 Flying the replica of a Curtis pusher, what could you tell me about your plane? It was built by an EAA group at Deer Park, New York, who were six and a half years building on it and never flew it out of an airport. I've owned it about a little over eight years. I've flown it 326 flights and each flight is the event as one of them was today. I've flown at Reno at the Air Races of Florida a couple times, six times here, at Navy Base in Corpus at Omaha off of Air Force. I've flown it quite a few places. Luckily I've gotten back intact every time, but it's not a very good flying airplane. It's not a lot of fun to fly when it's rough and hot. I've flown, started flying in 29 airline for 28 years during the war and the last five years flew DC7Cs, which were capable of flying for a brand of airlines, capable of flying nonstop from Dallas to Paris if I had enough gas in. Also I flew Dallas to New York and Chicago, but I also flew some charter trips that the company had football teams and all during the war primarily flew Dallas to Chicago just past that field airplane. Now what else are you doing? Do you know any information about the original Curtis pusher when it was built? You mean this one? The Curtis of course were built in from about 1967 or 1968 along there and so forth and every airplane those days was a different size and type and they were still fishing. They weren't like Model T's where they all the same. This is about like they were in 1912, is heavier than the same size airplane. Most of theirs were a little larger than this. This is all well that inside if it were not pretty strong I wouldn't haul around the country and have fun with it. It looks enough like the original where if Glenn Curtis was here he'd know what we were imitating. Okay, do you have any favorite flying stories you'd like to share with us? With this? With anything. Well I'm just fortunate to still be here. I've had a lot of things happen down through the line whether to kind of minus the lightning-burner antennas and holes and wings the landing once with one inch and feathered and three of them in reverse on the final two complete radio failures due to electrical systems and so forth the baggage bin and seats pull loose the cabin in thunderstorms and then ice up to where we kept reporting losing altitude and couldn't hold it finally got the control of things. I've had a lot of things happen down through the years. How do you like your piece of flying being followed by the Concorde? It's a little beyond me. Instantly some of my buddies who used to fly a co-pilot with me flew Concorde for a while between Dallas and Washington and then the British foot in Washington, Paris and I've talked to them extensively and they said it took about two months training to get through all the systems to be able to fly it. Of course any good pilot can fly another airplane if he's given an opportunity to get practiced up in it and learn the systems. Assuming he's a pretty good pilot to start with. And I've flown the DC-7C's that I flew as his large four-inch airplane that was being operated before the straight jets came and then in the early days I have flown some trips when there was one round trip a day between Dallas and Houston and room for two passengers. That's all the service. Now there's about 40 or so airline trips a day back and forth and of course there's no railroad service. So I've seen considerable change. In the early days they didn't have runways. When I first flew into love field at Dallas they had no runways. It was the fielders out in the country now surrounded by build-ups and so forth and the airplanes then had no brakes and they had no starters and they had no flaps and a lot of things that nowadays people think they have to have. No radio, nobody would tell you where to go when they do it. So there's a whole lot of difference. The first person who flew in those days couldn't get the first base on some of this stuff but by the same token I sold the Bonanza to a captain in the Air Force who was based at Laredo about three years ago. He paid the money I went out twice to show him how to fly and it was hot and gusty. He'd make a fine descent but he couldn't line up with the runway because he couldn't be the runner. The Bonanza has a tail like this and it kind of unstable and goes back and forth and then the jets on the takeoff they use the nose wheel steering and they don't use the rudder. So the result was we flew three times about an hour and a half of whack and he'd bought it and he finally went to Laredo and made it. But that shows the difference. He'd been instructing two years teaching people to fly and that and it flew so much different than another airplane. Can you explain your unique style of starting your plane with the help of two pullers? Starting to plane the engines off with the two pullers. To start it, if you stand in and pull it, hand pull it, you're too close to the propeller. So if you start it with the wires and things down here you might trip and get into it. If you stand back at this place it's too far out when you can't get a good chunk. So I talked to my dogs and they gave me their dog bowl and I cut it up and put it on there and I wrap rope around it and that way we spin the motor good. It starts every time even though usually when the starter man falls down but that doesn't matter. I warn them in advance. If you haul the airplane a thousand miles or so as I have and get ready to fly and it won't start you're kind of upset. But this way while we can really spin it and nine times out of ten, I prime it, pull it through four compressions, wrap the rope five times, put three or four fellas on, bam, it's gone. Okay, that's about it unless you want to say anything else. Well I might tell you that I'm 81 and 1-6 and still trying to hold. My two best buddies are playing the harp and they're going to teach me how when I get there and so it's kind of unpleasant going and playing it. They both up more Air Force or Chief Pilot of Braniff and so forth and I'm traveling alone and it's a bit difficult. Maybe next year I'll have some other fellas broken in if I make it again. Thank you. The Concorde is British Airways supersonic jet that flies at Mach 2 which is twice the speed of sound. It was a major display at the 88 flying and made five local flights of one hour each which many consider a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity after its four-day stay in Oshkosh at Departee for London. Power is supplied by four Rolls-Royce Smikma Olympus 593 engines which are mounted in pairs on each wing. Each engine is capable of generating 38,000 pounds of thrust. The Concorde carries 100 passengers all for its class and cruise at an altitude of 55 to 60,000 feet. Its cruising speed is approximately 1,300 miles per hour which is twice the speed of sound. Bleach-stift, yeah. Do you have a blind-stift? No, I don't. Can I have my blind-stift? Can I have the blind-stift? Ah, yeah, a blind-stift. Life is beautiful, but you can have it cheaper but it's not that beautiful anymore. Life is nice but expensive. You can have it cheaper but then it is not quite so nice. People with a lot of brass don't have enough polish, right? Good, good. Okay, I don't believe that you're 87 years old. You don't believe it? No, no. Sometimes people are skeptical. Let me prove it to you though, Fred. Fred, I've been flying since 1930 when I was 29 years old. This is my vintage license, my pilot license that I got in 1930. You see what happened? The reason I look a little bit younger than 87 is because in 1932 I had a brand new travel air biplane. This is the travel air that I had and I was a bush pilot up in the Northwest Territory now called Alaska. One day I was out on a mission and a freak storm was approaching so I landed on an iceberg. When I saw the storm coming I jumped out of my traveler, began running and the freezing rain hit me and put me and my traveler into a frozen state of suspended animation. I just thought out last year and I saw that my vintage airplane, now vintage airplane, it was brand new at the time that I was flying it, had left. Someone had stolen my travel air but the tracks were left going down to the lower 48 and so now I'm in search of my travel air all over the country. Have you seen my travel air? Not I. I've flown in five of them since I've begun my hitchhiking journey around America and it's quite as nice as mine did. Was it a 2000 travel air or a 4000? It was a 4000. No, now I saw a 2000. You did? Can you tell me where I want to look this person up and see if it's mine? Well at 91, my memory's a little old. You're 91. You're older than me. That's good. I like older men. Oh that's good. Well have you thought out yet? Pardon me? Have you thought out yet? My brain is thawed and some people tell me that my brain my brain is thawed too but they don't really know me. I'm really a sane person. You're warm to the touch now, huh? Yes. Real warm to the touch? No, wait a minute. Now don't maul the AVA tricks. AVA tricks? I just want to see how if you're warm that's all. Some more. Some of these guys, boy. You gotta... Aviators. Sure. Some have the devil in them. You know she's an ace now. She just bagged her sixth aviator. You gotta watch out for some of these aviators. Okay. That is very nice. Thank you. How did you come by that? I told you. Some of my instructors were Wilbur Wright. Longway Corrigan was my navigation instructor. And as you see, Roscoe Turner taught me Montefi. Montefi, that is amazing. Thank you. Thank you. But he's got... He's got white out. He's discovered the white out. This is really neat. Official souvenir of the... Leave on air races. Yes. Okay. What do you have here? This for you, for your travels. Oh. 101st Aerospotter. This is so special. Whatever. This is so special. Thank you. This is lovely. I will wear this and cherish it. I have something for you also. You give me your pen. I will give you my pen. I will make you an air adventurer. Would you like to join my club? I'm starting a club for people who love old aeroplanes. Well, sure. Okay. Let me... You better put it over. First you must take the pledge, however. You must stand and repeat after me. To the best of my ability... To the best of my ability. I pledge to support... The ideals and principles... Of air adventurers... And will do all in my power... To further the advance of aviation. To further the advance of aviation. Congratulations, Fred. You're our newest air adventurer. So help me, Richard Bach. And I will give you your air adventurer's membership card in a few minutes. In the meantime, for being so kind and giving me this beautiful pen from the Royal Air Force, I would like you to have an air adventurer's wingpin. These go to honorary members. Where would you like it? Right there? Okay. Put it right there. You can button it. I will. You want to go to dinner now? I would love to go to dinner. Let's go to dinner. Martha, could you explain what you're doing here this weekend at the EAA convention? Well, I'm meeting a lot of the people that wrote me letters with regards to my barnstorming USA project. What I'm doing is I'm hitchhiking rides in vintage aeroplanes all over the United States of America for a six-month period of time. Okay, have you found any unusual things on your way? I sure have. So far, since May 28th, when I began the journey, I've flown with 79 pilots through 19 states and have flown in three P-51s, three AT-6s that's a warbird from World War II. I've flown in five travel airs from the late 20s and early 30s, four Wacos, let's see, Stearman's Cubs and some one-of-a-kind airplanes like Channing Clark's Fleetwings Seabird from 1936. Besides the rain right now, we're having air shows going on. What are you trying to accomplish with your trips? Well, I'm just having a lot of fun, really, but as I go information from people, notes from people about themselves for a book that I'll adventure. Your name, sir? My name is Fred Jung-Clause. Okay, can you tell me a little bit about your plane here? Yeah, this is a replica of a 1918 SE-5A British World War I fighter. It was made by the Royal Aircraft Factory in England. This particular replica and numbers followed by the 4th Ranked Age of World War I for the United States side, Colonel George Vaughn Jr., George A. Vaughn Jr. He flew for the 84th RAF Squadron up until mid-1918, at which time he came over to the 17th U.S. Camel Squadron where he flew us up with Camel. He was replicated at the Air Force Museum and I thought it'd be really a tribute to the time he spent in the RAF to replicate the SE-5 in his colors. In 1977, I wrote him a letter and he responded that he had no photographs of his airplane, but he did make a drawing and he was 80 at the time of his squadron insignia and also the other markings. I've flown this airplane the first time on June 29th this year. On July 2nd, I was able to call a general and tell him that the airplane flown a bigger thrill for me than him, certainly. How many other events like this do you attend to plane? Well, I've only got 34 hours on this airplane totally. Last weekend I was able to go to the Dayton Air Show and show it there. So I've only been to Oshkosh and the Dayton Air Show so far, but that's again within about a 30 hour or an hour a day. What do you think about the program going on here? The biggest thrill of my life, one fellow said, I live in southern Indiana, he said how long did it take you to come here? I said 12 years. That's how long it took me to build this airplane, three times longer than World War I lasted. Anything else you'd like to add? That's about it. It's just a tribute to General George A. Vaughn Jr. highest ranking American ace champion. Okay, thank you. Anything else, Martha, you'd like to say were you planning going from here? I could ramble on forever if you wanted me to. From here I've got to go across the top western states on over to George Washington and Montana. And then I'll zip back across the top and go through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, up into the New England and I should be back in Orlando, Florida where I began my journey. I should be there. Where you came up with this unusual plane? Well my name is Jim Hay and my brother actually came up with this unusual plane. It's his project or his creation. I helped him a little bit on it, you know. But I don't like to take credit for this too much. That's my son here, he's going to put some water in here so he's going over heat. Maybe he ought to get some more, huh? I think that's enough for now. He uses quite a bit of water from flying too many missions? Right, well, yeah. It's from running, sitting here idling in the sun, idling in the sun that's our cooling system right there. We just saw him put water in and that's our cooling system. What type of engine do you have? This is a Stover Farm engine. I don't know. This is a 1923 or something and it runs I think it's about three horsepower like that, two and a half, three horsepower. Where did you come up with the idea? My brother had this engine and he wanted to put it in something so he started out making this car and he just ran it as a car well then we were so involved in the air show he thought well I've got to put wings on it, you know and what he built this for was he runs it a lot in parades and runs it around in our local area. Do you think you have a pretty good pad near for planes of the future? Oh no, well we tell anyone who wants to steal any of these ideas, feel perfectly free to just take whatever they want. Okay, as far as that can and is that operational? No, it's not. It could be made operational though but it's not loaded, that's why it's not operational. You'd need a ball and some powder and a rag and a plunger to get it loaded which means that the spider airplane once you got it in the air would really only basically have one shot. Be a hell of a shot though when you shot it. Do you have any future plans for revamping or making improvements on this plane? Oh, I think it's gone as far as it can technically. I mean I think this is as much improvement as anyone would ever want to see made of this thing that we made to it. It's all made out of the finest oak and the finest rusty steel. One problem is very common there is nuts and bolts coming loose. We found out that if you put just raw nuts and bolts on and let them rust down, they never come loose. We've solved a lot of technical things at flagging aviation industry for years. The front wheels used to be about just one tire to keep wearing down. Any landings, take-offs? No, taxing tests. Yeah, we're not ready for landing a take-off yet. We figure about five to eight more years of taxing tests and we'll be ready for a take-off. Then we've got to find a runway that goes downhill about 45 degrees and ends with a cliff there. And then we need a five-pound pilot who's really stupid. Do you have two old finding crew members? No, no, we just recruited my son here. No, we don't have any trouble finding crew members. Finding clean crew members, you have trouble. There's oil and sprays out of this thing all over. I do have trouble finding somebody who really wants to fly it though and we decide to fly. We're going to have somebody put names in a hat or something and draw a straw. There'll have to be something like that. I have to think of something more devious than that. Somebody you hate. They're like an odd man out-contest or something. The biggest loser of the week is something like that. You know, would have to be the one to fly it. Not anybody I hate.