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1-S-2100 Senior Albatross |
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Photo: Robert Deering 10/23/2006 Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Chantilly, Virginia |
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Hawley Bowlus developed the
Senior Albatross series from a design he called the
Bowlus Super Sailplane. In Germany, designers and pilots
led the world in the building and flying of
high-performance gliders, and Bowlus was strongly
influenced by their work. He and German glider pioneer,
Martin Schempp, taught courses in aircraft design and
construction at the Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute
in Glendale, California. The two instructors led a group
of students that built the Super Sailplane in 1932. The
Super' served as a prototype for the Senior Albatross. In May 1934, Warren E. Eaton acquired the Senior Albatross now preserved at NASM from Hawley Bowlus. Eaton joined the U. S. Army Air Service and flew SPAD XIII fighters (see NASM collection) in the 103rd Aero Squadron, 3rd Pursuit Group, at Issoudon, France, from August 27, 1918, to the Armistice. He was credited with downing one enemy aircraft in aerial combat. After the war, Eaton founded the Soaring Society of America and became that organization's first president. Dimensions: Wingspan: 18.8 m (61 ft 9 in) Length: 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in) Height: 1.6 m (5 ft 4 in) Weight: Empty, 153 kg (340 lb) Gross, 236 kg (520 lb) Materials: Originally skinned with mahogany and covered with lightweight cotton "glider cloth," then covered with a shellac-based varnish. In 2000, restorers removed original fabric and shellac coating, recovered with Grade A cotton fabric followed by several coats of nitrate dope, then lemon shellac, finishing with several coats of Johnson Wax. Physical Description: Monoplane glider with strut-braced, gull-type wing mounted high on monocoque fuselage; wooden construction with steel and aluminum fittings and controls; fuselage and wing leading edge covered with mahogany plywood. Fuselage skin applied over laminated Spruce bulkheads. Landing gear consists of single-wheel and .... [size?] tire mounted beneath forward fuselage, spring-steel tail skid beneath rudder. Cockpit covered with hood made from laminated Spruce bulkheads and covered with Mahogany plywood. Circular openings cut into hood on either side of pilot's head. Instrumentation: altimeter, airspeed, variometer plus a bank-and-turn indicator powered by low-speed venturi tube installed on retractable mount beneath right wingroot. Areas aft of wing spar and all control surfaces covered with glider cloth. Cloth is doped directly onto ribs and plywood skin without stitching for smooth finish. Constant-chord wing from fuselage to mid-span, tapered profile from mid-span to wingtip; constant-chord, split-trailing edge flaps and high-aspect ratio ailerons. A Gö 549 airfoil is used at the wing root, becoming symmetrical at the tip. All-flying elevator mounted on duraluminum torque-tube, rudder hinged to box-beam post, both surfaces built up from Spruce and covered with glider cloth.
Source:
Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum |
