Atlantic Aircraft Company

[Dynoman]

The Atlantic Aircraft Company was formed by the Board of Directors of the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Co. in 1916 after hiring Albert S. Heinrich to become Aeromarine's chief designer in December 1915. After, having unsuccessfully marketed his fighter-trainer (Model E) and advanced fighter-trainer (Military Tractor) aircraft to the US Army Air Service, under his former company Heinrich Aeroplane Co., he was allowed, to some extent, to continue developing his designs while at Aeromarine. Seeing the potential for military aircraft sales of fighter aircraft an entirely new company and factory was planned to exist next to Aeromarine's factory in Keyport, NJ. Known as the Atlantic Aircraft Company, it would operate independently of Aeromarine. Tests on Heinrich's twin-engine Aeromarine powered biplane (later Gnomes) commenced with many flights being conducted at Hazelhurst Field, NY. By 1918 no orders were received for the plane and the company disbanded in the same year.

 

[Dynoman]

Gnome-powered version.

 

[hesham]

Nics Info Dynoman,

there is a little data for it in Aerofiles;

http://www.aerofiles.com/_al.html

 

[Stargazer]

Thanks a lot for the precious info and splendid pics. The Atlantic Battleplane was one prototype I didn't have much on, so this is really coming in handy!

 

[Dynoman]

Thanks...hopefully some of Heinrich's pursuit designs will be found. His Victor fighter design of 1917 (built by the Victor Aeroplane Co.) showed some promise as an advanced trainer for US fighter pilots during WWI (although not ordered by any service branch). Possibly it was an extension of his design work while at Aeromarine.

 

[Jos Heyman]

I wonder if this company is in any way related to the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation that in 1923 operated in Teterboro and Wheeling, WV and was some sort of subsidiary of Fokker. Possibly not and the similar name may be just coincidence, but it is worthwhile to look further into it.

 

[Stargazer]

I wonder if this company is in any way related to the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation that in 1923 operated in Teterboro and Wheeling, WV and was some sort of subsidiary of Fokker. Possibly not and the similar name may be just coincidence, but it is worthwhile to look further into it.

Absolutely not. As Dynoman said, the first Atlantic Aircraft (Company) folded in 1918. The second Atlantic Aircraft (Corporation) was set up in the U.S. by Anthony Fokker in 1923 and its first product (Model 1) was the DH-4M-2 and XCO-8. It is sometimes found as American Fokker" or "Atlantic Fokker" although these names were never official (it became at some point the Fokker Aircraft Corp. of America, though).

As a sidenote, although "Atlantic Fokker" folded circa 1931 and was taken over by General Aviation (the company's last project, the AF-18, becoming the General Aviation XFA-1), yet another company can be found that had "Atlantic" in it. An obscure company by the name Atlantic Coast apparently produced some 14-seat transport conversions of Curtiss F-5L flying boats with two 400hp Liberty 12 engines in 1929. I know neither the history of that company nor its location.

 

[Dynoman]

The AAC Battleplane conducted performance test flights and was procured by the New Jersey Naval Reserve to engage in the US's first air-to-ground gunnery training. The pilot for these flights was Albert Heinrich and the riflemen in the front gunners cockpit were men of the Naval Reserve firing at a target along the beach.

The other picture is of Heinrich and his wife showing the gunners position and a bomb installed.

 

[Dynoman]

Battleplane information (1916) and Heinrich, photographed a couple of years earlier (circa 1914):

 

[Stargazer]

Great material, Dynoman, thanks a lot.

Just to back up my claims that the two Atlantic companies had no connection whatsoever, here are two excerpts, one from a 1925 Jane's publication, the other from one of the Images of Aviation books about Teterboro Airport.

 

[VictorXL188]

I've found another pic of the Atlantic Aircraft Battleplane with its original engines, taken from Aviation and Aeronautical Engineering August 1916. Apologies for the lack of moire filtering!

 

[Aubi]

I'm very late to the discussion, but as was said before, Fokker's Atlantic Aircfaft is unrelated to the Heinrich's company. Timeline of the Fokker's company names:

DD.03.1924-16.09.1925 Atlantic Aircraft Corp.
16.09.1925-DD.12.1927 Fokker Aircraft Corp.
DD.12.1927-DD.03.1930 Fokker Aircraft Corp. of America
DD.03.1930-DD.MM.1934 General Aviation Corp.

In 1929, 40% of stock of Fokker Aircraft was bought by the General Motors, hence the name change. In 1931 Anthony Fokker left for the Netherlands, and in 1933 the company was sold to North American Aviation and year later dissolved. It's factory was the first factory of NAA.

Sorry for side note.

 

[Dynoman]

Excellent history in the form of a biography located at the Smithsonian of the Heinrich Brothers and their aircraft designs.

Harold E. Morehouse Flying Pioneers Biographies Collection - Heinrich Brothers: Albert S. and Arthur O. for project 23869 | Smithsonian Digital Volunteers

transcription.si.edu

 

[riggerrob]

Dear Dynoman,
That looks more like a Lewis light machine gun in the front cockpit. Lewis guns have distinctive barrel shrouds and pancake magazine’s. Lewis guns were widely used during WW1. S.E.5A and Nieuport 17 mounted Lewis gun above the top wing so that it fired above the propeller. Most aerial Lewis guns lost their large diameter barrel shroud because it was not needed in the cold air at higher altitudes.

 

[Dynoman]

Interestingly, following Heinrich's return from Europe in 1914, having viewed the developments in aviation, he had the idea of building a twin engine bomber based on some of the designs he witnessed in Italy. He spoke to Aeromarine's Uppercu about the design and Uppercu revealed to him that he had a new 200 hp 8-cylinder engine under development and he thought would benefit Heinrich's design. After Heinrich moved over to Aeromarine and began designing the aircraft he found that the engine's development was running too far behind the aircraft's. His original design included five crew members (i.e. two pilots and three machine gunners) and a fuselage with three vertical stabilizers (possibly resembling a Caproni Ca.1 of 1914). The resulting design changes led to the twin engine 184 hp (92 hp each) Atlantic Aircraft Company Battleplane.

Heinrich wanted to pursue military aircraft designs after the Battleplane project. However, Heinrich and Uppercu soon had a falling out in 1918 regarding the direction the aircraft company should take (Uppercu may have been more interested in the development of sport and commercial aircraft at that time) and Heinrich left.