Lincoln Beachey Monoplane (oz11784)

About this Plan

Lincoln Beachey Monoplane. Peanut scale rubber model.

Scale is 1/24.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 10/12/2019: Added article, thanks to DPlumpe.

Quote: "Beachey Monoplane, by Hoby Clay

Here is a Peanut plan with a double bonus: a very interesting history of the Beachey Monoplane, and a scale three-view for your documentation (see page 36). Hop to it!

Lincoln Beachey was a renowned aerobatic pilot in the pre-World War I era. He was a pioneer and innovator and his flamboyance and popularity enabled him to make a real contribution to the early development of the airplane. Reams have been written about him and his exploits. The information that I have available to me is from three articles in the American Aviation Historical Society Journal: Summer 1961, by Hud Weeks; and Spring 1964, by Willis Nye, with a drawing of the monoplane. In February 1964, Hud Weeks published a lengthy article in the American Aircraft Modeler about this intrepid aviator, together with a number of photos of the planes that he flew.

Born in San Francisco in 1887, by the age of 15 he had become proficient in the repair of gasoline engines and was, with his brother Hillary, a professional motorcycle racer. His knowledge of engines led to his association with Captain Thomas Baldwin, an early balloonist and dirigible builder. In 1903, he built his first dirigible, and he and Hillary developed a number of innovations which advanced the state of the art. He participated in airship races and exhibitions through 1910, but had already learned from Glen Curtiss how to fly the Curtiss biplanes.

By early 1911, Beachey was giving airplane flying exhibitions, and on August 20 he gained his reputation as a number one airman by demonstrating a mastery of control and daring against the cream of the world's aviators from France, England, and the United States, flying an early Curtiss pusher. He tested planes for Curtiss and gave exhibitions all over the US. An inveterate showman, people flocked to his airshows wherever he appeared. He didn't invent the loop or other aerobatic maneuvers, but he perfected their execution. He was one of the prime movers in the field of aircraft design development, and always strove to obtain a vehicle capable of more daring and difficult maneuvers to astound his airshow audiences.

In 1914, he went to France and bought an 80 hp Gnome rotary engine. With this lightweight, aircooled engine in hand, he commissioned designer Warren Eaton to build his most famous mount, the clipped-wing, Curtiss-type pusher biplane known as the 'Little Cooper' or 'Pocket Pusher.' Embarking at once on an exhibition tour, he looped for Orville Wright at Dayton, and raced Eddie Rickenbacker in an auto at the Iowa State Fair. Over a million postcards with a photo of this event were sold, and I have seen a calendar with this scene, or a similar race with Barney Oldfield, which was performed a number of times.

Late in 1914, Beachey commissioned Eaton to build still another small, fast ship, this time a monoplane, for his 1915 exhibition tour. It would use the same Gnome engine. The monoplane, prob-ably finished in January or February 1915, began undergoing testing. No plans were saved, but Eaton and Beachey's mechanic, Art Mix, were able to recall many of the specifications and dimensions which Hud Weeks gleaned from interviews with them: The monoplane was as fast as it looked. Design speed in level flight was 103 mph compared to 80 in the clean Little Looper with the same engine.

Beachey was so busy that he never really had time to check out the new plane. However, the Panama Pacific International Exposition officials pressured him to use it at the San Francisco fair in March. He was able to do some practice flying early in the month, transferring the Gnome from the Little Looper to the monoplane and back each time.

On the 13th, it was flown at the fairgrounds three times for short periods, and on Sunday the 14th of March, 1915, he agreed to fly his aerobatic routine in it before a crowd estimated at 50,000. He accomplished a series of loops and climbed to 3,500 feet to perform his famous vertical dive. From the dive, he flipped to inverted and continued down at a 45-degree angle so the crowd could read his name on the wings. He then resumed the vertical dive, probably with the throttle wide open, against the advice of the designer.

During this series of maneuvers, it is estimated he attained an airspeed of 250 mph. He continued the dive to about 500 feet, then apparently panicked a little and snapped the wings while pulling out too fast.

The airplane dumped into the bay. His injuries from the crash landing were relatively minor, but the top cowl crushed back over the cockpit trapping him inside where he drowned. His incredible performances in such a short time (he died at 28) are a credit to his energy, daring, and probably excel-lent press agents. Because of his stature in the early aviation historical annals, this short-lived, one-of-a-kind airplane is significant. In addition, its appearance as that of being ready to jump off the ground is unique for an airplane of the period.

Willis Nye's drawing, while beautifully done as his all are, was probably made mostly from photos: it is not completely dimensionally accurate. Some of the dimensions shown were probably filled in after the drawing was finished as they do not scale. In addition, the ailerons and elevators were not drawn identically, while Eaton and Mix both insist they were interchangeable. For these reasons, I determined to draw up as accurate a three-view as 1 could, and I enlisted the aid of the late Russ Barrera, then an AMA Scale Contest Board member, to perfect the drawing and obtain his authentication.

During early 1976, we corresponded several times, and the drawing you see here is the result. Like Beachey, 1 really haven't created anything just col-lected and used the work of others to obtain the result I wanted. And that result was to come up with a model of a plane with which I was particularly enamored, and which could follow AMA scale rules.

Several sizes of this model have been built from this data, the most fun of which has been this Peanut Scaleversion. Interestingly, this 28-foot span, 18-foot long prototype essentially satisfies both sets of Peanut Scale rules at half-inch scale. The only deviations from true scale in this model are a small amount of dihedral in the wings and the enlarged rubber needed to cure a dutch roll wallow.

BUILDING A BEACHEY The structure shown is relatively simple and light. Mine weighs just under 12 grams. The only drawback to this design for modeling purposes is the short nose, which requires some nose weight for balance as a rubber-powered model. This is not an uncommon problem with antique designs.

Frame the fuselage, building the lead-ing edge and spar pockets accurately, and attach the wire landing gear strut stubs and cowl formers. Obtain a bottle 1-1/2 inches in diameter (a can will work if you cut off the end flange). To form the engine cowl, moisten a piece of 1/64 balsa sheet two inches wide by 2-3/4 inches long and strap it on the form with 1/2-inch projecting over the end. Glue in three strips of 1/32 sheet, cut across the grain and progressively narrower, on the inside front edge of the sheet which is overhanging the bottle. When dry, the thickened, laminated edge can be shaped with the tip of an emery board to create the rolled front edge of the aluminum prototype's cowl. Mount the cowl and trim to shape, but don't fasten the rear of the engine en-closure to the fuselage sides until they are tissued.

Wing ribs are shown to scale shape and spacing. Use of sheet ribs makes it easiest to obtain the correct under-camber. Stack and pin them together sand to uniform section, and cut the spar notches in the entire stack with a piece of hacksaw blade. Make the laminated tips..."

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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