this is a vintage article on the way a model A engine was converted to aircraft use. I thought it was a really neat look at how stuff was made to last back in the day. some of the banger boys will LOVE this I'm sure http://www.wingsofhistory.org/images/stories/pietenpol_pdf/pietenpol.pdf
Cool stuff. It seems kinda dicey these days to bet you life on a Model A motor, but the small aircraft engines weren't really any better.
if you read the article they make a statement about 240hrs on a motor before a teardown. 240hr TBO is scary when you compare it to the thousands of hrs they put on em now
The EAA Museum in Oshkosh has one like that on display, complete with radiator. Also present is an air cooled airplane engine made up of Ford V8 parts. It used a stock flathead crank, rods, flywheel, starter, fuel pump, carb, distributor, and .060 pistons to make a 248 CI powerplant. WWII stopped production.
A buddy of mine just put a banger motor in his 36 truck. When he got it, it was configured for aircraft use. It was mounted upside down and backwards in the airplane. There was a mag moutning hole on the front which faced backwards. It used some type of exterior oil pump.
Theres 1 of those planes at the Museum of the Rockys in Bozeman Montana hanging from the ceiling. Being as I had a 31 I read all about it and checked it out
Just Google " Pietenpol Air Camper." There are still builders who convert their bangers for aircraft useage in these things. Old school indeed.
You guys would have to know Ol' Henry Ford hisself built a light aircraft using an A motor but pulled the pin on the project when his chief test pilot and friend was killed in a prototype? Heres a pic of the Ford Flivver, This is a latter one that had an Anzani 3 cylinder radial. Doc.
The Jalopy Journal
