tric motor thus acts in substitution for
the gasoline motor. Forward motion
of the aircraft at characteristic high
speed will keep the wind wheels turn-
ing…. Electrical propulsion of the
propeller may therefore be continued
over an extended period….”
As Harris puts it: “Gor blimey! Per-
petual motion!”
Still, it would have been a joy to
watch it fly. The big biplane glid-
ing silently through the clouds, pad-
dle wheels chopping them up and
spreading a fine frothy wake like a
bonny Jeanie Deans of the air…
A pity, really.
QUICK-SWITCH AMPHIBIAN
This little beggar is clever.
While the installation of floats on
standard landplanes isn’t a permanent modification, the effort required
to exchange the wheels for floats and
vice versa is a bit of a bother. The
airplane ends up dangling from the
hangar ceiling while a multitude of
other lifts and cranes exchange the
alighting gear.
Theodore Patecell’s idea was to
design a retractable-geared airplane
so that it doesn’t have to be lifted
to slide some floats underneath and
attach them—all you have to do is
retract the undercarriage if you’re
going to fly off the briny. Instant
amphibian: Just add water.
The patent diagram shows two
approaches. One is an Aero Com-mander-like twin, where a set of twin
floats with a crossbar can be slid
under the fuselage to be lifted and
bolted into a set of traverse wells. The
second is reminiscent of a low-wing
twin-boomed SeaBee, with the floats
attaching individually to the bottom
of the wings.
I’m bound to believe that the
inventor is the same Ted Patecell
who worked for Benny Howard in the
’30s and then went on to pilot flying
boats for Pan Am. You can watch an
interview with him on the EAA Timeless Voices of Aviation website, www.
EAA.org/timelessvoices. You can also
find a tribute to him on the Howard
Club web page at
http://HowardAir-craft.org/Howard_Articles.htm.
