Steam plane of the Besler brothers

The converted Travel Air 2000 shortly before take-off, 1933

The July 1933 issue of Popular Science Monthly

A conventionally powered Travel Air 2000 at the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum at Creve Coeur Airport in Maryland Heights , Missouri , 2006

The Besler brothers' steam plane was a Travel Air 2000 aircraft that the brothers George D. and William J. Besler converted to steam engine propulsion in 1933.

The aircraft was unveiled to the public on a maiden flight at Oakland , California Airfield in 1933 . The aircraft was so quiet that the pilot was able to communicate with the audience on the ground while it was flying by at an altitude of 200 feet.

The biplane had a double-acting two-cylinder V dual composite - steam engine with about 112 kW (150  hp ) at 1625 / min, manufactured by Doble Steam Motors Company , which weighed about 250 kg. Due to the direct reversal of the steam engine's direction of rotation, the aircraft only required a 30 m landing distance and thus had STOL properties.

Web links and sources

• HJ FitzGerald: World's First Steam-Driven-Airplane . In: Raymond J. Brown (Ed.): Popular Science Monthly . No. 123 , 1933, pp. 9–11, 92 ( blog.modernmechanix.com [accessed January 5, 2019]).
• Promotional film from the Beseler Corporation. Approx. 1933
• Steam Car Developments and Steam Aviation. Article June 1934 (PDF; 292 kB)
• The Besler Steam-Driven Airplane
• Mirror online. With high pressure in the sky