Well I'm back in the world of the talking and working this month. We've got a special treat for this month's meeting. John Loofbourrow, who spoke to us
earlier this year about his Defiant project has graciously invited the Chapter out to Morristown Airport to see his project in person.
This month's meeting will be Sunday at 2PM at Morristown Airport, West Tiedown. We're going to have our meeting and do a group inspection on John
Loofborrow's Defiant, which is just about ready for its final inspection.
Plan is to meet in the parking area by the West Tiedown 1:55 - 2:00. Mike Stoddard and I are both tenants at the field and will ferry people past the
gate to John's hangar. John will have snacks and drinks and promises a prize for the person that finds the most significant airworthiness issue. As we agreed at the August meeting, this meeting would replace our usual Monday night meeting.

Directions to Morristown Airport are as follows:
From the East, take Route 24 West to the Columbia Turnpike exit (510). Get off on the Florham Park ramp. At the bottom of the ramp, go straight ahead through the light onto the airport road. The road curves left and then right. Go past the intersection and take the road to the end, which has a stop sign. You'll be able to see the fuel tanks for the airport. Turn right here and go
down to the end and park near the card access gate. There's a building on the left with Syrek-Mee, American Flyers, and Certified Flyers.

From the West, North, or South:
Take 287 to Route 24. Take Route 24 East towards Springfield (it's the only direction that one can go from 287. Get off on the Columbia Turnpike exit (510). The ramp curves to the right and passes under 24. Get in the left lane and make a left into the airport. From there the directions are as above.
If anyone has a problem getting in because we're already in the hangar, please
give a call on my cell phone, 973-476-5750, I'll come out to get you.
That's all for now. I look forward to seeing everyone Sunday. Remember, this
meeting takes the place of our usual Monday night meeting. Next meeting at
the Madison Library will be Monday, October 27th. Please stay tuned to your
e-mail on Saturday night. If we have a problem due to Isabelle, we'll send out
an e-mail to let folks know about the postponement.


REFLECTIONS Ed Chenevey

Over the last two weekends, I have been fortunate to be able to pursue all of my hobbies. I visited the New England Air Museum (NEAM), a New Hampshire engine show, and Rhinebeck. It had been about 15 years since I had been to NEAM so things were completely different. Some aircraft were still outside including the Bernoulli and a B-57 but most are in nice displays in their three buildings. One is completely filled by a B-29. The entrance building is dedicated to WWII and later. Here are all three of our R-2800 powered fighters; the P-47, F6F, and F4U. Along with some jets, helicopters, engines (they have the Chrysler V-16 engine), and armament displays ( I didn't realize that we utilized a 20mm revolver cannon before the Gatlings), the remainder of the room was filled. The other building represents everything else which includes a 19th century ballon basket claimed to br the oldest aircraft in the US, a series of pre WWI aircraft engines, a Wright J-1, the first Wright radial, the A and C model P&W Wasps, airship engines including the Union one that Sal restored and demonstrated at engine shows last year, a Zeppelin control car which came to Goodyear as war reparations etc. There is a DC-3 along with some smaller civil aircraft including the Gee Bee Biplane, a repro Gee Bee 7-11 racer, the Laird Solution , and a Kieth-Ryder racer and models of all of the pre war Thompson winners. Even with the DC-3, the centerpiece is the big Sikorsky VS-44 flying boat, the largest that we ever made. There is a lot of literature and photos of Sikorsky which would take hours to study. Kaman helicopters are well documented and there is even a display honoring P.Spencer, designer of the Republic SeaBee and the Spencer amphibian. I surveyed the place in two hours, I think it would take at least six hours to do it justice.

I visited Rhinebeck on model day, the day when the radio control modelers take over the field before the regular airshow. There were dozens of models which stretched from the announcers stand north to the end of the bleachers. Most were 1/4 scale and WWI. At one point, a J-3 took off to take some aerial pictures and it was hard to recognise that the Cub circling the field was real while the other aircraft were models. Except for the low inertia of the models, which allowed them to manuver more abruptly than a real aircraft, they looked absolutely authentic. Particularly nice were a Spirit of St Louis and an Aeronca C-3 with a 2 cylinder 4 cycle engine. At the end, they put up a squadron of 8 quarter scale Sopwith Pups and somehow managed to not have any mid-airs; safely landing each.

Rhinebeck's Spirit of St Louis replica is almost finished. The engine was test run for the first time the day before. They are using an authentic Wright J-5 unlike all the others and it looks like new. The fuselage is covered and the instruments and cockpit items are installed. The uncovered wing hangs from the ceiling. A first-class project.

Their Bi-plane Fly-In is the last weekend of September, the last airshow is the middle of October.

At the engine show, I spotted a Dec 1967 issue of Popular Science with a cover picture of an airplane with a teaser "See how it works-New five cylinder, two stroke, radial engine". Inside was a description of a McCulloch engine claimed to have the highest specific power output of any production designed gasoline burning engine in the world. The TSIR-5190 developed 270 hp with a 365 lb weight and had been tested for thousands of hours both on the ground and in the air as the rear engine of a Cessna Skymaster. This was a liquid cooled 5 cylinder radial engine with slipper rods, direct fuel injection, a supercharger for starting and acceleration, and a turbo. A seven vee belt prop reduction raised the thrust line. The separate crankcase oil system and direct fuel injection are the key features of the Orbital engine that we heard about in the 1990's; this was 25 years earlier.

I don't remember the engine so it was another in a long history of projects abandoned for various reasons. At least Porsche sold some engines before they quit, Toyota got certified but never used it while Curtis-Wright abandoned their Wankel much earlier in the development cycle. (There is an example of the C-W/John Deere Wankel at NEAM). Of the engines that I mentioned last month, I think that Bombardier has a good chance of success since it is already flying and it represents a logical step-up in power from their 914. Honda is more attuned to these types of ventures than Toyota was so I give them even chances of success if Continental doesn't let them down. The others probably aren't going anywhere.

There are numerous technology articles in the Sept and Oct issues of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. The Oct PS has an article on morphing wings, an example of which was the NASA flexible F-18 wing at Oshkosh. The Sept PM pictures a 15 inch wingspan model aircraft powered by a fuel cell. The Oct PM has a photo of the Sonnex Waiex on the cover with a teaser "Instant Flying - 20 affordable, factory-built sport planes you can pilot right now with just a driver's license". This is not true of course, but the public doesn't know that. They do show 20 aircraft which may meet Sport Pilot rules but they leave out all of the training and imply that for the price of a high end SUV, you'll be flying with a weeks training and a drivers license. This article is premature since we don't know what the regs will look like and when they take effect. On the other hand, when the Baby Ace article was published some 40 years ago it had a significant impact on the EAA movement; this may too.

The same issue has articles on building the engines for the Wright Flyer, a helicopter rotor proposal to produce a verticle take off C-130, and two significant engine developments. First, a 2 stroke which uses a flexible diaphram to provide scavenging and fuel transfer thereby allowing a normal oil filled crankcase and second,an Isuzu 3.5 l V-6 engine with DIRECT FUEL INJECTION to be available in 04 SUV's.

The Sept PS has an article on pulse detonation jet engines. Both GE and P&W are working on them and although I didn't see it, NASA had one on display at Oshkosh. Speaking of detonation engines, the Bourke engine was one which was recently revived by Constant Pressure Engines in Pa. They weren't at Oshkosh this year because it wasn't running right as explaned to us by two guys with a campground display across the road. They used to be associated with them but were now doing their own thing as the Bourke Engine Projecthad an original Bourke engine, a video showing it running, and via stereo lithography had produced a mock up of the engine. They claimed that the problem was that Constant Pressure Engines used the wrong fuel; to get detonation you need low octane fuel. Time will tell since people have been playing with the Bourke engine for 50 years, but the Solid Works modeling and layer by layer build up of 3 dimensional structures in plastic or metal is presently being widely utilized.

Another article says that Verizon and Nextel have GPS chips in their cell phones while AT&T, Cingular, and T-mobil will use triangulation to comply with the traceability mandate for 911 calls. Apparently Europe and the Far East are way ahead of us on this using locations for directions, ads, to check out the babe across the street, etc. All those people walking around with cell phones think it is a status symbol but think a minute, the chip allows YOU to be tracked; if the company can do it, the government can, and so can your wife's lawyer. Drug dealers will need to switch to AT&T. I keep wondering how the Israelis can target people and vehicles so precisely in crowded places; maybe they just phone them, lock on , and ...

Dick Sollner brought his new solid state all-in-one flight instrument to show us Friday night. The screen is about 3 by 4 in while the cylindrical body extends back about 8 in but within that are solid state gyros, accelerometers, etc and backup batteries which provide a horizon, altimeter, airspeed, rate of climb, angle of attack, and heading. Really neat. He also announced that he intends to fly the RV around the world after completion.

A few notes from the EAA website. If you want a ticket for the First Flight Centennial at Kill Devil Hills you need to purchase your ticket. See wrightbrothers.reserveworld.com or 800-973-7327. Info @ firstflightcentennial.org.

The Discovery Wings program set for Sept 17 will be postponed until October. But the Discovery channel Wright Brothers First in Flight is still Sept 19 at 8 PM as mentioned last month. I have seen the promo's on Discovery this week.

If you have Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, you can down load National Air Tour 2003 files from the Microsoft website and join in the tour. The default aircraft is the Ford Tri-Motor. And while you are at it , terrorists no longer need flight lessons, Microsoft Flight Simulator covers the big jets.

I got to try out a couple of the simulators. The first, a vintage T-37 that is used for instrument work. This was made by Link, and was all electromechanical (old). It had a two place cockpit that duplicated the T-37 with frosted windscreen. Very Comfortable, not too much fun. Only the dials move. The fun one was by Frasca. It was more of an arcade game style, driven by a tall stack of computers, simulating the performance of the Texan II. The windscreen was a panoramic color monitor, with the terrain of the area. It was aerobatic, but I was unable to avoid the sam’s that were fired at me. I understand that with quick enough response it is possible. I believe this type of simulator is used for training tactics. I landed safely back at COS.

Saw the Wright Experience on tv. What a committment! We shall see if an experienced pilot can fly a replica Flyer.

Chapter 891 will be having a fly-in at Sussex October 4, with a rain date of 10/5. Time 9a to 2p.For information contact Mark Harrington 973 838 7320 days, 973 728 0380 nite. e-mail markrv6@netscape.net.

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