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Boeing retiree dreams of flying his 'bathtub' plane
Boeing retiree dreams of flying his 'bathtub' plane
Ed Kusmirek, 84, has spent decades building a replica of a 1924 super-light Dormoy Bathtub. Now he's ready to take flight.
Ed Kusmirek, an 84-year-old Boeing retiree, shows off his homemade replica of a 1924 Dormoy Bathtub. He says she's ready to fly. (Mike Siegel, Seattle Times/MCT / September 27, 2012)
By Dominic Gates
September 27, 2012
SEATTLE — Ed Kusmirek has built something special. Starting in his family room, then continuing in a garage near his house in Renton, Wash., he's fashioned what looks like an elaborate go-cart with wings.
It's a precise replica of a vintage airplane, a 1924 super-light Dormoy Bathtub. Almost six decades ago, Boeing Co. retiree Kusmirek hatched the dream of re-creating this particular piece of aviation history — and flying it.
Now with his airplane built, the 84-year-old needs only approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and a quick refresher of his flying skills to take it up.
The original airplane sported a converted motorcycle engine and an airframe made from parts either homemade or bought at a hardware store. Kusmirek has mimicked that provenance.
In the 1950s, he bought the authentic engine he needed for $40, caked in red Oklahoma dirt. Dismantling and restoring that was the beginning.
In the last seven years, he made the airframe himself, using many repurposed bits and pieces. The wheels came from a dirt bike. The tension wires inside the wings are spokes from a bicycle.
"The Wright brothers used a lot of bicycle parts," Kusmirek said. "I figured there's no reason I couldn't take advantage."
Showing off the finished airplane parked in an open hangar at Enumclaw Airport in Enumclaw, Wash., Kusmirek pointed to other unusual parts.
The wheel hubs and a cover on the engine are made from saucepan lids. The tail skid at the rear of the fuselage uses a spring from an old recliner. The edging around the cockpit is pipe-insulation foam covered with chamois leather.
The axle suspension incorporates a bungee cord that came from a hospital fitness center's rowing machine. The hubcap on each wheel is the top of a plastic soda bottle.
"It isn't structural," he offered assuredly, regarding that last item. "It's just a cover."
If this litany of recycling sounds like the work of a dilettante, that would be mistaking Kusmirek. Yes, he has a quick laugh, a Tintin-like tuft of fine silver hair sticking up from his freckled pate and an air of boyish enthusiasm. But he's a serious overachiever, a veteran of 39 years at Boeing who worked at high-end research.
Without a college degree, he ended his career as an instructor in Boeing's manufacturing engineering organization.
For this project, absent detailed plans for certain instruments, Kusmirek had to invent them himself.
He invented a mechanical airspeed indicator and tested it in a wind tunnel at the University of Washington. He invented a fuel gauge for the five-gallon gas tank above the pilot's head.
Now the airplane awaits only a few cosmetic tweaks at Enumclaw. Kusmirek hopes soon to taxi it along the ground and perhaps take it on a few preliminary excursions down the runway.
He plans to fly his Dormoy Bathtub, possibly this year.
Kusmirek will soon ask the FAA to certify his plane as airworthy.
He also plans to practice flying small airplanes. He has a pilot's license, but admits he hasn't flown much in recent years.
"Owning my own airplane is a little above my income level," Kusmirek said. "I have very little airtime."
He plans to take some lessons in a small airplane. "I have to get checked out so I will feel sufficiently proficient," he said.
Kusmirek doesn't intend to fly his baby very much. He'll probably take it up for a quick spin just once, a proving flight to put the crown on his accomplishment. Then he plans to tow the plane to the Port Townsend Aero Museum, where he is donating it.
Still, what he's contemplating is not to be taken lightly. Various replicas of the Dormoy Bathtub have been flown over the years, and some have had a bad end.
In 2008, a Bathtub replica crashed and killed the new owner on its first flight near Brodhead, Wis. In 1994, a similar crash in California killed a retired high school shop teacher who had built the plane himself.
Yet Kusmirek's family has faith in him. His eldest son, Dan, who lent a hand with the airplane project, said the many machines his father has built, fixed or restored over the years "seem to last indefinitely."
Is he worried about his 84-year-old dad flying an airplane with 1924 technology?
"I'd like to say I'm terrified," Dan Kusmirek said. "I'm really not. I have no doubts about his ability."
Gates writes for the Seattle Times/McClatchy.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
Fake pilot who joined cabin crew in cockpit
'Fake pilot who joined cabin crew in cockpit' is arrested in plot mirroring Spielberg's hit film Catch Me If You Can
By NICK PISA
PUBLISHED: 06:56 EST, 23 September 2012 | UPDATED: 07:08 EST, 23 September 2012
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A man who posed as a pilot and joined cabin crew in a plane cockpit has been arrested, Italian police said today.8
The unemployed 32-year-old man, whose real identity was not released, created a fake profile for himself on Facebook and called himself Andrea Sirlo, even posting pictures of himself wearing a uniform and Aviator sunglasses.
To complete the illusion he made up fake identity cards and even sent himself imaginary comments from dozens of fake cabin crew friends who expressed their 'delight' at being rostered with him on flights.
The unemployed 32-year-old man posed as a pilot and joined cabin crew in a plane cockpit. He has been arrested by Italian police
Police held the man in the bar at Turin's Caselle airport and revealed details of the elaborate scam at a press conference - as they compared it to the hit Leonardo Di Caprio film Catch Me If You Can in which he posed as a fake pilot and con man who flew more than one million miles around the world in the 1960s.
Officers said they believed he had flown in the cockpit of at least one flight between Munich and Turin in October last year and a link on his Facebook page highlighted the trip on a low budget airline called Air Dolomiti but did not take command of the plane.
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They had been tipped off about him by an Italian Civil Aviation Authority who had become suspicious at how he could claim to be a captain when he appeared to be so young.
After he was arrested he took police to the garage of his home in Turin where he showed them the fake uniforms including white shirts and gold epaulets plus bogus identity cards, two books on flight theory and a plane log book.
Police compared the scam to the hit 2002 Leonardo Di Caprio film Catch Me If You Can in which he posed as a fake pilot and con man who flew round the world
Other pictures on his Facebook page showed him posing on an airport tarmac with planes behind him and in another he was seen inside the cockpit of a plane although it was not clear when and where it had been taken.
The site has now been closed by police but a person using the same identity and pictures also had a Twitter account in which he described himself as first officer for Lufthansa City Line.
Police said they believed he had taken another flight in April of this year as well but added they were still investigating the background of the man who they said was known to them and had previous convictions for fraud.
A spokesman for Turin police said: 'We are investigating several breaches of airport security and the man has been questioned about his motive but has not really provided a clear explanation of why he pretended to be a pilot.'
Turin airport said they were also investigating the case but they had not issued any identities in the name of Andrea Sirlo - the surname is the name of an air corridor over Turin.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2207422/Italian-police-arrest-man-posed-pilot-joined-cabin-crew-budget-airline-cockpit.html#ixzz27Q6Jwmwk
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Sunday, September 23, 2012
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