Identify This Airplane

Dan Jones · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2022 11:59 am

This is slightly off our usual topic but this is a job for experts. Probably many of you out there remember spending Sunday nights as a kid on the couch watching "The Wonderful World of Disney". Remember the episode about the airplane nut kid who spends the summer on his grandfather's farm, bored out of his face until he discovers a derelict old biplane named "Ragwing" hanging in the barn's rafters and then finds out that grandpa flew in WW1? Here's the show, but can somebody identify the airplane? It looks familiar but I can't pin it down. There's some good shots of it starting at about the 1:05 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7FZoR7zdq0

Noha307 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2022 1:20 pm

Dan Jones wrote:

There's some good shots of it starting at about the 1:05 mark.

Quick clarification because I was confused at first: It's at the 1 hour, 5 minute mark; not the 1 minute, 5 second mark.

marine air · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2022 1:28 pm

It might be a Rose Parakeet.

steve dickey · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:22 pm

I don't think it's a a Rose Parakeet, fuselage isn't deep enough and struts are all different even for the landing gear. Plus the Rose had a engine that stuck out like a Cub. Not sure what type it is but would like to know who the stunt pilot was. Frank Tallman??

Dan Jones · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2022 7:20 pm

I expect it is Frank Tallman, and I know I've seen that airplane before... but I can't identify it.

DB2 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2022 10:03 pm

I think this is a 7/8 scale interpretation of an SE-5A built using the “Replica Plans” plans. Quite a few were built in the 70s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replica_Plans_SE.5a

JohnB · **Posted:** Mon Apr 25, 2022 11:04 pm

While it is similar to the sub-scale SE-5A, there are a lot of differences...tail shape, wing struts (N on TV ac, straight on SE-5), cabana struts, long metal gear.
Also the SE-5A replica has a bit of dihedral which the TV aircraft does not. The wings look longer on the SE, the other plane looks to have thicker wings. Then there is the wider cockpit on the movie ship.

Seems like a pretty generic period homebuilt.
The oddest thing is it only has one cockpit.

Hooligan2 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2022 7:33 am

Looks a little bit like a Currie (or Phoenix) Super Wot homebuilt - the 1937 Currie Wot was the basis of the SE-5A replicas used in Blue Max and Darling Lili. A British design,
I've no idea if any were ever built in the US. No two of those that I've seen built in the UK seem to be identical!

Baldeagle · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2022 10:04 am

Possibly based on the Gere Sport biplane, with fuselage widened to squeeze in two people. Note how the bottoms of the cabane struts are inboard of the longerons.

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JohnB · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2022 10:18 am

Baldeagle wrote:

Note how the bottoms of the cabane struts are inboard of the longerons.

I did notice that during the close-ups.

Another possibility is the airframe we see on the ground and taxing is a different machine than the one in the air. The flying example may have a standard width fuselage or other changes.

Dan Jones · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2022 1:36 pm

I see a lot of Gere Sport in that thing... and it might be two different airplanes. But the main landing gear strut looks like it goes right to the base of the cabane strut on a Gere and it doesn't seem to on this thing. But there's many similarities. Looking at it again it looks like a Gere that's been widened into a two-seater.

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