And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
First airplane I ever flew in, when I was 12. Second one, a year later, was a Vultee BT-13 Vibrator. It's a wonder I ended up making my living as a pilot.
The second balsa wood model I made in my burgeoning aircraft model building hobby in the late 40's. Actually able to walk up to one @ a small airport. Good honorable days!
Sadly the one in the top photo (SE-AXB) had a landing accident on June 30, 1918 at Lake Acklingen in Sweden and partially submerged. All on board suffered only minor injuries. What about the aircraft? Anyone know if it was rebuilt?
There used to be a Seabee parked on the ramp at Alexander Hamilton Airport in St. Croix, right behind the old Skyline Inn motel back in the 70's and early 80's....hurricane took out the motel and I don't know about the Seabee....I thought it was pretty cool and my Dad related to me that he used to fly one out of a seaplane base in Connecticut....
a well thought out bit of engineering. most people don't understand how difficult it is to make a boat function well as an aircraft or vise versa. I see the thrust line aligned with the wing and pitch control surfaces as key to the Seabees good flying qualities as did most successful seaplane designs. the major structural element for the fuselage/hull is the steel keel that extends from nose to tail along with compartmentalization below floor to limit flooding. Landing on a hard surface gear up rarely does destructive damage to the airframe unless it is repeated often enough to actually grind thru the keel. hitting submerged logs at low speeds is survivable. Design ergonomics follow the function of design. a full reversing propeller made backing off from shore a snap and the integral water rudder made low speed water handling easy to master. the twin engine version was tried, as usual, power plants made or broke early aircraft designs. Republic chose Franklin engines. Consider how well this design would do with an RR C-250 turboprop engine in it.
If you are interested the primary designer did plans for an almost copy home built called the Spencer Air Car His company even sold pre-made doors(the hardest to get right). You can see several of them at the EAA fly-in in Oshkosh WI this summer. Spoke to one owner/builder who had added cables to the pontoons. When asked about the cables he said "If you ever have to replace one you'll understand".
First airplane I ever flew in, when I was 12. Second one, a year later, was a Vultee BT-13 Vibrator. It's a wonder I ended up making my living as a pilot.
ReplyDeleteThe second balsa wood model I made in my burgeoning aircraft model building hobby in the late 40's. Actually able to walk up to one @ a small airport. Good honorable days!
ReplyDeleteSadly the one in the top photo (SE-AXB) had a landing accident on June 30, 1918 at Lake Acklingen in Sweden and partially submerged. All on board suffered only minor injuries. What about the aircraft? Anyone know if it was rebuilt?
ReplyDeleteThere used to be a Seabee parked on the ramp at Alexander Hamilton Airport in St. Croix, right behind the old Skyline Inn motel back in the 70's and early 80's....hurricane took out the motel and I don't know about the Seabee....I thought it was pretty cool and my Dad related to me that he used to fly one out of a seaplane base in Connecticut....
ReplyDeleteUgly enough that's it's kinda cute!
ReplyDeletea well thought out bit of engineering. most people don't understand how difficult it is to make a boat function well as an aircraft or vise versa. I see the thrust line aligned with the wing and pitch control surfaces as key to the Seabees good flying qualities as did most successful seaplane designs. the major structural element for the fuselage/hull is the steel keel that extends from nose to tail along with compartmentalization below floor to limit flooding. Landing on a hard surface gear up rarely does destructive damage to the airframe unless it is repeated often enough to actually grind thru the keel. hitting submerged logs at low speeds is survivable. Design ergonomics follow the function of design. a full reversing propeller made backing off from shore a snap and the integral water rudder made low speed water handling easy to master. the twin engine version was tried, as usual, power plants made or broke early aircraft designs. Republic chose Franklin engines. Consider how well this design would do with an RR C-250 turboprop engine in it.
ReplyDeleteBTW....anyone wanting to bother checking which of these might still be flying, here is the fed. database for that.............
ReplyDeletehttps://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/
If you are interested the primary designer did plans for an almost copy home built called the Spencer Air Car His company even sold pre-made doors(the hardest to get right). You can see several of them at the EAA fly-in in Oshkosh WI this summer. Spoke to one owner/builder who had added cables to the pontoons. When asked about the cables he said "If you ever have to replace one you'll understand".
ReplyDeleteThat thing is cool!
ReplyDeleteA slow flyer, but it allows one to make a water landing...more than once. Which is nice...
ReplyDelete