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4560 Flightline Drive
EAA Chapter 765 November 2006 Kingman, AZ 86401
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Regular EAA Chapter 765 meetings are held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday each month at the EAA Hangar on Flightline Drive at the Kingman Airport. Chapter 765 Officers President John Pool 692-8026 Vice-President Harry May 718-5896 Treasurer Scott Brackett 753-9075 Secretary Dennis Macklin 692-5553 Directors T. W. Aronson 681-4980 Ed Covington 753-3060 Other Positions Hangar Coordinator Gene Wolff 757-3870 Newsletter Editor Julia Downie 757-8477 Young Eagle Coord. Scott Brackett 753-9075 |
Visit our chapter website, and then make some contribution to it. Mike has done an outstanding job. Please send him photos, personal histories and anything else you would like to see posted. Everyone must be exceedingly busy, including me. There are no Minutes, President’s Message or Around the Airport this month. So instead, this is mainly a plea for you to come to the November 14th meeting and VOTE Yes, our Chapter election day is the same day as the mid-term elections. So you get to vote twice on election day. Following are more recollections from Bill Aronson. What a rich life in aviation he experienced. Also at the end of the newsletter are photos from Copperstate submitted by Rick Warren, who advises he will have more photos at the meeting. |
Recollections of T.W. Bill Aronson
CG Taylor companies: Products Design & Saturn Engineering; Oxnard & Camarillo, Ca.
TW worked at Product Design during the period when the shop was engaged in:
Lee Mansdorf Grumman Widgeon engine conversions ... 200 HP Rangers were replaced with 300 HP Lycoming engines
Convair 240s modified with JATO bottles added to the tail section per STC.
Myers 200 aerodynamic modifications
North American OV-10 conversion to turbo prop engines 1960 $ = 50K/ plane!
CG-11 design development
Saturn Meteor design refinements
Jack Gilberty Volaire design clean-up modifications
The last installment introduced the CG-11 and Saturn Meteor aircraft.
In this installment TW discusses some of the design details of those two designs, their last known status and relates the origin of North American Rockwell’s design for the light training aircraft market.
Cg-11
The design configuration predates EZ designs by 10 years
Tail first canard & rudder design.
Fiberglass sandwich skins.
Rear engine/ prop pusher ... articulated (up/ down) ducted fan
Boundary layer control on wing including control surfaces
Main wing swept back 25 degrees
Fixed landing gear
F/G structure
Skins were 2 layers of 10 oz. cloth with layer of mat between ... approx 1/8 inch plus thickness.
Sub structure was 2024 T3 aluminum: wing & fuselage keel sections
Epoxy bonded skin/ substructures: fuselage, wings & control surfaces
Molds were plaster of paris coated with primer, liberally coated with carnauba wax. Five copies were made from each mold!!
TW plus 4 others completed all molds in approx 4 months
Design numbers
Main wing span was approx. 21 to 22 feet; aileron span was approx. 4 foot and flap span was approx. 5 foot.
Wing chords were 25 inches at the tip & 60+ inches at the root
Fuselage width was 36 inches
Design weight 390 lbs ... actual weight was 410 lbs
Air foil sections on main wing were NACA 23009 at the tip & 23015 for the root
Wings had no wash out, reflex or dihedral.
Ducted fan/ engine pivoted 15 degrees up & down on thrust CL to stops with a hydraulic hand pump
Powered by a two cylinder Franklin engine of 60 HP; vibration required use of a torsion damper
Fan duct F/G construction: tapered span, tapered chord, approx 24 inches @ bottom “root” to 12 inches @ joined “tip”
Boundary layer suction source was from the LP region of the ducted fan
Boundary layer control @ wing tips was for drag reduction & @ the ailerons was for improved control effectiveness @ lower speeds.
The CG-11 design did not progress beyond the high speed taxi and ground effect flight testing. Some low speed stability issues were still to be resolved. The aircraft’s sponsor lost interest ... it is believed that somewhere in California this revolutionary aircraft sits in storage. Further design details are available from the patent office since six patents were issued relative to features of this design.
Saturn Meteor
Another photo of the Meteor from the rear quarter is attached.
Note: fiberglass was used for the nose cone, fuselage (to tail cone) and engine cowlings. This is an example of the earliest use of F/G for major a/c components ... September 1961.
In the previous article on this aircraft, the flight test problems with tail control flutter at speeds above 150 MPH were discussed. TW was involved in the sheet metal work repairing the tail cone and modifying the rudder. The work took about 2 months to complete.
A Japanese company gained controlling interest in the Meteor project, decided not to pursue a type certificate and sold it to an individual. The aircraft was subsequently flown to Chino and disassembled. The instruments, props and engines were sold. The last word on the project was that it was being completely restored and was almost complete.
Gilberty Volaire
The photo of the Volaire reminds one of an early Cessna 150 with Aeronca main gear.
Jack Gilberty brought this project to the PD shop for completion and wanted parts to build 100 a/c.
Front & rear windshields mounted almost vertical (high drag)
Aileron flutter experienced @ approx. 103 MPH
Cantilever main gear and improved nose gear/ engine mount
All these areas were resolved by Product Designs.
As Paul Harvey would say: “Now the rest of the story!” The Gilberty Volaire was type certified and the production rights were purchased by North American Rockwell. The Volaire became the Aero Commander 100 and eventually the Lark 180.
Random Thoughts
CG Taylor used the NACA 23012 wing section on the Taylorcraft. This was the principal reason that the T-craft was 20 MPH faster than a Cub which used the USA 35 section. Also, clip-wing Cubs perform better inverted with a T-craft wing section (it’s more symmetric).
In the mid sixties, a 3,500 foot by 35 foot wide asphalt runway with an adjacent 2,000 foot by 20 foot taxi-way cost around $70,000. This was not “down town” prices ... this was in the high dessert boon docks!
Pictures taken by Rick Warren at Copperstate, 2006
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