Malcolm Barnard
2006-12-17 18:42:14 UTC
When I was a lad, in the early 1950's, I saw a magazine article about an
unusual aircraft.
It was a single place, low wing monoplane with a tricycle undercarriage and,
probably, a 60 to 80 h.p. motor. The odd thing is that it was ridden,
motorbike fashion by the pilot sitting astride behind a windscreen. Control
was achieved by motorbike handle bars to operate the rudder, but which also
tilted to control the ailerons and could move back and forth to operate the
elevators. Quite a neat idea, really.
Its purpose was for fence patrols and other inspection purposes on large
ranches in the US where the rider might need to hop on and off easily to do
little maintenance jobs.
Does anybody out there know what this machine was? Its been puzzling me for
years!
malcolm
unusual aircraft.
It was a single place, low wing monoplane with a tricycle undercarriage and,
probably, a 60 to 80 h.p. motor. The odd thing is that it was ridden,
motorbike fashion by the pilot sitting astride behind a windscreen. Control
was achieved by motorbike handle bars to operate the rudder, but which also
tilted to control the ailerons and could move back and forth to operate the
elevators. Quite a neat idea, really.
Its purpose was for fence patrols and other inspection purposes on large
ranches in the US where the rider might need to hop on and off easily to do
little maintenance jobs.
Does anybody out there know what this machine was? Its been puzzling me for
years!
malcolm