It is indeed the 1929 Crawford Special.
One Irn-Bru for the Scotsman.
It is indeed the 1929 Crawford Special.
One Irn-Bru for the Scotsman.
Thank you Kevin. Sadly, although Irn-Bru is supposed to be 'Scotland's Other National Drink', I can't stand the stuff ! Nasty, fizzy and full of chemicals....
Anyway, another easy one for the boys - I am going to raise you from three motors to four.........
My bleary eyes reveal that this lumbering giant is still on the board!
Yes, thought one of you aces would have pounced out of the sun by now........
Kevin, that is an exceedingly grumpy-looking bunny in your avatar. Is he/she a friend of yours ??
Grumpy is my alter ego these days.The Mrs has several rabbits as pets but he is not one of them.
Blériot Bl-71?
You are getting very close, Mike, but it isn't the Bl-71. That model had a mid-mounted fuselage - as per photo. This (later) model had a 'double-bubble' fuselage of which Boeing would have been proud.
The glass is poised, the bottle uncorked..........
Then I presume that it must be the Bl-75 - and if so, the images at which I was looking, of the two aeroplanes, would seem to have had their captions reversed!
Edit: sorry, it was the Bl-71 and the Bl-74 which apparently had their captions reversed - my fault for being 'bomber centric' and initially missing the transport derivation of the latter!
I think I infer from that lot, that you reckon it is the Bl 74 ?
In which case, please proceed, dear sir !
No, Mike. I think that it's the Bl-75 - unless there's a lot of disinformation on the web! The only place I found images of both the Bl-71 and the Bl-74 is http://www.airwar.ru/enc/bww1/bleriot74.html. Judging by what you said, initially, I assumed that the captions had been reversed. Then I went to aviafrance (https://www.aviafrance.com/bleriot-b...france-462.htm) where the image of the Bl-75 seemed a much closer match for that which you posted. Do you want to review this or shall I just post the next image?
I thought it was the 75 from the start? Unless there are some minor differences we are not seeing.
I'm not going to argue this one to death, fellows - the 74 and 75 were identical other than the latter having more dihedral ,a lengthened fuselage and a larger vertical tail surface, none of which you can really see in this photo, which comes from Davilla & Soltan's 'French Aircraft of the First World War'. They claim it is the 74. The Russians sometimes get it wrong too.
Now I know there have been issues with this book, so we'll leave it open - anyway PH gets the booze !
I really should learn from experience and stop posting French aircraft....
If that's the Bl-74, then the Russian site has got it a*** about t**! Anyhow, moving on - let's go from one extreme, size wise, to the other .....
As I said to lefty, perhaps this minimalist flying machine should have been named the oxymoron! The picture suggests a relatively modern ULM - sorry, microlight - but, in fact, this one dates back the best part of eight decades!
Trouble is, I don't even know where to start looking.......... presumably French ?
No, not French - despite what might appear through the page on producing a mirror image of the picture! But geographically, you're close. As close as twenty miles.
This was the penultimate, but very adaptable, throw of a gliding pioneer who acquired the manufacturing company from another gliding pioneer. Ironically both of them died flying what might be each be described as variations on the traditional glider theme!
Never did I think that this aeroplane would present such a challenge to the assembled intellect of this forum!
I said that it was very adaptable. Below is that from which it was adapted. Maybe that helps? If not, perhaps if I say that it was powered by a 30 hp Carden Ford engine and borrowed its wings from a much better known light aeroplane ..... ?
Something from the UK I would assume but that is as far as I got.
Don't think there are too many glider persons amongst us, Mike - looks like one of those B.A.C./Lowe-Wylde thingies.....otherwise
You were barking up the right tree, Mike.
In 1936 this curiousity was developed by Robert Kronfeld (the first gliding pioneer referred to), following the German model, to provide ab initio flying training on the ground. Thus the second of the two images shows the non-flying version of the Kronfeld Ground Trainer at Hanworth. However Kronfeld's idea was that when the ab initio pupils demonstrated sufficient proficiency with the machine on the ground, the 'sail' wings would be removed and the wings of a Kronfeld Drone would be substituted, thus becoming the Kronfeld Flying Ground Trainer (hence the reference to the oxymoron). Of course, the Drone evolved from the BAC Planette, which was the handiwork of Charles Lowe-Wylde (the second gliding pioneer referred to). There was only ever one such machine - unregistered, owned by Lindsay Everard and operated by the Leicester Pou Club - and the first of the two images is the only one of which I know that shows the machine in flight. It appeared in Les Ailes in May 1937. There it is referred to as the Drone Trainer. However I've also seen the non-flying version referred to as the Penguin and the Kiwi (both flightless birds). And to draw in all loose ends, of course Lowe-Wylde died in the crash of a Planette (effectively a motor glider) and Kronfeld died in the crash of the GAL.56 (the experimental flying wing glider).
Now I'm aware of there being an even more obscure version of such a ground trainer, built in 1937 by Mr A York Bramble of the Southdown Gliding Club using a BAC VII glider fuselage and powered by a 500cc BSA motorcycle engine, but maybe that's for another day! Open house, please.
Thanks for the info Mike.
And now for something completely different...
This one showed up the same year the SS United States made her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. 2-bladed prop powered by a Continental C-85.
Was the only design from this East coast builder. The gull wing is a clue...
Hi Kevin
Did not recognize her immediately without make-up
Is this the Russell Northrup/James Williams Special (N33N, race # 48) ?
If correct, could you spare a picture with all the bells etc.?
Good Walter! I was just about to reveal and move on.
Attached the unaltered original. (Was sometimes spelled "Northrop").
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