Bullets for sure travel fast, but usually don’t land successfully.
There were many racers given that particular name, and this
is one of them, a bullet with a three-blade propeller in the rear. Some say it
was fast because it didn’t want to get caught by its own prop.
The Gallaudet A-1 Bullet was a design made especially for
the 1912 Gordon Bennett race but unfortunately crashed in a practice flight and
was later a victim of lengthy discussions and diverse criteria on how to modify
it. It didn’t make it to the race. The process somehow resembles congress politics.
In any case it was a fairly simple, although intelligent
design, complicated only by its control system that was apparently the cause of
its sudden demise before it could show its worth.
A rotary engine was located in the front of the fuselage and
a transmission carried the power to the pusher prop. This configuration was
also present in the Tatin Aero Torpille of 1911, and the Borel Torpille of
1913.
Fast for its time, clean looking in a way, given the time
period, when you could barely discern a plane from the maze of wires, flying
surfaces, controls and engines. It had all-flying tail surfaces, and they were
very small compared to the area of the wing.
If you are thinking of going scratch, this is the kind of
endeavor you should pursue. The basic structure as seen in the accompanying
photos was built in 2 hours. 78 more were previously spent in research, and 42
in finishing, not bad for a thing that can fit into your pocket. Just kidding.
The necessary data came mainly from one of Bill Hannan’s
lovely publications (GBs &
Gee Bees) and from contributions at the Wings of Peace forum -in the
form of rolling eyes, suffocated laughter and suggestions to dedicate my time
to collecting pre-historic Finnish scissors. Well, they also helped me with
information.
Again, this was 1912, so a heck of a design for the time. It
could pass today for a coffee maker or a cheese grater on a shelf at a fancy-schmancy
design store.
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