When Ross decided to fly it to
AirVenture 2008, he knew it would
be a long flight. At a fuel burn rate
of 14 gallons per hour he had to
make a fuel stop every 200 miles,
which is about two hours of flight
time. He said, “It was interesting
to meet some of the members who
remember this airplane from the
Rockford days. But it was even more
enjoyable to educate those people
who had never seen or heard about
it before. I was simply amazed at the
interest level this airplane brought
with it and wondered if this was
how Jim Wickham had felt so many
years ago when he shared it with a
very young EAA.”
What’s next for the twin? Ross
is still undecided and doesn’t really
know what route he will take. On
the one hand there is an argument
to be made for leaving it the way
it is as a historical artifact. But Ross
also has some very good reasons to
improve things. He has even gone
so far as to tuft test the airplane
by sticking little pieces of string to
the wings and fuselage to examine
how the airflow moves across the
entire airframe. With streamlining
in mind, Ross has plans to reduce
the drag, tweak the airplane, and
make it go faster. But right now he
just enjoys the simple pleasure of
flying a homebuilt airplane that has
withstood the test of time.
“With the high price of fuel, and a
national desire to cut fuel consumption in general, the twin has no
place today as a practical recreational
airplane,” said Ross. But he believes
that as a test bed for new engine technologies, an occasional flying piece
of history, and something to tinker
with, its time has not passed completely. With the fixed landing gear
and fixed-pitch props, maintenance
costs are considerably less than those
of some high-performance aircraft.
Ross said, “I’m reluctant to see it end
up in a museum again or, even worse
yet, scrapped out and turned into
beer cans. I think for the time being
I will just share the homebuilt spirit
and simplicity of the Wickham B
with as many EAA members as I can.
I think that’s what Jim would have
wanted me to do.”
Jim Busha is the editor of Warbirds
magazine and the owner of a 1943
Aeronca L- 3.
