B&W Seaplane

B&W Seaplane
B & W as a replica in the Museum of Flight (Seattle)
Type:	Double Decker - floatplane
Design country:	United States
Manufacturer:	Boeing
First flight:	June 15, 1916 or June 29, 1916
Commissioning:	1916
Production time:	1916
Number of pieces:	2

The B & W Seaplane (dt .: B & W seaplane) - including Boeing Model 1 or B & W called - was a single-engine biplane - float plane for a pilot and a passenger and the first aircraft of the US aircraft manufacturer Boeing . The name B & W arose from the initials of the designers William Boeing and Conrad Westervelt .

history

At the end of 1915, Westervelt, who had graduated from MIT with a degree in aeronautical engineering , began designing the machine while Boeing was taking flying lessons from Glenn Martin in California . There he bought a Martin TA so that he could continue his flight lessons in Seattle. The design of the B&W was based strongly on the interpretation of the Martin TA; Boeing and Westervelt provided their machine with improved floats and a more powerful engine, among other things. The first flight of the B&W took place on June 15 or 29, 1916 with Boeing himself at the controls (according to other sources this was the US Navy test pilot Knox Martin) from Lake Union near Seattle , where the two machines in the Boeing Boathouse had been built. The second machine followed in November 1916. The drive consisted of a 125 hp Hall-Scott A-5 in-line engine, which provided a top speed of 120 km / h.

Boeing hoped for an interest from the US Navy , which carried out flight tests from August 10, 1916. By the end of 1916, the B&W had carried out 82 flights with a total flight time of over 29 hours. On March 26, 1917, Boeing offered the two aircraft to the US Navy for $ 10,000 each. The Navy accepted the two B&W, now called the Bluebird (or Bluebill ) and Mallard , as school machines . But after arriving at Naval Air Station Squantum in Massachusetts , both were declared unfit for the intended task and sent back to Seattle. Later, however, the New Zealand Flying School in Auckland , where they arrived in late 1918 / early 1919, bought the planes for $ 3,750 each. It was found that Bluebird had better flight characteristics than Mallard and therefore this specimen was mainly used for school operations.

On January 25, 1919, George Bolt set a new New Zealand altitude record of 1980 m with the Bluebird . On December 16, 1919, Bolt also flew the first official airmail operation with a B&W , after which the Post and Telegraph Department gave the government an order for further testing. After six months, however, it became apparent that these flights could not be carried out at a cost-effective level, and they were stopped again on July 30, 1921. Three years later the flight school also ceased operations and the aircraft were dismantled and stored. Their final whereabouts are unclear.

Jubilee replica

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Boeing factory, a full-scale and airworthy replica of the B&W with the manufacturer number 1A was planned. The construction work began on January 27, 1966 and, due to a lack of usable documents and data, was mainly based on photos, a three-sided plan, a load calculation and historical wind tunnel data from the original B&W collected by MIT. The reconstruction was mainly carried out on the Renton Airport- based company jobmaster . The swimmers built the wind tunnel model workshop of the Boeing works.

In order to improve the flight performance and the structural resilience of the airframe , some improvements have been introduced compared to the original. The float struts, which were originally made of wood, the wing center section and the fuselage framework were replaced by elements made of welded steel tubes. The laminated wooden floats were reinforced and lengthened. Increasing the rudder fin should improve directional stability. The drive consists of a Lycoming GO-435 six-cylinder boxer engine throttled to 170 hp . The replica weighs 227 kg more than the original.

The roll-out machine called the Boeing Model 1A was on May 23, 1966. Two days later, the first flight. Between 1966 and 1969 she flew at various aviation shows. It has been in the Museum of Flight in Seattle since 1970, with a brief interruption due to a presentation at Transpo '72 .

Technical specifications

Parameter	Data
engine	Hall-Scott-A-5 - inline 6-cylinder - piston engine
power	93 kW
length	8.38 m
span	15.86 m
Wing area	53.9 m²
Empty mass	953 kg
Takeoff mass	1270 kg
Top speed	121 km / h
Cruising speed	108 km / h
Rate of climb	3.56 m / s
maximum altitude	1981 m
Range	518 km

swell

• B&W Seaplane. Historical snapshot. In: Boeing History Products B&W Seaplane. Boeing, accessed June 13, 2016 . 

• Boeing history chronology. (PDF) 1910-1920. In: Boeing History. Boeing, accessed June 13, 2016 . 

• Boeing's first . In: Airplane Monthly June 1975, pp. 288-290.
• Peter M. Bowers : Boeing Aircraft since 1916 , Putnam & Co., 1989, ISBN 0-85177-804-6 , pp. 37-41.
• Bill Yenne: The story of the Boeing Company , Revised and updated edition, Zenith Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-7603-2333-5 , pp. 10-12.

Web links

Commons : Boeing Model 1  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ www.boeing.com/history
2. ↑ ^{a b} Yenne, p. 11
3. ↑ ^{a b} Airplane Monthly, p. 289.
4. ↑ Bowers, 1989, p. 39
5. ↑ To assess the flight performance of Bluebird s. AEG C.IV (two-seater German double decker from 1916)
6. ↑ Video of the replica on www.boeingimages.com
7. ^ The replica in the Museum of Flight