Ben Harrison
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Quite possibly the first seat tank ever made. 
The first seat tank?
- Thread starter Ben Harrison
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WaspAir
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Or maybe this one?
Jerry_Forest
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Here''s mine made of galvanized sheet steel pop-riveted and soldered together. Finally stopped leaking after sloshing it with proper aviation tank sealer. That means it could have been made of aluminum, eh?!!
Made in 1975. 9 Imp. gallons.
Made in 1975. 9 Imp. gallons.
gyrojake
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I like the tool box
Joe_Terminella
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look at the message on the seat!
if I recall Smokey went down due to a failed control rod
if I recall Smokey went down due to a failed control rod
Gyro28866
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What strikes me is the coning angle of the rotor. Don't know if it is an illusion or not. Seems excessively high. Did he have too much blade pitch and slowed the RRPM and did not have sufficient centripetal force?
Brian Jackson
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If you look at the rotorhead block, you're seeing about the same area on the side as on the front. So I interpret that as viewing the rotor from approx. 45 degree angle. Scale the rotor horizontally by ~1.4 (sq. root of 2) and the coning appears to be much less than the image would suggest. Or I could be completely wrong, but that's my guess.
MikeBoyette
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David those were Hughes blades. Chucky made those hub bars for anyone and everyone who wanted them. I think he was charging guys a couple hundred bucks for a set of blades.
Jean Claude
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This is not an illusion:
The picture shows h/d = 0.21
So, if D is about 1.2 m, this means h = 0.25 m, and if R = 3.3 m, then this gives 4.3 degrees coning
cesphil
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I think that Chuck also made his seat tank before Smokey made his. Chuck’s gyro was similar to a Bensen but totally different. He used round tubing in lieu of square, a built-up aluminum tail (at the time, Bensen used the original wood tail) and a fiberglass seat back tank in lieu of The 6 gallon metal outboard tank that Bensen bolted to the side of the keel.
Your father, Ernie, later built a nice fiberglass seat tank that had a wet bottom. It was on the blue gyro that he sold to Neal Watson who flew it from the east coast of Florida to the Bahamas. The gyro also had a fiberglass instrument panel. I think it was one of the nicest Bensen type gyrocopters that ever existed.
MikeBoyette
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Thanks Phil I had never seen that machine. I have heard the story a bunch of times. Supposedly the first international flight of a gyro ever. He flew it to his casino as dad and others flew in a jet ranger equipped with a big grappling hook hanging below in case the Mac quit. They could just grab him still strapped in the machine and fly them to land. It was a success he made it with no issues until he landed. First Dad said the guy was either really good or very lucky. He landed in the parking lot of his casino. This was a major feat. He came in over the top of huge Australian Pines then under power lines to the parking lot. While the blades slowed down he was surrounded by some form of the law enforcement for the Bahamian government. Someone saw him and called the law. He was arrested for illegal entry into the county. The gyro ended up in the lobby of the Casino. I have no idea what happened to it after that.
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Doug Riley
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Of course, old-time pickup trucks had seat-back tanks. Or at least the tank was in the cab and your seat back rested against it.
Walt Lach, a member of our New England Whirlybirds PRA chapter for decades, made a seat-back tank (similar to Smokey's but without the artistic curve at the top) for his Continental-powered Bensen. Walt got his inspiration from Lowell Farrand of Indiana -- so maybe Lowell was first? Those two built their tanks by first making a sacrificial male plug our of cardboard and waxing it. They then applied glass and resin to the outside, with no attempt to achieve a smooth exterior finish. Once it cured, they cut the tank in half, stripped out the cardboard and 'glassed it back together again.
Most people know that fiberglass resin deteriorates badly in the presence of sunlight. If you make any 'glass part for your aircraft, boat or whatever, you can either paint it, gelcoat it or upholster it, to keep the U.V. at bay. And pretty it up.
Walt Lach, a member of our New England Whirlybirds PRA chapter for decades, made a seat-back tank (similar to Smokey's but without the artistic curve at the top) for his Continental-powered Bensen. Walt got his inspiration from Lowell Farrand of Indiana -- so maybe Lowell was first? Those two built their tanks by first making a sacrificial male plug our of cardboard and waxing it. They then applied glass and resin to the outside, with no attempt to achieve a smooth exterior finish. Once it cured, they cut the tank in half, stripped out the cardboard and 'glassed it back together again.
Most people know that fiberglass resin deteriorates badly in the presence of sunlight. If you make any 'glass part for your aircraft, boat or whatever, you can either paint it, gelcoat it or upholster it, to keep the U.V. at bay. And pretty it up.
WaspAir
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Not even close.
Ciervas were crossing the English Channel back in the 1920s.
On this day in history: first crossing of the English Channel in an autogyro, 1928
In January 1923, the world's first successful rotorcraft, the Autogiro , successfully completed its maiden flight. The Spanish engineer Juan...
modernhistorian.blogspot.com
MikeBoyette
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Had a feeling I would be corrected. Have a good one. Might be time to take a break from here. It’s like having my nagging wife telling me I’m wrong all of the time. BTW I should have said a Bensen Gyrocopter not a big ass huge radial powered AutoGyro with 40+ gallons of fuel. Thanks again for correcting me. Enjoy.
WaspAir
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Well, at least I didn't remind you of an EX-wife.
Aerofoam
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When I was rebuilding my 44ft. trimaran in Canada, I saw a guy whip out a nice custom tank in about 4 hours.
He laid up fiberglass on a plywood covered in plastic sheet, when the resin kicked, he laid out the flat shapes, cut them with a zip disk,
then taped the tank together and used 2" fiberglass tape to wrap the corners.
He cut a 5" hole in it for an access hatch and then coated the inside with fuel proof epoxy.
The next day he installed the petcock and a hatch cover with a gasket.
It was an odd wedge shape to fit in the bilge between the keel and hull.
This would have been a $600 to $800 tank if he hired it out, I think he spent about $40 in parts not counting the petcock....
He laid up fiberglass on a plywood covered in plastic sheet, when the resin kicked, he laid out the flat shapes, cut them with a zip disk,
then taped the tank together and used 2" fiberglass tape to wrap the corners.
He cut a 5" hole in it for an access hatch and then coated the inside with fuel proof epoxy.
The next day he installed the petcock and a hatch cover with a gasket.
It was an odd wedge shape to fit in the bilge between the keel and hull.
This would have been a $600 to $800 tank if he hired it out, I think he spent about $40 in parts not counting the petcock....
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"He laid up fiberglass on a plywood covered in plastic sheet, when the resin kicked, he laid out the flat shapes, cut them with a zip disk"
Aerofoam: Does "kicked" mean cured?
Aerofoam: Does "kicked" mean cured?
Aerofoam
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Yes, it was iso, not epoxy, so it went off in 10 minutes.
The plastic was 5 mil visquine, like a drop cloth. I have a waxed glass table to do similar layups, but the plastic is fine.
I saw a boat shop in BC do it on melamine surfaces particle board, they didn't even wax it!
I was trying to make the point that it doesn't take special tools, or materials, a fiberglass tank can be built quickly and for not much $$
You can layup CF over a waxed PVC drain pipe with a slit down the side. (To collapse it for removal. If you want to make a standard tubular tank.
I have glassed over a styrofoam form and melted the foam out with gasoline....
Composites bring complex shapes to the masses.
MikeBoyette
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Yeah my Dad has built a bunch of fuel tanks. Most of them for gyros. He used urethane foam and as a male plug then once the glass was cured cut it open and dug the foam out. He used polyester and that stuff doesn’t do well with ethanol. He built a gyro using a Mosquito helicopter body. It had a built in tank behind the seat. The ethanol ate it up. He ended up cutting the built in tank out and replaced the little boat seat with a seat tank.
