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Curtiss-Bleecker SX-5-1 Helicopter

by | Jan 14, 2023 | 0 comments

Curtiss-Bleecker SX-5-1 Helicopter
Curtiss-Bleecker Helicopter on the runway at Curtiss Wright in Garden City, N.Y.

The Curtiss-Bleecker Helicopter, shown in 1930 at the Curtiss-Wright R&D facility in Garden Grove, Long Island, N.Y. Designer Maitland Bleecker stands with his aircraft. (Photo from the Paul S. Maynard archive)

The 1926 Curtiss-Bleecker Helicopter was an American prototype rotary wing aircraft that just didn’t fly, at least long enough for production

BY MARK MAYNARD

Looking like an escapee from a “Mad Max” movie, the Curtiss-Bleecker Helicopter was an American prototype rotary wing aircraft that was introduced in 1926, according to its page in Wikipedia.

Maitland B. Bleecker, a junior engineer from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, designed the Curtiss-Bleecker Helicopter. Curtiss Wright constructed the two-seat aircraft for $250,000 over four years at it development facility in Garden City, Long Island, N.Y.

The aircraft featured a rotary wing design with a single engine. Each rotor, painted silver and yellow, had an individual propeller for thrust. Thrust was distributed from the centrally mounted engine through shafts to propellers mounted on each rotor blade.

A trailing control surface called a “stabovator” changes the pitch of the rotor. The aircraft was controlled by a stick that operated like a modern helicopter collective control. Yaw was controlled with a “Spin Vane” that used downwash from the rotor to pivot the aircraft with foot pedals.

The aircraft’s first flight was in 1926. However, testing on the Bleecker Helicopter was stopped after the failure of a drive shaft on a test flight in 1929. By 1933 the project was abandoned following vibrational issues in further tests.

The Garden City Curtiss-Wright plant closed in 1932 during the depression. Some machines were moved to Buffalo, N.Y. Others remained at Garden City and were sold off from time to time, up to 1935 or 1936, according to a legal case filed by Garden City.

Maitland Bleecker was 99 when he died on Oct. 19, 2002.

CURTISS-BLEECKER HELICOPTER SPECIFICATIONS

Seats: 2

Wing area of rotor blades: 370 sq. ft.

Empty weight: 2,800 pounds

Gross weight: 3,400 pounds

Fuel capacity: 30 U.S. gallons

Powerplant: 1 420-hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial piston

PERFORMANCE

Maximum speed: 70 mph

Rate of climb: 1,000 ft/min

Curtiss Goupil Duck

by | Jan 10, 2023 | 0 comments

Curtiss Goupil Duck

The birdlike design of the 1917 Curtiss Goupil Duck was based on a monoplane glider by French engineer Alexandre Goupil in 1883

A blackl and white photo of a 1917 Curtiss-Goupil Duck, which was quite birdlike in design.

The 1917 Curtiss Goupil Duck became a patent battleground between aerospace founder Glenn Curtiss and the Wright Brothers. World War I settled the matter. (Photo from the Paul S. Maynard archive)

BY MARK MAYNARD

My dad, Paul Smith Maynard, worked for nearly four decades in aviation as an engineer. His specialty was metals, or metallurgy. Among his tasks was to determine at what point a metal part would fail. He experimented with new, lightweight metals and honeycombed metals that were lighter but strong. He evolved into rocketry, so I consider my dad a rocket scientist, though he would decline that attribute.

Dad began his career in about 1943 after graduating from West Virginia University. He started with Curtiss-Wright Corp., an early pioneer in making flying machines. It was founded by Glenn Curtiss, the father of naval aviation, and the Wright brothers, renowned for history’s first flight. Dad worked at the plant in Columbus, Ohio, where I was born in 1954.

Post-World War II, Curtiss-Wright shut down its Aeroplane Division in 1948 and sold the assets to North American Aviation. Dad was among the assets moved to NAA, which was a leader in aerospace contracts. It eventually would merge again and become Rockwell International, also in Columbus.

Occasionally, dad would bring home glossy PR photos of airplanes and prototype or maybe a chunk of some special metal. Lately, I’ve been going through his boxes of work paperwork and found a trove of early warplanes and other prototypes from Curtiss-Wright to Rockwell.

Among the pictures was this black-and-white image of a 1917 Curtiss Goupil Duck on floats. It emerged during a pissing match between Glenn Curtiss and the Wright Bros. The Wrights felt that certain elements of wing design fell under their patent of 1906, based on “wing warping.”

The Patent Battle

With their patent, the Wrights hoped to gain a monopoly on manned flight. The patent would require anyone building aircraft to pay a royalty to them. It is a fascinating story, well told by Airways magazine.

In 1908, Glenn Curtiss sought to circumvent the Wright’s patent by using ailerons, rather than wing warping. Ailerons use moveable flaps in the wings, which are considered more efficient and simpler for lateral control.
Among my dad’s photos was this 1917 Curtiss Goupil Duck, which used a design by French engineer Alexandre Doupil’s birdlike monoplane glider from 1883.

The plane was never developed. At the start of World War I, the U.S. government persuaded Wright to release the patent for combat aircraft to be developed.