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These are a few of the pictures I took at the Wings & Wheels Spectacular at the Owls Head Transportation Museum back in July. The museum is a smallish affair, occupying a couple of hangars next to, and sharing a runway with Knox County Regional Airport. It was a training base for Corsair pilots during World War II, and now houses a collection of vintage automobiles and aircraft.



1913 Deperdussin Racer with a modern Lycoming engine. As far as I know, the Deperdussin is on permanent static display.



The Gazda Helicospeeder. To be honest, I don't know much about it - it is a relatively recent addition to the collection.



Replica Bleriot XI, but powered (I believe) with an original Anzani engine. The previously fitted engine, a Salmson radial, is in the foreground.



Farman III - a replica, but a flying one.



An autogyro which someone trailered to the show for display.



The museum's replica Nieuport 28C.1 with a modern Lycoming engine. The museums' WWI planes keep busy during the summer, flying almost weekly to accompany the automobile shows.



The Fokker Dr.1 replica is, I believe, about to be acquired by the Museum, but I haven't been able to track down the name of the current owner/pilot.



This is an interesting specimen - a restored Fokker C.IVa, 1924 vintage, and the only example extant today. The markings are those with which the aircraft left the factory. A brief history] of the C.IV and its restoration can be read [url=http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contribut ... rticle.htm]here[/url.



The museum's replica Sopwith Pup on the flightline.



A 1918-vintage Standard J-1 in the markings of Harry Jones' Flying Service, Old Orchard Beach, 1920s.



A Curtiss JN-4D Jenny from 1917; original. Part of the museum's collection.



The main guest star of the event was the Collings Foundation's F4U-5NL Corsair, BuNo 124692 and veteran of the Korean War. The Foundation has brought its B-17 and B-24 to the museum in the past, but those pictures are on film and await scanning.



The museum's Jenny taxis in preparation for a set of flybys.



One of the two Boeing-Stearman biplanes on hand for the event. This one is not attached to the musem, and I wasn't able to track down any infromation about this particular aircraft.



The C.IVa being prepped for a flyby with the Standard J-1. It was a very hot day, so the ground crew are extending the radiators with hand cranks.



The museum's replica FE.8, built in California and donated to the museum in 1980. It uses a Continental flat-six in place of the original rotary engine.



The museum's WACO UBF-2, restored in 1951 and slightly modified from its original form. Like the two Stearmans, the WACO was employed giving rides to lucky SOBs over the course of the day.



A view down the flight line. The Stearman and the J3C Super Cub in the background both belong to the museum.



A low pass by the Nanchang CJ-6 and another aircraft, both present for the event. I want to say the second is a Yakovlev with inexplicable Japanese markings, but the combination of tailwheel gear and a three-bladed propellor don't line up with modern Yaks that I know of.



A photograph of Jim Parker flying a Salto glider. I really wish still photos, even good ones, could do justice to his routine; a silent aerial ballet to 'Claire de Lune' is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed.



Parker's Salto after his performance.





The Corsair looking big and mean, prior to its own flight.





The CJ-6 at rest.



The museum's Stearman and WACO at the end of the day, after the last rides had been given.



An Aero L-39 jet in US Navy markings (I don't get it, either), which flew after the Corsair.


These are basically to dip my toe in the water. My family and I have been going to the museum for years, and have accumulated a fair number of airshow photos (most of which are on film), so if there is interest I will post some more over time - maybe expand out into my home region, for kicks. I do have more photos of aircraft in their element, but most of them are not as good as I would have liked - I can show them on request. Ditto for all the automobiles and other neat things that were on display; if there is interest I will post them.

Great stuff, quite the variety. Soem of that stuff looks like it was designed by a most unconventional person, especially that natural-metal helicopter-type craft near the top.

The 1913 Deperdussin Racer is astonishingly beatiful and the Corsair, gotta love 2000 HP of badness.

Post more!

More, please.

Btw, are those WWI replicas full-scale? I know the real ones sometimes looked small, but is the DR.1 really that small?

FSTargetDrone wrote:Btw, are those WWI replicas full-scale? I know the real ones sometimes looked small, but is the DR.1 really that small?

I believe they are full-scale; I assume the museum would have noted it otherwise. The Dr.1 wan't very big - 18 ft. 11 in. long, 9 ft. 8 in. high, with a 23 ft. 7 in. maximum wingspan.

The picture was taken from a slight distance away, as well, and it does look bigger in person.

Great stuff, quite the variety. Soem of that stuff looks like it was designed by a most unconventional person, especially that natural-metal helicopter-type craft near the top.

The 1913 Deperdussin Racer is astonishingly beatiful and the Corsair, gotta love 2000 HP of badness.

There are some real oddities from the early days of aviation stashed away in the restoration hangar - a contrivance with flapping wings of chicken wire and feathers, for example.

I'd work on getting more pictures up right away, but I've lost my ability to boot from CD, and thus access my files. Once I get that fixed I'll put up more from this show, and get another thread started for watercraft.

Simplicius wrote:

The Gazda Helicospeeder. To be honest, I don't know much about it - it is a relatively recent addition to the collection.

Well, it's obviously a gyrocopter.

If you go to http://www.landings.com you can search the Landings databases for more information on anything with a N number (they have info on some non-US aircraft as well, but not as much)

However, a search on the Helicospeeder's N-number reveals nothing, which is a little strange. It may have dropped off the registration renewals for so long that the number "expired". Unusual, but not unheard of.

The Fokker Dr.1 replica is, I believe, about to be acquired by the Museum, but I haven't been able to track down the name of the current owner/pilot.

I have a record of N425FS, an amateur built Fokker DR-I triplane currently owned by a Mr. Fred C. Slikker of Ponway, California with a Lycoming 0-320 engine.

A Curtiss JN-4D Jenny from 1917; original. Part of the museum's collection.

I want to fly one of those. One day. >sigh<

I have no clue how I'd go about doing that, but then, I used to say that about flying a Stearman. Ah... cruel hope!

Question - which Knox county is this? What state is this museum in?

Simplicius wrote:

FSTargetDrone wrote:Btw, are those WWI replicas full-scale? I know the real ones sometimes looked small, but is the DR.1 really that small?

I believe they are full-scale; I assume the museum would have noted it otherwise. The Dr.1 wan't very big - 18 ft. 11 in. long, 9 ft. 8 in. high, with a 23 ft. 7 in. maximum wingspan.

Stock Fokker DR.1 was...:::riffle through reference book:::...23 foot 7 inch wingspan, 18 feet 11 inches long, 9 feet 8 inches high.

Yep, it's full size.

A lot of these airplanes are large in legend and story, but actually quite modest in size in real life.

The original had a 110 hp engine, 9 cylinder radial. This one has a four-cylinder in-line of aboutr 150 hp. Of course, it's hard to find small radials these days, but there are 110 hp Lycomings out there. Guess the builder wanted a little extra power, ay?

Broomstick wrote:If you go to http://www.landings.com you can search the Landings databases for more information on anything with a N number (they have info on some non-US aircraft as well, but not as much)

However, a search on the Helicospeeder's N-number reveals nothing, which is a little strange. It may have dropped off the registration renewals for so long that the number "expired". Unusual, but not unheard of.

Believe it or not, I actually did an N-number search earlier (I used the FAA's site) and like you, found nothing. I am a bit geeky with the N-numbers and tend to look up numbers of aircraft I see on TV, movies or elsewhere--I've even looked up a few numbers seen on the wrecked fuselages seen in Mythbusters to see what I could find.

Broomstick wrote:Well, it's obviously a gyrocopter.

If you go to http://www.landings.com you can search the Landings databases for more information on anything with a N number (they have info on some non-US aircraft as well, but not as much)

However, a search on the Helicospeeder's N-number reveals nothing, which is a little strange. It may have dropped off the registration renewals for so long that the number "expired". Unusual, but not unheard of.

Here's some info: Aerofiles gives this as the only Model 100 Gazda, maufactured in 1947, powered by a 75 hp Continental.

More info:

Harold E. Lamont wrote:So acceptance of the Gazda offer was accomplished; to be paid for the thing you most wanted to do was an ideal situation; so the Gazda "Helicospeeder" was designed and developed in 1943, 1944, and 1945. It was a single motor and torque aircraft with unique concepts which had the following features:

* A swing tail for forward flight was designed to permit flight as a gyrodyne (V. Isaoco, J. Bennett) at higher than manual helicopter speeds wit the rotor axis vertical.
* To control blade inplane motion to prevent ground resonance a rotor azimuthal blade positioning system was included.
* A wheel/stick installation was used so that positioning of the aircraft was achieved by one appropriate motion of the pilot control.
* An internal swash plate below the main rotor gearbox actuated push rods going up to the rotor head which controlled blade collective and cyclic pitch as a low drag solution.
* Belt drives were used between its engine, the cooling fan, and the main rotor gearbox. A drive shaft from the gearbox to the swinging tail rotor was also included with a torseinal damper as part of this shaft.

Broomstick wrote:Question - which Knox county is this? What state is this museum in?

My bad. It's Knox County, Maine, about two hours up the coast from Portland.

Darn! That is not convenient.... I was hoping it was one of the Knox counties closer to me...