1935 Ford 15-P

[Tinker]

Originally Posted by 48-710

I wonder why the heads were put on the other way?

A older roundy-roundy guy I knew told me once, that he used a 37 block with pumps up front and then early heads on backwards to get the water to flow out the back of the block. Making the rear of the engine cooler. (a real dead spot for flow).


Now I didn't buy it completely but I did go home and flipped the heads on a 33 motor I had sitting in the garage and the heads will bolt up flipped. No Idea if the compression chambers would/will match up. I guess you can flip the head gaskets also with the small hole up front or back.... so


But its a neat story anyway!

[Royal Ryser]

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

Density altitude make sense. It must have been hot and humid that day. It's always that way down here so a person can't forget about it. In airplanes you need a longer runway. In helicopters you have to get moving into the wind and avoid downwind slow flying or hovering. Sometimes a pilot has to drag the skids for a while to get it up depending on how much power is available and how much lift the rotor can generate. The old Bell 47G with the early Franklin engine was that way.

If I knew how to drag my skids "to get it up" I would sure do so!

[Hoop]

Was thinking about the 15-P and Henry Ford's ambition to put folks into cheap, easy-to-fly airplanes like he did with cheap automobiles.

In 1935 everyone owning an airplane was a common fantasy. But, unlike driving a car, flying was a little more complicated even back then. Not sure what the total thinking was with the 15-P ... probably involved reducing the skill level required to fly an airplane. Make it hard to stall (aerodynamic), make it spin-proof, make it require less coordination of controls ... stick and rudder stuff.

The automobile type steering wheels in the cockpit suggested it could be "driven" like a car.

Whatever they were thinking with the tailless, flying wing type design, they lacked the materials and technology to make it a flying success.

Today, we have advanced composites, refined engines and computers that make drones, driverless cars, and passenger aircraft with auto-land systems.

... we also have iPhones, iPads ... iWatches.

How about Apple iPlanes? Get your 7 year old grandson to program your next vacation and strap in.

Driverless Uber service could become Uber Airlines with custom pilot-less routes to places like Hahira, Georgia.

(Henry would be proud of this kind of thinking.)

[rotorwrench]

The Ercoupe made its first flight in 1937 and it was about the only airplane that was designed to be steered like a car. The damn things are almost impossible to land in any cross wind whatsoever. Most were converted for rudder pedals so folks could fly them easier. So much for that idea.

Fred Weick of the NACA, had the same idea as Henry Ford & designed his first W1 after the Stout Skycar that preceded the 15P. He later joined ERCO and designed the 310 Ercoupe. These were supposed to be inexpensive aircraft that everyone could learn to fly. They were hoping to make automobiles obsolete but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

[Hoop]

Occasionally have lunch at the Quality Inn (295/Commonwealth) in Jacksonville. An Ercoupe has been hanging from the ceiling for years.

ercoupe quality inn.jpg

"The damn things are almost impossible to land in any cross wind whatsoever. Most were converted for rudder pedals so folks could fly them easier."

On the contrary, the Ercoupe lands very well in a "crab" and was designed to do that easily and safely. Crosswinds are less of a problem in the Coupe, even with high crosswind components, than in other light aircraft that require the pilot to cross-control and land wing low. Rudder conversions are routinely removed because they are not needed.

[rockfla]

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Earned my aviation merit badge in Boy Scouts in an Ercoupe, still had the single wheel flying. It was fun flying!!!! Good to hear from you Coop!!!

[Hoop]

Rock, just before he died, Bob Hawkins hauled two Ercoupes home. Only guy in town with more stuff than your dad.

(Bob was 93 ... Army Air Corps, Piedmont, National, Pan Am, MARC, AACA, CCCA, etc.)

(Wide final turn in his pickup truck coming home from breakfast.)

[V8COOPMAN]

Originally Posted by 48-710

I wonder why the heads were put on the other way?

The heads do appear to be installed with the water outlets at the rear of the engine. The engine is installed with the rear pointing forward because power is always transmitted via the flange on the rear of the crankshaft. The "abnormal-appearing" reversed pitch on the propeller is likely the result of the normal crankshaft rotation of a Ford flathead feeding a gearbox to slow propeller speed, which would also reverse the rotation of the propeller. An interesting rig, for sure. DD