Warbird Information Exchange

We had the offical "unveiling" of the SPAD XIII replica at the Vintage Aero Flying Museum in Colorado on Thursday-

Here with cats Whiskey and Soda



With the museum's Fokker D.VII




With Nancy Hall Rutgers and her husband Nick Rutgers. Nick's family founded Rutgers University, and he was a Marine tail gunner in Grumman Avengers in WW2. Nancy's father was James Norman Hall of the Lafayette Escadrille, he had two victories in a SPAD XIII like this one after the Lafayette became the U.S. 103rd Aero Squadron in early 1918. They are major sponsors of the project.



The engine still needs to have the cylinders installed, and of course there are a number of other details to take care of before it flies. Might make it to Oshkosh though...



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Beautiful SPAD. Can't wait to see it in the air.

Very interesting about Nick Rutgers, as a Rutgers alum, and former volunteer with their Oral History Archive I think he would be a great candidate for an interview.

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What engine is in the SPAD?
Fokker?

Back in 2003 at the WWI fly-in at the NMUSAF someone had a great, almost finished Fokker D.VII...with an original Mercedes engine. It came in its own semi truck from California....anyone knows who 's it is?

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I don't know how long/when it was being built, but I have a feeling it could have been Chuck Wentworth's example, which lives in California: http://evanflys.com/chuck_wentworth
Here's a run-up video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i7FMZUNCec
(I think his Snipe reproduction has since been finished, and they're currently working on a Hisso-powered SPAD.)

The Vintage Aero SPAD is gorgeous! What a slick looking airplane (probably my favorite WWI fighter, along with the SE5a). Hope to see it at KOSH this summer!

Chuck doesn't own a Fokker D.VII or any of those WW1 airplanes, except for a Triplane he's had for a long time (and may have been sold?), they belong to somebody else, he just gets paid to work on them and fly them. And he's too anti-social to come to something like the Dayton event, the Fokker D.VII that was there in 2003 belonged to Richard Enos. I don't think it ever flew, and Richard has moved to Arizona and seems to have disappeared. Haven't heard anything in years about the airplane.

The engine in the VAFM SPAD is a Lycoming GO-480, and the D.VII has a Ranger engine converted to run upright. The D.VII was at Dayton in 2009 and we hope to have it and the SPAD at Dayton this year.

There's been a little discussion by the folks at Thunder Over Michigan about doing a WW1 themed show in the next few years, for the centennial of WW1, so hopefully that will happen too, and we can bring them to that as well.



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Looks great Bald Eagle. Are you guys bringing it to Dayton?

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The plan is to have both the SPAD and the D.VII at Dayton in September, and possibly Oshkosh as well. The museum is trying to find sponsorship now to help with that plan.



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The SPAD must be an old project. A GO-480 is almost as hard to get parts for these days as an original Hisso.

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It isn't that bad, there are still several places that specialise in the geared Lycomings. The GO-480 was chosen so we can use a good reliable Lycoming, but swing a bigger prop than with an ungeared engine. The project was started about 3 years ago. The big question is what prop to use, as the stock ones used constant speed units. We've got a Ranger prop stuck on there now, will run it and see how it does, and at least have a baseline if we have to have a new one carved.



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Looks like a beauty!

Congrats

Andy