Some words about screwing

highbury731

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The Bugatti 100P was a one-off, intended for speed record setting. It's of laminated wood construction. It was nearing completion at the outbreak of WW2, but the German invasion led it to be hidden in rural France, and it deteriorated. The two Type 50B engines had magnesium crank-cases specialy cast, which led to a US Bugatti restorer to buy it c.1970 to pinch the engines for car use. It is now restored as a non-flier, in AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. A replica is being built, but don't know if that is intended for flight.
 

riptragle1953

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Thank you for that info. Bugatti built a lovely engine.... I've only been under the hood of one helping out a hill climb.
 

A-BCD

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BUGATTI100P_zps7d397a0f.jpg
 

A-BCD

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The 100P was being designed to take on the airspeed record of the day and estimates based on the design put the top speed of the aircraft at near 500mph, more than enough to take the record.
The blueprints for the Bugatti 100P called for a twin, mid-mounted engine design. Both engines would be 8 cylinder 4.9 litre race car engines producing 450hp each, power would be transmitted to the propellers via twin drive-shafts passing under the pilot’s elbows and attached to the double, counter-spinning propellers via a unique, nose-mounted transmission.

The wings and fuselage were designed to be constructed from a multi-layer laminate using a Balsa wood core and hard wood exterior to provide a high-strength laminate with a relatively low weight. It was a very clever concept, many planes still use the same fundamental composite construction now, almost 100 years later.
Sadly, the 100P was never completed, the Germans invaded France before the plane was ready to fly and the project was halted. Ettore and Louis supervised the disassembly of the almost ready 100P and had it crated up and hidden in a barn in the French countryside, they wanted to insure that the advanced technology used in the plane didn’t fall into the wrong hands, had they been caught doing this, they would have been executed.

After the war the Bugatti 100P was collected from the barn and was shipped to the US, it was reassembled and currently lives in the EAA museum in Oshkosh. Unfortunately the plane never actually flew, it seems a damn shame but fortunately I’m not the only one who wants to see it fly.
A retired fighter pilot and Louis de Monge’s great-nephew in America have set about building an identical, full scale replica of the 100P that will not only be airworthy, but will be ready to fly in the fall of this year.
 

riptragle1953

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My goodness, what a wonderful treat before first coffee!!!!! I can't Thank you enough. I will say more when the fog clears my head.... odd, but my first thought was if Howard Hughes knew about or even saw this machine as the record attempting uniqueness of it's
construction would have had his interest big time.
 

riptragle1953

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I plan to make a photographic poster of all this material with the original photo across the bottom later in the day. it will take some tasty rearrangement in Photoshop to fit neatly on a high quality paper oh maybe around 11x17 or so. Yeah, I really like it.
 

riptragle1953

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Hey, thanks guys: to me this is like Christmas
I was wondering would Leno donate two of his 16 factory crated Bugatti engines to a first class aero club willing to reproduce this to perfection?
I have read where a fellow did such a perfect repro of Hughe's H-1 the FCC designated H-2!!!!
I was kidding about Leno's engines..... but, knowing that guy, it's entirely possible.
 
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