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Thread: CF-JLW 1929 Travelair 4000/D4D

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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    CF-JLW 1929 Travelair 4000/D4D

    Last edited by JohnReid; 02-21-2012 at 07:39 AM.

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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  3. #3

    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    The not so impossible dream!
    This is the story of my relationship with a little red airplane.It is also the story of the evolution of a factory fresh airplane in 1929, to a basket case in 1960 ,and then its rise from the ashes to become a showpiece and ultimately a museum hangar queen.I hope you enjoy our story!

  4. #4

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    Nov 2011
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    First ,a little history.
    CF-JLW rolled off the Travel Air factory floor in 1929 as a Model E-4000 c/n 1151.It was registered as a Model BE-4000,N9953 by the Dept. of Commerce.(The BE-4000 only existed in reference to the Group 2 Approval 2-156 which was superseded by the E-4000 ATC #188)
    The E-4000 was the most popular of the radial engined Travel Air biplanes.About 85 were manufactured.It had the Wright Whirlwind J6-5 five cylinder 165 h.p. engine,the "A" fuselage with the rubber "bungee" shock cord landing gear,30X5 Bendix wheels,and he new Standard wing which was the replacement for the counter-balanced "elephant ear" aileron.The standard wing was available in two versions:the "B" wing with a fuel tank in the inner bay of each wing panel and in the center section;the "E" wing with a single tank in the center section only.Both versions had an upper wing span of 33 feet....

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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    First contact.
    My dad liked to build things.Not so much the labor type of building but the planning and developing and the seeing through to completion type of building.During my teens I had helped dad build two large houses.The last house we built together I supplied the cheap labor along with various professional carpenters,stone masons,electricians,plumbers etc...Dads projects usually start small but grew over time.What started as a modest home became a very large project indeed.It took years to complete and when we moved in still was not finished.
    While I was away at university I began to hear rumblings about a new project that he was thinking about.No not another house but an airplane this time.You see my dad was an aviator who flew in the military with R.C.A.F. and R.A.F.during the war and for Trans Canada Airlines in civilian life.I too by this time had obtained my pilots license.Dad always had big dreams and one of them when he was a teenager was to own his own airline.He had fallen in love with airplanes and used to scrounge 10 or 15 minutes flying time by gassing airplanes at the local flying club.He had even approached a well off uncle of his to help finance his planned business venture.But this was the 30's and he offered him an education instead.Along came the war and the rest is history.The airplane that he wanted to buy? you guessed it a Curtiss-Wright Travel Air!......

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Montreal, Quebec, Canada
    Posts
    179
    Well dad did buy the Travel Air but 30 years later ,a basket case he found in northern New York State.Over the years, many attempts were made by others to restore this aircraft but without much success.(At one time I did have the original log books and if I remember correctly it had about 700 hours on it total time.)
    By the time I had returned home from university he had already hauled it home. When I first saw it, it was resting in a hangar on the old hangar line at Dorval Airport(now Trudeau International).A couple of boxes of parts,4 well used wings and a rusty frame with undercarriage legs and wheel hubs ,that was about it.I had never seen or heard of a Travel Air up until this point and being young I was into modern airplanes like my dad flew ,Super Connie's and North Stars and I really didn't understand what he saw in this old wreck.
    However it wasn't long before we were back in the old groove, me doing the cheap labor and dad doing the planning.
    I worked on the steel tubing fuselage first sanding off the paint and rust which thank goodness was more dirt and years of crud than it was rust.We ran some oil through the tubing and the interior also seemed to be in good shape.Anyway we fooled around like that for some time,not really getting anywhere when we suddenly happened upon some really good luck.I don't remember now how it all came about but dad introduced me to a fellow named Al Pow.It seemed that Al had built Mosquitoes in Toronto during the war and was at the time building gliders and working on old airplanes.He was a glider pilot and held a few records over the years ,for time aloft and altitude.Al had remained solo all his life and was living in a rooming house in Montreal.A quiet unassuming man with a great sense of humor and as I was to learn later, a master craftsman ,designer and engineer and all around good fellow.

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