CAHS Prince Edward Island Chapter Newsletter

CAHS Prince Edward Island "Carl F. Burke, MBE" Chapter

PRESIDENT’S REMARKS
I would like to thank the membership for coming out to the meetings. Also, to those members and non-members who have been speakers at our meetings, I extend wholehearted thanks. The highlight of the year I guess would be the visit of Miss Veedol. It was the assistance of our Chapter and some of our members and local businesses that helped make Miss Veedol’s trip to P.E.I. possible.

As for the coming year, the situation with the Slemon Park aircraft is still on going and it is hoped that a solution can be found.

It was mentioned that possibly we could have a different venue for some of our meetings in the future. It would be nice if we could come up with some more guest speakers and also that some meetings have a short video feature of aviation trivia. I could provide many of these as I have numerous interesting features. What we do need is more membership and if anyone has any ideas as to how to attract new members, please let us know.

Once again, I would like to thank all of you for your participation over the past year and may this
"New Year 2006” be a healthy and happy one for you and your families.

“Miss Veedol”, a Bellanca aircraft replica, flown by pilots Arnie Clarke and David Stadler landed at the Charlottetown airport Sep.12, 2005, on a two day stop-over as part of the re-enactment of the first Canadian Trans-Atlantic flight achieved by Errol Boyd and Harry Connor Oct. 9/10, 1930. The two pilots are members of the Spirit of Wenatchee Project, Wenatchee, Washington State, which constructed the “Miss Veedol” during 1998 - 2003 for the purpose of re-enacting Clyde Pangborn’s round-the-world flight of 1931 which is to occur in 2006 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of that historic event.

The Miss Veedol’s visit to Charlottetown was part of a re-enactment that commenced at Toronto where Boyd and Connor began their historic flight from Leaside, a suburb of Toronto at the time, and terminated at St. John’s, NFLD, where Boyd and Connor departed for London, England. At Toronto, the crew provided an Air Show and Ground Displays as part of the Canadian National Exhibition Sep. 3-4-5 and an extensive two-day program at the Toronto Aero Museum Sep. 6-7. The crew made stops at Ottawa on Sep. 8, at St. Hubert 10-11, at Charlottetown 12-13, and finally, at St. John’s Sep. 14-15. The crew flew the “Miss Veedol” directly back to Wenatchee with brief stops for rest, pilot changes or fuel. The Wenatchee crew was hosted while on P.E.I. by the Carl F. Burke, MBA, Chapter, the Provincial Government and local business firms including; Prince Edward Air, New Glasgow lobster Suppers, Best Western Motel, Molson’s Brewery and others.

THE HISTORICAL ERROLL BOYD BELLANCA FLIGHT AND THE PEI CONNECTION
(Article by William (Andy) Anderson, member of the CAHS Carl F. Burke, MBA, P.E.I. Chapter)

James Erroll Boyd was born on Nov. 22, 1891, at Toronto, Canada. Naturally curious, Boyd had many interests, and pursued knowledge in more than one field. His older brother, Norman, introduced him to the parachute at an early age by pushing him off a barn roof with a parachute device made from a bed sheet. Needless to say, failure was the result, together with a concussion and broken ribs. Norman was again the instigator, when he volunteered Erroll for a flight with Lincoln Beachey who was barnstorming near their home. Thus was Boyd’s introduction to flying in 1912.

Boyd enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) during WW I, and learned to fly at Eastchurch, England, during 1915. Coincidentally, his instructor was John Alcock of aviation fame. Boyd served with a RAF Squadron in England, attacking German zeppelins. He failed to shoot any down, though he pursued one to the English coast, losing it in cloud. Later in 1915, he was posted to Dunkirk, France, where he flew anti-submarine patrols. He attacked a submerged submarine with apparent success. On a bombing raid to Zeebrugge, Germany, he was shot down, crashing in Belgium where he was interned. Later, he was transferred to Holland, and with the promise by the British Government that the crew would not try to escape, a number of the crew were paroled but were required to live in The Hague. In May 1916, Boyd was granted a six month leave of absence from his parole to go to North America. He sailed to New York and took the opportunity to visit relatives in Toronto. In Dec. 1916, he returned to The Hague. In Mar. 1917, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the RNAS and in the following month was once again paroled to New York. It was there that he again met Evelyn Carberry who he had originally met in 1914 and who was in the cast of a play showing in New York. Boyd married her in Jul. 1917, and a number of prominent personalities attended the wedding. During the wartime period in New York, Boyd test flew the Curtiss JN4 aircraft equipped with the OX5 engine while flying in Buffalo. He was still on parole in New York when the war ended in 1918.

Boyd and his wife moved to Toronto where he managed a garage. He also opened a car rental business. Boyd had written a patriotic war song in 1917. Later, he wrote "Dream" and after it became a smash hit they returned to New York to pursue song writing but soon went into hotel management at the Lennox Hotel. He later joined the firm of Crosse and Blackwell (Jams and Jellies) as manager of the Detroit office. When a Stinson aircraft became available, Boyd tried to induce the Crosse and Blackwell Company to act as a sponsor for a New York to Moscow flight. He was not successful and he left the firm to fly for John Dodge of automobile manufacturing fame. In 1927, Boyd left Dodge and became a pilot for Canadian Transcontinental Airways, flying mail. Prior to winter, Boyd went to Mexico as Senior Vice-President with Pan American World Airways. It was during this period he gained valuable instrument flying skills. When PanAm acquired Mexicana, Boyd pioneered new routes for mail and payrolls, the latter being air dropped at remote sites. Boyd returned to New York in 1929 with Coastal Airways, to pilot flying boats and amphibians. After a number of accidents, some with fatalities, inspectors allowed Coastal Airways to continue flying with the proviso that Boyd conduct most of the flying. Coastal Airways folded in 1930 and Boyd went to work for Charles Levine, an eccentric New York millionaire. In 1926, Levine had purchased a Bellanca aircraft WB2. This aircraft was developed by the Italian pioneer inventor Giuseppe Bellanca who began his theoretical experiments of aircraft flight at Milan, Italy, in 1906. In 1908, he collaborated with Bossi and Invernizzi, early aviation greats, in the construction of a two place pusher aircraft powered by a Zust water cooled engine. In 1909, Bellanca invented the first "tractor" biplane (forward engine). This aircraft was built and flown successfully at Taliedo, Italy, in 1910. With little opportunity to succeed in Aeronautical Engineering in Italy due to restrictive regulations, Bellanca immigrated to America in 1911. A year later, he established the Bellanca Aviation School which offered instruction in the theory of flight. He built his own tractor parasol (high wing on struts) for use in flight training. In 1917 when the U.S.A. entered WW I, Bellanca joined the Maryland Pressed Steel Company to manage its aviation department. He designed and built two outstanding light bi-planes: Model CD and
Model CE. The Model CD was a single seat aircraft powered by the popular Anzani, 3 cylinder, 35 horse power (hp) air cooled engine. It had a 26 foot wingspan, a length of 17 foot 5 inches, and a weight of 775 pounds fully loaded. It had a top speed of 85 miles per hour (mph), climbed at 820 feet per minute (fpm) and was able to maintain level flight with the engine throttled back at an amazingly low power of 6 hp! An update Model CE was an enlarged version of the Model CD with two seats and an improved Anzani engine with 55 hp. It had a top speed was 101 mph and a landing speed of 38 mph. Both of these aircraft had unusual fine performances at low power due to their aerodynamic cleanliness.

The same clean design was applied to Giuseppe Bellanca's next design - the Model CF, built by the Roos-Bellanca company. This aircraft had the feature of a high wing, five place monoplane, which accommodated four passengers in a comfortable enclosed cabin below the wing. The pilot, as was the practice, sat in the open. And, because the wide fuselage obscured the pilot’s vision of the area below the fuselage, the cockpit was offset to the left of the center line. Of particular interest was the Model CF’s wide chord, airfoil pattern, wing struts. This aerodynamic innovation enabled the struts to generate enough lift to carry their own weight. Bellanca used this same principle when he formed his own company and rebuilt DeHavilland 4's into mailplane configuration (Mail compartment was forward of the cockpit).

Giuseppe Bellanca’s plans included a new aircraft development venture that featured a cabin monoplane design. During the same period, Wright Aeronautical of New Jersey developed a new engine comprising nine radial cylinders with air-cooling, designated the J5. While they were looking for a test bed to test this engine, Bellanca was in search of an engine for his larger new aircraft. The result was a happy marriage of engine and airframe into the aircraft named the Wright Bellanca One (WB1).

In late 1925, WB1 was entered in the National Air Races and won the highest efficiency prize in the commercial aircraft division. This encouraged Wright Aeronautical of New Jersey to promote commercial use of the Bellanca aircraft and to create an improved version. This was achieved in the WB2. Slightly larger than the WB1, the WB2 was completed in 1926 and entered in the National Air Races at Philadelphia. The WB2 was a six place general utility aircraft that created great excitement when six passengers deplaned. In the free-for-all Air Race, the WB2 finished fourth in a nine plane field that included some specially constructed race aircraft. Thereafter, WB2 went on to win a number of efficiency races.

The aerodynamically clean Bellanca design allowed the WB2’s relatively low powered standard aircraft to out perform even specialty aircraft. The fuselage was constructed in three sections of chrome-moly tubing. The motor mount, including the oil tank, was hinged to swing out, permitting the engine to be repaired without removing it from the airframe mounting. Engine controls, instruments, and fuel lines were all that had to be disconnected to enable engine maintenance to occur. From the firewall behind the pilots to the rear of the cabin it had Warren truss configuration. This eliminated the need for cross bracing in the cabin area. Seating was side by side for the pilot and co-pilot and two pair of removable aft seats for the four passengers. The aircraft was fully instrumented for blind flying and was used as a cross-country demonstrator. The tail section was secured by four steel pins and carried the empennage. Two "I" section spars with spruce/basswood ribs made up the constant chord wing. "I" section spars with spruce/basswood ribs made up the wing struts. The empennage was spruce/basswood/ash. The rudder was balanced whereas the ailerons and elevators were not. The horizontal tail plane was adjustable in flight by a control wheel in the cockpit. The engine was gravity fuel fed from two sheet aluminium tanks in the wing stubs, each with a 33 gallon capacity. Significant features were: a wingspan of 46 feet, 6 inches; a chord of 6 feet, 7 inches; a length of 26 feet, 9 inches; and, a height of 8 feet, 9 inches. It weighed 1,859 pounds empty and 3,450 pounds fully loaded. It had a top speed of 130 mph, a cruising speed of 110 mph, a landing speed of 47 mph and could climb at 930 fpm fully loaded.

In 1927, the Bellanca Company was acquired by the Columbia Aircraft Corporation, hence the Bellanca aircraft name "Columbia". On a flight on Apr.12-14, 1927, the aircraft flew a straight line equivalent of 4,080 miles. In May, Clarence Chamberlin and Bert Acosta computed a fuel consumption chart for the “Columbia” and flight planned to compete for the $25,000.00 Orteig prize for a solo crossing of the Atlantic. Lindbergh captured that prize in a Ryan Brougham aircraft after failing to acquire the “Columbia” aircraft for the task because of a dispute with Charles Levine. Charles Levine joined with Clarence Chamberlin in a plan to fly from New York to Berlin. Earlier, they planned to fly from New York to Paris but having just established a new world's endurance record on April 12 they decided to fly the longer route to Berlin. With Chamberlin and Acosta at the controls and Charles Levine as a passenger, they took off from Roosevelt Field, New York, on Jun. 4, 1927, and aimed for Berlin. After a flight time in excess of 42 hours, much of the time spent changing altitude from a few hundred feet to 21,000 to avoid heavy storms, and being in fog from the United Kingdom onward, they were forced to land 108 miles short of Berlin at Eisleben, Germany, for lack of fuel. After refuelling at Eisleben, they continued their flight but found that they had purchased contaminated fuel and were once again forced to land near Cottbus. On landing, the aircraft nosed-over and broke the propeller. Lufthansa pilots assisted the Americans by exchanging the broken propeller for a suitable replacement and "Columbia" was then escorted by a German aircraft to Berlin. After the Atlantic hop, from New York to Germany, the Columbia was flown by Captain. J. E. Boyd, Roger Q. Williams and Harry P. Connor, the navigator, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Bermuda, Jun. 29/30, 1930. After they dropped a sack of mail at Woodland, Bermuda, they set course for New York, but rather than returning to Roosevelt Field, New York, from where they departed, they landed at Valley Stream, New York, to avoid a waiting crowd at Roosevelt Field. This non stop flight of 1,560 miles was flown in 17 hours.

Erroll Boyd had long thought of flying across the Atlantic - and had even discussed such a flight with his RNAS Instructor, John Alcock, during World War I. While flying during the late 1920's, Boyd had re-kindled his desire and upon returning from the New York to Bermuda flight with the owner of the "Columbia", Charles Levine, he signed a paper with Levine borrowing the aircraft until an Atlantic crossing would be made. Contractual commitments to finance such a flight including exclusive rights for the story were signed with Hearst Publications. Originally, the Trans-Atlantic flight was planned to start from New Jersey but since Lindbergh had crossed from the U.S.A., Boyd decided to start his flight in his homeland, Canada. At that time, the "Columbia" was being flown by Boyd out of the St. Hubert airport near Montreal. He flew the aircraft to Toronto, his hometown, to see his family before commencing his historic flight. He renamed the Bellanca aircraft the "Maple Leaf" and started the first leg of his journey to St. Hubert. It was there that the aircraft was grounded by Roger William who claimed that its owner Charles Levine owed him money and he elected to seize the aircraft in an attempt to recover the money. This legal battle caused a flight delay of several weeks at St. Hubert. At the same time, Harry Connor was continuously in contact with Boyd to dissuade him from a solo flight. Connor argued that the weather over the North Atlantic was a serious hazard to face single-handedly. Boyd was well aware of Connor’s navigation knowledge and ability, proven on the Bermuda flight, so he finally agreed to let Connor join him for the historic flight. As a bonus, Connor brought with him from New York a recently developed Sperry artificial horizon. This was the very same instrument that the famous pilot Jimmy Doolittle had made a blind landing and it was immediately installed in the “Maple Leaf” at St. Hubert. After nearly three weeks of legal wrangling, a firm of lawyers convinced a Justice of the Quebec Court to release the aircraft to Boyd with the condition that the aircraft would be returned to Levine after the Trans-Atlantic flight. With little money remaining to pay for their hotel lodging, a group of McGill University students aided in their obscure hotel departure. Also, the Canada Dry Ginger Ale Company sponsored their fuel while hangar fees were paid by passing the hat. (Even the local RCMP, who was holding the aircraft, contributed.) With the princely sum of fifteen dollars remaining in their pockets, they departed St. Hubert for Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, Sep.13, 1930. (To be continued in the next issue.)