So pretty much everything about this Bugatti speedster is off topic, but I had to post it. The shape, the color, the textures, just the idea... It's rolling (flying?) art primed to inspire. ... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Just give in now and do an entire feature on the "Schnieder Cup" planes of the 20's and 30's. The entire series is chocked full of the engineering greats of the time as well great pilots, such as Doolittle.
I just love the styling of the thirties. Be it automotive or the aircraft of that time. It all just reeks of high style.
Things like this can put you in the frame of mind of the 1940's hot rodder. The things he must have seen while he was overseas. The spirit of inovation.
Gorgeous piece isn't it! Note that the two engines drive contra-rotating props and the radiators are buried in the in the tail. Totally outside the box thinking for the time. Since the original will never fly, someone needs to build a large scale RC model of it. Kurt O.
It never ceases to amaze me how everything he designed was so beautiful. I guess that's what you get when you cross an artist with an engineer. Thanks for posting this one, I had never seen it before and didn't know Bugatti had designed aircraft as well.
The engines are each canted to the side, one left, one right. There are driveshafts that run forward each side of the pilot to a reduction gearbox. The contra-rotating props are driven off the gearbox. The Bell P39 and P63 had a similar arrangement but with a single engine behind the pilot. In the Bell, the driveshaft went under the pilot to the reduction gearbox. Another interesting one is the Dornier Do335. Kurt O.
Looking at the sketch the drive shaft is at the bottom of the cockpit & then there is a box in the front that transfers the power upwards to the props ... I hope there a scatter shield on that sucker with 800 hp between my legs
That does not look like a machine built in 1939, it looks like one built in 2009. It says the plane is at Oshkosh now, I guess that means another trip to Wisconsin. That one alone would be worth the trip.
just Beautiful..rolling,flying,splashing,cycling Art is where its at(for me)..Yes, all the old air racers, some of them on pontoons, Chris-Craft and Haecker,the Italians and Germans had some very racy ,futuristic airplanes..The Flying Wing aircraft, the smaller one restored and flying at Chino..I will hopefully clear the off-topic hurdle and post a picture of the 71 Citroen/Masarati SM I got the other day, four overhead cammed roller V/6 with three Webers and a five speed..13" of hydraulic suspension travel..a rocketship..
It is hard to believe how amazingly beautiful the Bugatti designs are. And so far ahead of their time in many ways. I feel the same way about the Miller/Offenhauser stuff, beautifully crafted devices that have a great form as well a function. My collegue here said it looks like something that should be on the front of a vintage Popular Mechanics. —MRAK
That things beautiful! Since it's never been flown, has the design ever been tested to get an idea of what it might handle like?
Aviation is my first love, that is one beautiful plane. Another of my favorites: Beechcraft Staggerwing DC-3. and all time favorite the GeeBee R-1
Absolutely beautiful ...it seemed like everything the Bugatti family touched was quite elegant. As for being On-Topic...I'd hazard a guess that pretty much everyone here loves planes, trains, boats and of course automobiles...48,000 people of like mind and like interests, what a beautiful world the internet is...thanks again to all for the HAMB!!
beautiful tool design is unversal...look here: http://www.toolingking.com/images/MVC-014S_009.jpg But ol' Ettore probably would not have approved of even that tiny anvil surface on a vise tempting the apprentices into evil practices!
WOW! A Bugatti Vise, of all things> Who woulda' thunk it? Where do you find this stuff? viva La H.A.M.B.!
1000MPH Sitting on the Ramp Clssy56 I had the Honor some years ago of flying cross country in a Staggerwing, incredable.
Old planes are cool. But that Bugatti is off the chart into way cool! Talk about sleek. Images like that make me want to learn to fly. Has that plane been flown?
Vintage cool stuff is just not off topic. It is very inspiring. Problem is, posts like this might cause me to build an airplane. Been threatening to do that for years. Keep it coming.
Judging from the diagrams they look about 3" in diameter. They run each side of the cockpit about elbow height. In the cockpit photo they probably run in the tunnel that you can see at the side of the cockpit with the throttle quadrant on top of it. Each shaft has a couple of flex joints also. Don't know what kind though. Can you imagine, screaming through the air at 400mph, a couple of blown straight 8s behind your head, driveshafts spinning at your elbows, a gearbox at your feet and two big props about 10 feet in front of your face. Add some 20mm cannon in the wings and an FW190 in your sights. Man what a ride! Kurt O.