An attempt to scan in some old stuff from ancient magazines just for the sake of NOSTALGIA.
If you want to contribute, just holler at me!
Ralph Lindsay once used an airplane powered by an engine like this to shoot down a GRUMMAN HELLCAT!
More true stories about boys and their airplanes, this one from current "B" electric speed champ, Bill Stewart.
Hi John, Thanks for the effort on Vintage Speed.I never shot a Hellcat down with a Hassad Blue Streak- ( Ralph- what happened?) but I was almost shot down by the owner of a Hassad Sky Devil 65.
This engine resembled the one in your ad, except the cylinder had the bypass at the rear and the exhaust at the front. with the crankcase casting forming a passage with exhaust outlets on each side. It was a beautifully designed and fabricated engine, with thousands of milled fins on the head (lots anyway) and a handsome red anodized crankcase. The engine was under rated, and the guy who owned it -he was a senior at Trenton High and I was a mere junior- wanted to unload it on me for $8.00. This was in early '49, and I had no D job. The engine had only some bench running.
To make what could be a long story shorter, thru a series of interlocking trades, which would dazzle a corporate raider, the Hassad owner got the Hornet 60 he wanted, some one else got my hot Arden 19 and airplane, and I got a second McCoy 19 (like in the Black Bird) and half interest in the Hassad.
Now for the technical stuff- The Hassad had a shaft rotary which everyone at that time assumed was not as efficient as a rear disc valve. True the shaft ID was smaller than the bore of an induction stub, but not by much, and there was no disc leakage or drag. The opening period was longer than the 180 deg of the typical disc rotary. It turned my McCoy 49 prop at really scary speed (no tach; it must really have been revving since I didn't scare easily in those days)
So I quickly built a ship using state-of the-art composites of varying density, and bonding agents- Maple, pine and balsa, joined with WeldWood Glue and Ambroid cement.. It looked great, but I could not keep it running thru a hand launch. Since pressure tanks had not been invented yet, after a day of frustration at the grass practice field, I replaced the needle valve with a spraybar assembly from a Sportsman 55 (remember this McCoy?) and tried the next day. It ran longer but still quit within half a lap. To get a flight in, someone whittled a wood wedge which I jammed behind the spray bar. Finally, a flight- at about 115 MPH. Embarrasing!
The next week, a contest at Johnsville NAS, in Pennsylvania. Hard suface, and practice circles. I flew my B, helped start someone's Dynajet, and spied one of the Trenton gang with a new Dooling D job and a takeoff dolly. My Hassad ship was a loose fit in the dolly, but it looked like it might work so out with the blocked intake, in with the needle and seat, and into the dolly. Practice flight near 130, which for all I knew, might be a new Sr. record
Predictably my official jumped the dolly, had a propless run, and locked up with bronze pigment coming out of the exhausts. The crankpin bushing was nowhere to be seen. My ship eventually was powered by the Hornet mentioned earlier, but never as fast as with the Hassad. More vintage legends later-
I am amazed by the power these "toys" have over our emotions.
If you can find any DYNA-JETS at this price, I'll take two!
Herb Davis' HOT CANARY
...a very early upright jet, again an example of a high thrust line. Early uprights had their tanks placed forward of the engine with both engine and tank on the same vertical centerline.
