Flying for Fun D.B. Mathews | [email protected]
A few more odd prototypes that are worthy of modeling
This 1/4–scale Ford “Flivver 2” was built from Duane Dahnert
plans and has a Saito 100 twin. Text has address.
76 MODEL AVIATION
A Flivver 2 reproduction by Florida Aviation Historic Society
members. It is on display in the museum.
The original Mooney Mite. Notice the underbelly radiator scoop
and NX registration. From The Lightplane Since 1909.
I INADVERTENTLY omitted the address for Frank Macy, the
source for A-J Interceptors and Hornets, from the March column.
You can contact American Junior Classics at 1501 SW Baker St.
#53, McMinnville OR 97128; Web site: www.american
juniorclassics.com.
Sharp-eyed readers will recognize McMinnville as the location of
the Evergreen Aviation Museum. It displays the Hughes “Spruce
Goose” and is where the Hughes H-1 racer
reproduction was headed when it crashed in
Yellowstone National Park.
Most of the designs I did for Ace were
published in the various magazines, so those
who want to duplicate these no-longer-inproduction
kits of the 4 series, the Bingos,
and the biplanes can obtain construction
drawings from the magazines. The glaring
exception seems to be the 4-60 bipe.
That is unfortunate since many say the
best-flying size of all the bipes is the 60,
which is often powered with a .90 fourstroke
engine. I’ve seen several ads and
notices seeking drawings of that model;
apparently they are hard to find but
desirable. I will make copies of mine and
the illustrated building instructions available
to those who are interested. E-mail me for
prices.
I goofed on the caption for the K&B
engine in the March 2006 issue. It was
supposed to read that the ignition Torp
shown was not the later, much-loved Green Head series. I did not
mean to imply that the Green Head was anything less than a
wonderful series of excellent engines; it just came off that way.
More Odd Prototypes: Last month I featured some single-place,
civilian market-directed, full-scale aircraft for you to consider as
subjects for Scale models. This month I will dig out a few more
A production Mooney Mite as displayed at the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita. It was
donated by Robert Trax of New Mexico.
from my collection of “someday projects”
for your entertainment. Many of the fullscale
prototypes I am showing would make
excellent FF or CL Scale subjects; I’m not
limiting this discussion to RC.
I’ll jump to 1926 for this month’s first
single-place prototype. The Ford Motor
Company was totally owned by the family
and there were no stock holders back then,
providing Henry and his son Edsel with
immense power. Decisions about products,
marketing, and labor relations could be
made quickly and forcefully.
Ford had entered the aircraft-production
market with the three-engine commercial
AT series, with great success. Ford Tri
motors were becoming the standard airplane
of most of the world’s airlines.
Young Ford engineer Otto Koppen was
assigned to design a small, single-place
airplane that anyone could fly—basically a
Model T of the air. Built in great secrecy
behind locked doors, it was first flown on
July 31, 1926, which was Henry Ford’s 63rd
birthday. The Flivver was flown by Harry
Brooks—the son of one of Henry Ford’s neighbors who was
Henry’s personal “fiddler”; he loved square dancing.
August 10, 1927, Detroit, Michigan-born Charles A. Lindbergh
arrived in Detroit on his tour of America following his epochmaking
flight in May of that year. He viewed the Flivver and asked
Mr. Ford if he could fly it.
“Of course,” replied Ford. “But you will be only the second
person to do so.”
In late 1927 Koppen designed a second, improved version of the
Flivver. It was a bit larger, more appealing to the eye, and powered
with a two-cylinder opposed engine of Ford design.
This engine replaced the ugly three-cylinder radial Anzani of the
first prototype (serial number 268). For simplicity’s sake I will refer
to the Anzani-powered unit as “Flivver 1” and the flat-twin-powered
aircraft as “Flivver 2.”
The new 3218 was successful and was used to attempt a new
class-record-distance nonstop flight along the eastern seaboard,
ending in Miami, Florida. Harry Brooks crashed into the ocean and
was killed during this flight. The loss of his fiddler’s son’s life so
upset Henry that he had the project terminated.
A controversy exists concerning the Flivver 2 that is on display
in the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It is an extensively
repaired original that was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, less
Brooks’s body, or it was built from subassemblies that were already
in existence.
In his later years Koppen retired to Florida and participated in the
resurrection of his second prototype drawings. He advised the
Florida Aviation Historical Society in its replication of the twocylinder,
horizontally opposed 3218 version. He passed away before
the project could be completed, but it has been flown and is on
display in the museum of the Florida Aviation Historical Society.
The only three models of the Ford Flivver I’m aware of are of
the three-cylinder Anzani version. Williams Bros. had a scale
plastic model, and I saw an ARF in a hobby shop from an Asian
manufacturer. Expatriate Englishman Derek Woodward published
a neat little 1/5-scale Flivver 1 (268) in the March 1988 Radio
Control Modeler.
I had fallen in love with the second prototype Flivver based on a
photo in the book The Lightplane Since 1909 by G.B. Underwood
and John Collinge. For many years that was as far as I could go
since I was unable to find further information about the aircraft. I
mentioned that search in a 1993 column, and the response was
incredible!
Crosley Cobra as used in the first seven Mites. Pulleys and belts
mounted on rear of engine reversed for aircraft use.
An Avia FL-3 in Italian registry spans 32 feet. This photo is from
Castle Graphics in Seattle, Washington.
The author’s 80-inch-span Avia FL-3 was developed around photos only—no three-views.
It is powered by a SuperTigre 3000 engine and was never published.
July 2006 77
Scale drawings for the much prettier
twin-cylinder version were more difficult to
locate, but, as I wrote in the June 1995
column, some detective work turned up
superb three-views of the Flivver 2 (3218)
from John Raymond (68 Gordon Pkwy. #2
Syracuse NY 13219) that he prepared for an
article in the October 1995 Skyways.
Additional photos and details were provided
by N.H. Haufrick (Box 232, Greensburg OH
44232).
Duane Dahnert (7209 Bryant Ave. S.,
Richfield MN 55423) used all that material
to develop superb construction drawings for
an 80-inch exact-scale Flivver 2 (3218)
model that was suitable for a .90 or 1.00
four-stroke twin.
Roughly 70 versions of the model have
been built from Duane’s plans throughout
the years, and all are reported to be excellent
fliers. Duane has the drawings for sale, John
Raymond sells the three-views, and N.H.
Haufrick sells the photos. All the
components are in place to build your
Flivver.
I have not been in contact with a couple
of these men in several years. I hope all are
still around. Duane Dahnert is; I just talked
to him on the phone.
In that same book by Underwood and
Collinge is a photo of a prototype I’ve spent
many years trying to chase down
information about. The Avia FL-3 is a
single-place, low-wing, 60-horsepower
cutey of Italian origin (not Czech as the
name would imply).
I managed to obtain an 8 x 10-inch print
of an FL-3 from Castle Graphics in Seattle,
Washington, but nothing else. Finally I
designed an 84-inch version based only on
the photos, which produced a neat-looking,
adequate-flying model that was semiscale at
best. Because of that I chose not to publish
it.
So a delightful prototype sits unmodeled
from a lack of material, much as the Flivver
did for many years. Chasing down threeviews
and photos for an unusual subject can
resemble a “cold-case file,” but what fun it
is to finally crack one like the Flivver.
I just cracked the Avia FL-3! In Bob
Banka’s (314 Yukon Ave., Costa Mesa CA
92626) latest Aircraft Documentation
catalog are three-views for this airplane.
Bob has photo packs, three-views, etc.
for thousands of aircraft ranging from the
mundane to the extraordinary. There are
military, civilian, domestic, and foreign
types. The list is amazing. If you have an
interest in Scale models, whether from a
color-and-decoration standpoint or in threeviews,
you owe it to yourself to have his
catalog.
I check my drawings against accurate
three-views, and I might publish that Avia
FL-3 yet.
The last single-place airplane I’ll cover
this month was reasonably successful,
having sold 283 units in a production run
that began in Wichita in 1946 and finished
after Mooney moved to Kerrville, Texas, in
1953. This aircraft sort of vindicated the
dreams of Lockheed, Piper, Ford,
Luscombe, and others that a market for a
single-place civilian aircraft would develop
post-war.
Mooney was one of the numerous
manufacturers to set up in Wichita in the
post-Lindbergh era, as I mentioned last
month. Al Mooney incorporated his own
company after leaving Alexander Aircraft
Company. As did the bulk of those startups,
his company failed before it ever
produced an airplane.
Al Mooney then worked as a designer
for several companies—most notably
Mono Aircraft, where he designed the
Monosport, the rights for which were
purchased by a wealthy sportsman named
Culver. The name changed to “Dart,” and
the production was moved from Columbus,
Ohio, to Wichita. During the war Culver
produced a large number of PQ-8s and PQ-
14s, which were all-wood, low-wing target
aircraft.
In 1946 Beech Aircraft bought out
Culver, and Mooney left to form his own
company to produce a single-place, retractgear,
metal-and-fabric aircraft designated
the M-18 Mite. At this point a favorite
memory takes shape.
I attended the 1946 Nats with an older
modeler when I was 14. The CL events were
held on the concrete slab across the street
from the Boeing plant and on the far westedge of the Wichita Municipal Airport
(now McConnell Air Force Base).
That slab had been the delivery
hardstand for B-29s as they rolled off the
production line. They were pulled across
Oliver Street and finished out there.
The huge area was an ideal CL site for
the Nats, with numerous circles in action at
the same time. My friend wandered around
on the hardstand and peeked into the small
buildings scattered around the perimeter.
We came to a little hangar with a large gap
in the sliding doors, so we peered in.
We saw a smallish, all-silver, low-wing
airplane with a set of pulleys and belts
running from the engine to the propeller.
80 MODEL AVIATION
Unable to determine what power plant was
being used, we did notice a belly scoop
with a radiator in it and concluded that the
design was water cooled. We were excited
by our discovery and asked the adults
around what the airplane might be. No one
knew!
Several months later the aviation press
identified what we had seen as the
prototype for the Mooney Mite. The power
plant was a four-cylinder Crosley
automobile engine mounted in reverse,
driving the propeller through reduction
pulleys and belts. What an exciting
discovery for two country boys!
This power plant proved to be
underpowered and much too complex, and
it was subsequently replaced with a 65-
horsepower Lycoming horizontally
opposed four-cylinder. Mooney recalled
the seven aircraft he had produced with the
Crosley and replaced them at no charge.
This little airplane was never produced
in large numbers, but an incredible number
are still flying 60 years later. My neighbor
Rick Render had one for years.
The design’s remarkable simplicity has
contributed much to its longevity. The
landing gear was a novel trailing link
setup, while the retracts used a manual
lever that was pushed down on the right
side of the cockpit for extension and
pulled up to retract. Legend has it that
sometimes the pilot found it necessary to
use his foot to get the gear down. A neat
little clear window was placed in the cockpit
floor to observe the position of the nose gear.
Much more information is available on
the Kansas Aviation Museum Web site
(www.kansasaviationmuseum.org) about the
Mite on display there, and it is a fun read.
The engine shown is also on display in the
museum. One must examine this engine
before it becomes obvious that the entire unit
is not only inverted but reversed front to
back.
As far as models of the Mite, the Jetco kit
of the 1960s—a FF Scale design by Walt
Mooney (no relation to Al)—was popular.
Berkeley kitted a Mite model that was
suitable for FF or CL. Plans for both are on
the AMA Plans Service list. Several rubberpowered
Mites have been published in
various modeling magazines throughout the
years.
However, the only RC Scale version I’ve
ever seen was a lovely 1/4-scale model
powered with a four-cylinder O.S. four-stroke
engine developed and built by Marv Reece
when he lived in Wichita.
I saw this aircraft flown several times, and
its engine sound and retractable gear made
for a realistic model. I don’t know if Marv
still has drawings, fiberglass parts, and
canopies for sale, but contact him at
[email protected] to find out.
For those who do not have or do not trust Email,
my mailing address is 909
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 76,77,78,80
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 76,77,78,80
Flying for Fun D.B. Mathews | [email protected]
A few more odd prototypes that are worthy of modeling
This 1/4–scale Ford “Flivver 2” was built from Duane Dahnert
plans and has a Saito 100 twin. Text has address.
76 MODEL AVIATION
A Flivver 2 reproduction by Florida Aviation Historic Society
members. It is on display in the museum.
The original Mooney Mite. Notice the underbelly radiator scoop
and NX registration. From The Lightplane Since 1909.
I INADVERTENTLY omitted the address for Frank Macy, the
source for A-J Interceptors and Hornets, from the March column.
You can contact American Junior Classics at 1501 SW Baker St.
#53, McMinnville OR 97128; Web site: www.american
juniorclassics.com.
Sharp-eyed readers will recognize McMinnville as the location of
the Evergreen Aviation Museum. It displays the Hughes “Spruce
Goose” and is where the Hughes H-1 racer
reproduction was headed when it crashed in
Yellowstone National Park.
Most of the designs I did for Ace were
published in the various magazines, so those
who want to duplicate these no-longer-inproduction
kits of the 4 series, the Bingos,
and the biplanes can obtain construction
drawings from the magazines. The glaring
exception seems to be the 4-60 bipe.
That is unfortunate since many say the
best-flying size of all the bipes is the 60,
which is often powered with a .90 fourstroke
engine. I’ve seen several ads and
notices seeking drawings of that model;
apparently they are hard to find but
desirable. I will make copies of mine and
the illustrated building instructions available
to those who are interested. E-mail me for
prices.
I goofed on the caption for the K&B
engine in the March 2006 issue. It was
supposed to read that the ignition Torp
shown was not the later, much-loved Green Head series. I did not
mean to imply that the Green Head was anything less than a
wonderful series of excellent engines; it just came off that way.
More Odd Prototypes: Last month I featured some single-place,
civilian market-directed, full-scale aircraft for you to consider as
subjects for Scale models. This month I will dig out a few more
A production Mooney Mite as displayed at the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita. It was
donated by Robert Trax of New Mexico.
from my collection of “someday projects”
for your entertainment. Many of the fullscale
prototypes I am showing would make
excellent FF or CL Scale subjects; I’m not
limiting this discussion to RC.
I’ll jump to 1926 for this month’s first
single-place prototype. The Ford Motor
Company was totally owned by the family
and there were no stock holders back then,
providing Henry and his son Edsel with
immense power. Decisions about products,
marketing, and labor relations could be
made quickly and forcefully.
Ford had entered the aircraft-production
market with the three-engine commercial
AT series, with great success. Ford Tri
motors were becoming the standard airplane
of most of the world’s airlines.
Young Ford engineer Otto Koppen was
assigned to design a small, single-place
airplane that anyone could fly—basically a
Model T of the air. Built in great secrecy
behind locked doors, it was first flown on
July 31, 1926, which was Henry Ford’s 63rd
birthday. The Flivver was flown by Harry
Brooks—the son of one of Henry Ford’s neighbors who was
Henry’s personal “fiddler”; he loved square dancing.
August 10, 1927, Detroit, Michigan-born Charles A. Lindbergh
arrived in Detroit on his tour of America following his epochmaking
flight in May of that year. He viewed the Flivver and asked
Mr. Ford if he could fly it.
“Of course,” replied Ford. “But you will be only the second
person to do so.”
In late 1927 Koppen designed a second, improved version of the
Flivver. It was a bit larger, more appealing to the eye, and powered
with a two-cylinder opposed engine of Ford design.
This engine replaced the ugly three-cylinder radial Anzani of the
first prototype (serial number 268). For simplicity’s sake I will refer
to the Anzani-powered unit as “Flivver 1” and the flat-twin-powered
aircraft as “Flivver 2.”
The new 3218 was successful and was used to attempt a new
class-record-distance nonstop flight along the eastern seaboard,
ending in Miami, Florida. Harry Brooks crashed into the ocean and
was killed during this flight. The loss of his fiddler’s son’s life so
upset Henry that he had the project terminated.
A controversy exists concerning the Flivver 2 that is on display
in the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It is an extensively
repaired original that was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, less
Brooks’s body, or it was built from subassemblies that were already
in existence.
In his later years Koppen retired to Florida and participated in the
resurrection of his second prototype drawings. He advised the
Florida Aviation Historical Society in its replication of the twocylinder,
horizontally opposed 3218 version. He passed away before
the project could be completed, but it has been flown and is on
display in the museum of the Florida Aviation Historical Society.
The only three models of the Ford Flivver I’m aware of are of
the three-cylinder Anzani version. Williams Bros. had a scale
plastic model, and I saw an ARF in a hobby shop from an Asian
manufacturer. Expatriate Englishman Derek Woodward published
a neat little 1/5-scale Flivver 1 (268) in the March 1988 Radio
Control Modeler.
I had fallen in love with the second prototype Flivver based on a
photo in the book The Lightplane Since 1909 by G.B. Underwood
and John Collinge. For many years that was as far as I could go
since I was unable to find further information about the aircraft. I
mentioned that search in a 1993 column, and the response was
incredible!
Crosley Cobra as used in the first seven Mites. Pulleys and belts
mounted on rear of engine reversed for aircraft use.
An Avia FL-3 in Italian registry spans 32 feet. This photo is from
Castle Graphics in Seattle, Washington.
The author’s 80-inch-span Avia FL-3 was developed around photos only—no three-views.
It is powered by a SuperTigre 3000 engine and was never published.
July 2006 77
Scale drawings for the much prettier
twin-cylinder version were more difficult to
locate, but, as I wrote in the June 1995
column, some detective work turned up
superb three-views of the Flivver 2 (3218)
from John Raymond (68 Gordon Pkwy. #2
Syracuse NY 13219) that he prepared for an
article in the October 1995 Skyways.
Additional photos and details were provided
by N.H. Haufrick (Box 232, Greensburg OH
44232).
Duane Dahnert (7209 Bryant Ave. S.,
Richfield MN 55423) used all that material
to develop superb construction drawings for
an 80-inch exact-scale Flivver 2 (3218)
model that was suitable for a .90 or 1.00
four-stroke twin.
Roughly 70 versions of the model have
been built from Duane’s plans throughout
the years, and all are reported to be excellent
fliers. Duane has the drawings for sale, John
Raymond sells the three-views, and N.H.
Haufrick sells the photos. All the
components are in place to build your
Flivver.
I have not been in contact with a couple
of these men in several years. I hope all are
still around. Duane Dahnert is; I just talked
to him on the phone.
In that same book by Underwood and
Collinge is a photo of a prototype I’ve spent
many years trying to chase down
information about. The Avia FL-3 is a
single-place, low-wing, 60-horsepower
cutey of Italian origin (not Czech as the
name would imply).
I managed to obtain an 8 x 10-inch print
of an FL-3 from Castle Graphics in Seattle,
Washington, but nothing else. Finally I
designed an 84-inch version based only on
the photos, which produced a neat-looking,
adequate-flying model that was semiscale at
best. Because of that I chose not to publish
it.
So a delightful prototype sits unmodeled
from a lack of material, much as the Flivver
did for many years. Chasing down threeviews
and photos for an unusual subject can
resemble a “cold-case file,” but what fun it
is to finally crack one like the Flivver.
I just cracked the Avia FL-3! In Bob
Banka’s (314 Yukon Ave., Costa Mesa CA
92626) latest Aircraft Documentation
catalog are three-views for this airplane.
Bob has photo packs, three-views, etc.
for thousands of aircraft ranging from the
mundane to the extraordinary. There are
military, civilian, domestic, and foreign
types. The list is amazing. If you have an
interest in Scale models, whether from a
color-and-decoration standpoint or in threeviews,
you owe it to yourself to have his
catalog.
I check my drawings against accurate
three-views, and I might publish that Avia
FL-3 yet.
The last single-place airplane I’ll cover
this month was reasonably successful,
having sold 283 units in a production run
that began in Wichita in 1946 and finished
after Mooney moved to Kerrville, Texas, in
1953. This aircraft sort of vindicated the
dreams of Lockheed, Piper, Ford,
Luscombe, and others that a market for a
single-place civilian aircraft would develop
post-war.
Mooney was one of the numerous
manufacturers to set up in Wichita in the
post-Lindbergh era, as I mentioned last
month. Al Mooney incorporated his own
company after leaving Alexander Aircraft
Company. As did the bulk of those startups,
his company failed before it ever
produced an airplane.
Al Mooney then worked as a designer
for several companies—most notably
Mono Aircraft, where he designed the
Monosport, the rights for which were
purchased by a wealthy sportsman named
Culver. The name changed to “Dart,” and
the production was moved from Columbus,
Ohio, to Wichita. During the war Culver
produced a large number of PQ-8s and PQ-
14s, which were all-wood, low-wing target
aircraft.
In 1946 Beech Aircraft bought out
Culver, and Mooney left to form his own
company to produce a single-place, retractgear,
metal-and-fabric aircraft designated
the M-18 Mite. At this point a favorite
memory takes shape.
I attended the 1946 Nats with an older
modeler when I was 14. The CL events were
held on the concrete slab across the street
from the Boeing plant and on the far westedge of the Wichita Municipal Airport
(now McConnell Air Force Base).
That slab had been the delivery
hardstand for B-29s as they rolled off the
production line. They were pulled across
Oliver Street and finished out there.
The huge area was an ideal CL site for
the Nats, with numerous circles in action at
the same time. My friend wandered around
on the hardstand and peeked into the small
buildings scattered around the perimeter.
We came to a little hangar with a large gap
in the sliding doors, so we peered in.
We saw a smallish, all-silver, low-wing
airplane with a set of pulleys and belts
running from the engine to the propeller.
80 MODEL AVIATION
Unable to determine what power plant was
being used, we did notice a belly scoop
with a radiator in it and concluded that the
design was water cooled. We were excited
by our discovery and asked the adults
around what the airplane might be. No one
knew!
Several months later the aviation press
identified what we had seen as the
prototype for the Mooney Mite. The power
plant was a four-cylinder Crosley
automobile engine mounted in reverse,
driving the propeller through reduction
pulleys and belts. What an exciting
discovery for two country boys!
This power plant proved to be
underpowered and much too complex, and
it was subsequently replaced with a 65-
horsepower Lycoming horizontally
opposed four-cylinder. Mooney recalled
the seven aircraft he had produced with the
Crosley and replaced them at no charge.
This little airplane was never produced
in large numbers, but an incredible number
are still flying 60 years later. My neighbor
Rick Render had one for years.
The design’s remarkable simplicity has
contributed much to its longevity. The
landing gear was a novel trailing link
setup, while the retracts used a manual
lever that was pushed down on the right
side of the cockpit for extension and
pulled up to retract. Legend has it that
sometimes the pilot found it necessary to
use his foot to get the gear down. A neat
little clear window was placed in the cockpit
floor to observe the position of the nose gear.
Much more information is available on
the Kansas Aviation Museum Web site
(www.kansasaviationmuseum.org) about the
Mite on display there, and it is a fun read.
The engine shown is also on display in the
museum. One must examine this engine
before it becomes obvious that the entire unit
is not only inverted but reversed front to
back.
As far as models of the Mite, the Jetco kit
of the 1960s—a FF Scale design by Walt
Mooney (no relation to Al)—was popular.
Berkeley kitted a Mite model that was
suitable for FF or CL. Plans for both are on
the AMA Plans Service list. Several rubberpowered
Mites have been published in
various modeling magazines throughout the
years.
However, the only RC Scale version I’ve
ever seen was a lovely 1/4-scale model
powered with a four-cylinder O.S. four-stroke
engine developed and built by Marv Reece
when he lived in Wichita.
I saw this aircraft flown several times, and
its engine sound and retractable gear made
for a realistic model. I don’t know if Marv
still has drawings, fiberglass parts, and
canopies for sale, but contact him at
[email protected] to find out.
For those who do not have or do not trust Email,
my mailing address is 909
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 76,77,78,80
Flying for Fun D.B. Mathews | [email protected]
A few more odd prototypes that are worthy of modeling
This 1/4–scale Ford “Flivver 2” was built from Duane Dahnert
plans and has a Saito 100 twin. Text has address.
76 MODEL AVIATION
A Flivver 2 reproduction by Florida Aviation Historic Society
members. It is on display in the museum.
The original Mooney Mite. Notice the underbelly radiator scoop
and NX registration. From The Lightplane Since 1909.
I INADVERTENTLY omitted the address for Frank Macy, the
source for A-J Interceptors and Hornets, from the March column.
You can contact American Junior Classics at 1501 SW Baker St.
#53, McMinnville OR 97128; Web site: www.american
juniorclassics.com.
Sharp-eyed readers will recognize McMinnville as the location of
the Evergreen Aviation Museum. It displays the Hughes “Spruce
Goose” and is where the Hughes H-1 racer
reproduction was headed when it crashed in
Yellowstone National Park.
Most of the designs I did for Ace were
published in the various magazines, so those
who want to duplicate these no-longer-inproduction
kits of the 4 series, the Bingos,
and the biplanes can obtain construction
drawings from the magazines. The glaring
exception seems to be the 4-60 bipe.
That is unfortunate since many say the
best-flying size of all the bipes is the 60,
which is often powered with a .90 fourstroke
engine. I’ve seen several ads and
notices seeking drawings of that model;
apparently they are hard to find but
desirable. I will make copies of mine and
the illustrated building instructions available
to those who are interested. E-mail me for
prices.
I goofed on the caption for the K&B
engine in the March 2006 issue. It was
supposed to read that the ignition Torp
shown was not the later, much-loved Green Head series. I did not
mean to imply that the Green Head was anything less than a
wonderful series of excellent engines; it just came off that way.
More Odd Prototypes: Last month I featured some single-place,
civilian market-directed, full-scale aircraft for you to consider as
subjects for Scale models. This month I will dig out a few more
A production Mooney Mite as displayed at the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita. It was
donated by Robert Trax of New Mexico.
from my collection of “someday projects”
for your entertainment. Many of the fullscale
prototypes I am showing would make
excellent FF or CL Scale subjects; I’m not
limiting this discussion to RC.
I’ll jump to 1926 for this month’s first
single-place prototype. The Ford Motor
Company was totally owned by the family
and there were no stock holders back then,
providing Henry and his son Edsel with
immense power. Decisions about products,
marketing, and labor relations could be
made quickly and forcefully.
Ford had entered the aircraft-production
market with the three-engine commercial
AT series, with great success. Ford Tri
motors were becoming the standard airplane
of most of the world’s airlines.
Young Ford engineer Otto Koppen was
assigned to design a small, single-place
airplane that anyone could fly—basically a
Model T of the air. Built in great secrecy
behind locked doors, it was first flown on
July 31, 1926, which was Henry Ford’s 63rd
birthday. The Flivver was flown by Harry
Brooks—the son of one of Henry Ford’s neighbors who was
Henry’s personal “fiddler”; he loved square dancing.
August 10, 1927, Detroit, Michigan-born Charles A. Lindbergh
arrived in Detroit on his tour of America following his epochmaking
flight in May of that year. He viewed the Flivver and asked
Mr. Ford if he could fly it.
“Of course,” replied Ford. “But you will be only the second
person to do so.”
In late 1927 Koppen designed a second, improved version of the
Flivver. It was a bit larger, more appealing to the eye, and powered
with a two-cylinder opposed engine of Ford design.
This engine replaced the ugly three-cylinder radial Anzani of the
first prototype (serial number 268). For simplicity’s sake I will refer
to the Anzani-powered unit as “Flivver 1” and the flat-twin-powered
aircraft as “Flivver 2.”
The new 3218 was successful and was used to attempt a new
class-record-distance nonstop flight along the eastern seaboard,
ending in Miami, Florida. Harry Brooks crashed into the ocean and
was killed during this flight. The loss of his fiddler’s son’s life so
upset Henry that he had the project terminated.
A controversy exists concerning the Flivver 2 that is on display
in the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It is an extensively
repaired original that was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, less
Brooks’s body, or it was built from subassemblies that were already
in existence.
In his later years Koppen retired to Florida and participated in the
resurrection of his second prototype drawings. He advised the
Florida Aviation Historical Society in its replication of the twocylinder,
horizontally opposed 3218 version. He passed away before
the project could be completed, but it has been flown and is on
display in the museum of the Florida Aviation Historical Society.
The only three models of the Ford Flivver I’m aware of are of
the three-cylinder Anzani version. Williams Bros. had a scale
plastic model, and I saw an ARF in a hobby shop from an Asian
manufacturer. Expatriate Englishman Derek Woodward published
a neat little 1/5-scale Flivver 1 (268) in the March 1988 Radio
Control Modeler.
I had fallen in love with the second prototype Flivver based on a
photo in the book The Lightplane Since 1909 by G.B. Underwood
and John Collinge. For many years that was as far as I could go
since I was unable to find further information about the aircraft. I
mentioned that search in a 1993 column, and the response was
incredible!
Crosley Cobra as used in the first seven Mites. Pulleys and belts
mounted on rear of engine reversed for aircraft use.
An Avia FL-3 in Italian registry spans 32 feet. This photo is from
Castle Graphics in Seattle, Washington.
The author’s 80-inch-span Avia FL-3 was developed around photos only—no three-views.
It is powered by a SuperTigre 3000 engine and was never published.
July 2006 77
Scale drawings for the much prettier
twin-cylinder version were more difficult to
locate, but, as I wrote in the June 1995
column, some detective work turned up
superb three-views of the Flivver 2 (3218)
from John Raymond (68 Gordon Pkwy. #2
Syracuse NY 13219) that he prepared for an
article in the October 1995 Skyways.
Additional photos and details were provided
by N.H. Haufrick (Box 232, Greensburg OH
44232).
Duane Dahnert (7209 Bryant Ave. S.,
Richfield MN 55423) used all that material
to develop superb construction drawings for
an 80-inch exact-scale Flivver 2 (3218)
model that was suitable for a .90 or 1.00
four-stroke twin.
Roughly 70 versions of the model have
been built from Duane’s plans throughout
the years, and all are reported to be excellent
fliers. Duane has the drawings for sale, John
Raymond sells the three-views, and N.H.
Haufrick sells the photos. All the
components are in place to build your
Flivver.
I have not been in contact with a couple
of these men in several years. I hope all are
still around. Duane Dahnert is; I just talked
to him on the phone.
In that same book by Underwood and
Collinge is a photo of a prototype I’ve spent
many years trying to chase down
information about. The Avia FL-3 is a
single-place, low-wing, 60-horsepower
cutey of Italian origin (not Czech as the
name would imply).
I managed to obtain an 8 x 10-inch print
of an FL-3 from Castle Graphics in Seattle,
Washington, but nothing else. Finally I
designed an 84-inch version based only on
the photos, which produced a neat-looking,
adequate-flying model that was semiscale at
best. Because of that I chose not to publish
it.
So a delightful prototype sits unmodeled
from a lack of material, much as the Flivver
did for many years. Chasing down threeviews
and photos for an unusual subject can
resemble a “cold-case file,” but what fun it
is to finally crack one like the Flivver.
I just cracked the Avia FL-3! In Bob
Banka’s (314 Yukon Ave., Costa Mesa CA
92626) latest Aircraft Documentation
catalog are three-views for this airplane.
Bob has photo packs, three-views, etc.
for thousands of aircraft ranging from the
mundane to the extraordinary. There are
military, civilian, domestic, and foreign
types. The list is amazing. If you have an
interest in Scale models, whether from a
color-and-decoration standpoint or in threeviews,
you owe it to yourself to have his
catalog.
I check my drawings against accurate
three-views, and I might publish that Avia
FL-3 yet.
The last single-place airplane I’ll cover
this month was reasonably successful,
having sold 283 units in a production run
that began in Wichita in 1946 and finished
after Mooney moved to Kerrville, Texas, in
1953. This aircraft sort of vindicated the
dreams of Lockheed, Piper, Ford,
Luscombe, and others that a market for a
single-place civilian aircraft would develop
post-war.
Mooney was one of the numerous
manufacturers to set up in Wichita in the
post-Lindbergh era, as I mentioned last
month. Al Mooney incorporated his own
company after leaving Alexander Aircraft
Company. As did the bulk of those startups,
his company failed before it ever
produced an airplane.
Al Mooney then worked as a designer
for several companies—most notably
Mono Aircraft, where he designed the
Monosport, the rights for which were
purchased by a wealthy sportsman named
Culver. The name changed to “Dart,” and
the production was moved from Columbus,
Ohio, to Wichita. During the war Culver
produced a large number of PQ-8s and PQ-
14s, which were all-wood, low-wing target
aircraft.
In 1946 Beech Aircraft bought out
Culver, and Mooney left to form his own
company to produce a single-place, retractgear,
metal-and-fabric aircraft designated
the M-18 Mite. At this point a favorite
memory takes shape.
I attended the 1946 Nats with an older
modeler when I was 14. The CL events were
held on the concrete slab across the street
from the Boeing plant and on the far westedge of the Wichita Municipal Airport
(now McConnell Air Force Base).
That slab had been the delivery
hardstand for B-29s as they rolled off the
production line. They were pulled across
Oliver Street and finished out there.
The huge area was an ideal CL site for
the Nats, with numerous circles in action at
the same time. My friend wandered around
on the hardstand and peeked into the small
buildings scattered around the perimeter.
We came to a little hangar with a large gap
in the sliding doors, so we peered in.
We saw a smallish, all-silver, low-wing
airplane with a set of pulleys and belts
running from the engine to the propeller.
80 MODEL AVIATION
Unable to determine what power plant was
being used, we did notice a belly scoop
with a radiator in it and concluded that the
design was water cooled. We were excited
by our discovery and asked the adults
around what the airplane might be. No one
knew!
Several months later the aviation press
identified what we had seen as the
prototype for the Mooney Mite. The power
plant was a four-cylinder Crosley
automobile engine mounted in reverse,
driving the propeller through reduction
pulleys and belts. What an exciting
discovery for two country boys!
This power plant proved to be
underpowered and much too complex, and
it was subsequently replaced with a 65-
horsepower Lycoming horizontally
opposed four-cylinder. Mooney recalled
the seven aircraft he had produced with the
Crosley and replaced them at no charge.
This little airplane was never produced
in large numbers, but an incredible number
are still flying 60 years later. My neighbor
Rick Render had one for years.
The design’s remarkable simplicity has
contributed much to its longevity. The
landing gear was a novel trailing link
setup, while the retracts used a manual
lever that was pushed down on the right
side of the cockpit for extension and
pulled up to retract. Legend has it that
sometimes the pilot found it necessary to
use his foot to get the gear down. A neat
little clear window was placed in the cockpit
floor to observe the position of the nose gear.
Much more information is available on
the Kansas Aviation Museum Web site
(www.kansasaviationmuseum.org) about the
Mite on display there, and it is a fun read.
The engine shown is also on display in the
museum. One must examine this engine
before it becomes obvious that the entire unit
is not only inverted but reversed front to
back.
As far as models of the Mite, the Jetco kit
of the 1960s—a FF Scale design by Walt
Mooney (no relation to Al)—was popular.
Berkeley kitted a Mite model that was
suitable for FF or CL. Plans for both are on
the AMA Plans Service list. Several rubberpowered
Mites have been published in
various modeling magazines throughout the
years.
However, the only RC Scale version I’ve
ever seen was a lovely 1/4-scale model
powered with a four-cylinder O.S. four-stroke
engine developed and built by Marv Reece
when he lived in Wichita.
I saw this aircraft flown several times, and
its engine sound and retractable gear made
for a realistic model. I don’t know if Marv
still has drawings, fiberglass parts, and
canopies for sale, but contact him at
[email protected] to find out.
For those who do not have or do not trust Email,
my mailing address is 909
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 76,77,78,80
Flying for Fun D.B. Mathews | [email protected]
A few more odd prototypes that are worthy of modeling
This 1/4–scale Ford “Flivver 2” was built from Duane Dahnert
plans and has a Saito 100 twin. Text has address.
76 MODEL AVIATION
A Flivver 2 reproduction by Florida Aviation Historic Society
members. It is on display in the museum.
The original Mooney Mite. Notice the underbelly radiator scoop
and NX registration. From The Lightplane Since 1909.
I INADVERTENTLY omitted the address for Frank Macy, the
source for A-J Interceptors and Hornets, from the March column.
You can contact American Junior Classics at 1501 SW Baker St.
#53, McMinnville OR 97128; Web site: www.american
juniorclassics.com.
Sharp-eyed readers will recognize McMinnville as the location of
the Evergreen Aviation Museum. It displays the Hughes “Spruce
Goose” and is where the Hughes H-1 racer
reproduction was headed when it crashed in
Yellowstone National Park.
Most of the designs I did for Ace were
published in the various magazines, so those
who want to duplicate these no-longer-inproduction
kits of the 4 series, the Bingos,
and the biplanes can obtain construction
drawings from the magazines. The glaring
exception seems to be the 4-60 bipe.
That is unfortunate since many say the
best-flying size of all the bipes is the 60,
which is often powered with a .90 fourstroke
engine. I’ve seen several ads and
notices seeking drawings of that model;
apparently they are hard to find but
desirable. I will make copies of mine and
the illustrated building instructions available
to those who are interested. E-mail me for
prices.
I goofed on the caption for the K&B
engine in the March 2006 issue. It was
supposed to read that the ignition Torp
shown was not the later, much-loved Green Head series. I did not
mean to imply that the Green Head was anything less than a
wonderful series of excellent engines; it just came off that way.
More Odd Prototypes: Last month I featured some single-place,
civilian market-directed, full-scale aircraft for you to consider as
subjects for Scale models. This month I will dig out a few more
A production Mooney Mite as displayed at the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita. It was
donated by Robert Trax of New Mexico.
from my collection of “someday projects”
for your entertainment. Many of the fullscale
prototypes I am showing would make
excellent FF or CL Scale subjects; I’m not
limiting this discussion to RC.
I’ll jump to 1926 for this month’s first
single-place prototype. The Ford Motor
Company was totally owned by the family
and there were no stock holders back then,
providing Henry and his son Edsel with
immense power. Decisions about products,
marketing, and labor relations could be
made quickly and forcefully.
Ford had entered the aircraft-production
market with the three-engine commercial
AT series, with great success. Ford Tri
motors were becoming the standard airplane
of most of the world’s airlines.
Young Ford engineer Otto Koppen was
assigned to design a small, single-place
airplane that anyone could fly—basically a
Model T of the air. Built in great secrecy
behind locked doors, it was first flown on
July 31, 1926, which was Henry Ford’s 63rd
birthday. The Flivver was flown by Harry
Brooks—the son of one of Henry Ford’s neighbors who was
Henry’s personal “fiddler”; he loved square dancing.
August 10, 1927, Detroit, Michigan-born Charles A. Lindbergh
arrived in Detroit on his tour of America following his epochmaking
flight in May of that year. He viewed the Flivver and asked
Mr. Ford if he could fly it.
“Of course,” replied Ford. “But you will be only the second
person to do so.”
In late 1927 Koppen designed a second, improved version of the
Flivver. It was a bit larger, more appealing to the eye, and powered
with a two-cylinder opposed engine of Ford design.
This engine replaced the ugly three-cylinder radial Anzani of the
first prototype (serial number 268). For simplicity’s sake I will refer
to the Anzani-powered unit as “Flivver 1” and the flat-twin-powered
aircraft as “Flivver 2.”
The new 3218 was successful and was used to attempt a new
class-record-distance nonstop flight along the eastern seaboard,
ending in Miami, Florida. Harry Brooks crashed into the ocean and
was killed during this flight. The loss of his fiddler’s son’s life so
upset Henry that he had the project terminated.
A controversy exists concerning the Flivver 2 that is on display
in the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It is an extensively
repaired original that was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, less
Brooks’s body, or it was built from subassemblies that were already
in existence.
In his later years Koppen retired to Florida and participated in the
resurrection of his second prototype drawings. He advised the
Florida Aviation Historical Society in its replication of the twocylinder,
horizontally opposed 3218 version. He passed away before
the project could be completed, but it has been flown and is on
display in the museum of the Florida Aviation Historical Society.
The only three models of the Ford Flivver I’m aware of are of
the three-cylinder Anzani version. Williams Bros. had a scale
plastic model, and I saw an ARF in a hobby shop from an Asian
manufacturer. Expatriate Englishman Derek Woodward published
a neat little 1/5-scale Flivver 1 (268) in the March 1988 Radio
Control Modeler.
I had fallen in love with the second prototype Flivver based on a
photo in the book The Lightplane Since 1909 by G.B. Underwood
and John Collinge. For many years that was as far as I could go
since I was unable to find further information about the aircraft. I
mentioned that search in a 1993 column, and the response was
incredible!
Crosley Cobra as used in the first seven Mites. Pulleys and belts
mounted on rear of engine reversed for aircraft use.
An Avia FL-3 in Italian registry spans 32 feet. This photo is from
Castle Graphics in Seattle, Washington.
The author’s 80-inch-span Avia FL-3 was developed around photos only—no three-views.
It is powered by a SuperTigre 3000 engine and was never published.
July 2006 77
Scale drawings for the much prettier
twin-cylinder version were more difficult to
locate, but, as I wrote in the June 1995
column, some detective work turned up
superb three-views of the Flivver 2 (3218)
from John Raymond (68 Gordon Pkwy. #2
Syracuse NY 13219) that he prepared for an
article in the October 1995 Skyways.
Additional photos and details were provided
by N.H. Haufrick (Box 232, Greensburg OH
44232).
Duane Dahnert (7209 Bryant Ave. S.,
Richfield MN 55423) used all that material
to develop superb construction drawings for
an 80-inch exact-scale Flivver 2 (3218)
model that was suitable for a .90 or 1.00
four-stroke twin.
Roughly 70 versions of the model have
been built from Duane’s plans throughout
the years, and all are reported to be excellent
fliers. Duane has the drawings for sale, John
Raymond sells the three-views, and N.H.
Haufrick sells the photos. All the
components are in place to build your
Flivver.
I have not been in contact with a couple
of these men in several years. I hope all are
still around. Duane Dahnert is; I just talked
to him on the phone.
In that same book by Underwood and
Collinge is a photo of a prototype I’ve spent
many years trying to chase down
information about. The Avia FL-3 is a
single-place, low-wing, 60-horsepower
cutey of Italian origin (not Czech as the
name would imply).
I managed to obtain an 8 x 10-inch print
of an FL-3 from Castle Graphics in Seattle,
Washington, but nothing else. Finally I
designed an 84-inch version based only on
the photos, which produced a neat-looking,
adequate-flying model that was semiscale at
best. Because of that I chose not to publish
it.
So a delightful prototype sits unmodeled
from a lack of material, much as the Flivver
did for many years. Chasing down threeviews
and photos for an unusual subject can
resemble a “cold-case file,” but what fun it
is to finally crack one like the Flivver.
I just cracked the Avia FL-3! In Bob
Banka’s (314 Yukon Ave., Costa Mesa CA
92626) latest Aircraft Documentation
catalog are three-views for this airplane.
Bob has photo packs, three-views, etc.
for thousands of aircraft ranging from the
mundane to the extraordinary. There are
military, civilian, domestic, and foreign
types. The list is amazing. If you have an
interest in Scale models, whether from a
color-and-decoration standpoint or in threeviews,
you owe it to yourself to have his
catalog.
I check my drawings against accurate
three-views, and I might publish that Avia
FL-3 yet.
The last single-place airplane I’ll cover
this month was reasonably successful,
having sold 283 units in a production run
that began in Wichita in 1946 and finished
after Mooney moved to Kerrville, Texas, in
1953. This aircraft sort of vindicated the
dreams of Lockheed, Piper, Ford,
Luscombe, and others that a market for a
single-place civilian aircraft would develop
post-war.
Mooney was one of the numerous
manufacturers to set up in Wichita in the
post-Lindbergh era, as I mentioned last
month. Al Mooney incorporated his own
company after leaving Alexander Aircraft
Company. As did the bulk of those startups,
his company failed before it ever
produced an airplane.
Al Mooney then worked as a designer
for several companies—most notably
Mono Aircraft, where he designed the
Monosport, the rights for which were
purchased by a wealthy sportsman named
Culver. The name changed to “Dart,” and
the production was moved from Columbus,
Ohio, to Wichita. During the war Culver
produced a large number of PQ-8s and PQ-
14s, which were all-wood, low-wing target
aircraft.
In 1946 Beech Aircraft bought out
Culver, and Mooney left to form his own
company to produce a single-place, retractgear,
metal-and-fabric aircraft designated
the M-18 Mite. At this point a favorite
memory takes shape.
I attended the 1946 Nats with an older
modeler when I was 14. The CL events were
held on the concrete slab across the street
from the Boeing plant and on the far westedge of the Wichita Municipal Airport
(now McConnell Air Force Base).
That slab had been the delivery
hardstand for B-29s as they rolled off the
production line. They were pulled across
Oliver Street and finished out there.
The huge area was an ideal CL site for
the Nats, with numerous circles in action at
the same time. My friend wandered around
on the hardstand and peeked into the small
buildings scattered around the perimeter.
We came to a little hangar with a large gap
in the sliding doors, so we peered in.
We saw a smallish, all-silver, low-wing
airplane with a set of pulleys and belts
running from the engine to the propeller.
80 MODEL AVIATION
Unable to determine what power plant was
being used, we did notice a belly scoop
with a radiator in it and concluded that the
design was water cooled. We were excited
by our discovery and asked the adults
around what the airplane might be. No one
knew!
Several months later the aviation press
identified what we had seen as the
prototype for the Mooney Mite. The power
plant was a four-cylinder Crosley
automobile engine mounted in reverse,
driving the propeller through reduction
pulleys and belts. What an exciting
discovery for two country boys!
This power plant proved to be
underpowered and much too complex, and
it was subsequently replaced with a 65-
horsepower Lycoming horizontally
opposed four-cylinder. Mooney recalled
the seven aircraft he had produced with the
Crosley and replaced them at no charge.
This little airplane was never produced
in large numbers, but an incredible number
are still flying 60 years later. My neighbor
Rick Render had one for years.
The design’s remarkable simplicity has
contributed much to its longevity. The
landing gear was a novel trailing link
setup, while the retracts used a manual
lever that was pushed down on the right
side of the cockpit for extension and
pulled up to retract. Legend has it that
sometimes the pilot found it necessary to
use his foot to get the gear down. A neat
little clear window was placed in the cockpit
floor to observe the position of the nose gear.
Much more information is available on
the Kansas Aviation Museum Web site
(www.kansasaviationmuseum.org) about the
Mite on display there, and it is a fun read.
The engine shown is also on display in the
museum. One must examine this engine
before it becomes obvious that the entire unit
is not only inverted but reversed front to
back.
As far as models of the Mite, the Jetco kit
of the 1960s—a FF Scale design by Walt
Mooney (no relation to Al)—was popular.
Berkeley kitted a Mite model that was
suitable for FF or CL. Plans for both are on
the AMA Plans Service list. Several rubberpowered
Mites have been published in
various modeling magazines throughout the
years.
However, the only RC Scale version I’ve
ever seen was a lovely 1/4-scale model
powered with a four-cylinder O.S. four-stroke
engine developed and built by Marv Reece
when he lived in Wichita.
I saw this aircraft flown several times, and
its engine sound and retractable gear made
for a realistic model. I don’t know if Marv
still has drawings, fiberglass parts, and
canopies for sale, but contact him at
[email protected] to find out.
For those who do not have or do not trust Email,
my mailing address is 909