Vintage Airplane - Jul 1974

8/12/2019 Vintage Airplane - Jul 1974

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THE PRESIDENT'S PAGEBy E E. Buck HilbertPresident, Antique-Classic Division

ONVENTION TIME S HERE

(Photo by Ted Kaston

Most of our activities will be centered about the Antique and Classic Division HeadquartersBuilding, and the forums tent. The building will be manned everyday all day, and the guys andgirls will do their best to accommodate your desires for back issues of The Vintage Airplane,


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VOLUME 2 NUM ER 7 JULY 1974TABLE OF CONTENTS

Reminiscing With Big Nick . Nick Rezich . . . .. . . . .. 4The Life And Times Of Tweety Bird ave Hamilton . . . . 13Nostalgia A Georgia Odyssey! . . . Evander ritt . . . .. .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. 16Golden Oldie of the Month Gar W. Williams . . . . . . .. .. . . 20Around the Antique/Classic World . . . . . . 23ON THE COVER Howard DGA-l l when BACK COVER Jun gmeister an d Ryan!new. Now owned and being restored by Photo by Ted KostonBill Wright of Tulsa. Courtesy Nick Rezich

EDITORIAL STAFFPublisher - Paul H. Poberezny Editor - Jack CoxAssistant Ed itor - Gene Chase Assistant Editor - Golda Cox


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THE HOWARD STORY P RT TWOThe DGA-8 was built un der ATC No. 612. With an emptyweight of 2,330 pou nds and a gross weight of 3,800 pounds,

true airspeed at 10,000 feet was around 190 mph - 187 tobe correct. Rate of climb was 2,000 feet th e first minute.Wing section, I believe, was a NACA 2R212 with 21/2 0 in -cidence and zero dihedral. Basic price was $14,500 F.A.F.All th e material I once had on the DGA-15 is gone. I

REMINISCING WIT IG NICKNick Rezich

4213 Centerville RdRockford III 61102

but that was on paper only. We worked overtime, Satur-days, Sundays and never received extra pay . and neverexpected it. t was either work and get the airplanes delivered or shut th e doors.

Everyone was capable of working in all departments. fyou were needed in the wood shop, you worked on wings,ribs, e tc. - or Assembly or Welding or any other placeneeded . Our engineers were mechanics when th eydesign ed a new part, they didn't send a blu ep rint out to


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would repeat this process after the final coat.Now came the finish perfection. From 1936 through'37 we hand rubbed our surfaces to a super gloss, butfrom la te '37learly '38 we buffed them with a 2-speedbuffer. This was a tricky operation as it was really easy tobu rn the finish when you used the high geqr. Brother, yo u

had better know your business or yo u bought yourse lf anairplitne. We also applied the wax with the buffer. Thema s ter buffer was Eddie Brooks. He was th e one whochecked me out on the buffer even though I was th e foremiln. Eddie and I put the final finish on all th e Howardsup to late 1940 when we checked out a couple more men.This buffing operation was not on ly tricky, but somewhatdangerous. In the hi gh-speed mode it generated a vacuumbetween the surface and th e pad. You had to make sur ethere was nothing in the path of thi s vacuum.I learned the hard way I was a cocky young show-off.I had ju s t fini shed buffing a fuselage and was standingback admiring my work - and decided to put ju s t a littlemore gloss at the tail end of the fuselage. I sprinkled thefuselage with th e compound and started in \,vith quicksweeps. then it happenedI sucked in the nav light wire hanging out the back ofth e fuselage. I tore hell out of everything - fabric, v-,,;reand metal bulkhead. We ll , needless to say, that took careof my cockiness I shook for two days after that, but myfirst thought was that of getting fi.red. Cutting off my armswould have been less painful than being fired from HowardAircraft. To make a long story short, I stayed at the plantall night and repaired my damage so th e airplane could gointo final assembly by morning. TIl ere was no Watergateco\ 'er-u p , the whole plant knew it and I got ribbed aboutit for l long time, That buffer was dangerous and that'swi1\' \\'e didn't check anybody else out for a long time,We built the production airplanes just like Benny builtth e Flannigan. We would assemble everything but thewings 1 t the factory, then truck the wings and tow the fusel'lgC to the fined ilssembly and flight test.

The hangar we used for final assembly was myoId almamater, Bluebird Air Transport, which, in turn , had taken

month to one a week. I was promoted to assistant plantsuperintendent at this tim e and George Lyons becameplant superintendent. Mr. Earl Ewing, the original plant

superintendent, went with Bell Aircraft in Buffalo, N, yThen came the nightmare, the Model 18, the low wingtrainer. I will devote a separate chapter to the 18 story,

Working for Howard Aircraft was rewarding in manyways. Most rewill'ding was th e privilege of working withthe su p er star craftsmen of the indush-y. I met all of th etop people in the aircraft manufacturing business, famouspeople in government, movie stars and many of thecountry's leadin g business men . I'll never forget the day Im et Wallace Be ery. Mr. Beery was en route to Detroit topurchase a new Stinson Reliant and as he was changingplanes in Chicago, h e saw Walt Diaber taking off on a testflig ht with a new Howard, Beery turned to one of th e airport employ ees and asked, What's that? . The fellowreplied, That's a Howard,

What ath'acted Beery's attention was the angle of dimb,Diaber, like Benny Howard, had a pattern for every takeoff. With alt it was break ground and climb at about a45 or 50 angle up to about 3,000 or 4,000 feet.Beery watched the Howard go out of sight, then wentin and cancelled his flight to Detroit. In a few minutes heanived at th e factory and just walked into the Sub Assembly d epartment and s tarted looking around. Before the daywas out, Mr. Wallace ordered a Wasp powered Model11 . . ,and Stinson had lost another sale, thanks largely to the performance of a Howard, A short time later Beery 's pilotanived at the plant to follow the building of his new airplane , Wallace Beery was an excellent pilot but his moviecontracts required that he have a professional pilot onboard. When he took delivery of his new 11, he threw ahuge party for the whole plant. He really loved the Howarda nd when the new Model 15 was available, he traded the 11for a 15. His 15 was a special airplane that lat er helped ussecure th e Navy contract,

Beery loved to hunt. He wanted an airplane that hecould camp in and with room enough to fly home his catch,


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The Howa rd had a repu ta tion as bein g a sup er pe rfo rm ance ilirpl ane - whi ch they we re with the W right orthe Was p. When these economy mode ls hit the ma rke t,th ey changed our image . Those 300 Jakes al most put us outof bu siness by repu tation. The engines we re junk. We hadprobl ems with th em even in tes t.Th e airplilnes tha t so ld we re the Wasp 11 " nd 15 andthey we re th e most expensive . Eve ry tim e we built aneco nomy mod el we were ea ting up Benn y's precious moneywith a n airpla ne tha t wo uld no t sel l. As a res ult , we hadmore fac tory demo nsha tors th an Beech.Mis take num be r two was tha t we d id n' t put fancypai nt jobs on some of the economy jobs a nd thi s hurt beca use we hild the rep utation of hav ing the bes t fini sh inth e indu shy. But a ll that changed with th e 15 - w hen wewe nt 100% Was p, de lu xe finish insid e and out il nd a wid egear.The fi rs t 8, or "F lan ni ga n" , had a typica l Howard gear hi gh il nd narrow. Th is was a throw-back fro m th e rilcers.f you are a n old tes t p ilot, you will un de rsta nd the reasoning be hind this type of gear, th at is, to be abJe to rotate th ewin g to the max a ngle of a ttack for short take-offs a ndlandings . Flaps were new to mos t pil ots an d the Howard

fl aps were drag fl aps (eve n th ough the Fowler tlap wasaround the n). Wh en Walter Browne ll ca me o n as chi efenginee r, the fir st thi ng he did WilS to lower th e gear a ndadd steering to th e ta il w hee l He also desig ned a new se tof tlippers for better co ntrol and lig hter fee l. Thi s was soo nfo llowed by a n even lower a nd wi der gear and still later th e15 had a completely new gear. The bigges t mi stake - andth e mo st frequ ent - in tlying a Howard is trying to dowhee l landings - whoopsl Th e landing gear was des ignedand buil t with a se t of taxi springs and an oleo s hock s trut. the shock shut for la nd ing a nd th e spri ngs for taxiing.So when yo u put it on the sp rin gs for landing, you ju s t se tu p a boo by tra p tha t mi g ht jus t bite yo u La nd th em3-point a nd yo u won' t h ave any probl em - cross wind, upwin d, downwind or no wind.All Howards we re good stab le tlying machin es. Th e only

sas City H e put it dow n in a fi eld a nd proceeded to bus t it:-a ll to h ell, but we fixed that o ne, il lso.Thi s sa me CA A Ho ward almos t cos t me my I fe. We werewa iting for th e specia l radio gear to be re turned to thefac tory af ter the acc ident so tha t we could finish assemblingth e airpla ne a nd we were short of factor y space, so wed ecide d to ha ng th e fu se la ge fro m the ceiling until theradios ca me in. As we we re ho is ting it in pl ace, a cablebro ke and the fu se lage ro lled over and ca me down inve rted . I was standing to o ne side during the hois ting, but wh e nth e fu se lage rolled, I wa s dir ec tly und ern ea th and th e cabinroof kn ocked me to th e ground a nd out. Wh at saved mefrom beco ming a pa nca ke was a bench a nd th e mo to rmou nt lu gs. As th e fu se lage wa s coming down , the motormo unt lu gs ca ug ht th e edge of th e bench a nd s topped itfrom cru shing me. Wh en I recovered and found out tha tth e ca bl e th ey we re usin g was rope ins tea d of aircra ftcabl e, I s torm ed into Steve Sanyard 's o ffice and proceededto tear he ll ou t of him. As purchas ing age nt he bought thero pe cabl e as a mo ney saver in stea d of aircra ft cabl e .Needless to say, we put it back up wi th aircra ft cable'

We had ve ry few wo rking accid ents a nd ve ry littleabse nt ee ism. We trained our own fir e brigad e and th eysaved the f


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Above Photo Courtesy ick Rezich)Jake powered 15. he ship is now in Minnesota.


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the instrument trainer. Later came a sub-contract to buildthe Fairchild PT-23.This was when B. D. DeWeese and the Navy decided totwist the wing on the 15 and goof up a good airplane. Westepped up production to one a day and received the NavyE Award and I was promoted to plant superintendent.In the meantime we were building a plant in West Chi

cago next to the St. Charles airport (now the Du Page County airport). The new plant would build PT-23s on one sideand NH-ls on the other. The army was in a hurry and wanted PT-23s befo re the new plant could be finished. I wassent to St. Charles to get the 23 program roLling as well asthe NH-l. I used my Culver Cadet, which I bought the yearbefore, to commute the 15 miles or so between Muni (present Chicago Midway) and St. Charles (Du Page County).

The first PT-23 was built in an old warehouse in Geneva,llIinois and assembled at the St. Charles airport. The nextsix were built at th e airport. We then moved into the newfactory and used the hangar as the fly-away hangar. t washere in St. Charles that we had our first fatal crashes. Theairport then had two grass runways - a long EIW and ashort INE. Two Navy aviators were picking up two NHIs; the wind was W-SW about 15, gusting to 25. The pilotswere ins tructed to take-off west. As they taxiied out, onepilot decided to take off SW vvithout informing the otherpilot or the hangar. The airplane taking off west was airborne firs t the one taking off SW met the west boundplane at the intersection and he Hew right through it. Thewest bound craft crashed and burned and the otherlanded on fire - the pilot survived. Surprisingly, the surviving aircraft did not suffer much collision damage.We also had a PT-23 crack up. This time an Army pilotwas taking delivery of a PT and the engine quit on take-off.He just kept on climbing and turning until he spun in. Thecompany test pilots never put a scratch on any airplanesall during the production days of Howard Aircraft.

The only near mishap with a Navy Howard came whenthe NACA wrapper cowl came loose and tore up the airplane. This was really funny when it happened. Youwould have to know Walt Diaben, the test pilot, to fully

When the power struggle was under way, the first orderof the day was to eliminate the old original staff and I became a tiHget - and a good one. I was slated for plantmanager and the new group didn't want this. They wantedto milk th e government dry with bootleg sub-contracts,phoney pay roLls phoney consultants, etc. I was one oftheir biggest obstacles . so I had to go. But how? Well,I was single with only my mother as a dependent. Those(expletive deleted) went to the Draft Board and told themthey had a new plant manager and I could be taken offthe deferred list. When the word came down to HowardAircraft that I was re-classified to lA , the stuff really hitthe fan. The president, Mr. B. D. DeWeese, went to theDraft Board and wanted to know why. He was informedthat his office had directed the Board in its action. DeWeesethen went to the U.S. Navy contract representative , aCaptain. He went to Washington to stop the action, but itwas too late. By the time he got the red tape untangled, Iwas on my way to Fort Sheridan along with about 20 otherfaithful Howard employees. That was in July of 1944 andHoward closed its doors less than a year later.

End of story?? NoBefore I left Howard, I took with me all the phoneyrecords, phoney sub-contracts, etc. When the war was overand I was operating the Pylon Club, I was paid a visit bythe FBI which was investigating the defunct Howard Aircraft Corporation. I was still mad at those (expletivedeleted) and was ready and willing to spill my guts to theFBI. Before I testified, I called my boss who was presidentof Howard when it closed. I told him I would keep mymouth shut if it would hurt him. He told me to tell everything and he would back me all the way. I thanked himand spilled my guts end of story end of HowardAircraft.

Next - the Model 18 Howard.

Oshkosh '74 is about a week away for most of you living in theUSA and Canada. Now that the fuel crisis has settled down, allindicators point to the largest Fly-In ever. A 20% increase in attell


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Photo Courtesy Nick Rezich)The Nash Kelvinator Howard , the most expensive oneever made . George Mason was president. Photo takenjust south of Muni Midway Airport in Chicago) .


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we would rebuild the o ne I h ad . I built a jig to fit the oldfuse lage and s tarted cutting out th e old tubes . I had tore place bot h lo wer lo nge rons fr o m cen ter of th e ge arhttmgs to the tailpos t, a ll cross and dia go nal tubes on th ebo ttom, fo ur vertica l tubes betwee n up per and lower longerons, and r ear gea r fittin gs. I found aD air die grind erwIth a bUrrIng tool was th e bes t too l for this; it kept th eheat down to a minimum. I had abo ut 200 hours in thi s jobfrom start to fml sh. I go t a ll th e new tubing tacked intopl ace a nd the n Bob s pent quite a few ho urs welding it up.Atter z lIlC chroma ting it I rece ived th e O.K . to go ahea d .. Att er about th ree wee ks of pains taking wo rk putting th e

and ba.ggage ~ p r t m e n t in and bringing th eIIlteno r up to silver, I notIced that what once were goodsharp corn ers were now pulling awa y and becoming fill etsdu e to the taute lllng of the dope. After looking at it forabout a wee k I deCIded to start all over. This time everywhere I wanted a sharp corner I sewed a piece of pinkedta pe a nd wr apped It around the tube or channel in thecorners. By doin g this I wa s abl e to obtain the corners Iwas a fter. At th e time I put the in terior in I also put th erIght SIde on th e fu se lage. This wa s to make sure th e sideand in te rior fabric we re bonded well to ea ch other at th edoo r opening. I was now read y to finish th e interior withnew oo rboa rds, bl ack trim, etc.Nex t was the big job of the exterior of th e fu se lage.A fter 12 coa ts of clear d ope th en 6 coats of silver and fini shing up wi th 4 coa ts of color, the job wa s done. The wors tpa t W ,lS th e we t sa nding betw ee n a ll coa ts of do pe butthI S15th e o nl y way to obtain a s up er slick fini sh. The w ingswe re tinished in mu ch th e sam e w ay .Ross Gres ley, the pres ident of Ch apter 226 at that tim e,was at my home every night helping me ribstitch. Therewe re many other members in th e ch apter on hand at various tImes to lend a ha nd w hen nee ded.

To put thi s Cub into the sha pe I was looking for , I r eplaced a lot ot parts. Ju s t to name a few: new tires, landinggear vees, shock cords, long a nd short shock cords struts,

m ethod, so bei ng a pattern maker, I made a straight edge.H ave you ever seen a 36 foo t straight edge? This made th ejob mu ch easier.TWEETY BIRD , as N-42621 h as a ffectionately become

know n, was inspected on S un d ay, July 16, 1972 and passedwith flying co lors .

We wo rked th e fo llow ing w ee k putting fairings on anddoubl e checkin g every thing. Th e fo llowing Sa turday, Rossa nd I took her up for her fir s t flight . As I taxi ed down to th eend of th e runway, I wondered about thi s bolt and th a tbolt . . . had I tightened th em all? Well , we were ready totak e o ff, the big moment was here. As we we nt dow n therunwa y I figured th e minute she le ft the gro und I wo uldha ve to give her le ft or ri ght s tick to comp en sa te forrigg ing. WOW , s he was rigged perfectl y th e s tick wasright in the cent er' After 3 years and 5 month s my dr ea mhad co me tru e. I was in the a ir in my o wn original J-3 Cub.Ross and I ew around for quite a whil e doing some lazy8's, chand elles, s ta lls s he fe lt bea utiful.After about a n hour of flight we re turned to th e airp ortand were ta xiing up to th e gas pump and noticed a bigcrow d around a little Taylorcra ft. And erson was hav ing a nair show the next d ay a nd the Cole Bro thers were to be theperform ers. Dua ne Co le had alrea d y arrived and was o n th eramp; I noticed him looking at the Cub and soon ca mewalking ov er to take a close r loo k. H e sa id he had bought aCub in 1945 and my registration number caught hi s eye;later he checked hi s log boo k and hi s number was just twodifferent than mine - mine was NC-42621 , his was NC42623. Duane a nd I ta lked about the Cub for quite awhile.He look ed it ov er very close ly as ked if I wa s going to Oshkos h '72 and sa id I should do we ll. I didn ' t think I had achance as th at is the big one.Ph yllis a nd our d a ug ht er, Miche lle, too k th e tru ckcamp er and ou r son , Derek, and I ew the Cub to O shkos h.After arriving, w e looked a t every Cub tha t arrived a llw eek and finall y thought maybe we had a chance for theBes tCub . On Friday of that week we we re as ked by th ejudges to s ta y for the aw ards Saturd ay night. After we


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ey)Tweety ird the day Dave brought it home from ob Willis Spraying the wings. (Photo by Jim Mahoney)strip.


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BEL OW, LEFT - A gaggle of Cubs.ABOVE - An angular old Stinson axle deep in fescue.BELOW RIG HT - A Franklin-powered Cub on a fatherABOVE, RIGHT - " Old Black Joe"and-son tour.

NOSTALGIA GEORGIA ODYSSEY

" Backw ard u rn bac kwa rd, Oh Time in y Fl ight "

The grass un d er my feet was a bluish gree n with the

ByEvander M. Britt (EAA 13 ,137)Britt and Britt, Attorneys At LawP.O. Box 458

Lumberton , N.C. 28335(Pho tos By Author)

Dou gla s T. Roun ds, th e ge nial owner of thi s nostalgic airport that Bonnie lets him keep only beca use it is cl ose tohis hea rt.Do ug is a pr etty good boy' He's been do w n So uth from


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ABOVE, RIGHT - George Hefflinger's Waco .ABOVE - Kelly Viets stops to admire a rare 1933 Fair-Child CBA BELOW, RIGHT -John Parish 's Big Red .

you ge t di zzy watching those little ye llow birds come tumbling by doing nearly 60 miles an hour. Not since 1946 h aveI ever seen this many - oh, why lie about it? I never sa w)-3's toge th er in my life. Not even parked side by side atOshkosh. But here th ey were a living dream of noise bubbling happily by just out of reach over head . Probably thehap piest of the carefree ae rial creatures with their do orsand windows wide open with 2 sets of grinning whitetee th staring down at us below from each of th em.Ca n thi s be Blakesbu rg? Gastonia? Oshkosh? No, itsZeb ulon for rea l. Tw e nty-six hundr ed feet of beautifulgreen grass strip 300 fee t wide with 2 metal hangars andsevera l open shed type hangars. Even an outside privy

a few gallons of SO octane and camp under the wing. Aleisurely tlight down and back teachin g a young boy thebeauties of the South from the op en windows of a slowmoving C ub - LAUGH I G ALL THE WAY - as BclrbaraHowar wrote of her Was hing ton , D.C. experi ences.

White with red trim, th e New York Daily News 1940Waco ARE with 330 Jacobs sa t nes tling in th e fescue infront of th e hangar, only an hOUl' and forty minutes ou tof Greensboro, N.C. with a beaming Di ck Austin proudlysta nding nea rby.Could that be th e head of the Ercoupe Club , Kelly Vi etsfrom Stilwell, Kansas standing bes ide the 1933 Fairchild


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And overhead, a dusty old Waco ASO with 220 Continental conversion had the hiccups and kept doing tliptlops till we got sore necks watching him. Reminded meof the 1939 airshow when I saw a fifty horse Cub doingabout 50 consecutive loops.

Then on Sunday, those Cubs began chasing each other stails - just like a bunch of hound dogs-until the sheerdelight of it all made you dizzy just watching. And to walkbehind that 1933 Fairchild 24 and see those span ailerons,and then see exactly the same full span ailerons on top ofBig Red - the 1946 G-17S Staggerwing Beech.

Surely not? Oh yes, here comes a real live GrummanF-6-F Hellcat with wheels down grinding down to ward the grass until the wheels strummed the clover andfescue and back up into the sky. Neither foolish nor foolhardy - just touching his wheels in fond salute to all theantiquers present. Had it not been for the large Whitearrow painted and pointing forward under his left wing ashe howled by, we wouldn t have been sure in which direc

tion he was flying. Yep, a few minutes later, here came aDC-3 roaring down to touch his wheels and then slitheringright back up again. 2600 feet is a wee bit short - even fora -3, if you re out of practice. Just visiting trom the AirAcademy over at Griffin, Georgia. 139 airplanes in twodavs. Tens of do ze ns of Antique fri ends. Bob and BrentTaylor all the way from Ottumwa, Iowa. George Heitlingerand wife along with Tony Tobiason from the State otMichigan. .These, and a whole lot of the Good Lord s GeorgiaCrackers made my weekend backward to nostalgia mostmeaningful and memorable. Why don t you ti y it: Oshkosh,Blakesburg, Ottumwa, Gastonia? The names are different. The entertainment is always the same. Just goodpeople and fine old birds, which, like fine wine, just k ee pon improving with age. May I invite each ot you, my frIendsand fellow Antiquers and EAA ers to come join me in Oshkosh July 31 - August fl 1974, to continue this Odyssey ina few short weeks from now.

oug and Bonnie Rounds


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GEORGIA ODYSSEYCONTINUEDby Joseph Jup ner

Hard coverVolumes 1 Ih ru 59 .95 each.Vol 11 . 95

Complete word and picture story of e chcertificated airplane since # 1 of 1927.600 classic airplanes are presented inthe 6 volumes available. (Additionalvolumes in preparation) .o Vol. 1, 256 pages. 316 photos , A TC # 1,Buhl-Verville Airster thru ATC #100Trave l Air 6000 , 1927-29. $9 .95o Vol. II , 300 pages, 316 photos , A TC101 Bird biplane thru ATC #200,Park s P-2 . 1929. $9 .95o Vol. III 301 pages, 316 photos , ATC#201 Monocoach thru ATC #300Lockheed Sirus, 1929-30 . $9.95o Vol. IV , 320 pages, 334 photos , A TC301 American Eagle thru ATC #400Em sco B-3-A . 1930-31 . $9.95O Vol. V, 294 pages, 320 photos, ATC401 Travel Air 12 thru ATC #500 . Boeing 247. 1931 -33. $9 .95o Vol. VI , 365 pages, 373 photos , ATC#501. CoW Condor thru ATC #600,Fairchild 24-CB E, 1933-35 . $ 11.95

Racing Planes and Air RacesComplete story of Air Rac ing, its planesand pilots . Each paperback volume has


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Golden Oldie f The Month

The Travel Air Mystery ShipTwo young Travel Air engineers, Herb Rawdon and W .

r n ~ a m designed the 'R' as a sport and racing airplane.A reVIew of the stress analysis handbook, which is now onfile in the Smithsonian Archives, poin ts out that the design


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of two spruce beams glued together and not routed. Ribsare built up of 5 6 in. square spruce strips with 6 in.mahogany plywood gussets at the joints and are secured tothe spars by the use of glue with a nail at each point of contact to maintain position during the glue drying process. A

cockpit on all sides.One of the unique features of the Travel Air Mysteryplane is the landing gear. The method of mounting theshock absorber and of attching the landing gear to the airplane is quite unusual. The shock absorbing device, in con


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hinge line to the center of gravity of the airplane is 13 ft.2 in.The vertical fin is adjustable on the ground and has amaximum length of 2 ft. 1/4 in. Its mean height is 2 ft.

pit and the engine control bracket consisting of throttle,spark plug and mixture levers is located at the. pilot's left.The specifications according to the manufacturer are asfollows:"


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Around The Antique Classic WorldDear Sir:I've been an EAA member for 1 12 years wi th my mainint erest lying in th e vintage field. I don t ow n an aircraftat present however I am negotiating to buy a Ryan STMwreck. Unfortunately th ere are not a large number ofvintage types in Austral ia and thi s is worsening as aircraft are exported. We are sti ll trying to es tablish a vin tagemovement in Australia and as more people are becominginterested this could shortly be a reality. I am th ereforejoining your division to learn a bit about vintage aircraftand the runni ng of th e club. Please accep t encloseddraught for $15.00 to pay for one years membership and10 back issues of The Vintage Airplan e. Thank you .

Yours faithfully,Graham Orphan AIC No . 115520 Tallaroon St.Jindalee 4074, Brisbane,Qld. , AustraliaDear Buck :In he Vintage irpl ne May, 1974, page 10.I believe the background airplane to be a Thunderbird.In 1930 I worked on one down at the Warren Schooland we re-assembled it at the Old Western Airport out onCrenshaw Blvd. - long since a housing development.The airplane was never certified, as anything over twoturns it went flat. I tried to get the owner to increase th e

Calendar Of Events

aspect ratio of th e tail sur faces to ge t more of them out inthe wind, as the fuse lage was bulky a t the tail.H e was too busy ge tting the airplane ready to go up toUtah. Besides, I believe by that tim e th e company had gonebroke, and apparen tly he could care less about certifyingONE airplane.

In closing, if I m right - good !If I m not-1930 is a longway back! Besides, you are doing a real fine job on thema gazin e and I look forward to each iss ue.Yours truly,W. A. Reynolds, A IC No. 792Rt. 1, Bo x 33La Feria, Texas 78559Dear Gene:. Do you plan to have your E-2 Cub flying at Oshkoshthis year? I am toying with the idea of trailering mine soas to have something to fly th ere and was wondering ifyours might be there too?Is there anything you can do to get the grapevine askingpeople where I can ge t a 40 hp Cu b cowling? My ship hasa J-3 cowling on i t and I d mu ch prefer an authentic J-2cowl with lace wires if I could find one.Sincerely,Bob Whi ttier

Drawer TDuxbury, Mass. 02332

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Vintage Airplane - Jul 1974