AN Albatross AROUND THEIR NECKS

Air Classics, Aug 2006

AN ATTEMPT TO BUILD A LIGHTWEIGHT TRI-MOTOR

Charles Rocheville and Albin Peterson had a plan: They were going to build a huge, lightweight tri-motor aircraft. Both men were in the Navy when they started work on the design of the aircraft. Taking leave from their Navy jobs (interestingly, Rocheville was chief mechanic on the Byrd-MacMillan expedition and on the Ben Wyatt Alaskan survey expedition while Peterson was the official photographer on the Alaskan Survey), they formed the Zenith Aircraft Corporation in August 1927 with Sterling Price as president. A closed corporation, the company was capitalized with $200,000.

Gathering a group of workmen, the designers constructed a hangar/factory at Midway City Airport, near Santa Ana, California. This 60-acre tract of land was owned by Price and the flying field was approximately 2000-ft x 1200-ft.

The Albatross, as the new aircraft was named, was completed in less than 90 days and the designers stated that their "factory" was capable of building one Albatross per month and that additional equipment, buildings and personnel would increase plant capacity of one tri-motor per week. These were just some of the misstatements that would surround the aircraft and company.

Zenith also announced plans to build three models of aircraft with characteristics similar to the Albatross - planes being three-, six-, and twelve-place machines and all being powered with Ryan/Siemens-Halske radial engines.

The first Albatross made its maiden flight some time in the fall of 1927. The Albatross was a curious machine with an externally braced wing spanning 90-ft and a fuselage designed to carry a stated 14 passengers and baggage at a maximum speed of 100-mph. However, the three radiais produced a total of just 375-hp. Peterson and Rocheville stated that the aircraft could takeoff in still air conditions in just 150-ft, which must have been a wild exaggeration. They also claimed that the plane would have an altitude of 20,000-ft, which would have been challenging for passengers.

The designers claimed that this performance was achieved by having an airframe with extremely low weight and high structural integrity. For example, the fuselage was of welded steel tube in a Warren truss structure. Fuselage tubing was 1.5-in 81-gauge to 1-in 20-gauge, all tubing lacquered outside with oil and varnish inside to prevent corrosion. The fuselage, complete with fittings, weighed 700-lbs. Fuselage streamlining was accomplished with spruce fairings and light steel tubes.

The wing spar was of the box type - 14-ins x 3-ins with 1/8-in plywood plates on the outside. In addition, there was a built-up Warren truss inside of 1.75-ins x 2.75-ins spruce members. Each spar weighed 140-lbs - total spar weight was 560-lbs. Wing chord was 12-ft at root and tip while the airtoil was a modified Gottingen 398. Wing ribs were spaced 10-ins apart with a maximum depth of 19-ins and weighed 1.75-lbs each. It was claimed each rib would support a load of 510-lbs.

Ailerons were spruce with cable and internal horn operation and were carried on a false spar by piano hinges. Ailerons were of shielded type with an area of 24-sq-ft each. Compression members between the wing ribs were steel tube and heavy ribs. Drag bracing was single wire. Total weight of the wing was 1300-lb with an area of 1032-sq-ft. The designers claimed a full wing loading when carrying a maximum load of 13,000-lbs of 13-lb/sq-ft. The wing was attached to the fuselage at the cabin with four fittings while two struts on each side extended down parallel to each other from wing to lower longeron fittings.

Each complete engine nacelle weighed 575-lbs and was covered with duralumin on the forward section and fabric over the rear. Each was supported from wing spars by two struts to the forward spar and one strut to the rear spar. Additional struts ran to each main support below the nacelle and a strut that carried the controls extended horizontally from the fuselage to the engine structure. The three radiais of just 125-hp each were installed so that superchargers could he installed without any change in fittings, room being allowed in nacelles and nose mounts. Oil tanks were carried for each engine directly behind the space reserved for superchargers in case they were installed. Given the experimental registration of X3622 by Capt. Walter Parkin, aircraft inspector of the Department of Commerce, the designers claimed that the Albatross was extremely efficient when compared to any previous craft of the same size. They also made the very doubtful statement that the Albatross would fly successfully on just the center engine and that the plane performed "nicely" on any two engines.

Apparently there were a lot of plans for the Albatross, including the installation of a 900-gal fuselage tank combined with 400-gal wing tanks to create an endurance of "well over" 60-hrs. Plans were made for a possible non-stop flight to Japan, but this never happened.

In January 1928, the aircraft was flown to North Island, San Diego, and after four attempts managed to stagger into the air at a weight of 9898-lbs, some 2.47 times its empty weight. On 17 February 1928, with Rocheville, Peterson, and Jack Reid aboard, the Albatross took off at 6:55 am from Imperial, California, with 1294-gal of Richfield fuel and 60-gal of oil for an attempted men's landplane endurance record.