You would think that a plane that has done what this one did would be much more well known.  It was the only plane (and dsigner) that even attempted to claim the long distance flight record that Joseph Pulitzer put up in 1908.  $10,000 would go to anyone that could fly from Albany to New York within 25 hours making just two stops.  No one had flown 150 miles up to that point.

In 1910 Glenn Curtiss built a plane that was up for the challenge.  He completed the trip in 3 hours of flying time, 5 hours in total.  He won the $10,000 prize as well as the Smithsonian Trophy for the third time. 

This was sensational news of the day.  Curtiss achievement and the Hudson Flier were widly publicized and given a hero's treatment.  Since Curtiss carried a letter from the mayor of Albany for the mayor of New York, it marked the first occurance of air mail delivery.  Just weeks later, Charles Hamilton broke that record when he flew the Hudson Flier from New York to Philadelphia, had lunch, and flew back again!  In November of 1910, Eugene Ely flew the Hudson Flier from the deck of the USS Birmingham, heralding in the birth of US Naval aviation.

So who's ever heard of the Hudson Flier.  Not me up until two years ago.

I visited the Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, NY and learned all of this from fellows in their restoration shop.  They were just beginning to construct the wings of a replica Hudson Flier.  They intended to re-enact the Albany to New York flight in 2010 on the 100th anniversary of the original flight.

Thinking this would be a great R/C subject and one that I could finish over the two and a half years before the anniversary flight, I asked for their assistance.  I got far more that I could have hoped for.  Instead of designing a model, I have been designing the full scale plane in 3D CAD and generating most of the drawings that are being used in the shop.  The plane is about half finished and should fly late this summer.  It was high time that I get started on the model.

So that's my story.  For someone that has never done a scratch design/build, I sure jumped into the deep end of the pool!  I have remarked on more than on occassion in the restoration shop while I marvel at the plane being assembled in front of me, "Well that sure is the largest model plan I have ever built!"

I hope you will follow my build thread.

Happy Landings.

Chevelle

There are a few in the build thread that can be found here:

http://www.rcscalebuilder.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1320 5&PN=1

I thought that this plane looked familiar. Glenn Curtiss was one of the members of the AEA, lead by Alexander Graham Bell, which designed the first airplane to fly in the British Commonweaqlth (Empire in those days). Certainly the Hudson flyer had at least an additional year's development time so there may be more changes than is evident from the pictures.

Links for the Siver Dart and its anniversary are

http://www.flightofthesilverdart.ca/
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Silver+Dart+Baddeck&am p;rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid =ie7&rlz=1I7GGLR_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=k6EVSpi ZK9OFmQfi6ZjpDA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnu m=4&ct=title#

You probably can get a leg up on the construction and flight characteristics by talking to the various Canadian modellers as well as the guys who built the replica.

Also, there's a boon of Glenn Curtiss and his Hammondsport designs, which probably includes the Hudson FLyer.  I've got a copy at home  (or should) -- send me a reminder in a couple days (PM or e-mail) if I ahven't posted anything.

Thanks Byorcat.  I'll take whatever info you can find.

I only live an hour from Hammondsport and visit the shop regularly to answer questions about my drawings and other things.  They have several flying replicas and therefore considerable expertise.  A local R/C club built a 1/4 scale June Bug for that 100th anniversary last year.  (The Silver Dart is a derivative of the June Bug.)  A friend of mine is using my plans to build a 1/6th scale foam electric that will give us a feel for things.  Finally, from what we have been able to find, this plane, like most of Curtiss', is pretty docile.

But again, I can't have too much information.