Flying for Fun - 2006/12
D.B. Mathews | [email protected]
The rare-aircraft theme continues with four obscure pushers
In fairness to this magazine’s art staff, please understand that because of the nature of this column I often use old photos with resolution and contrast that are well below accepted minimums for contemporary photography. These are often in black-and-white and don’t reproduce with much quality, but they are of such historical interest that they should be appreciated nonetheless.
There are also variables in the printing process itself that can cause photos to be overly dark, as were those in the August 2006 column, or too light.
Off and on in the last several months I have been selecting photos and text to describe odd and seldom-modeled full-scale aircraft. This has been an attempt to interest readers in pursuing out-of-the-rut subjects for scale models. Not only that, but I’ve found an excuse to spend hours looking at the huge quantity of aviation material on the Internet.
The response from readers about this choice of column subjects indicates that many of us hold an interest in odd airplanes. As I keep mentioning, it’s unfortunate that the available kits, and particularly ARFs, for scale models are so narrow in choices.
Apparently the Asian manufacturers feel safety in producing replicas of a narrow group of prototypes that are instantly identifiable to potential buyers. This limited choice often results in pit areas looking as if someone found a way to clone model airplanes.
This month, for fun, I’ll look at some pusher prototypes. Although the earliest flying models were twin pusher sticks, the successful pusher free-flight model has always been the exception, even in scale models.
One of the most pervasive reasons for the engine-aft designs’ lack of popularity has been the tendency of such models to be tail-heavy.
As I write this, the only kitted pusher engine free-flight design I can recall was Jerry Stollof’s Yogi, which was difficult to balance. There were also some control-line pusher kits produced—notably a scale Stearman-Hammond by Aerodesign.
Until the advent of electric power, only a few pusher RC models had been popular, such as the MAN Fan Jet and its clones.
The pusher layout has become highly popular for electric-powered models ranging from $50 Air Hogs aircraft to extremely sophisticated designs.
In this age of electric-powered models, much of the weight-distribution problem has been solved. Consider the glow-powered unit’s concentration of weight compared to an electric motor and its batteries.
Glow power has the largest percentage of its total weight distributed in a compact space, whereas the electric-power unit has less than half its mass in the motor itself. Now the builder can move the bulk of the power-plant weight way up forward in a pusher design.
Not only does electric power help with the tail-heaviness, but consider how much simpler starting procedures are with an electric pusher compared to that powered by a glow engine. With electric power the airplanes I’ll show you this month could be developed into excellent scale models.
Cessna “Magic Carpet”
This is a product of a well-known light-aircraft manufacturer that I’ll bet you have never seen. From its inception this airplane was intended to be an engineering study rather than a production aircraft.
That differs drastically from the Cessna CH-1 helicopter designed by Charles Seibel and placed into series production, only to reveal insurmountable operational and maintenance problems. There were so many that Cessna bought back the ones they had sold and destroyed them!
The XMC (Experimental Magic Carpet) was an exercise to investigate and evaluate new light-aircraft design and aerodynamics, new construction techniques, and advanced materials. In that respect, much was learned that was later applied to full production aircraft.
The single two-place research aircraft, engineering designation Model 1014, was first flown on January 22, 1971, with chief test pilot Bruce Barrett at the controls. Subsequently the XMC entered a test program to evaluate ground handling, flying characteristics, and visibility throughout the flight regime.
As a further study, in 1972 the single prototype was reworked to include increased vertical stabilizer, spatted nose gear, and a shrouded, or ducted, propeller. The model designation was changed to 1034 to differentiate the two versions.
The shrouded propeller produced less thrust and more noise, so that exercise was discontinued. As far as can be determined, the prototype was scrapped.
The “Magic Carpet” would make a delightful scale model. However, when Textron bought out Cessna, the new management decided that the multiple file cabinets in the plant that contained historical material was wasting space.
My friend Bob Pickett, who described himself as the “unofficial historian of Cessna” before his untimely death, had collected much of this irreplaceable data. The powers that be had everything hauled off to the landfill.
To my knowledge no XMC three-views remain, and all I could find was the company photo that longtime Cessna employee Dick Massey had saved from years ago.
This aircraft deserves to be reproduced in model form if anyone has material on it. If you do and would like to share, let me know.
Anderson Greenwood AG-14
The XMC was an aircraft for which little documentation is available. Now we are going to look at one for which there is a ton of documentation, yet is seldom, if ever, modeled.
Most who have an interest in scale models are aware that Paul Matt’s Scale Airplane Drawings Vol. 1 contains a superb set of three-views for the AG-14. The book should be available from the aviation booksellers. In addition, Bob’s Aircraft Documentation (3114 Yukon Ave., Costa Mesa CA 92626) has a Foto Pak in color of the AG-14.
So with all the excellent documentation, why isn’t this aircraft modeled more often?
Anderson Greenwood was not your average start-up, sell stock, and go broke aircraft developer. It remains in business today as a major manufacturer of metal products for industry, including the aircraft business.
Additionally, under the abbreviation AGCO Anderson Greenwood is a major producer of industrial valves and meters. The company invested in developing a product for the predicted post-war aviation boom as an addition to its product line.
The two-seat, twin-boom, light-cabin AG-14 monoplane first flew in October 1947. A production prototype flew three years later, and a line was set up for full production. As I’ve written several times, the market dried up for two-place light aircraft and only a handful were ever produced.
An interesting piece of trivia came my way from retired 34-year Cessna employee Richard Giede, who worked in the Cessna experimental hangar here in Wichita. According to him, during the production and testing of the Magic Carpet at Cessna, there was an Anderson Greenwood in the hangar.
The all-metal AG-14 spanned 34 feet, cruised at 110 mph, and was powered with a Continental C-90 engine. I am unable to determine how many were produced.
Surely some flying scale models of the AG-14 have been built, but I can’t recall seeing or reading anything about one.
Stearman-Hammond Y
The pusher configuration for aircraft is nothing new; consider the Wright Flyers. However, throughout the years a surprising number of civilian and military designs featured this layout, but few ever reached serial production until the advent of Burt Rutan’s “EZ” series.
In 1934 the Bureau of Air Commerce announced a contest to see who could come up with an “everyman’s” airplane under initiative AB-205. Many designers entered the contest, and a few built prototypes such as the Waterman Aerobile and the early Ercoupe.
The Hammond is one of the two award winners for the “flivver” (i.e., safe, easy to fly, and affordable) aircraft competition. However, none of the designs even came close to the target price of $700.
Designer Dean Hammond of Ypsilanti, Michigan, chose to use an expensive Menasco aircraft engine in lieu of a converted automobile engine, requiring that the aircraft be priced at $3,000 Depression dollars.
Long after Lloyd Stearman left the Wichita company bearing his name, he got involved in improving the designs, moved the company to San Francisco, California, and reorganized it as Stearman-Hammond. The improved Y-125 (called the “Ariel” version) with a four-cylinder Menasco 125-horsepower engine was certified in April 1936, and the Bureau of Air Commerce ordered 15 for use by its field personnel.
The features that distinguished the Y were its exceptional slow-speed handling and two-control flight system. Coordinated directional control was accomplished solely with differential aileron control and no rudder pedal per se, much as the post-war Ercoupe. It was found that many people could solo the aircraft with less than four hours of dual flight time.
I read on the Internet that Henry Kaiser made an unsuccessful attempt to revive the design after World War II. In 1936 the US Navy ordered two Stearman-Hammonds to convert to radio-control target drones with an eye on developing guided missiles in the future.
The drones were designated JH-1 and had radio-control equipment developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. They were placed into use in 1937, and rumor has it that both were subsequently shot down.
The prototype spanned 40 feet, was 26 feet long, and stood 7 feet, 7 inches off the ground. It had a maximum speed of 120 mph and weighed a heavy 2,150 pounds.
Wouldn’t the Y be special as a modeling subject? A Foto Pak is available from Bob Banka, and the only three-views I can find are from the November 1936 Air Trails. There must be more material available because Bill Cohen (67-945 Foothill Rd., Cathedral City CA 92234) sent photos in 1997 of his 10-foot Stearman-Hammond under construction.
It might be that he documented the aircraft from the Y that is on display at the Flying Lady Restaurant in Morgan Hill, California. Someone with a real interest in reproducing this interesting and unusual prototype should contact Bill.
As most who write this sort of column know, it is difficult to gauge the readers’ reactions to subject material. I can’t help but wonder how large an audience I reach with the sort of topic I am covering this month.
As a poor test, but a test, I will provide anyone who appreciated this month’s column with a set of three-views of the Stearman-Hammond for a #10 SASE. Or let me know via E-mail.
Trella T-106
Claude “Mac” McCullough (102 Constance St., Montezuma IA 50171) has a well-deserved reputation among scale RC fliers for modeling out-of-the-rut prototypes. I am including one of his quests for the unusual this month.
Mac developed and flew a 1/4-scale Trella at the Nats and prompted many “What is that?” sort of questions. One of the dominating factors in the development of his model was roughly a half-ton of lead in the nose to get the thing balanced. Mac used a four-stroke O.S. Pegasus for power, which flew well. It was an unusual sight and sound in flight.
The Trella brothers built the sole T-106 in a three-car garage between 1946 and 1949. They had previously constructed other, simpler home-builts they designed, but this one was intended to be a production airplane. As with so many promising civilian aircraft of that era, nothing became of their plans because of the market situation in that time frame.
The two-place Trella was powered with a C-85 Continental engine, but was small with a 34-foot span and 21-foot length. Construction was all metal—not composite as one might surmise from looking at the photo. Mac sent a nice, clear photo of his model, but I chose the one I have used because it shows the prototype more completely.
Dave Clevenger, an owner for more than 10 years, and Bob Pauley, who drew the three-view for the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Sport Aviation magazine, were so interested in the model that they attended the Nats to see it fly.
Bob Banka has photos and three-views of the T-106, and I’m sure Mac would gladly help anyone with more data if he or she were sincerely interested in building a model. However, Mac does not have reproducible construction drawings.
I have barely scratched the surface of unusual prototypes in these columns. If you enjoy strange full-scale aircraft, type the name of any of the four I’ve covered this month into an Internet search engine. You will find incredible listings of airplanes you have probably never heard of. It is a wonderfully entertaining trip to take.
I just had my 74th birthday. I find that my enthusiasm for model airplanes continues unabated, but the energy levels have declined.
Therefore, I, with the agreement of the MA editors, will begin writing this column on a bimonthly basis. My next column will be published in the February 2007 issue. In the biblical words of Matthew 26:41, “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
For those who prefer to communicate via standard mail, my address is 909 N. Maize Rd., Wichita KS 67212. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
