March 29, 2011 Sport Air Racing

The Liberty Gazette
March 29, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Peering out the windshield through the brilliant sunlight we search for what might be a needle in a haystack. There on the horizon, appearing as a small crack in the otherwise flat ground, that crack splits open further, becoming a canyon and down in it a mesa comes into view. Our air race turn-point is the southwest corner of that mesa. It’s pretty bumpy flying low as the hot air rises from the broken terrain below us, and we are flying flat-out as fast as the little Cheetah will go. Sweeping low, we pivot around the turn point making sure not to cut the corner but staying very close, then on to the next turn point.

Linda: Such was our introduction to the Sport Air Racing League which begins its fifth season April 2nd in Taylor, Texas. There are currently twenty races on the schedule this season. They range from as far west as Wenatchee, Washington and St. Thomas, Canada to the northeast at Elkton, Maryland. Pagosa Springs, Colorado will offer the highest field elevation at 7,664 feet above sea level and a new race in Galveston will be our lowest, right at sea level. There will be a new race in my home town – home of the “Indy 500”.

Mike: While most of the volunteers for the inaugural Indy Air Race are local, Linda is the remotely located Race Director. One task of the Race Director is to create a race course that is challenging, fun and safe. We choose prominent landmarks easily identified from the air, then determine the coordinates to be entered as turn points into a GPS.

Linda: These air races are not much of a spectator sport. However, at Indy we’ll have a big show, with displays, and an Official Starter, our family friend, retired Indy racer, Bob Harkey. Bob recently sold his Stearman biplane but he’ll get the race going and it will be a treat for everyone who comes in contact with him.

Mike: The zany pilots of the league are fun to be around. This group is very social as well as competitive. Since there is no purse, the contestants are only in it for the fun and bragging rights. Our league pilots who compete in the Reno National Air Races say they have more fun flying Sport Air races. Big egos need not apply. We do get some homemade stickers for our planes and at the end of the year trophies are given out for points. This all started when Mike Thompson, SARL president, was at the F-1 Rocket race and fly-in five years ago. Now it’s grown into this league known as “air racing for the rest of us.” Thompson still awards the “Fastest Rocket in the Known Universe” title each year.

Linda: Camaraderie went a step further when asking for recommendations for an overhaul shop for our engine. One of our fellow racers stepped up offering his mechanic services to get us up in the air sooner. He sends pictures of our engine in pieces and asks questions like “Now what?” We will miss the first two or three races due to the overhaul, but we’ll make the rest; and I expect that after some modifications we’ll have the “Fastest Cheetah in the Known Universe.”

http://www.elyairlines.blogspot.com/

March 22, 2011 Young Eagles

The Liberty Gazette

March 22, 2011

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: We’re gearing up for another Young Eagles event, this time at the Pearland Regional Airport, 9 a.m., March 26th. The Young Eagles program was a vision of Tom Poberezny to introduce youngsters to aviation. Tom is the former president of the Experimental Aircraft Association and son of Paul Poberezny, the association’s founder. It’s truly amazing how many people, after discovering a passion for aviation, say they never considered it before. Aviation advocates have been scratching our collective heads for years trying to figure out why this is.

Why has the pilot population decreased when the reliance on air services has never been greater? In an age where we demand quick results, shipping products, transporting people, and performing aerial services, such as crop dusting, aerial surveying, photography, law enforcement and emergency response, movement by air is the best mankind has to offer right now.

Nineteen years ago Tom Poberezny flew the first Young Eagles. It was during the annual AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The goal then seemed unattainable to some nay-sayers, but Tom believed the aviation community could do it: fly a million youngsters by December 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the first flight by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk.

That goal wasn’t just reached, it was surpassed. How it happened, and what lies ahead, appear in Tom’s recent commentary, “Brace for Impact” (Sport Aviation, March, 2011) – his title taken from the phrase made famous by Captain Sullenburger, who now co-chairs the EAA’s Young Eagles Program with his co-pilot, Jeffrey Skiles. They took over the reins from pilot/actor Harrison Ford in 2009, after their successful Hudson River landing.

Poberezny wrote that “there are thousands of people who have the soul of an aviator…but who have not yet discovered flying personally.” Survey responses by tens of thousands of pilots echoed “we want others to experience this.” The soul of an aviator. I like that.

Mike: The astounding statistics of Young Eagles speak of that soul; the program’s incredible success is evidence of doors waiting to be opened, that personal discovery of flight would stir the soul.

Now, 1.6 million Young Eagles flown by 43,000 pilots have their names entered in the World’s Largest Logbook.

The EAA teamed up with the FAA to compare notes. Now that the oldest Young Eagle would be 35, how many have earned a pilot license? The results in Tom’s report are encouraging: “Young people ages 15-24 who have participated in Young Eagles are 5.4 times more likely to obtain a pilot certificate than those who have not had such introductory flight.” What’s more, the aviation industry has gained flight instructors, aircraft mechanics, and air traffic controllers who were Young Eagles.

These are the results envisioned, but one surprise will likely lead to a few changes in the program. The focus has been to take youngsters for their first flight, repeat flights being optional. Now that we know that the more often a Young Eagle flies, the greater the chance he or she will become a pilot, repeat flights will be encouraged. Young Eagles will still be open to participants as young as 8 years old, but the information emerging identifies the 13 to 17 age group as the most likely to take to the skies.

Somewhere deep down, Poberezny knew he was right – that someday the proof would be “an example of the can-do spirit” at the core of the aviator’s soul.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 15, 2011 A little local news

The Liberty Gazette

March 15, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Lots of news has been piling up in the world of aviation, from here in Liberty and beyond. The Valentine’s Treasure Hunt made several national aviation publications and feedback has been great. Participants enjoyed the hunt, and once again our belief that airports are for people who don’t fly was confirmed. We tout the economic benefits of airports, seeing proof time after time. I ran into Sherry Mettlen in Thrifty Foods the other day and she was all smiles, as is usual for Sherry. She’s a living advertisement for Carol Bond Health Foods because she never runs out of energy or cheerfulness. In fact, as we were registering pilots to fly in the hunt, we began to run low on the liability waivers they have to sign. Sherry rushed one across the street to RJR Floor Covering, and in typical small-town-friendly style, they made ten more copies for us. Isn’t it great when people work together for good?

Sherry was quite excited to tell me how she’s already benefited just from that one fly-in event. She has a new customer who is ordering supplements. He came for the treasure hunt and because Sherry was there to promote her business and the Liberty area in general, she gained a customer, and no doubt she made a positive impact on behalf of the airport, the people, and the town. We need more Sherrys in this world. I know of a few airports in other cities that face difficult situations with neighbors. Why anyone who doesn’t like airplanes would buy a house next to an airport is beyond me, but it happens. That’s one reason TXDOT was adamant while I was on the Airport Advisory Board that Liberty needed height hazard zoning. Its airspace zoning that complies with FAA standards to protect both airplanes and people on the ground. And it helps when people are real estate shopping, they will find out (if airplanes low overhead aren’t enough) that they’re near an airport, and that airport needs to have its airspace protected. It took awhile to get accomplished, but when the cities of Ames and Liberty and Liberty County finally formed the Height Hazard Zoning Board those protections were put into place. A lot of improvements can be made on what we have, and the airport has a friend at City Hall in Gary Broz.

Meanwhile, we’re facing a major overhaul on the Cheetah. During a regular inspection we discovered cylinder #3 was cracked. We got more time out of the engine than the manufacturer thought we would, so we can’t complain. And now will be the perfect time to upgrade the stock engine. Its 150 horsepower from the factory is de-rated by the stock exhaust system, by about ten horsepower. Installing an upgraded exhaust system can raise the horsepower to its rated 150, and we’ll see an increase in our cruise speed. One of three other major modifications we’re considering will improve engine cooling by changing the cowling. Cheetah cylinders typically run hot, so that modification is quite popular, as is a cylinder compression upgrade to 160 horsepower. All this will probably lead to a new propeller, but I’ll have to use my feminine wits to break that news to Mike. You know how it is when we women go shopping.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 8, 2011 Lance Borden, part 5

The Liberty Gazette

March 8, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: It’s time to wrap up our series on Dewey Bonbrake, designer and builder of the Inland airplanes, and Lance Borden, his grandson, where we left off with Lance in Laos.

After 20 months in Southeast Asia, Lance was honorably discharged. Having relatives in Houston and not wanting to return to Ohio he took his skills to Associated Radio Service Company at Hobby Airport. Eventually he and a couple partners opened their own radio shop called Airtronics. However, three months into the new business, with lots of customers and things going well, including becoming a licensed pilot, Bell Helicopter came courting with an offer he couldn’t refuse. Lance made arrangements for his replacement and moved to Isfahan, Iran to work for Bell as a Senior Avionics Tech. A move to engineering brought him a promotion to Chief Armament Engineer, where Lance worked on the weapon systems on helicopters. It was during this five-year stint in Iran when Lance obtained his FAA Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic certificate, making him a pilot and an airplane mechanic.

Mike: Due to the Iranian Revolution Lance returned to Houston where he joined Boeing’s electronics team at the Johnson Space Center for the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory. Working nights, attending school during the day, he earned an Associate’s Degree in Aviation Maintenance Technology with a 3.9 GPA.

When a NAVAIDS engineer position opened with Rockwell, Lance applied with confidence; even though he wasn’t a degreed engineer he knew more about NAVAIDS than anyone. Rockwell hired him as one of two Shuttle NAVAIDS engineers in Orbiter Engineering. He took home volumes of books to study. Boeing bought Rockwell Aerospace in 1996 and in 2002 made Lance the Space Shuttle NAVAIDS Subsystem Manager until he retired in 2008 after 29 years at the Space Center. Now a consultant for Boeing, when the last Space Shuttle Mission is flown this year, Lance will be one a small cadre of folks having worked every single mission.

Linda: Lance’s grandfather, taught him how to make crystal radios. The Houston Vintage Radio Association asked Lance, a vintage radio collector, to write an article detailing how to build a good crystal radio for a contest they were having. The article was a hit, and was published nationally in Electronics Handbook Magazine. When the magazine’s editor asked for more, Lance wrote eight more articles including one about make-shift radios built by World War II G.I.s in their foxholes. He told readers where to get parts but they wanted kits. So for over 15 years now, Borden Radio Company has kept him busy selling kits world-wide. Much to his wife’s chagrin, the whole upstairs of their house is taken over with his radio business. His website is: http://www.xtalman.com/.

These days, when Lance isn’t putting together crystal radio sets, he can be found in his hangar where he’s restoring one of his grandfather’s airplanes, a 1929 Inland Sport, or out flying around in his 1948 Luscombe. It’s been great fun writing about the Inland airplanes, Lance and his family. No doubt, this story needs a feature write up in an aviation magazine, but for now, we hope you’ve enjoyed reading about some intriguing American history.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

March 1, 2011 Lance Borden, part 4

The Liberty Gazette
March 1, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: We’ve only scratched the surface of some fascinating history, from the development of the Inland Aviation Company, the design of the Inland Sport and other models, to the grandson of the Inland’s designer-builder, Lance Borden. We left off last week with Lance in Laos, involved in secret government operations at the height of the war in Vietnam, and you’re reading this as told to us from the source.

The cliff at the end of the runway in Moung Soui didn’t leave much room for mistakes. A T-28 was on takeoff when Lance heard someone say it crashed. Lance jumped on a bomb jammer and rode down the flight line to find the T-28 turned around, upside-down, canopy open. He could see fuel spilling out and heard the boost pumps running. Charging up with his GI issue P-38 folding pocket can opener, Lance accessed the battery compartment and disconnected the battery, preventing an explosion, as others removed the pilot from the cockpit. Suddenly a Sikorsky “Jolly Green Giant,” helicopter showed up and rescuers went to work on the pilot. They placed him in inflatable casts and transported him to the hospital at Udorn. He survived.

No one knew who called in the helicopter so quickly but many years later while working at Johnson Space Center Lance ended up working alongside a retired Air Force Colonel who flew F-105s out of Thailand. The Colonel mentioned having seen a T-28 crash on take-off in Laos. Turns out, he was the one who had called the air ambulance: Col. James “Bruce” Broussard, 333rd Fighter Group, Taklhi Royal Air Base, Thailand. The rescuers involved were told they would receive bronze stars, but they never did. Probably, Lance surmises, because these were secret operations.

Mike: “Luang Prabang” (code name: Lima 54), located at the junction of the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers, Lance says, “was the closest thing to Shang-ri-la I can think of; a gorgeous little town in the mountains, near China.” He transferred there from Moung Soui when a position opened for an aircraft radio guy. They put him in charge of the bomb depot too, storing the bombs that arrived in Air America C130s. “All the guys shared a house in town, crossing the Nam Kong River to get to the airport,” Lance says. “Some of the guys have been back and say the house is still there.”

While at Luang Prabang, Lance was able to fly often thanks to the Ravens and some of the Thai and Lao pilots. They liked having an extra set of eyes in the cockpit. Another adventure occurred while riding in the back of an Air America C-46. Flying low–standard operating procedure for where they were–and heavy with all sorts of tools when an engine quit, the airplane, unable to maintain altitude due to its weight, began to sink towards rising terrain. Everyone started tossing things out of the plane’s open rear door trying to keep it aloft. Just as they were about to toss the last crate, the pilots got the engine restarted.

They faced dangers near the battlefield and even at their house. The facilities where they worked were always susceptible to attack.

After 20 months “in country,” Lance was honorably discharged in California, choosing Houston as his next stop. Our country has benefited from Lance’s choices. We’ll share more on that next week. Till then, blues skies.

http://www.elyairlines.blogspot.com/

February 22, 2011 Lance Borden, part 3

The Liberty Gazette

February 22, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Last week we left you in 1968, at the height of war in Vietnam. 21-year-old Lance Borden had found himself in the middle of neighboring Laos; his primary job, repairing and replacing radio equipment in the North American T-28s flown by Laotian and Thai pilots and the Cessna 0-1 Birddogs flown by the group known as The Ravens. If no radio work was needed, Lance helped load and arm bombs and rockets and aided in pulling the T-28 props through during the starting sequence of their big radial engines. He helped fuel airplanes, which at first was out of 55-gallon drums using hand pumps. The fuel truck was a welcome piece of equipment.

If a pilot returned from a mission and needed radio work, he signaled Lance by cupping his hands over his ears, and Lance, in his agile youth, would leap and grasp the plane’s big machine gun and flip himself up on to the wing. The pilot would tell him the problem with his radios and he’d fix it. This went on until December, 1968, when Lance went further “up country” to a special operation in Moung Soui, Laos.

Linda: Moung Soui was labeled Lima 108 on military maps. Its runway was made of Pierced Steel Planking (PSP). The metal mat made a quick-build runway overlaying red dirt where nothing grew because of the Agent Orange dropped there regularly. There was little shelter against the elements or enemy, just a couple small buildings and some bunkers in case of attack. The men spent most of their time on the flight line; Project 404 was the name of their program–code name: Palace Dog.

Leaving the base at Udorn before sunrise, Lance flew 30 to 40 minutes to Vientiane, waited for another C-46 that took another hour to arrive in Moung Soui. He worked all day as airplanes took off on sorties and returned to be refueled and rearmed, then did it all again. The fighting was close; the T-28s’ missions rarely lasted more than 30 minutes. The Birddogs might fly for a couple hours. Most of the U.S.-supported Hmong controlled the high mountaintop ground. The Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese controlled the valleys. At day’s end Lance and the others boarded another shuttle returning to Udorn. They’d worked all day in Moung Soui supporting the air operations. Returning to Udorn, they changed into their USAF fatigues, then once off base, changed back to civvies to go out partying all night – youth.

Mike: Every once in a while Lance rode along in 0-1 Birddogs on missions; the pilots even let him fly. He saw them fire their rockets; Birddogs carried 2.5” diameter FFARs – Folding Fin Aerial Rockets, two per side. U-17s (Cessna 185s) carried four per side. Then he watched the T28s diving in afterwards, performing their air strikes. He rode in the back of a T-28 once, carrying cluster bombs on a combat mission. They flew into a fortification, saw the shooting below, dove in, dropped their load, pulled up and rolled inverted to watch where they hit – impressive for an adventurous young man. But as he returned to his duties he knew the war wasn’t far away.

Next week we’ll tell of Lance’s final assignment in Laos before returning State side. Until then, blue skies.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 15, 2011 Lance Borden, part 2

The Liberty Gazette

February 15, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: July, 1968, Sergeant Lance Borden was transferred to Udorn AFB, Northern Thailand. “When I arrived in Thailand I sat in the Central Base Processing Office all day. All the other guys were being processed leaving another avionics tech from a B52 base in Mississippi and myself the only two left at closing time.” Very curious about their future, they reminded the men in charge that they had not been processed. “We know,” was the response.

Their 432nd Combat Support Group orders were replaced with new ones assigning them to Detachment 1, 56th Air Commando Wing there at Udorn. Voicing their concern, “We’re not Air Commandos, we’re electronics guys,” was only met with, “Yeah, I know,” and an escort to a waiting area where Sergeant Dennis, sporting an Aussie hat with the brim folded up on one side, with AIR COMMANDO emblazoned on it in large black letters, bloused fatigues and jungle boots would pick them up in a Jeep. Riding in the Jeep past the Air America ramp to the 56th Air Commando Wing facilities, Lance and the other tech could only imagine why they were there and what their assignment would be. On the flight line were T-28 Trojans and O-1 Birddogs used by the legendary Forward Air Controller group, The Ravens. Then they saw it: a full set of shops; sheet metal, engine, avionics. The Air Commando Wing’s flight school was training Thai and Laotian pilots to fly T-28s. Lance’s job would be to work on the radios in these aircraft.

Linda: Time passed, and while working at Udorn, Lance occasionally met fellow servicemen as they returned from “up country,” meaning Laos where the CIA was waging a Secret War against an estimated 10,000 North Vietnamese troops in Laos who along with the Pro-communist Pathet Lao, were protecting the Ho Chi Minh Trail, their main supply route to South Vietnam, the major portion of which cut through Laos. Stories of great adventure and even getting to fly with the pilots in the back seat of the Birddogs intrigued the youthful, adventuresome Lance. He gave it some thought: he, too, could go “up country,” but that’s where the fighting was; then again, the combat pay rate was tempting. He volunteered to go. A secret operation, Lance was briefed that he could not speak anything about it for 10 years.

Mike: In September 1968, Lance began taking the daily shuttle from Udorn to Vientiane, the administrative capital of Laos situated on the Mekong River across the border from Thailand. The shuttle, code name: Alley Cat, consisted of Curtiss C-46 Commandos, DeHavilland DHC-4 Caribous and C-123K Providers flown by Air America. In a process known as “Sheep Dipping”, every morning they turned in their identification and Geneva Convention papers and were given Embassy Attaché diplomatic cards. There was no protection if they were captured – and no one had ever escaped. Lance and the others changed into civilian clothes and traveled as civilians.

Linda: The operation, nicknamed the “Steve Canyon Program,” attracted Thai mercenaries, who flew the T28s, and American USAF O-1 Birddog pilots, pirate-type characters. There was indeed, much adventure ahead for Lance, as you’ll see next week. Til then, blue skies.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 8, 2011 Lance Borden part 1

The Liberty Gazette

February 8, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Over the last three weeks we’ve told a bit of the story of Inland Aviation and the designer of the Inland airplanes, Dewey Bonbrake. Dewey’s grandson, Lance Borden, is the proud owner of one of very few remaining Inlands, a Super Sport model. He happily shows it off in its present state of restoration, speaking of its history and of his beloved grandfather, and seems surprised by the interest in Inland since most people have never heard of it. But Lance, a pilot in his own right, has had some fascinating experiences himself.

Graduating from high school in Columbus, Ohio in 1965, Lance was always interested in aviation thanks to a rich family history. He’d seen the model for Grandpa’s Inland and heard stories growing up, which fueled his interest. Grandpa Bonbrake passed away when Lance was nine, but remains an inspiration to this day. So, like grandfather, like grandson, at 15, Lance built a hang glider from bamboo and plastic and stuff he bought at the hardware store. He laughs, “It even flew 100 feet or so.” Lance and his brother had already tried jumping off their parents’ two-story house using bed sheets as a parachute, which now brings the wise-with-age observation, “It’s a good thing we didn’t take the hang glider off the house!”

Maybe his love of flying also has something to do with his first airplane ride at 15, in an Aeronca Champ, which the owner offered to sell for $800. Lance mowed lawns trying to earn enough money to buy it, but $800 was a lot of money for a kid in 1961. Airplane ownership would have to wait.

Mike: Lance planned to enter Ohio State University as a pre-med student, but after a summer spent on a fishing boat in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and returning too late to start classes he received a draft notice from the Army, which caused him to join the Air Force. Medical school would have to wait until after the service.

Meanwhile, his passion for airplanes and electronics (his grandfather having given him a crystal radio when he was eight) would forge his path in the service. Attending technical school at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, Lance learned how to repair aviation navigation aids. He began installing and repairing radio equipment on B52s and KC 135s while stationed at Carswell AFB near Fort Worth. A fellow who transferred into Lance’s unit after a tour in Vietnam got Lance’s attention when he told the guys it wasn’t so bad over there for avionics techs because they were working in the shop but received combat pay. So in the summer of 1968, Lance Borden volunteered for Southeast Asia duty.

Soon thereafter came orders assigning him to the 432nd Combat Support Group, an F-4 Phantom unit based at Udorn Air Force Base in Northern Thailand, but the surprise came when he was given a maroon-colored diplomatic passport, which was not normal practice.

Before heading to Thailand he was sent to Hamilton AFB in California for a crash course in hand-to-hand combat tactics and knives and guns. “I wondered why an avionics tech would be sent to a combat course,” he recalls.

Linda: Find out next week, to paraphrase Oliver Hardy, “What a fine mess he’s gotten himself into…”

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

February 1, 2011 Lawrence Dewey Bonbrake, Airplane Designer and Builder part 3

The Liberty Gazette

February 1, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Continuing last week’s story of Inland Aviation, financier Samuel Insull enjoyed financial success until President Roosevelt appointed Harold Ickes as Secretary of the Interior. Ickes was a foe of Insull’s, and when the Insull empire collapsed during the Great Depression, bringing about the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, he was indicted by the Federal Government for antitrust and fraud. They charged he had monopolies because he owned several utilities companies. When his empire went down in 1932, so did Inland Aviation. Later, Samuel Insull was found not guilty, but he had already lost everything.

Dewey Bonbrake, the Inland designer, also lost everything he’d worked so hard for after the company had produced somewhere between 35 and 90 airplanes. Lance Borden, Dewey’s grandson, has a letter from Arthur Hardgrave claiming they built 90 planes, but Lance hasn’t found documentation for that many. Although concrete evidence of an exact number has not been verified, Lance thinks the number is 46. Seven are registered with the FAA, one of them is owned by Lance and is under restoration in a hangar at Ellington Field.

Following the collapse of the Inland Aviation Company Dewey came to Houston to work as a security guard for Shell on the Ship Channel. Sometime in the 1930’s a kid whose father was a service manager at Bland Cadillac in Houston bought an Inland Sportster from a couple of Houston cops for $200. He learned to fly it and made money to pay them back teaching other kids to fly. Long after the demise of Inland Aviation that kid happened to fly over Dewey Bonbrake’s house one day. When Dewey saw the Inland he followed it and met the kid, Charles Walling, who grew up to be a WWII pilot, P-51 racer, and corporate pilot in Houston.

Linda: So where are the few surviving Inlands now? Besides Lance’s in Houston, two are in Kansas, owned by Chuck Hall, retired Kansas State architect professor. He has an Inland Sport and a Sportster–the only Sport that still exists and maybe the only Sportster. Harry Stenger in Florida has two Super Sports. There are two in Delaware with two different owners, one of which may be the one that broke all those speed and altitude records.

Lance tells us that during the Depression his grandfather was still designing airplanes. One he called the Osage, but it was probably never built. He went to Los Angeles to work for Lockheed and Consolidated, where he did design work on the Connie, then worked briefly for the University of Southern California in 1944. USC sent him to Los Alamos as the Chief Engineer on the Atomic Bomb on the “Manhattan Project,” where he designed the trigger mechanism for the Atomic bomb. Lance has drawings of projectiles for the gun bomb. Dewey was radiated on his belly and got skin cancer, but he left Los Alamos after seven months because of the dry air that caused bad nose bleeds, and went to work for Vultee, Consolidated, Lockheed, and then Fairchild. He was one of the designers on the B36, and then the Electra P3, Pogo, and C130, followed by the Fairchild F27 and C119s.

Mike: Lance learned a lot from his grandfather, which will result in a bucket of stories in the coming weeks. Til then, blue skies.

www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

January 25, 2011 Lawrence Dewey Bonbrake, Airplane Designer and Builder part 2

The Liberty Gazette
January 25, 2011

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Last week we started our story on Dewey Bonbrake, airplane builder. If you haven’t read part one yet, don’t miss the adventure; grab a copy of last week’s paper.

By the time Dewey built the prototype for his new airplane design, one that improved upon the Bahl Lark, he was married and had a daughter. Using the 40-horsepower French Anzani engine off the Lark, Dewey began looking for financiers to put his Bonbrake Parasol into production. Utilities mogul, Samuel Insull, invested in Dewey’s dream, and the airplane became known as an Inland. Insull, an English immigrant, resided mostly in Chicago, but his holding company had interests in many states. He was one of the most powerful merchants in U.S. history, a tycoon who once served as the personal secretary to Thomas Edison and founded Edison General Electric. Insull had interests in other electric, coal and gas companies, railroads, Chicago radio, and was instrumental in building the Chicago Civic Opera House. Many of his businesses were named Inland.

Dewey’s friend, Tom “Gene” Gabbert, an engineer and test pilot for Unit Motors & Airplane Co. of Kansas City, Missouri, took the prototype to Los Angeles for the 1928 National Air Races, and brought Arthur Hardgrave along.

Hardgrave, who was also a pilot and wealthy businessman in his own right, worked for Insull as President of City Ice, and was president of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, and the Rancho De La Osa Guest Ranch outside of Tucson. On the way from Kansas City to Los Angeles they landed at Davis-Monthan (in Tucson), the first municipal aviation field in the U.S. Davis-Monthan’s historic register records airplanes that have landed there, their pilots and passengers, between 1925-1936. That register has the signatures of Gabbert and Hardgrave, who signed it on the morning of September 5, 1928. According to http://www.dmairfield.com/, the register records seven landings by six different Inlands. The website offers a good narrative on each of the Inlands listed. Their next stop was the Guest Ranch.

Linda: With Insull’s backing, Inland Aviation Co. began producing airplanes at Fairfax Airport in Kansas City. The Inland Sport was built in the same building as the Rearwin; American Eagle, and others were built at Fairfax as well.

Opening for business in 1928, Inland Aviation announced its first commercial airplane in September, 1929 in Aviation Magazine and other publications. In 1929 and 1930 the Inland held several altitude and speed records, one with a 110 HP engine up to 19,000 feet, breaking the 18,000’ record; and a 125+ mph closed course speed record.

Inland Aviation placed well in several air races including the 1930 National Air Races in Chicago where female pilots Mae Haizlip, Vera Dawn Walker, and Marty Bowman flew Inland Sports, and Arthur Hardgrave captured first place in the Sportsman class followed by Inlands in second and third place. These finishes gave the company a boost. By now they had three models: the Sport, a 70HP LaBlonde, a five cylinder radial which sold for $3,500, the Sportster, a 90HP five cylinder Warner Scarab Jr. offered for $3,700, and the Super Sport, a 125HP Warner Scarab, seven cylinder radial with a price tag of $4,500.

We’ll have more on the fascinating Bonbrake-Inland story next week.

Photo 1: Inland Sport Prototype, Photo 2: Lawrence Dewey Bonbrake with Inland, 1929. Photos courtesy Lance Borden, from family photo albums
www.ElyAirLines.blogspot.com