windham monoplane 1909

Varese2002 · 16 June 2008, 02:50 PM

The New York Public Library has an exceedingly large and complete collection of Will's cigarettes cards on all sort of subjects. The whole subject list can be found here.

The Windham machine was one in a series of 75 published between 1901 and 1917 (!). All 75 are scanned front and back and presented starting here. Scan quality is good, but I think the scan presented by Dan is slightly greater.

The article of Windham is not available online, it is probably buried in the great libraries under heaps of dust. I will try to unearth this one, but it will take time (possibly months) because the description where it is to be found is not very specific.

Cheers

Kees

berman · 12 September 2008, 02:02 PM

I obtained a CD from the RMSC in New York and had the 14 prints made from it. The detail is far better than can be seen on a computer screen. In the photo of Cooley holding the model (see post #26), you can see the fraying of the linen of full size aircraft. The threads are white which would eliminate the possibility of the linen being dyed red. Since red paint was quite expensive at the time and the paint on the aircraft is quite well covered, most likely black paint was used.
On the rear steel post that extends from the fuselage, I believe that I can make out the hollow tee through which a cable was ran to support the rear portion of the wing. I assume the rear wing was quite close in configuration to the model. Anyone have a better guess? Any ideas on how the horizontal king post, just aft of the forward canard was rigged?
From my estimations and basic measurements of the photos, it seems that the props were six feet in diameter and the wheels were two feet in diameter. Would love to see a photo with the rear wing in place. See post #26 for photo of front wing.

berman · 15 September 2008, 11:41 AM

I have determined that the support rigging cables on the rear spar are 48 inches apart. Using this as a guide, I revise my earlier conclusions about the props and wheel sizes. The propeller is eight feet in diameter and the wheels are approxiamately thirty two inches in diameter.
Any members out there with a WWI Aero magazine photo to three view software program?

aerohydro · 30 March 2010, 12:47 PM

Here is a newly found photo of the Windham tandem monoplane:

It shows, to good effect, the business end of this design. Note the radiator, which may well have been sourced/salvaged/purloined from an automobile. Also how the lacing up and tensioning of the wing coverings was done. And also how they bound the lengths of bamboo.

Cheers,
Paul

ermeio · 30 March 2010, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berman

I have determined that the support rigging cables on the rear spar are 48 inches apart. Using this as a guide, I revise my earlier conclusions about the props and wheel sizes. The propeller is eight feet in diameter and the wheels are approxiamately thirty two inches in diameter.
Any members out there with a WWI Aero magazine photo to three view software program?

Hi, Berman, I have bought the software some years ago, but I did never use that.
I think that today you will not even be able to start it, since it was intended for dos-OS powered PCs.
I have the disks, but not here ... a couple of months and I can search for them.

I have seen a photo to three view program for windows some days ago, but it was expensive, so I didn't save the link.
I'm still planning to trace a drawing of this machine, but these days I'm out of time.
best regards ermeio