Florida Air Museum - Part 2

We are back for an inside look at what is housed at the Florida Air Museum.  We haven't even got inside yet and we already see some neat and rare airplanes.

The above plane is a Laird Baby Bi-Plane.  In truth this is a replica of Matty Laird's plane.  Usually I don't give a rat's ass about a replica, but in this case it illustrates something kind of neat about early aviation.  Although this is a duplicate built by a restorer by the name of Dean Tilton, it is about as close to the original as one could hope for.  There was only one built and and it is housed in the Ford Museum.  The reason I will spend much time on this is that it was built by a 16 year old with the help of his brother.  Keep in mind aviation was new and if you had the materials and a vision, you could fly your own contraption which is what Matty did.  He would fly for a few minutes until it crashed, change and tweak things and then head back up.  When his design would crash beyond repair, he'd build another one.  While most 16 year olds now are playing video games or sleeping, Matty was building and flying his own machine.  Amazing.  

Those copper cylinders are gas tanks and are gravity-fed into the motorcycle engine.  It was first built in 1912 and each time it crashed he would make the necessary changes and go back up. 

The cockpit of the Laird Baby Bi-Plane. Imagine the excitement and adrenaline of a 16 year old kid about to take flight in something he designed, built and flew.

Many of the planes were experimental one-offs.  Little squirt planes that I wouldn't even put a cat, let alone a pilot.

I believe this was an Piper Cub.  I liked the amount of window space on this bird.

All around you is glass that would allow for a lot of good viewing from the air, and if that isn't enough...

...it even has a moonroof!

This is an ultralight minus the wings.  Really not much to them.  One got hung up in wires a few weeks ago which killed the pilot, and not too long ago I saw two buzzing overhead here in St. Pete.

Cross section of an engine.  Don't recall now what engine but I want to say the Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' plane featured in The Aviator. 

This is a 1930's racing plane built by Commande-Aire.

Another picture of the Little Rocket.  This sucker won some cash, too, for its owner.  

This is the Invictus, which placed 1st in the Formula One race at the 2009 Reno National Championships.

This little beauty is an Aeronca Ercoupe that was built to the "safest aircraft in the world".  Never flying any faster than 118 mph, she was built before the start of WWII and ended production in 1968.  She was particularly adept at U-Boat hunting during the war.

The Ercoupe lists Joe Dunaj as her pilot.  

A Jupiter Rocket booster built for America's first rocket launches in 1956-1957.  They must have found this guy in the junkyard because it was fairly rusty.

A picture of the cockpit of the Little Rocket.  Notice the lack of any side padding or comfort.  This guy was built to fly fast and any extra poundage was eliminated. 

A real airport beacon, you know, the kind that goes around and is clear and green.  

Cockpit view of the Ercoupe.  Plenty of room for two, one to drive and the other to look for those U-Boats.

The Ercoupe again.  I must have liked this guy, too.

One of the Red Baron biplanes that flew around the country in air shows.  They started up in 1979 and terminated in 2007. 

Come back Tomorrow - There's Much More!