![]() ![]() I’d say your average flight is 15 minutes. The flights aren’t very long-you don’t go anywhere. “I’ve been flying the E.III for 20 years. Pilot: A former racing pilot and a stunt pilot for the film industry, Chuck Wentworth restores antique airplanes. But flies far slower than modern light airplanes, so you have to be on your game because the speed range between flying and stalling is extremely small.”Īndrew King was 19 when he first flew at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York.ĭuring World War I, the German air force put the E.III monoplane into combat operations in December 1915. The Hanriot, on the other hand, flies like a Piper Cub: controllable, light, and just delightful. An original Anzani-powered 1909 Blériot XI, which I had the pleasure of trying to fly, I believe to be the worst machine to control. Most of my early flying took place in vintage airplanes. I had learned to fly in a modern airplane but had spent very little time in them. “The first time I flew the Hanriot reproduction, it felt fairly normal, and the characteristics were as expected. He has restored numerous vintage airplanes. Pilot: Karl Erickson ran the aviation department at the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Maine. René Hanriot founded his company in France, and his background in designing boats shows: The wood fuselage of this monoplane could pass for a crew shell. ![]() It takes very little to put the wheels through the lower wing. There’s no suspension, so you have to land gently. And like riding a bike or a motorcycle, to turn, you lean in the hinged seat from side to side. The controls on the Curtiss Model D are borrowed from the auto and motorcycle world: a steering wheel column for rudder and pitch. A little intimidating at first, and one of those things you have to be mindful of because if there’s an accident, you’re going to be first on the scene. Sitting on the little seat racing down the runway, you’re acutely aware of the engine roaring behind you. It was the first type to land on a ship, and many people saw flight for the first time with Curtiss exhibitions at county fairs. “In its day, it was a very significant airplane. Pilot: Dan Taylor restores vintage aircraft, lectures on aviation history, and works as a radio personality at WCBS-FM in New York City. Introduced in 1911, the Model D was flown by the U.S. After that, you’re just grateful to land and stretch your legs.” It doesn’t carry enough fuel-thank goodness-so it flies only about an hour and 15 minutes. It’s not bad in smooth air, but if you get up into bumpy air, you get worn out because the tail sashays back and forth and slings you around all the time, and you have to keep pressure on both rudder pedals. It wasn’t designed for a cross-country flight. It’s a lot of fun for about 15 or 20 minutes. I flew it to Dayton, Ohio, and I’ve flown it to Oshkosh. “The Dr.I replica doesn’t have a rotary engine, it has a modern engine. Pilot: Mark Holliday was a pilot for the former US Airways. I began to wonder about the pilots who routinely fly antique airplanes: Did they have similar reactions? Here’s what I learned.ĭutch aviation pioneer Anthony Fokker founded an airplane manufacturing company in Germany, producing such military airplanes as the renowned Dr.I, flown by German ace Manfred von Richthofen-the Red Baron. And I had to hold my neck up so long it hurt. But flying this aircraft felt difficult and nerve-racking. After a few hard landings, I got the hang of it and logged a few five-second glides. As for yaw, the rudder, which was wired to the cradle, moved in conjunction with the wings. Activating the cradle twisted the wings (“wing warping,” the brothers called it), and in no time they were turning like crazy. To control roll, the pilot shifted his hips on the cradle he was laying on. By rotating the cross-member with both hands, the pilot could move the elevator up or down. But there was no stick: A horizontal cross-member linked to the forward-mounted elevator controlled pitch. That hasn’t always been the case.Ī few years ago, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, I learned to fly an exact reproduction of the Wright brothers’ 1902 glider, the first aircraft that offered complete control over yaw, pitch, and roll. Airplanes great and small have almost the same feel, and until acted upon by some outside force, most will fly straight and level. Moving the yoke or stick back and forth changes pitch moving it sideways controls roll pushing rudder pedals adjusts yaw. Nearly every airplane flying today, from a humble Cessna to the mammoth Airbus A380, uses the same stick-and-rudder-style controls. ![]()
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