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Posted

They were the aircraft for oil barons, and I doubt whether anything so magnificent, aviation-wise, came out of the 1930's. There's still 17 survivors, and even one or two for sale.

Listen to the ones on YouToob doing a startup, talk about music to your ears!

Posted (edited)

It's not a Spad, it's not British, not RR powered - it's American, and it was a pioneer in aviation. Only 6 were built (in this particular configuration, for the specific job the purchaser wanted it for). Correct on the liquid-cooled engine.

Edited by onetrack
Posted

Nope, not Curtiss, either. This one was built in New Jersey - Curtiss' manufacturing operation was in New York.

 

Hint: The engine is a European-design liquid-cooled V8, that gathered great renown during WW1. The engine was built in the U.S. under licence. All 6 units in the order were delivered on Aug 6, 1918.

Posted

I don't know that they used any Spad parts at all. They probably copied the Spad styling somewhat. I'd say the V8 engine led to the styling. The original model was powered by a 4 cyl American engine that was notorious for vibration.

 

C'mon fellas, I was sure you'd nail this by now! This aircraft's job, led to the major commercialisation of aviation in the U.S.

 

Another Hint: The 6 aircraft were ordered by a division of the U.S. Govt.

Posted

Really big hint there :oh yeah: Mail contract? Standard Aircraft Company JR-1B

Hard all sorts of trouble tracking it down even with that clue, I'm a bit slow with these new fangled putor things.

Sitting in motel room for virus isolation from travel so got plenty of time and wifi to look important stuff like this up :teacher:

Posted (edited)

Bingo!, on the Standard JR-1B. The first dedicated U.S. Post Office Dept (USPOD, as it was known in 1918) Air Mail plane. 6 were ordered by USPOD and delivered Aug 6, 1918.

The JR-1B was powered by a U.S.-built Hispano-Suiza V8, reportedly producing 170HP (some descriptions say 150HP, there may have been variations in engine HP).

 

Based on the Standard J-1 trainer, which was based on the Standard SJ aircraft, the J-1 was produced to supplement the Curtiss JN-4 as a WW1 military trainer. The J-1 utilised the 4 cyl Hall-Scott A-7 engine.

The early Standard SJ models featured an interesting "tricycle" undercarriage, with a nose wheel, as well as a tail skid. The nose wheel was intended to aid in protecting the main undercarriage and airframe from heavy impact landings.

 

An "improved" model, called the JR, was offered with the 6 cyl Hall-Scott A-5 engine. Initially, optimistically-named as the "Pursuit", the nomenclature was changed to simply Model JR. Only 6 JR's were built.

But the Hall-Scott engines suffered from vibration, and the 4 cyl A-7 vibration was so bad, it not only shook the aircraft apart - they were also prone to catch fire in flight!

 

The Standard J-1 was finally grounded due to an excessive number of crashes caused by the Hall-Scott engine. Curiously, Curtiss bought quite a number of new (grounded) Standard J-1's, and converted them to an improved design.

 

The U.S. Army initially flew the USPOD Air Mail service from May 1918, utilising hastily converted Hispano-Suiza-powered Curtiss JN-6H's - but the arrival of the Standard JR-1B saw the USPOD take over and run the U.S. Air Mail service with their own specifically-ordered aircraft.

At this point, WW1 was still being fought, and all American aircraft were military production, overseen by the Bureau of Aircraft Production.

There was obviously still a lot of Army and military control in the aviation arena, and it appears the military preferred the DeHavilland aircraft - because of its simple construction, the much more powerful (400HP) "all-American" Liberty V12 engine, and because of the ready availability of hundreds of DH-4 aircraft. As a result, the next order for mail planes from USPOD, was for 100 of the DH-4 aircraft - also specially built to carry mail.

 

The reason for the cockpit being so far back on the JR-1B is, as the Standard was originally built as a two-place trainer, Standard simply utilised the front cockpit as a mail hold, and the pilot operated from the rearmost position.

The Standard JR-1B could carry 200 lbs of mail and had a 280 mile range, which was very good for its time. In addition, the JR-1B was quite fast, cruising at 100mph.

 

The Hispano-Suiza V8 turned the Standard J series into a very good aircraft, and the Hispano-Suiza was a superbly-built engine, that was superior to the Liberty V12. The early Liberty engines were quite unreliable.

But the military obviously "leant" on the USPOD, and only 6 Standard JR-1B's were built for the USPOD, and then USPOD went over to the DH-4 aircraft as the standard mail plane. There are no survivors of the 6 USPOD JR-1B's.

 

I read a report yesterday (and can't find it again, now) that stated that one of the U.S. Mail pilots took a JR-1B to an unofficial record of 29,200 feet.

He only stopped going higher due to the bitter cold and frostbite which affected 4 of his fingers - and no doubt, difficulties with breathing. 200 climbers have ascended Mt Everest without Oxygen, so I guess the pilots claim is achieveable.

 

https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/standard-plane.pdf

 

http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft25900.htm

 

https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a20524415/the-history-of-airmail/

 

https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/six-jr-1b-mail-service-planes-exclusively-built-for-mail-news-photo/92935377

Edited by onetrack
Posted

Pmmccarthy's stunning early jet prototype is just what we'd expect from the Italians! - an Ambrosini Sagittario!

 

Only one built, produced in Jan 1953, and powered with a Turbomeca Marboré turbojet.

  • Like 1
Posted

Interesting design compared to early American jets. The yanks didn't start using swept wing for a while, then using mostly German research and designers.

  • Like 1

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