World Cruiser

pmanton said:
Did the Seattle World Cruiser Reproduction make its first flight today?
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Sure did. Little hop down the runway due to the weather conditions, but they did get air under the tires. They showed a nice video of the hop at the reception afterwards, this will no doubt make it online soon.

For those unfamiliar, this is a full-scale replica of the first airplanes to fly around the world. It's powered by a Liberty engine, like the originals.

http://www.seattleworldcruiser.org/home

Ron Wanttaja
 
That's a fun project. It surprised me how big an airplane it is looking at the pictures, though I guess it makes sense given the mission.
 
It must have been 10-12 years ago when I saw the project in Bob's hangar. I thought he's nuts. Was I ever wrong. He and his wife flew his Super Cub around the world so he's got the experience.

Paul
 
pmanton said:
It must have been 10-12 years ago when I saw the project in Bob's hangar. I thought he's nuts. Was I ever wrong. He and his wife flew his Super Cub around the world so he's got the experience.
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Oh, make no mistake about it... Bob Dempster *is* nuts. He's one of the funniest guys I know. He had the audience in stitches, yesterday, as usual. He flew the first flight in riding boots, jodhpurs, leather jacket, and scarf.

But Bob *is* passionate, he knows a lot of people, and people *like* Bob...which helps him get things done. This is not a big corporate project. Bob and his wife Diane aren't rich; they live in a small condo in Renton. They sold the Super Cub they flew around the world to help finance the Cruiser. They've got a core of dedicated specialist volunteers, but have roped in hundreds of people to help build the airplane. They even got their mailman to help build a rib.

Not to say they didn't have plenty of corporate help, from the little shop down the street to the Boeing Company itself. Boeing let Bob use their Plant II hangar (the one with the camouflaged roof in WWII, where they built B-17s and B-52s) for much of the fabrication, for several years prior to the hangar's demolition. Bob, of course, gleefuly claims that the last aircraft produced in Boeing's Plant II was a Douglas....

The airplane isn't a "Let's built a big biplane and paint it green and yellow" replica. It's meticulously researched, and deviations from the original are few. Bob visited the original Seattle in the museum in Anchorage, and borrowed components to duplicate (he made castings of many parts). The decision to use a Liberty wasn't made lightly, but was finally settled by the lack of anything else suitable. Cowlings were made on an English wheel; there's no fiberglass.

Changes WERE made, for safety, maintainability, and operational reasons. It's got a tailwheel, not a skid, and of course the metals are modern alloys. They had a starter go bad, and discovered they had to remove the whole engine to get at it. So a fuel tank was modified to give access to it. And, of course, the cockpit instrumentation reflects modern realities. BOTH cockpits, since many of the countries the Cruiser flies through require full IFR instrumentation for *both* pilots.

In short, this is indeed one hell of a project. Congratulations again to the whole team.

Ron Wanttaja
 
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