The Ongoing Mystery Aircraft Thread Part Deux.

[Moses03]

The brightly colored bird can be found globally. The aeroplane exhibit took place in New York City...

 

[giruXX]

A completely blind guess: Mill Basin Super Gull W-1 [X440]

 

[Moses03]

A solid guess but it is not the gull. This one had the same name as a WWII warbird.

 

[fabulousfour]

My first post here in this wonderful forum.

This is the Taft Kingfisher aka Whittelsey Amphib as shown in the Madison Square Garden Expostion.

I could have posted earlier, but there must be a sort of quarantine after registration.

 

[Moses03]

Welcome to SOH fab.
You are spot on with the Taft/Whittelsey boat. The board is yours for the next mystery.

 

[fabulousfour]

Thanks for the beer

As this is my first mystery, the next one should not be too difficult.

An extra imaginery beer for the pilot who made this perfect three-point-landing, but this is no must.

 

[pomme homme]

Welcome, fab4. I'm pretty sure that it's an early Vega Gull but I can't identify the crash or the pilot who achieved it. Maybe when he was told to do a three point landing, he didn't realise that he was expected to put it down on its main and its tail wheels, rather than the former and the engine cowling. Perhaps he walked away muttering: 'two out of three ain't bad'!

Addendum: I suspect that it was Beryl Markham who was responsible for that 'landing', for in the course of her flight in VP-KCC ('Messenger') from Oxford to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, she encountered strong headwinds and had to make an emergency landing, short of her destination, and had the bad luck to find soft ground, with the result that the Vega Gull tipped onto its nose. However she still became the first woman to make a solo east-west Atlantic crossing in 21 hours on 4/5 September 1936.

 

[lefty]

PH has it nailed, but as I'm always thirsty on Fridays...(!).....I'll have a stab at Beryl Markham, in Cape Breton Island.

A lot of memorable flights ended up in peat bogs !

 

[fabulousfour]

Vega Gull is perfect!

And lefty has got it with Beryl Markham

This is the plane Beryl Markham tried to fly nonstop from England to New York in 1936, but due to technical problems she had to make a precautionary landing in Nova Scotia.
Nevertheless, she was the the first woman to fly the atlantic from East to West solo.
You can read the story here.

The photo is from my personal collection.

Over to pomme homme.

 

[pomme homme]

Sorry. Whilst I was typing my addendum (regrettably I don't type quickly) the two subsequent posts were made.

 

[Dev One]

Looking through my book by David Gearing, the only Vega that seems to fit the description is VH-UVH, c/n D57, which nosed over at Bowral Gull, Penrose, nr Bundanoon in NSW, flown by Melrose.
Keith

EDIT - too late & wrong then!
If it was Beryl Markham the regn was VP-KCC c/n K34. Shipped back to Kenya & wfu in Dar-es-Salaam.

 

[pomme homme]

Thank you, fab4. Here's something which, perhaps, is a little less well known than the Vega Gull but, nonetheless, is not displeasing to the eye. A very practical tandem trainer that suggests, with reason, the influence of a much larger and better known manufacturer of aeroplanes.

 

[wout]

Hi PH
I hesitate, but my votes would go to the Aerofer 01 (F-PERS) designed and built by members of the Aéro-club des Cheminots in France. Main reason for the hesitation is that your beauty is a two-seater, while the Aerofer 01 is often reported as a single-seater.

 

[pomme homme]

You have no need to hesitate, Walter, for you've cast your vote for the right candidate! However I was hoping that a photograph of the Aéro-Club de Cheminots Aérofer (1954) in its original two seat format would throw many off the scent - because all of the online photographs that I've seen show it as a single seater (presumably with the original forward cockpit faired over). But I was a fool to think that this would waylay you. You have the chair, sir.

 

[wout]

Thank you PH
Understand the 01 was intended as club aircraft that could do aerobatics. View the only 50hp Aster engine (licence-built Walter Mikron 4-III), I can understand she was often flown as single-seater.

Best challenge is certainly a single-sweater.

 

[Moses03]

Walter- One of the few retractable gear Fokker D.XXI's methinks.

 

[wout]

Hi Kevin
As usual, your thoughts are straigthened out very well.
Go ahead, Sir.

 

[lefty]

I'm going to be naughty and sling in a quick one while Kevin is still a-slumber - I'm sure he won't mind.........he likes multi-engine jobs.......

(Picture courtesy of my old friend Rolf Palio from Scheveningen)

 

[giruXX]

Aprilia XC-01

abandoned the next day in favour of their scooters which sold better

 

[Moses03]

Lefty stole my April 1st thunder with the Curtiss-Wright CW-32 mockup!

I will spare you all another one in favor of a real effort.