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Show Affl OF MMBUWW PIANO WmES.PARTOFA I Kriack of Lifting Heavy Machine Off Ground ' T'X .1 1 could make one on the savings from his Described as ... I Partly Skill, Part-j Part-j . ly Luck, but Most-! Most-! ly Will Power. J1 HE first homemade aero- fA plane constructed by a if St. Louis boy recently r made a successful I I flight at Creve Coeur j ke. "Home made" ! in this case means ; more than merely built in a well- ' equipped machine shop in our home city. It meaus actually built in a home and with just seven tools to be found in almost any cellar or woodshed. 3 Paul A. Gartland, the builder, is but I 22 years old, but he has been building M , , things ever since he can remember. M During the day he sells fine texture I i silks in a downtown dry goods house. 1 'At night he hammers on machinery, 5 : ' handles oily engines, and acquires a g , color of the hands and arms unknown I; among silk salesmen. Two years ago, Gartland had built I ' about everything he could think of ex- i; cept an aeroplane. His iceboat at ; Crevo Coeur Lake made as good time as any in the Wpst, and was, in fact, the ; only one in this part of the West. His combined sailboat and motor launch, if which he built throughout, with tia ' exception of the engine, was an object ?! of interest to all visitors to the lake. But the creative genius could not J stop here. Ordinarily, aeroplanes cost I from $2000 to $30,000 to build. There I must be some way to make one cheap- :($ Sr.j.fiomaway; by-which a silk salesman, m Studies Magazine. THE youth had seen but two aeroplanes aero-planes in his life. He had seen only 'one close enough to study. He subscribed for a magazine devoted to flying, and set about studying the complex com-plex problems that are necessary to make an object heavier than air lift itself it-self off the ground and sail through space at sixt' miles an hour. After much studjr, the angles and balance were mastered, plans drawn and Gartland went to his cellar and began be-gan the actual construction. Here the young aeronaut met with another stumbling block. The wood and fixtures used in the construction of aeroplanes are expensive enough under ordinary circumstances, but the European Euro-pean Avar had so affected metal prices that the' were now far beyond his reach. He had io use substitutes. The sjmice and ash, which have been found the only dependable woods for aeroplane purposes, must be seasoned for several years under perfect condi tions. . This care in preparation costs money, and the prospective builder must part with much of his capital before be-fore he has anything to show except rough lumber. But not so with Gartland. He went to a wrecking firm that had just torn down some of the city's oldest homes. In the piles of debris, spruce and ash sticks, seasoned for many years while forming a part of an antebellum mansion, man-sion, were found and recognized. They were bought for a song and taken to 3725 Evans avenue, where Gartland shaped them in his basement shop to begin a new life of uselessness. Expensive tools to be found in the aeroplane factories of the East were lacking in the Evans avenue cellar. .This, . however, neyer .worries a. good mechanic. Some men can make a better bet-ter joint with a hatchet than others with a mortise saw. 0 Few Tools to Work With. GARTLAND had a hammer, a saw, a hatchet and, of course, a penknife. pen-knife. These were enough for a start. Later, he found use for his pliers, spoke shave and brace. An engine bed was built by gluing together'fifteen pieces of the seasoned wood. This gave added strength and prevented warping. Each of the ribs were formed by gluing four pieces of wood in a frame, which held them at the proper curvature to take the wind when covered with cloth. The skids were made in like manner of four glued segments. An aeroplane engine of 60 horsepower horse-power was purchased for $200, and this proved the principal item of expense. "When it arrived it was set in place, or, at least, in the place where the amateur builder thought it belonged. This cost him his first wreck. Aluminum brackets and fittings were needed to join the wooden struts together. to-gether. These can be bought, to be sure, but, since the war, one would look for them in jewehy stores. "With a penknife pen-knife and some soft wood models can be fashioned, and a foundry will cast them at one-third the cost of the manufactured manu-factured article. Gartland solved his Si Wgt&ttte I problem in this way. The same is true of turnbuckles, without which an aeroplane would last about two seconds in the air. Perhaps it is not generally known, but the end of a motorcycle wheel spoke through a piece of sheet galvanized iron makes a strong, dependable turnbuckle, on which one may risk his life, as an aviator avia-tor does every minute he is in the air. Hinges of a special kind that will not split the frail wood are also to be had for aeroplane construction. Gartland found that he could make satisfactory ones out of common screw eyes andva bolt. Mother Sews Cover. THIS much the young man said was e.asv.i jie pover -for-the frame came next, and even a silk salesman that can do virtually everything, found he could not sew. But Gartland has a mother, without whom the building of his plane would have been expensive, if not 'impossible. Mrs. Gartland cut and sewed the sail cloth to form the wings that were to hold her son in the air. These were fastened to the frame by lacing. Awning eyelets were found to be too large. Gartland bought out the entire supply of shoe eyelets from a shoe manufacturer. These, 7000 in number, were riveted around the edges of the wings by hand. Aeroplanes are not built in a day or in several days. This particular aeroplane aero-plane was not built in the daytime at all, but by working sometimes until 4 o'clock in the morning for nearly two years, the machine was almost finished. At this point impatience and enthusiasm enthu-siasm got the better of the mechanic, and he had it taken in sections to tho western bank of Creve Coeur Lake. No levers to control the lifting tail and stabilizing planes had been attached. Gartland could not wait, however, and he wired the tail in a position to elevate ele-vate the plane, and decided to trust to luck to descend. "Luck" proved untrustworthy. un-trustworthy. On July k the engine was started and the plane rose swiftly. On account of the lack of balancing equipment and the position of the engine too far forward, for-ward, it overturned. Gartland jumped, which probably saved his life. The plane landed a few feet away and nosed into the i earth for 2 .feet. ( , .u The entire plane was then rebuilt, tho fl engine moved forward and controls at- 11 tached. One lever to control six wings, IH a noveltj' unknown before in aeroplane 11 building, was devised, and has proved efficient. 11 |
