The Ongoing Mystery Aircraft Thread Part Deux.

[Moses03]

Better hurry up and post before I get my turn revoked! I did the best I could sneaking some looks from work today to track it down.

For the floater experts...

[lefty]

Before checking Moses' grainy monster - let me just reassure Chris -the H-135 pic came from the LeO 'bible' by Hartmann - (photo from the Arnaud Delmas collection.)

Both that book and the equally authoritative Les Aeronefs de l'Aviation Maritime state that only one H13bis was produced, and here she is - I rest my case !

[lefty]

Nothing turned up on the Moses machine. Suspect Russian ?

[Moses03]

You would think Russian with the grainy photo but this one is from the East Coast USA. A one-off from a one-off company.

[Moses03]

Cox-Klemin might have been involved in the design after they went bankrupt in 1925. The floater showed up a few years later in the late 1920's.

[Moses03]

Powered by a Curtiss C-6 engine from 1928 in New York state. Was used for sightseeing. There is an Aerofiles entry for it, but no photo.

[lefty]

I think Kevin has given us enough clues - a bit of detective work will reveal the Richmond Sea Hawk from 1928 - a wee bit early for Errol Flynn.....

[Moses03]

There it is. Over to Lefty then.

[lefty]

Thank you sir - new floaters always welcome. This, however, isn't a water baby. But it has enough unusual features to distinguish it from your run-of-the-mill flivver.....

[wout]

Hi Mike
Although not a floater, the Garrison OM-1 Melmoth (N2MU) was capable of long (overwater) flights such as Cold Bay, Alaska to Saporo, Japan.
The OM-1 was lost in July 1982 wen a Cessna lightplane went out of control during landing and hit her.

[lefty]

Indeed, Walter, she really got around - that photo was taken in Biarritz !

[wout]

Thank you Mike
This is a real floater. One-off and builder was 82 by the time he first flew her.

[wout]

She is from the USA and first flew in 2009. The engine is Aussie. Does that help?

[wout]

The floater is the Sea-Era by Paul H. Weston. 85hp Jabiru 2200 engine abd registration N226SE

Open House please

[lefty]

Sorry, Walter - too new for me ! Here's one that's a bit older -

[pomme homme]

If that isn't the 1940 Hennion biplace (again?) then it's borrowed the tail feathers of that avion!

[Moses03]

I think you are on the right trail Mike. Maybe a pants-less version?

[pomme homme]

I'm assuming, Kevin, that it is the post-war Hennion, maybe after being re-engined with a Continental A65 and designated the Hennion II, which survived in North Africa until it was destroyed in, I think, a crash in 1962.

..... but on reflection, lefty's image appears to show the inverted Train engine still in place, so if it is the Hennion it must be the Hennion I and pre-1956.

[lefty]

Mike is, as ever, on the ball here - it is the Hennion 02 - F-PFOY, photographed in, I think, 1957, when it still had the Train engine - this was replaced by the Continental in '59.
She came to grief, as Mike stated, in a bean field on the outskirts of Meknes, having suffered engine failure on the descent.
Courtesy of 'Trait d'Union', May 1979.

Over to France

[pomme homme]

Thank you, Mike. I do have something curious, but it will require a little explanation. Thus please forgive me if I don't attend to that until the morning.

[pomme homme]

I'll be honest. This aircraft is an ongoing mystery to me - because I don't know what it is! So if people think this inappropriate, please slap me down and move on. But if not, one of you experts out there might be able to identify it. All I know about it is that it appeared in an aviation periodical of December 1931; that it was described as an experimental light single seater built entirely on sailplane lines; and that there's a reasonable probability that it was British. The closest comparator I could find was the Camsell Monoplane, but it's not that as it didn't emerge until 1937 and differed in its engine and cabane strut arrangements.

[pomme homme]

Maybe this is somewhat more legible.

[lefty]

Can't dig up anything on this one, Mike. Perhaps it isn't British ?

[pomme homme]

Perhaps it isn't British ?

That's certainly a possibility. I made the assumption because the photograph appears in an early issue of a British aviation periodical, The Sailplane & Glider. If by the end of the day it is still stumping everyone, I'll put this one back in the 'unknown' drawer and declare open house.

[Moses03]

No luck on my end although I didn't stray much past the Brit page.