This is a snowplane my grandfather built with his brother. It had a model T engine and an airplane prop. It was often used to transport the doctor to remote farms when the roads were snowed in. There is a similar one in the museum in West Yellowstone Montana that I got to show to my son. . The above picture and text has been on my website for years - This year we visited my late fathers only sister and went through the old family pictures. In one photo book was a whole page of pictures of her Fathers' (my Grandfathers') snowplane! As I've only seen the one picture (above) previously it was great to see. My Aunt let me borrow a bunch of the pics for scanning and I would like to share them with the HAMB. The pictures span the years '34 to '38 and show the Snowplane in various levels of compleatness and even two in the same pic. Viscount Saskatchewan is about an hour east of Saskatoon. a couple of great engine shots . could be a little breezy riding in this..
The engine is not a T, but rather an A. The radiator and shell are A too. Nice piece, very clever and obviously usable.
The Russians used similar vehicles during The Winter War and WWII. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerosan
Man that's cool. Can you imagine heading out on a snow mobile trail with one of those today? Priceless!
A friend of my dad's had one of those sitting behind his shop when I was growing up. Never got to see it run tho.
My Grandpa built several of those. There was a little group of probably fifteen guys who had them on the Saginaw Bay here in Michigan in the early eighties. His was made from a belly tank off a cargo plane and had a Lycoming engine. A quick clip of his plane "Mercury III" made it onto the beginning of an episode of Monster Garage. I think it's the one Jesse made a snowmobile out a a T bucket or something like that. I rode in it several times, pretty crazy experience. They go right over open water and do occasionally leave the ground for a while.
There were planes powered by Model A engines - one I know of was the Pietenpol Air Camper. Mr Pietenpol lived in the next town over from me when I was a kid and I saw him flying his plane more than once.
I remember seeing those from my Grandparents house on Killarney Beach, back when I was a youngster those snowplanes would whip around the bay. I remember one was painted up like a cop car. A neighbor down the road had a blue one. Man I'd love one of those today.
Gordo, thanks for posting those photos, they're amazing. Do any of your family members have any memories of what those were like to ride in? And what became of them? Cris
My aunt is the only one from that generation on Dads' side of the family that's still on this side of the grass and she was not very old when these pictures were taken and she was not allowed to ride in them. And unfortunately no-one knows what became of the machines
My Grandpa's were all dark maroon with an Olde English D and Mercury I, II, and III painted on the respective sides. There was an orange and blue one made out of a Datsun Z car and a pale yellow BMW Isetta bodied one as well. I know I have some pictures but my scanner is on the fritz. I'll try and post them. The guy across the street from my Grandpa owns a machine shop and has a small private plane. He's bought the snowplane and is now using it to test out his new engines before they go up in the air. Pretty good idea I think
The one's I rode in had hydraulic skags that dropped down from the back skis. They didn't stop it on a dime but it did slow it down a bit. It takes a while to whoa it down from a hundred plus mph across a frozen bay.
I had a ride on one when I was a kid. It was more or less a wide plank with front and rear skis on each side. The engine was aircooled, possibly from a VW. It had a prop on the back inside of a shroud. It went along over a frozen lake fairly fast as I recall it. But the guy wasn't pushing it very hard. This was maybe 10 years before I recall seeing a snowmobile, so it was pretty unique at the time. I've always wondered what ever happened to the thing.
I had one of those about two years ago and couldn't figure out what the hell to do with it since we never get any snow. So I sold it. It was neat but kind of like owning a boat in the desert.
Lucky 77, the next time your out here I'll take you down the road to the guys house that built about 1/2 of the snowplanes in this area. He had at least three of them out in his yard until about a year ago. Had one awhile back that had a small surplus jet engine on it. His stuff was really refined, not a bit RAT-PLANE if you get my drift. Frank
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