1929 Hamilton H-47 "Metalplane"

JohnTerrell · **Posted:** Thu Aug 06, 2009 7:25 pm

I'm not sure how many people know of this aircraft, but I am fortunate enough to live just a few miles from where the last remaining flyable example is hangared. Ever since I was a child, I would try and sneak peaks through the hangar windows to see it, and on a couple of occasions I have gotten the chance to see it outdoors during past airshows. Yesterday, with the return of the P-51C "Tuskegee Airmen" to the airport, I noticed that the hangar door was open, and thought I would walk down and see if it was still there.

I was glad to meet the owners of the aircraft, and they couldn't have been more welcoming, kind, and knowledgeable on the aircraft's history. I was invited to have a look around the aircraft, and actually climb aboard. Walking through the passenger cabin, at 6-foot 2-in, I was literally bent in half - it was amazing to think that this was the modern-era of airline travel at one time - and it is a good thing that I am lean, with how close the seats come to one another. All of the passenger windows roll up and down, like automobile windows, with classic, period crank handles, and the seats are all wicker. The cockpit is a thing of simplicity, and has some similarities to that of the Tri-Motor's cockpit. It just went through a full annual - the thing could fly if the owners decided to do so - and it does undergo engine runs. The insurance cost for keeping it static is astronomical, and the cost of insurance for flying it would be doubled.

It will be undergoing an engine run some time within the next two weeks, and I hope to be able to catch it. I was told that when they do fire it up, it usually starts immediately on the first attempt. Unfortunately there wasn't much light within the hangar, and I was more eager to look at it not through a camera lens, but here are a few photos:

Some better photos are available here:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Northwes ... 1321816/L/
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Northwes ... 0617818/L/
http://www.airliners.net/photo/North...H47/0617817/L/

Tulio · **Joined:** Mon May 03, 2004 1:05 am **Posts:** 3236

Some saw service in Central and South America.

I have seen the one you pictured above, while visiting Fleming Field in MN. Really interesting airplane.

BTW, did you see anything at all of the remains of the Stinson Reliant that used to sit at that airfield?

Saludos,

Tulio

JBoyle · **Posted:** Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:06 pm

You can see one in action in "Only Angles have Wings".

A guy brought a studio model to Antiques Roadshow a couple of years back. I was/am seriously jealous.

And in R.E.G. Davies book Airlines of the United States Since 1914, there is a great photo of a Northwest ship in North Dakota back in the day.

JohnTerrell · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:39 am

Tulio, if I recall it was an all-grey Reliant, and it was parked out in the grass. Due to storms in 1998, it was beaten pretty badly, and looked like it was rather neglected. By about 2000, 2001 or 2002, I no longer saw it anymore. Since that time, I have seen this example every now and then at Fleming, and it is registered as being based at Fleming, so I presume that this is the same aircraft, now beautifully restored, but I have no information on it:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Stinson- ... 1161691/L/

The Inspector · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:19 am

Hamilton Metalplane was purchased by Boeing and made part of United Aircraft. The airframe manufacturing was halted (sound like the death of the MD-95/717 ?) by Boeing and Hamilton was merged into Standard Metal Propeller.

I had a loudmouthed, irritating FKIA kid @ BADWRENCH in my crew in QC years ago named John Lysdale who claimed to be part of that project. I hope that the ensuing years have made him less a noisy PITA-

wacoykc · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 9:08 am

The airplane is currently for sale in case anyone has the $$$$ to pony up and get it flying again. I know a number of people who have flown it and say it is pretty typical of that era big airplanes....slow on the controls and flies like a truck

b29flteng · **Posted:** Sat Aug 08, 2009 9:42 am

I was around when Jack did the first post restoration engine run at So. St. Paul. Around 1976 Northwest made a commercial with it and Jack flew it to Northport Airport, the airport is now a housing development, to do the filming. They had about 5-6 actors dressed in period costumes posing with it.

Bearcat SA · **Posted:** Sun Aug 09, 2009 4:51 pm

wacoykc wrote:

The airplane is currently for sale in case anyone has the $$$$ to pony up and get it flying again. I know a number of people who have flown it and say it is pretty typical of that era big airplanes....slow on the controls and flies like a truck

Anyone know what a plane like this would go for ?

JBoyle · **Posted:** Sun Aug 09, 2009 5:26 pm

I saw it in Trade-A-Plane several years ago with a price tag of about a $1-1.2 milion (IIRC).

Since then, a friend was seriously interested in buying it...but didn't do so for reasons other than the cost.
I don't know what they offered it to him for.

wacoykc · **Posted:** Mon Aug 10, 2009 9:53 am

They are still asking somewhere around the one million mark. It will never sell. In today's world, that airplane might bring $300-400K.

Canso42 · **Posted:** Sun Oct 11, 2009 5:28 pm

There's a good photo of Noel Wien's example on p. 58 in "Bushplanes" by Geza Szurovy, Zenith Press, 2004.
It's on skis at Nome, Ak., and the cockpit top hatch is open. Was that how the pilots got in?

The Inspector · **Posted:** Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:58 pm

CANSO,
Given the aircraft in question (Wiens) was an Alaska bush plane, I'll bet it was probably field modified so you could actually get into it as flying to the bush you take EVERYTHING you can squeeze in the cabin (to make a profit on stuff delivered) and you would need to get out @ various stops to account for what was being unloaded and nothing else that might be for the next village. To this day you see freighters (like the one in the C-45 link in this section) that have the freight door over or cut into the cockpit opening, so do fire bombers with ladders built onto the outside of the fuselage because of the water tanks inside.
In the 30's Nick Best who operated what eventually became Alaska Airlines was hounded by the CAA guy in Alaska about overgrossed aircraft, Best confronted him one day with this at the top of his lungs-'Whenever you see one of my planes, it's overgross!' Pilots took to loading a part of the cargo @ the airport to satisfy the CAA man, then flying to another flat place nearby to 'finish' loading the airplane.

Wheels up · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:20 am

On Fokkers and other ships of this era and purpose, there were no electric starters. The Fokkers had a full mechanical inertial starter mounted so the input/cranking socket is vertical just in front of windscreen base.
You flipped the lid open aft, stood on your seat, inserted the crank just ahead of the windscreen and cranked away. When sufficient inertia is achieved (or human is exhausted), pull crank, flop down in seat, and engage the starter. Piece o' cake. Repeat 65 times when below 30*.
Only way to self start in the early days in the bush.
This may not be the primary purpose of the hatch, but it made it necessary.

Canso42 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 9:17 pm

Inspector, Seems like there was a comment to that effect about overgross loading, but it doesnt' seem to be attributed to Best. Bush pilot operated on such a thin financial margin, that was the only way to stay in business.

maxair2air · **Posted:** Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:41 pm

Folks, I've posted a photo essay on this plane on my site-
http://maxair2air.com/09AIR/Hamilton-Metalplane/01.html
I was fortunate to be there when they fired it up, (they hired me to take pictures of it) and I got some lovely shots of the airplane in the setting sun.
Enjoy,
Max

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1929 Hamilton H-47 "Metalplane"

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