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This 1918 Curtiss JN-4 (Jenny) was made in Canada. The engine has upright cylinders. It looks like a car engine. Unlike the other aeroplane of the same age, the Jenny engine is attached to the aircraft frame and the crankshaft turns the propeller. |
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The pilot controls the tail flight surfaces via thin steel wires, a few of which can be seen in this picture. |
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The Curtiss bi-plane ready to fly. The Jenny was designed for pilot training, not for combat. Wheels had not yet been put on the tail of airplanes, it just has a wooden stick that drags on the ground. Another clever wooden stick is the half-hoop on the ends of the lower wing. That reduces damage to the wing when an irregular wind would cause the wing to hit the ground. |
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The Jenny flies so gracefully, one can forget the primitive technology. |
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This 1918 French engine design is a clever opposite of the Jenny. The crankshaft is attached to the aircraft frame and the cylinders rotate. The propeller is attached to the rotating engine. In this picture, the air-cooled cylinders with cooling fins are visible. Each cylinder has a single valve pushrod that apparently has three positions: both valves closed, intake valve open and exhaust valve open. I believe the tubes seen going from the crankcase goes to each intake valve. It appears that the crankcase doubles as an intake manifold, making the fuel/air mixture available to each intake valve. It is a clever re-thinking of an internal combustion engine. |
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With the engine running, the blur of the rotating cylinders can be seen. The rotating design saves most of the weight of a camshaft and distributor and the bearings and gears that connect those to the crankshaft. In addition there is no exhaust pipe or oil pump. I believe oil simply flows over the moving parts and drips out onto the ground. Perhaps oil is mixed with the fuel, as with a boat outboard motor -- I don't know. After the plane flew, the underside of the fuselage was dripping with oil. In this picture the fellow on the right is the pilot who flew both of the 100-year-old aeroplanes. |
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The rotating engine is installed in a replica of a 1918 German combat tri-plane, a Fokker Dr.1. It seems like it would be more precise to call it a quad-wing plane, since there is short fourth wing between the wheels. That must add some additional lift. I wonder if the short overall wing-span made the plane more maneuverable in flight and less stable while landing -- compared to the longer wing-span Jenny. |
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Once the tri-wing was back on the ground, there wasn't a way for the pilot to steer it. The plane just coasted to a stop where ever the bumps in the field took it. The plane does not have wheel brakes. Also, like the Jenny, there isn't a rear wheel, just a wooden stick dragging on the ground. In those days a plane didn't land on a runway, it landed in a grassy field. The pilot could land directly into the wind. Assuming that the pilot picked the right angle, he didn't have a cross wind to blow the plane sideways, so brakes weren't necessary. |
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It seems that a ground-crew pushed or pulled the plane around the field. This picture shows the dolly wheels under the tail that is used to pull the plane. This plane was towed by a pickup truck to its take-off position. |
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The pilot seems pleased after flying the tri-wing. |
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By the late 1930s pilot training planes looked like this. |
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There were also vehicles of around 1918 vintage. The vehicle technology is similarly primitive. There isn't a starter motor (though some were modified to add a starter). In those days one started the engine by turning the crank hanging beneath the radiator. |
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There were quite few of these Ford Model-Ts driving around the field. The wheels wobbled as they rolled over bumps. It is fortunate that they can not go very fast. There are only two speeds. It is more primitive than a clutch and gear shift. I believe there is a foot pedal that selects high speed or low speed, plus a clutch pedal. It sounded to me like the vehicles were able to start up in the fast position. I don't believe Model-Ts were or are driven much faster than 30 miles per hour. |
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The wheels have wooden spokes. There are no brakes on the front wheels. The rear brakes were weak and operated on the rear axle, I believe. And the tires are not much bigger than those on a sturdy bicycle. |
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This driver is, with his left hand, operating three levers attached to the steering wheel. One is the choke, which need not be adjusted after the engine is warmed up. Another is the spark timing, which needs to be adjusted to the engine speed (I may not be right on this). The third lever is the throttle, like a modern gas pedal. I've never driven a Model-T, so I'm surmising and guessing on how it is done. I would like to try to drive one someday. |
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During the Model-T era, 1908 to 1927, Ford came to dominate the mass production of inexpensive cars. They required far more maintenance than we do today, like adjusting the brakes, re-greasing the wheel bearings, putting air in the tires with a hand pump, adjusting the valves, etc. But people just learned to do what was needed. |
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This was one of only two non-Fords from the early twentieth century. I don't know what brand it is. |