Last October Paul Cullman stopped by the museum with his Curtis Wright Junior. At the time we were marveling over the little plane with its incredibly simple cockpit and rather complex little engine. Turns out Paul needed some work done on the Junior and ended up leaving it here for the winter. It’s been great having such a rare little plane sitting in the hangar.
More photos after the jump.
The cockpit is truly about as simple as it gets and it’s apparent this airplane was made to be inexpensive and simple to fly when it came out in 1931. Paul’s has no airspeed indicator and instead uses a simple angle of attack indicator. Just keep it out of the red and you should be good to go.
The original Junior had a Szekely three cylinder radial on it, but it wasn’t known as the most reliable motor. Paul’s has a nine cylinder Salmson radial. It’s a great looking little engine.
The airplane will likely be here through the spring and we’re hoping it will make more visits throughout the summer.
1 Comment
RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI
Wayne Lundquist said,
June 11, 2011 @ 6:59 am
I have really enjoyed seeing the pictures of this beautiful Curtiss Pusher Junior. I am at the point of publishing a book. It is titled “Len, the Pilot.” My dad, H. Leonard “Len” Lundquist flew a Curtiss Junior Pusher while traveling down the eastern seaboard with the American Air Races in the fall of 1933. In Charlotte, NC, George Weaver bought his daughter, Velma, an airplane ride. Len was the pilot. About two years later Len sent Velma $20 and asked her to come to Detroit. They were married September 28, 1935. Len’s first airplane was a Ryan P1 with an OX5 liquid-cooled enging, tail number 611V. His second airplane was a Curtiss Junior Pusher with a Szekley 45 hp engine, tail number NC11802 which he bought in March 1933. The Curtiss Junior Pusher he flew with the American Air Races was tail number NC10935. Len’s pilot log tells of his experiences with engine repairs, water in the gasoline, headwinds, getting lost over the NY mountains in the dark and ending up in Tetterboro, NJ, instead of Roosevelt Field, NY, and more. Fun reading!
The book is an historical novel, a love strory, and focuses on the last ten years of Len’s life. Len got involved in aviation in Michigan, helping build the first Lockheed Vega airplanes with the Detroit Aircraft Company. Len helped build the ZMC-2 lighter-than-air ship at Grosse Ile, Michigan in the 1920s. It was at Grosse Ile that he began flying. He worked on Wiley Post’s Winnie Mae airplane which he flew around the world in 1931. He also supervised work on Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra in Burbank, CA, in 1934. I have most of his pilot logs, personal letters, personal effects, etc. Len died at Coastal Air Patrol Base 21, June 27, 1943.