Where it all began!

[Insuber]

Originally Posted by White Owl

I wish I had a link to share right now, but I don't... Anyway, a few years back I did some research into exactly how the Flyer's engine was built. Amazing stuff. It was mostly iron, not steel. The only real metal working tool used was a drill press. They decided on a four cylinder engine because that would mean a flat crankshaft, so the crankshaft could be chain-drilled out a single sheet of iron.

I've seen an original engine of the Wright's brother, the no. 2 I believe, in the Italian museum of Vigna di Valle. An Italian customer bought in 1909 a Wright's plane built in France, the number 4. With it, Orville Wright did the first Italian flight close to Rome, in front of an enormous crowd who went crazy, and trained the first Italian pilot, Mario Calderara, who got the pilot's license no. 1.

http://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/mus...tN%c2%b04.aspx

Ins

[Sternjaeger II]

I believe that one is a replica, but the original in front of it is genuine and still running.

The Spad a few steps to the right is the one I worked on years ago

[Insuber]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger II

I believe that one is a replica, but the original in front of it is genuine and still running.

The Spad a few steps to the right is the one I worked on years ago

Nice one Stern! "The oldest Spad remaining in the world, Sep 1916. It belonged to the Italian ace Principe Ruffo di Calabria (father of the Belgian queen, iirc), 20 kills."
Ruffo di Calabria was a close friend of the greatest Italian WWI ace, Francesco Baracca, to whom Ferrari owes its symbol of the "cheval cabré", donated by the mother of Baracca to Enzo Ferrari ... a little bit of Italian history ...

Stern tell us more of the Spad restoration ...