders in flight. Somewhat disappointed but aware of the correctness of those comments, Boeing of Canada gave up the idea of producing the Phoebus in Canada.

Davies refused to give up the idea of producing a glider for the Air Cadet League of Canada, however. Intrigued by the Harmon Linville Dingus, he prepared plans for a derivative, the Cadet Model 100, in 1972. The league supported the project of producing such an aircraft but its configuration worried several people. Davies changed his concept to some extent, but was no more successful.

Davies refused yet again to give up the idea of producing a glider for the Air Cadet League of Canada, but that's another story, which can be explored at https://ingeniumcanada.org/channel/...bilitation-program-the-cours-de-programmation

 

[Sabrejet]

Cusick Special N3Y

"Unstable Mabel" - preserved with Planes of Fame: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1335813

 

[Aerohydro]

Further to the Cusick "Unstable Mabel", here's a contemporary magazine article: four pages, with ten illustrations.

The photo at the bottom of page 114 shows two men standing on the glider's wing, but the perspective makes it look like they're standing behind a scale model!

 

[Michel Van]

Bumble Bee II.
American single engine, single seat, negative staggered, cantilevered biplane with conventional landing gear.
Developed from the Bumble Bee 1.
First flight 8 May 1988.

Source X

 

[Prophet141]

Bumble Bee II.

A wing loading of "Yes, please."

 

[Arjen]

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/new-small-fighter.12801/

View: https://youtube.com/watch?v=yH32NHRYG60

 

[Michel Van]

better Video with more info
sadly Bumble Bee II crash on month later do engine problem, the pilot got serious wounded.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQQkW-QlfsA

 

[Aerohydro]

Regarding the Popular Science article on the Cusick "Unstable Mabel", the caption to the photo at the top of page 114 mentions the wing had once been on a plane which flew in the National Air Races.

The plane in question seems to be the Keith Rider R-4, aka the "Schoenfeldt Firecracker". The racer still exists - intact - and is currently on display at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California. During its active life (1936-1940), the racer seems to have been rebuilt a number of times, so perhaps the specific set of wings used on the Cusick glider had been discarded during one of those rebuilds.

It's not often that a powered aircraft is reconfigured to become a glider, but, after a fashion, this is one of those times.

 

[Bob T.]

I hope we can include non-US obscure aircraft in this thread. Here is the third prototype Trident Trigull, c.1978, at Victoria, BC. Thats me on the left, without grey hair.

It looks a lot like a Seabee, because it was orignially designed by the same man, Spence Spencer. He developed a home built based on the Seabee, called the Spencer Aerocar, in the 1960s. The Trigull started as a productionized Aerocar.

Nice aircraft. What may you be working on these days?
Bob

 

[riggerrob]

Nice aircraft. What may you be working on these days?
Bob

The last time I saw the Trident prototype, it was parked outside on the ramp at Victoria International Airport, B.C., Canada. That was before COVID, perhaps 2018.

 

[fortrena]

If I may, by the looks of it, there is a Trident in the collection of the British Colimbia Aviation Museum (https://bcam.net/trident-tri-gull/), in North Saanich and near Sidney.

 

[riggerrob]

If I may, by the looks of it, there is a Trident in the collection of the British Columbia Aviation Museum (https://bcam.net/trident-tri-gull/), in North Saanich and near Sidney.

yes. That museum is on the east side of Victoria International Airport, Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada. It has the second best collection of airplanes of any museum in British Columbia.
The best collection is at Canadian Forces Base Comox, a couple of hours up the east coast of Vancouver Island. Mind you, the CFB Comox Museum is mostly about the Royal Canadian Air Force.
The third best aviation museum in B.C. is at Langley Airport, on the mainland an hour or so east of Vancouver. They have a half-dozen airplanes on display outside and a "busy" collection of artifacts inside. They are run by volunteers on a tiny budget .. mostly donations.

 

[publiusr]

My favorite thread--like SpaceX's Falcon, twin-jets dominate the market --but oddball post-war and funky pre-war designs are what attracted so many into aerospace.

My parents used to drive to the airport so we could watch all the different kinds of planes.

 

[Apophenia]

If I may, by the looks of it, there is a Trident in the collection of the British Colimbia Aviation Museum (https://bcam.net/trident-tri-gull/), in North Saanich and near Sidney.

Yes, the British Columbia Aviation Museum displays the second prototype Trigull (s/n 3; C-GATE; orig. C-GATE-X). But, AFAIK, the aircraft is still owned by BCAM's Pat Bay neighbour, Viking Air.

Since Viking hold the rights to the Trigull, I assume that they still hold s/n 1 (CF-TRI-X/C-FTRI) as well. Does anyone know for sure?

I saw the prototype TR-1 fly at YVR in August 1973 (she was in at Pacific Avionics for tweaks before tests before the DOT types). It after only the Trigull was on its way back to YYJ that I realized that the test pilot was the same Paul Hartman who had flown the Silver Dart replica at Baddeck, NS!

 

[fortrena]

A brief bio of Mr. Hartman can be found at https://cahf.ca/paul-albert-hartman/

 

[hesham]

From Aviation magazine 1981,

did we speak about this Challenger Racer aircraft before ?.

 

[Stargazer]

did we speak about this Challenger Racer aircraft before ?.

Known as the Beck/Statler R.A.C.E. Special, later as the Dos Equis "Challenger", and later still as the "Wildfire", this single-seat low-wing cabin monoplane was actually a North American SNJ-5 "Texan" highly-modified as an Unlimited Class racer. It was powered by a 2100hp P&W R-2800-CA-97W engine and fitted with a retractable gear. A single aircraft was produced in 1983 , registered [N3941Y (c/n 001)]. I'm attaching a set of photos of the aircraft during its modification as the "Wildfire", along with an article from the German Flieger and its translation.