Aeronautical Engineering AE-5

Built by Aeronautical Engineering Co with Oakland, California, AE-5 was a monoplane two-seater parasol of mixed construction (aerofoil with timber structure, fuselage out of steel tubes, the unit being cloth-lined) drawn by Joaquin S. Abreu according to an original idea: the engine and the tank of the fuselage constituted a detachable unit being able to be released in flight in the event of emergency landing or of fire in flight, the apparatus in front of then being posed like a simple sailplane. During first tests, to Alameda in 1929, the pilot Reed Volwes ejecta the engine-tank unit of an altitude of 1675 m whereas it flew over the beach and presented himself on the ground after a planed flight of about fifteen minutes. But a group of people who had observed the scene precipitated towards the plane… probably to carry help to the pilot, constrained to plate on the ground its monoplane which finishes its race by a wooden horse. The prototype was slightly damaged and one did not hear any more of him.

Characteristic:

Scale: 11,58 m
Length: 8,84 m
Driving: 1 the rotary Rhone of 90 ch.

Random links:

_de_Chicago