The Fairchild 24 was an interesting airplane. It was, for its time, a simple and reliable four-seater. It was produced in both radial engine and inverted in-line engine models.
The in-line engine, a Ranger, was also built by Fairchild.*
If you have ever read Richard Bach's book Biplane, you might recall that he traded a Fairchild-24 for his biplane.
There was a Fairchild-24 at the airport I once flew from. The owner had spend years restoring it. Three weeks after he began flying it, a lineman at the FBO drove his truck into one of the wings.
This is what a F-24's wing looks like, uncovered:
The FBO had to contract out the repair, as they weren't terribly experienced at wood and fabric repairs. The lineman, who was kind of an unthinking boob,** was fired.
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* Sherman Fairchild was an interesting man. He was both an inventor and entrepreneur, he provided the funding to develop the first integrated circuit chips.
** He had a tendency to use the vents on fuel caps as a hand-grip. I caught him doing that to my airplane and, on close examination, both of the vents had been broken loose. They bought me two new fuel caps. But they could not fix stupid.
Beautiful pictures. That Ryan looks awfully tempting, but I bet it's a handful. Probably made for racing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the links, EBM.
ReplyDeleteI've linked back.
"They could not fix stupid."
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's opposite can be taught, to a degree. But the time and effort required is huge and occasionally requires the use of a 2x4, forcefully applied. See attention, getting the mules.