Lee Mensinger's Images


The following photos were taken by Lee Mensinger ( lemen@x25.net ). His comments are below:

I have put in this image for the diorama interests. A 1915 Ford. If you want to use it.


A difficult plane to fly. Warping the wing causes the airfoil section to distort and it changes the lift factors causing the to move suddenly in turns. The landing gear also swivels via the vertical tubes in front of the wheels, which trail the pivot point in yokes which are coupled together by a metal bar with pivots on each end causing the wheels to track in the same direction, eg: together. This makes landing tricky for two reasons. Steering is done by the rudder, alone, with no connection to the wheels while the method of construction makes the wheel assembley weak. It breaks easily and often.

The Penguin, a short wing non flying Bleriot, was quite similar to the 1909 but used a stronger, non-swivel landing gear. It was used to teach new found French fliers the fundementals of the control systems. When they could run around the field with the tail off the ground and not break anything they got flyable machines that could leave the ground.

The engine is not an original but a camouflaged four cylinder Continental of about 60-80 horspower similar to a J3 Cub.


1911 Farman "Boxkite. Altitude about 300 feet and speed near 35 MPH. Distance from the camera about 1/2 mile. Made and flown by Roger Freeman President of the Vintage Avation Historical Foundation, Marion, Texas, per contract with Hong Kong 's new International Airport. This is a flying replica of the first aircraft to fly in China. It was delivered in late November of 1997 and it will hang from the ceiling of the new Air Terminal Lobby after performing several demonstrations in China.


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