Brunner-Winkle Bird

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Brunner-Winkle Bird
Brunner Winkle Bird A NC9115 HARM 10.06.06R edited-2.jpg
Bird A of 1929 fitted with Curtiss OX-5 engine preserved at the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum near St Louis, Missouri
Roleair-taxi/joyrider
National originUnited States
ManufacturerBrunner-Winkle
First flightSeptember 1928
Statussome aircraft still flying and on display in museums
Primary userprivate flyers and barnstorming
Number builtca. 240

The Brunner-Winkle Bird was a three-seat taxi and joy-riding aircraft produced in the US from 1928 to 1931.

Contents

Design and operation

The Model A version was powered by the ubiquitous Curtiss OX-5, and featured a welded steel-tube truss fuselage with metal and fabric skinning. The wings, constructed of Spruce and plywood were also covered with metal and fabric skinning. The Model A had a reasonable performance for an OX-5 powered aircraft. The Model A's ease of handling led to its entry into the 1929 Guggenheim Safety Airplane contest, where it was awarded the highest ratings for a standard production aircraft. [1]

The Model A was awarded Group 2 approval no 2-33 in January 1929 for the first nine aircraft serial no. 1000 to 1008. Aircraft serial no. 1009 upwards were manufactured under Air Transport Certificate no. 101. [2] [1]

The Model B followed on from the initial Bird design and was fitted with the uncowled Kinner radial engine. Production aircraft were designated BK. [1]

Variants

Data from: aerofiles.com [3]

Bird BK of 1930 with Kinner K-5 engine preserved at the Yanks Air Museum at Chino, California Brunner-Winkle Bird BK Yanks Chino 05.01.08R.jpg
Bird BK of 1930 with Kinner K-5 engine preserved at the Yanks Air Museum at Chino, California
Model A
original production version with Curtiss OX-5 engine (ca. 80 built)
Model AT
version with Milwaukee Tank engine (2 converted from Model A)
Model B
version with Kinner K-5 engine (1 prototype)
Model BK
production version of Model B (84 built)
Model C
version with Wright J-5 engine (1 built)
Model CC
version with Curtiss R-600 Challenger engine (1 built)
Model CJ
version with Jacobs LA-1 engine (6 built)
Model CK
version with Kinner B-5 engine (50 built)
Model RK
export version of Model CK (1 built)
Model E
4-5 seat version with enclosed cabin and Kinner B-5 engine (1 built)
Model F
version with Packard DR-980 (1 built)

Specifications (Bird Model A)

Data from U.S. civil aircraft series:Vol.2 [2]

General characteristics

Performance

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

(Partial listing, only covers most numerous types)

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References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 John, Talmage. "The Brunner Winkle Bird at the Cradle of Aviation Museum". www.cradleofaviation.org. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  2. 1 2 Juptner, Joseph J. (1 May 1993). U.S. civil aircraft series:Vol.2 . TAB AERO. p. 9. ISBN   978-0830643677.
  3. "Aircraft Ba-Bl". aerofiles.com. Retrieved 2008-10-19.

Bibliography