wonwinglo
SMF Supporter
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 6,754
- Points
- 113
- First Name
- Barry
'Sometimes circumstance brings forth a unique creation,couple this with a designers eye for clean lines and beauty and the end result can be something never seen before'-
Ettore Bugatti was born in Italy in the 1880s, Ettore Bugatti showed an early interest in auto racing, building a powered tricycle as a teenager and entering it in the 1899 Paris-Bordeaux race. He built his first race car at 18, employing a Four cylinder overhead valve engine with a four-speed gearbox. During The Great War, Bugatti created a 250 hp straight eight aircraft engine, but the size and power of the engine did not fit into any design then being built. On his own, Bugatti connected two of these engines on a single crank case, using a hollow propeller shaft so that a 37 mm cannon, mounted between the two banks of cylinders, could fire its shells through it. Designated U-16, the engine impressed the Bowling Commission so much that it bought the rights to it and had the Duesenberg Motor Company undertake the production of 5,000 of them under the name King Bugatti.
In the 1920s, Bugatti moved from Italy to France and remained a French citizen for the rest of his life, he died in 1946, and during two seasons of that decade his dark blue race cars swept past all competition, scoring one thousand victories and making the name Bugatti synonymous with the ultimate in performance. He also built touring and other cars and developed a strong nationalistic pride. This led him to start work in 1937 on a single engine racing plane to beat the Germans on their own soil, or, rather, in the German skies, by competing in and winning the 1938 Deutsche de La Muerthe Cup, a race limited to aircraft with engines of 485 cu. in. displacement or less. To design his envisioned race plane, Bugatti brought in a well known aeronautical engineer by the name of Louis D. de Monge. The plane was given the designation Model 100 and was to be highly streamlined, powered by a straight eight Bugatti 50B racing engine, of 287 cu. in. displacement and 450 hp at 4500 RPM, which would have a lightweight magnesium block and be located behind the pilot, canted slightly to one side so the drive shaft could curve around the right side of the cockpit to the reduction gearbox in the nose.
Before construction began, however, the single engine design for the Deutsche de la Muerthe was abandoned, and the Model 100 was redesigned to be powered by two buried Bugatti 50B engines for an assault on the world airplane speed record. As soon as the new design was finalized, construction of the aircraft was begun on the second floor of a high quality furniture factory in Paris. While construction proceeded, the threat of a coming war increased. France was behind the times in aircraft design and was seeking everywhere for modern warplanes. Consequently, Bugatti received a contract for a light pursuit version of the wooden structure racer, designated 110P, which would be equipped with two guns, ammunition, oxygen and self-sealing fuel tanks.
The contract included a bonus, if the racer, when completed, bettered the world speed record of 440 mph, a record which subsequently was raised to 463.92 mph by a Heinkel He 100 (March 30, 1939) and then to 469.22 mph by a Messerschmitt Me 209 (April 26, 1939). With strong nationalistic feelings, Bugatti, the proud Frenchman, determined to wrest the record back from the Germans with his Model 100, which was considered capable of a speed of over 500 mph! But the course of events robbed him of any chance to try.
The Model 100 was just nearing completion when the Germans invaded France, and as the German armies neared Paris in June 1940, the plane was lowered out of the furniture factory to the street, loaded on a truck, taken out into the country and hidden in a barn,where it remained for over 38 years.
The clean lines of the Bugatti racer that now hangs in the EAA Museum,just look at those lovely wings not unlike those of the Spitfire.
Ettore Bugatti was born in Italy in the 1880s, Ettore Bugatti showed an early interest in auto racing, building a powered tricycle as a teenager and entering it in the 1899 Paris-Bordeaux race. He built his first race car at 18, employing a Four cylinder overhead valve engine with a four-speed gearbox. During The Great War, Bugatti created a 250 hp straight eight aircraft engine, but the size and power of the engine did not fit into any design then being built. On his own, Bugatti connected two of these engines on a single crank case, using a hollow propeller shaft so that a 37 mm cannon, mounted between the two banks of cylinders, could fire its shells through it. Designated U-16, the engine impressed the Bowling Commission so much that it bought the rights to it and had the Duesenberg Motor Company undertake the production of 5,000 of them under the name King Bugatti.
In the 1920s, Bugatti moved from Italy to France and remained a French citizen for the rest of his life, he died in 1946, and during two seasons of that decade his dark blue race cars swept past all competition, scoring one thousand victories and making the name Bugatti synonymous with the ultimate in performance. He also built touring and other cars and developed a strong nationalistic pride. This led him to start work in 1937 on a single engine racing plane to beat the Germans on their own soil, or, rather, in the German skies, by competing in and winning the 1938 Deutsche de La Muerthe Cup, a race limited to aircraft with engines of 485 cu. in. displacement or less. To design his envisioned race plane, Bugatti brought in a well known aeronautical engineer by the name of Louis D. de Monge. The plane was given the designation Model 100 and was to be highly streamlined, powered by a straight eight Bugatti 50B racing engine, of 287 cu. in. displacement and 450 hp at 4500 RPM, which would have a lightweight magnesium block and be located behind the pilot, canted slightly to one side so the drive shaft could curve around the right side of the cockpit to the reduction gearbox in the nose.
Before construction began, however, the single engine design for the Deutsche de la Muerthe was abandoned, and the Model 100 was redesigned to be powered by two buried Bugatti 50B engines for an assault on the world airplane speed record. As soon as the new design was finalized, construction of the aircraft was begun on the second floor of a high quality furniture factory in Paris. While construction proceeded, the threat of a coming war increased. France was behind the times in aircraft design and was seeking everywhere for modern warplanes. Consequently, Bugatti received a contract for a light pursuit version of the wooden structure racer, designated 110P, which would be equipped with two guns, ammunition, oxygen and self-sealing fuel tanks.
The contract included a bonus, if the racer, when completed, bettered the world speed record of 440 mph, a record which subsequently was raised to 463.92 mph by a Heinkel He 100 (March 30, 1939) and then to 469.22 mph by a Messerschmitt Me 209 (April 26, 1939). With strong nationalistic feelings, Bugatti, the proud Frenchman, determined to wrest the record back from the Germans with his Model 100, which was considered capable of a speed of over 500 mph! But the course of events robbed him of any chance to try.
The Model 100 was just nearing completion when the Germans invaded France, and as the German armies neared Paris in June 1940, the plane was lowered out of the furniture factory to the street, loaded on a truck, taken out into the country and hidden in a barn,where it remained for over 38 years.
The clean lines of the Bugatti racer that now hangs in the EAA Museum,just look at those lovely wings not unlike those of the Spitfire.