The Curtiss Pusher taken at Deland Fl. (date shown on picture!)

Click the Pic for a larger view!

10 foot span!! 27sq ft wing, Weight 27 lbs!

The Curtiss, one of my long time favorites! Copied after the full size version hanging in the Fantasy of Flight Museum just south of Orlando Fla. The earlier version (having an elevator in front and back) was the second aircraft purchased by the United States Government. One for the Army Air Corps and the other the Department of the Navy. Dates of delivery/purchase vary according to several sources, but accepted are 1911-1912. The version I chose to build is, as you can see from the photo, a slightly later version without the forward elevator. It was quickly found that the additional elevator caused many problems. Porposing and side sliding in a turn were only two of them. And,, as anyone who has seen me fly,,, :) can attest to the fact!! I don't need any additional problems when I have an aircraft in the air!! :)

The first flight of my Curtiss was actually on the date shown on the picture. I began the project in early 04 by gathering photos at the USAF Museum, the Naval Air Museum and at Fantasy of Flight. Then in October 05 initial drawings were done to begin construction. I know this is hard to believe, but I started building the weekend after Thanksgiving 04 and had it ready to fly the day before New Years 04. Just a little over a month! 

Construction: The airframe is basically balsa and pine (ponderosa and spruce) with the bracing being done with 1/4 inch aluminum rod. The rod was bent to fit and the ends hammered flat then drilled to bolt in place. The wings are balsa ribs with dowel for leading edges. Internal bracing from pine at the mounting points for the aluminum bracing structure. The engine I used is a Tartan twin converted from gas to glow with the heads machined out to lower the compression ratio. It turns a 22-10 prop and let me tell you it really spins it up! The Tartan was chosen as being a reed valve engine, it will run in either direction and so there was no need to use a pusher prop (greatly increasing the size and pitch available). I just put the prop on backwards and crank it the same! (Great engine for the airplane and if you decide to build on I can put you on to the US distributor so you can get one too!) Just drop me a note. The "tail booms" are from 7/16 dowel and all joints and bracing from brass tube. One novel item is the aileron servo control. There is no good place to hide the servos on the fuselage or wing, so I opted to mount them on the aileron bottom and then ran a pushrod to the wing strut that the aileron is hinged on!! Works great and so far I have not had any problems with flutter or anything.

 The first flight was a real crotch puckerer,,:) I had one of my friends doing the dirty work, the plan was to make a run down the runway and just lift off a couple of feet,, cruse along and set it back down. This was to see what was going to happen,, like: a wing dropping,, tail heavy you know,, anything crazy and I was to view from side/back. Well,,,, the Curtiss went rolling down the runway,, faster and faster and faster,, Mark was pulling in up elevator and trying to keep it running straight, (at this time,, there was no steering just like on the real one)  going faster and still more elevator, then all at once! It jumped into the air! Not just a couple of feet,, but about 30 or so!!! I swear I saw Marks pants get sucked up at least three inches!! He chopped the throttle, we were all at panic state by this time,, (seemed like two hours, but couldn't have been more than two seconds,,, ) when the throttle came down,, the Curtiss just nosed over,, leveled out, and took on a gentle glide back the runway!! Nothing crazy happened, the Curtiss really flew great! But poor Mark,,, he wasn't the same for a couple of hours!!!! :). The second flight, I took over, as Mark refused,,,, ;) and everything went great, you will have to use some rudder to coordinate the turns as there is virtually no side area and the thing wants to slip a little.

If you decide to order, I hope you enjoy the Curtiss as much as I do! OH and the Photos will really help during building so consider ordering them also!!

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