More information on the Sturtevant...

It's interesting how a search for one bit of information often leads me to another.  I have been looking for more information about my post on the Sturtevant with the all steel fuselage.  I found this photo while looking into the death of Steve MacGordon, covered in my last post.  They titled it the Sturtevant All-Steel Battleplane.  It appears to be in the same parade where Curtiss displayed his planes.  I'll post some photos of the parade soon.

Armed with that information, I found this article in the Aero Club's newsletter, "Flying".  This amazing plane had all steel construction in the fuselage and riveted, brazed or welded steel members throughout the entire structure, and was the brainchild of Grover Loening.

-kpw

Grover Loening and a Sturtevant

This post centers on photos from Ivan's collection of an aircraft which I'm unable to identify with an exact model number, but Ivan's writing gave me enough information to discover a little more.

Grover Loening was an amazing figure in the aviation industry in America. He was the first American to earn a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, at Columbia University in 1910. In 1921 he earned the Collier Trophy, an annual award recognizing the greatest achievements in aviation, for his Loening Flying Yacht. He stayed active in aviation his entire life, eventually appointed as a civilian Advisory Board member to the National Air Museum under President Kennedy. A short write-up and photo featuring Steve Mac Gordon can be found here. Does anyone know the exact model of this Sturtevant airplane?

The last photo impressed me in a couple of ways.  First, the amount of aileron travel seems huge to me.  I notice the elevator travel is sometimes in excess of 40 degrees, but I've never noticed the ailerons with this much travel.  Second, I notice in a couple of photos (which are upcoming) that they used a palette or skid of some sort to chock the wheels here at the Curtiss School.  Here, you can see a mechanic or pilot dragging one into place.  I wonder when the actual wheel chock was invented?

Thanks in advance for any input on the Sturtevant, and please Share or +1 the blog with the links below.

-kpw