Plane #4

Yes, I believe it is a Russian manufactured plane. It has a 9 cylinder, Russian made engine made under license) to Wright Aeronautical.(1820 Cubic inches and 1200 HP). Russia is reputed to have had hundreds of them tooling around eastern Russia and Siberia.

We were spending a nice Sunday afternoon at Post Mills. DAD. (my kind of a day!)

PS The engines were very similar to the Wright 1820 that powered the B 17.

Plane #3

This is a Stearman PT 17 or a variation of one. The stiff leggeg landing gear is a dead giveway.

You threw me a curve and I have had to call in my specialist (Slim). I doubt it has a name and was probably a homebuilt some one thought up. I have hopefully sent it on to Slim for some help. But if I am right about it being a homebuilt it maynot have a name. I beleive the engine is a 5 cylinder radial, either a LeBlond or Warner. rated around 85 to 100 HP.

As I mentioned in an earlier note, Slim says he thinks it is a Nicholis - Beasley. And old eagle eye Beegles notes that the prop is pitched to run backwards or clockwise unlike more recent aircraft.. They were really before even my time! DAD

Early 1920.s

Plane #2 - Navy N3N.

Of course it is an N3N, as it states on the tail (vertical fin.) The Navy had an aircraft factory up in Jersey I believe. It was the Navy's Primary Trainer prior to and during WW2. Your Mother took primary flight training in a similar biplane called a Stearman PT 17. The N3N was heavier as it was designed to also use floats. It (seaplane version) had a large float under the fuselage and two small floats below the lower wing. It was different in construction because it was a navy built plane. (just kidding) . But instead of using traditional round tubing it (the fuselage) was built with angle shaped material. It was incredibly strong. And it was a little heavy. At the Pensacola Naval Training Base it was called the 'yellow peril' Slim, after the war, used to rebuild them into dusters and sprayers. But not many, as everyone wanted the Stearman because it was much lighter. I do not believe it had any control cables, but used all push-pull rods. There was hardly any friction to the controls as they had no cable/pulley drag. It was a very rugged plane . .

** Basically Navy models were identified by a combination of letters and numbers. In this case the first N stood for the type. The 3 stood for the model and last N stood for the manufacturer. For example a well know WW11 Navy patrol bomber was a PBY which meant it was a Patrol Bomber made by Consolidated Aircraft Company. Successive models were called PBY1 and so forth. A PBY5 was an amphibian with a retractable gear. With the gear retracted it could land on water. Shortly after the war ended I was at Rabat French Morocco at a US Navy Base which included a squadron of PBY's I swapped a Navy Crew Chief in a PBY crew a ride in the PBY for a ride in a B17. But never got to see a water landing.

Plane #1 - Martin Mars Flying Boats.

Gosh aren't they pretty? They are Martin Mars flying boats used by the Navy after the war. They (the Navy)ran a scheduled service from SFO to HNL. Then the Navy sold them to an outfit , a sort of cooperative, made up of a lot of huge woodlot owners to fight forest fires in the area. I don't expect they paid much for them from the Navy (It included all the maintenance tooling the Navy had used.) However, converting them to water bombers must have cost several fortunes. They could take on up to 60 or 70 thousand gallons of water in a high speed taxi down a lake. They could discharge it over a fire in a heartbeat.

These were based at Sproat Lake about 75 to 100 miles north of where Moores lived. (Victoria). They had a huge hanger housing all the Navy maintenance equipment and a ramp to get the planes out of the water. It was sort of like a little airline. The engines I believe were Wright 3350's (cubic inches) rated at about 2500 HP. Your Mother got to see one discharging and taking on water at the lake where we were staying with Moores. The cabin actually belonged to Jill and David Stevens. They took us on a tour of one of the Mars and we were very impressed. Boyd, Glenn Iverson and I had made the trip up to Sproat Lake.