Making the Bungees

[@brianskeens647]

Amazing. As a youngster, I never gave the shocks much thought (except for how hard they worked when Lindbergh was trying to lift off from Roosevelt Field bouncing several times before becoming airborne). It wasn’t for years later I understood bungee cord was used for shock absorbers. Now to understand how they were made amazes me even more! How has John learned to do it? Is this something that’s common knowledge amongst vintage aircraft builders or learned from plans or visits to see the original? I understand Donald Hall’s son discovered a trunk that included drawings he’d kept while constructing the NYP Spirit. Are these drawing available to see anywhere? I’m a CAD drafter for a structural engineering firm so drawings for the Spirit of St. Louis would be fascinating to see. I always concluded, considering how rushed the construction was, there were only minimal drawings made and none of them left afterwards. Do you know anything about other things used in the construction of the real Spirit that still might exist? I would love to know. Thank you again for reading my messages. It’s an honor to speak with such experts.

[@JNEAircraft]

John grew up in an environment that encouraged using your imagination to create new things. His father owned and operated the only (for many years) repair shop in the isolated community and any parts that were ever needed had to be manufactured by hand ... or else wait for several days to have them shipped in from the parts stores. So, John had an excellent role model to observe and learn from! He has the ability to look at something and then more or less "reverse engineer" it in his mind to a fairly accurate level. He then puts what his imagination has showed him into practice in the "real world" and generally is able to "tweak" things a bit to make them work as he imagined they would. He operates on the adage, "If somebody else made it before, then I can make it again!" So far, in my experience, he is correct! LOL As for the bungees, they are used in the landing gear apparatus of many of the old tail-draggers in one manner or another. Though most bungees today use some form of a metal clamp to hold them together. John studied the way the original NYP bungees were made by looking at all the photographs he could find showing them. He had already worked out how to make them before we had the opportunity to inspect the original when it was on the floor of the NASM in March 2015 ... but seeing them in person just confirmed that he had gotten it right! Really, the only NYP "drawing" available from Don Hall's collection is a 'sketch' of the wing that shows the extra length they added, where they moved the aileron to, and the spacing of the ribs. There were no other drawings made before or during the construction of the NYP. Ed Morrow made a set of drawings several years AFTER the NYP's successful flight and there are a handful of replicas "out there" that were built using those drawings. John started his replica using those drawings and then discovered they are not accurate once he met Ty Sundstrom and they discussed the differences between the "Morrow drawings" and the original NYP. That is why our visit to the NASM when the NYP was on the floor was such a big deal! We got tons of photographs and had the opportunity to take measurements and even to make patterns ... like the one we made by tracing around the curvature of the rudder. On our webpage "www.jneaircraft.com" (which is woefully NOT up to date) there is a photograph of the machine they used to do the engine turning on the original NYP ... alongside a duplicate machine John built to do the engine turning on his replica NYP. I have no idea if the original machine still exists, and if so where it might be! Beyond that, I don't know what else they may have used and if any of it still exists.