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17-521: In 1921, Colonel Virginius Clark, chief designer of the Dayton-Wright Company , designed the Chummy sporting biplane. The airframe was advanced in its use of the new Clark Y thick-section airfoil and a welded fuselage framework of chrome-molybdenum steel tubing. A departure from the all-wood structures found in other trainers, the structure proved sturdy and dependable. It was offered to

34-651: A consultant, but other than that, the location of one of its three factories in the original Wright Company factory buildings in Dayton, Ohio was the only connection to the Wright brothers. In addition to plant 3 (the former Wright Company buildings), Dayton-Wright operated factories in Moraine (plant 1, the main factory) and Miamisburg (plant 2), Ohio. During the course of the war, Dayton-Wright produced about 3,000 DH-4s , as well as 400 Standard SJ-1 trainers. The company

51-643: A more powerful 110 hp (82 kW) Le Rhone . The USAAS then ordered ten examples of this improved model, and these were the last U.S. Army aircraft to be delivered with a rotary-engine. Appreciating that this type of power plant had passed its development peak, the USAAS then contracted for three examples of the TW-3 (Trainer, Water-cooled, Type 3) with a 150 hp (112 kW) Wright-Hispano I V8 . The revised type clearly had greater long-term potential, and in June 1923

68-637: A new primary trainer. In the early summer of 1924, the USAAS tested a prototype unofficially designated TW-8 and placed an order for 50 examples of the Consolidated Model 1 production variant for service with the designation PT-1 . Early production models had flat dorsal turtledecks, soon replaced by a faired version, and some of the first ones were likely built at the Gallaudet plant in Norwich before production began at Buffalo. The first 171 of

85-619: The National Guard flying programme until retired in the early 1930s. Data from Eden & Moeng (2002) General characteristics Performance Dayton-Wright Company The Dayton-Wright Company was formed in 1917, on the declaration of war between the United States and Germany, by a group of Ohio investors that included Charles F. Kettering and Edward A. Deeds of Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company ( DELCO ). Orville Wright lent his name and served as

102-575: The PT-1 supplanted this wholly obsolescent type and was responsible for a radical improvement in the safety record of US Army pilot training. One of the aircraft was diverted to the US Navy for trials, and four other generally similar aircraft were delivered to Siam in 1928. From 1928 the PT-1 was replaced in frontline service by the Consolidated PT-3 , but then became a valuable implement in

119-566: The XPS-1 , the first airplane held by the U.S. Army with retractable landing gear. In 1919, Dayton-Wright built a limousine version of the DH-4, the single-seat Messenger , and a three-seater. In 1920, Milton C. Baumann designed the RB-1 racer , with solid balsa wood wing, enclosed cockpit, and retractable landing gear linked to rod-operated leading and trailing-edge camber-changing flaps. In 1923

136-481: The 221 produced used a streamlined nose radiator, the remainder used an un-faired installation. One PT-1 airframe was completed as XPT-2 with a 220 hp (164 kW) Wright J-5 radial engine. The PT-1 became the first training airplane purchased by the USAAS in substantial quantity following World War I. Aviation cadets in Texas and California flew it extensively during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It acquired

153-747: The Dayton Airplane Company in 1917, which was reorganized as the Dayton-Wright Company in April. When the war began, Deeds was commissioned and put in charge of procurement for the Aircraft Production Board. He divested himself of his financial interest in Dayton-Wright but awarded the company two contracts to produce more than 4,000 DH-4 and Standard SJ-1 aircraft. Given the company's inexperience,

170-655: The Dayton-Wright Company had just started producing side-by-side TW-3 aircraft, powered with World War I surplus Wright E engines (American-built 180 hp Hispano-Suiza) when it was closed down by the parent company General Motors , which had purchased it in 1919. Its design rights, chief designer (Colonel Virginius E. Clark ), and the TW-3 contract, were acquired by the newly formed Consolidated Aircraft Corporation of Buffalo, New York in 1923. Subsequent TW-3 aircraft were delivered as Consolidated TW-3s . Consolidated PT-3 Too Many Requests If you report this error to

187-585: The USAAS as a replacement for the Curtiss JN-4D trainer, with a choice of Le Rhone or Clerget rotary piston engines. In 1922, the Army ordered three TA-3 (Trainer, Air-cooled, Type 3) machines for evaluation with the Le Rhone engine and dual controls. Evaluation showed that the type had the makings of a good trainer, but was somewhat lacking in power, so in 1923 Dayton-Wright modified one TA-3 with

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204-628: The USAAS contracted for 20 TW-3 production aircraft, together with enough spare parts for the construction of another three aircraft. At this time the General Motors Corporation was thinking of pulling out of the aircraft business and closing its Dayton-Wright subsidiary, so Reuben H. Fleet of the Gallaudet Aircraft Corporation secured rights to the Dayton-Wright trainer design. When Gallaudet shareholders expressed disapproval at this move, Fleet left

221-512: The company and established the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation . It was to this new company the TW-3 order went, and all the aircraft were delivered by the end of 1923 with the uprated powerplant of one Wright-Hispano E (license-built Hispano-Suiza 8) engine. Once the aircraft had entered service, Fleet continued to improve the TW-3 , the most important change being the removal of the engine cowling to improve

238-513: The nickname 'Trusty' for their excellent ability to make a quick and effective recovery from a spin. Easy to fly, the Trusty made some students overconfident, and they received a shock when they advanced to faster airplanes with more difficult handling characteristics. The 'Trusty' was commonly flown without its cowlings in an effort to prevent overheating Whereas the TW-3 had supplemented the JN-4D,

255-491: The occupants' forward and downward fields of vision. Visibility was still poor, so Fleet secured US Army permission to rebuild one TW-3 with a new, slimmer fuselage, providing tandem rather than side-by-side seating. This revised aircraft was generally known as the "Camel" due to the hump between its two cockpits. The "Camel" may be regarded as the prototype of the Consolidated response to the USAAS's 1924 requirement for

272-537: The size of its contract led to charges of favoritism. A United States Senate committee corroborated these allegations, and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson appointed a commission headed by future Supreme Court of the United States Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes to investigate. Although mismanagement and favoritism were documented, charges were not brought, and the company survived the scandal. It went on to produce

289-575: Was hurt by the reputation of the DH-4s it produced as "flaming coffins" or "flying coffins", although they were not in reality more subject to catching fire than other aircraft, and by scandals it faced. Deeds and Kettering had previously worked together in several ventures. Deeds' DELCO produced automobile self-starters developed by Kettering. The two used DELCO's profits to form the Dayton Metal Products Company. Then they formed

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