The month of June saw the arrival of not one . . . not two . . . but three Pups!
The first one is great project I purchased a while back called a Buhl Pup. It’s powered by a three-cylinder Szekely engine that puts out 45 hp. It’s a cute little plane from the Golden Age that I thought would one day make a great character for my Gee Bee Book Series. It just seems to scream out with personality! It was developed in 1930 as an inexpensive airplane but the Great Depression took its toll and the company eventually folded after only about a hundred were built.
Is this cute or what?
The other two are WWI Sopwith Pups, which were the predecessor of the famous Sopwith Camel! The Pup was one of the first Allied aircraft with a machine gun synchronized to fire through the propellor. Both are powered by original 80 hp LeRhone rotary engines. I acquired them separately in the 1980’s and used to fly one of them at the Weeks Air Museum facility in Miami. It’s a very light little plane with a lot of wing area and flies around like a butterfly. Hurricane Andrew took its toll on both of them and, after we got the DeHavilland DH-4 projects back from Century Aviation, I decided to let them rebuild them.
Unloading the wings
Fuselages
I have no idea when we’ll get to them but, if we get the room, it would be nice to assemble one uncovered for display. One thing is for sure . . . they sure look a lot better than when they left!
Kermit