Quintessential Deco
The very polished lines of this Curtiss Conqueror-powered
sleek Gamma are a thing of beauty. Radial gammas are equally appealing, but
this is a variant I have never seen modeled.
The original plane, commissioned by Jackie Cochran for the
MacRobertson race wasn't a successful one, and left Jackie Cochran without a
plane before even starting. This was not Jackie's fault, the plane's or
Northrop's, but of an ill-fated attempt at breeding more horses from the engine
on part of Curtiss.
After several flops the plane was re-engined back to radial
and flown in the Bendix by Jackie, who had to drop due to mechanical issues. Later it was leased by cheeky and sneaky (know the Horton Wingless story?) Howard
Hughes, who beat some records with it, but sources state that the plane went up
in smoke, literally, in a fire, later on.
The plan I followed was from the Spring 1990 AAHS journal,
and there is a similar one in one of the two tomes of the Hirsh air race book.
It is a good plan and I am glad there is even one, but, as all plans, it has inaccuracies, easily discovered when you check
them against photos. Just one as an example: the reg. under the wing in the
plan runs perpendicular to the thrust line, while in reality it runs parallel
to the leading edge (i.e.: angled). The regs go parallel as said to the leading
edge, above and bellow the wing, in all 2D and 2G Gammas, unlike Ellsworth's
and Sky Chief's planes where they run span-wise, perpendicular to the fuselage.
This in not a really intricate conversion although it
requires work, and as you may tell from the building post the replacement nose
took quite some fiddling. The Williams Bros Gamma kits are ubiquitous and
easily obtainable, and many more conversions can be attempted with this kit
(besides the ones already provided with it), and I am planning to build some
more if I can.
Regarding this Conqueror that didn't conquer, please note:
As X13761 it had a nose-top airscoop faring.
As NC13761 it did not, and had a directional-finder loop
antenna and a Venturi on the right side of the fuselage, close to the front
cockpit.
My thanks, once more, to Mika Jernfors of Arctic Decals, who
provided the nice markings with his habitual well-printed, well-researched,
detail-oriented work.
It is a sort of gray day today in the Los Angeles area, with a beautiful marine layer overcast, but when the sun is out I'll take and post more photos.
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