8

Avery interesting airplane

of the seldom seen higher
powered variety is the Townsend "Thunderbird". It was
completed early last year by Gid
Townsend of P.O. Box 138 in
Ocala, Fla.

from a BT-13 stabilizer, but the

The craft is a licensed two

place, low wing gull cantilever

rest of the airplane is original,

except for some component

sport airplane.

It is small in

parts, such as the Cessna 180

size, and does not compare with

anything else in the air. In appearance, it might be very

landing gear and wheel pants.

roughly compared with a PT-23,

but, of course, with apologies to
Townsend. A great deal of very

good advice was extended by

Curtiss Pitts, well known for

his famous series of airplanes

which bear his name.
Two features stand out more

welded tubing and has fabric

covering. The wing center section measures 36 in., and was

fabricated from the center section of the BT-13. The horizontal stabilizer is also cut down

It is equipped with a full instrument panel, but not with ra-

dio, even though it has a complete electrical system.

The "Thunderbird" has not
actually been weighed since it
was completed, but the builder
has good reason to believe that

he came very close to his weight

estimate. The airplane was

clocked over a measured course
to determine cruising and maximum speeds. Townsend has

run, but stalls out at around

75 mph. It also features cockpit adjustable trim tabs.
Some of the specifications of

dived the airplane to 200 mph.,

this red and white beauty are. .

Wing span . . . . . . . . 27 ft. 5 in.

and would not be afraid to run

it up higher. He ventures to say
that the airplane could not be

torn up in flight.

The weight

is on the high side, because he

was building for strength as
much as anything else.
It is a very stable airplane,

and has been flown over a hundred miles at a time without

once touching the stick. It flew
well from the very beginning,
but like any other airplane, it
has its good and bad characteristics. It has a short take-off

Length . . . . . . . . . . 21 ft. 2 V-> in.

Height . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 ft. 6 in.
Empty weight . . . . . . 1800 Ibs.
Wing area . . . . . . . . . . 120 sq.ft.
Engine - Jacobs R-755-9@245hp.
Maximum speed . . . . 200 mph.
Cruising speed . . . . 152 mph.
Stalling speed
. . . . . 75 mph. (power off)
Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 miles
Fuel capacity . . . . . . . . 35 gals.
Service ceiling . . . . . . 10,000 ft.
Rate of climb

. . . 1500 ft./min. at take-off

Registration number
..........

N-794T (X)

Construction of this airplane

required some 2500 hours and
about 1800 dollars.

than any other on the "Thunderbird". One is its 245 hp. Jacobs
engine, and the other is the all
metal wing. The latter was

A unique

adapted from the outer panels

of a Vultee BT-13 wing.
The engine swings a constant
speed "Clip-Tip" propeller, and
is fully cowled. The cowl is
pulled back behind the engine
with an extension riveted to the
original Cessna UC-78 cowl,
tucking it in close to the narrower fuselage.
This doesn't
seem to affect the engine cooling in any way.

The fuselage is built up of

personal touch can be found in
the registration number. Respectively, the letters G, I and D
are the 7th, 9th and 4th letters

of the alphabet, and the T stands

The "Smidgeon", the interesting little amphibian presented in last month's EXPERIMENTER, promises to be one of
the most unusual projects undertaken by anyone in the Association. Member Bob Fryklund,

designer and builder, writes that

the airplane was started in Bos-

ton and the fuselage was hauled

along with household goods to

Endicott, N. Y., where about a

year and a half more was spent

for Townsend.
Gid Townsend started flying

when he was fifteen years old,

and had a commercial pilot's license and an A & E rating when

hauled another 1600 miles to he was eighteen years old. He
Houston, Tex., where Bob will has been in the crop dusting
store it until he's able to work
business in Ocala, Fla. and Tchuon it again. Bob writes, "This
la, Miss, since 1950. In 1948, he
is probably the most hauledbecame the first person to reabout airplane in the Associaceive a commercial pilot's lition". Can anyone top this one?
cense as the result of a regular
Bob can be reached at his new
high school subject, and as far
address: 3103 Pickwick Lane,
as is known, is still the only
in working on it. Now it will be

Houston, Tex.

person to have done so.