plane in flight

Today I installed the motor and radiator.
The plane is shown over looking the 16th green at Rose City golf course.
This is the site of the original flights.
Soon I will begin construction of the one third scale model which will be installed on the bank over looking the green. This airplane will have a wing span of 10ft and will be constructed from 1" and 3/45 inch metal tubing.

building the motor

For several days I have working on building a replica of the motor used by Glen Curtis in his early planes. Check out this site for an amazing account of the second air show in the USA. It took place in Arizona in February of 1910. the third air show happened in Portland Oregon in March of 1910 at Rose City Race Track.
http://vintagephoto.com/reference/aviation/1910aviationarticle.html
Curtis was mainly a designer of early motor cycles and engines. His first planes had a four cylinder engine producing 25HP. His other plane the Rhiems racer had a more powerful v-8 engine with about 80HP. He sold his 4 cylinder model to a Mr. Wimme the founder of White Stagg. My motor is a model of the 4 cylinder engine. It is made out of folded brass with brass tubing for the cylinders. The actual engine had no exhaust pipe the exhaust came out the sides of the cylinders. The valves and rocker arms are falshioned out of cut cotter pins and smaller tubing. The radiator is folded tin with a screen for the radiator fins.

the 102 years ago today

On march 5-7th glen curtis brought his flying team to Portland Oregon .
They flew 2 Curtis bi planes. One was a 4 cylinder model the other the famous Rheims Racer that was powered by a v-8 motor. these planes were very flimsey and could crash at any time . The pilots rarely lived more than a year or two.
The picture with the plane chasing an auto was the four cylinder d model.
The picture showing a plane in flight with a crowd below and Mt Tabor in the background was the 8cylinder Rheims Racer. It was flown by Charles Hamilton who was said to carry a pistol ,smoked cigarettes like a house on fire and bottle of whiskey on every flight. He was very crazy and eventually died 3years later of the effects of this hard fast life.

screen fabric

Today I attached the fabric for the wings. I used 1/4 inch galvanized screen on the full sized model I will use 1/2 inch screen. The reason for this is I want the wind and rain to pass through the wings.

finishing the tail and starting the engine

Today i installed the tail to the frame of plane. I used wire to suspend and it worked easily. I also started to make the engine. There were 2 planes that flew at Rose city. One was an 8 cylinder craft that had won the international air race in France the previous year . The second plane was a four cylinder which was purchase by a man named Wemme who had started a company called White Stagg. He was an older gentlemen who was enchanted with new inventions. He purchased the first car in Oregon and established the first auto dealership in the state. Since he could not fly himself he asked a young mechanic named Eugene Ely to learn to fly his newly purchased contraption. Eugene replied "Sure it must be like Driving a car" little did he realize what he was getting into. He quickly crashed the plane b ut felt bad and purchased it from Mr. Wemme. He then repaired it learned how to fly and became part of Curtis's flying circus. Within 2 months he became the first man to fly off of a ship land back on it. But this was dangerous business and within the year he had crashed and killed himself.
The motor is first built out paper and then folded to shape the block. Then it is transfered in to brass.