HISTORY
In 1929, the Great Lakes
Aircraft Company (GLAC) was
formed in Cleveland, Ohio at
the former site of the
Martin Aircraft Company.
They built civilian
biplanes, float planes, as
well as biplane torpedo
bombers under contract to
the US Navy. In 1933 the
Company was reportedly
working on a steam power
plant for driving aircraft
turbines.
The model that most people
think of today when someone
says, "Great Lakes
aircraft," is the enduring
2T biplane; also known as
the Great Lakes Sport
Trainer. It was designed and
sold as a two-place, open
cockpit biplane. The first
engines were an 85 hp
(63 kW) American Cirrus Mk
III. The 2T biplane was not
as large as some of its
contemporaries manufactured
by Stearman, WACO and Travel
Air.
The original models had a
wing span of 26 feet
8 inches and length of 20
feet 4 inches. The useful
load was 578 pounds (262 kg)
and it was stressed for 9
g
positive and 6
G
negative. It had outrigger
landing gear with spring
oleo shock struts, and the
range was 375 miles. The
sale price started out at
$4,990 dollars but as the
depression came it was
lowered to $3,985. The first
four Sport Trainers built
were of a rare straight-wing
design, one of which was
modified into a special
racer. Because of problems
recovering from flat spins,
the top wing was swept back
and that is what most people
recognize first when looking
at a Sport Trainer. At its
peak, Great Lakes had as
many as 650 deposits for new
aircraft. With the onset of
the great depression, the
Great Lakes Aircraft Company
went out of business closing
their doors in 1936. The
company built just 264 of
the Sport Trainers ordered.
As
the years went by, the
original Cirrus engine
installation was replaced by
Warner radials, inline
Menascos or
Fairchild-Rangers, and
horizontally-opposed
Lycomings, Franklins, or
Continentals. Tex Rankin, a
stunt pilot of the 30s and
40's, made the Great Lakes
Sport Trainer famous. He had
one specially modified and
installed a 150 hp
supercharged Menasco engine.
It was painted red, white
and blue with his name
upright on one side, and
upside down in the other, so
folks would know who he was
when he flew by upside down.
Tex's airplane is being
restored by the Oregon
Aviation Museum.
For
about 30 years, until the
late 1960s, the Great Lakes
Sport Trainer was the top
American-made acro plane.
Other pilots who made the
Great Lakes reputation
famous were: Hal Krier, Hank
Kennedy, Bob "Tiger" Nance,
Lindsay Parsons, Dorothy
Hester, Betty Skelton,
Charley Hillard, and Frank
Price. The first United
States entry in a world
aerobatics contest was a
Great Lakes biplane that
Frank Price of Texas took to
Eastern Europe in 1960.
During the 1960s Harvey
Swack of Cleveland, Ohio,
obtained the rights to the
Sport Trainer design and all
the factory drawings for it.
Harvey then sold plans to
homebuilders until 1990,
when he sold off the plans
business to Steen Aero Lab
of Palm Bay, Florida. There
have been a great number
homebuilt Great Lakes Sport
Trainers built over the
years, which kept interest
in this old biplane alive.
In
the later 1970s, the Great
Lakes 2T-1A was built in
Eastman, Georgia. After a
run of three or four years,
the factory was closed.
In 1973 Doug Champlin
brought the Great Lakes back
into production in Oklahoma.
The general design was not
changed much. The fuselage
was strengthened by using
thicker walled tubing, and
the engines used were 150 or
180 hp Lycomings. The wings
utilized Douglas Fir in
place of Sitka Spruce, and
on some models, additional
ailerons were added to the
top wing. 137 airframes were
produced. An addition 6
airframes were produced in
Georgia. The factory rights
were sold to various people
until 1985, when production
ceased. Doug Champlin also
built one Turbine powered
Great Lakes 2T. With 420 hp
(310 kW), it was quite a
show stopper.
In
2000, John Duncan of Palmer
Lake, Colorado, bought the
Great Lakes Sport Trainer
type certificate and
tooling. Duncan's company
today is called The Great
Lakes Aircraft Company LLC.
Source:
Wikipedia
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