Yes, it's true. The Hucks truck is finally finished. Here are a couple of pics:





Someone will be here tomorrow to pick it up and take it to its new home at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, where it will share a hangar with WW-I aircraft. They'll use it for starting demo's from time to time during their air shows. I haven't actually started an airplane with it yet, but everything appears to work as it's supposed to.

(No one has contacted me yet regarding the making of a model of it.)

Nice job Mike.

Mike

Excellent! Super work on the starter truck.

Hope the museum puts USA Army Airforce emblems on it...needs some i.d.

Of course it was Capt. Hucks of the RAF who invented the starter for the plane, but I like your olive drab finished model better than this Brit blue version

Dan -- We intend to put appropriate US Army Air Corps markings on the truck, as if it were in service here around the time of WW-I. But we need to find out what markings those should be. Does anyone know where to find that information?

Mike

Here is a link with the big star used in 1917-1918

http://www.jcs-group.com/military/rank/usafaircraft.html

Absolutely wonderful!!

They don't come much more unique than that. Congratulations!

Bob

Would love to see it on a tour. haha

Nicely done though all jokes aside. Very very cool.

Mike
Looks Good

Our club and others have been asked to assist our local Aero Space Museum on Father's Day, showing car's of an earlier era along with their earlier planes.

With your permission, I'd like to print off these picture for them.

Here is a picture of an original Starter with some markings but not many. The plane being started is a Vought VE-7 in 1926....Fred

Great work Mike. Its nice to see stuff off the beaten path like this. I bet is was a chore doing the research. There probably is not a lot of data to build from.

Ross -- You certainly may use those pics. And if you want some more, just email me from my profile page.

Mike, Job well done, now how about the airplane?

This may seem elementary to you guys, how does it work? Is there a special attachment on the plane for it? Does it have an anti kickback like a bendix device on it?
Nice job on it.
Howard

I am curious, too. How does it work?

Also, shouldn't there be an OSHA warning on the platform in front of the radiator telling you, "DO NOT STAND HERE WHILE STARTING AIRCRAFT ENGINES"?

You've done a great job, Mike. It is certainly a specialized piece of period equipment!

Thanks, Guys. -- Yes, there is a special piece (claw) attached to the center of the airplane prop which is similar to the dog on the end of a Model T hand crank. The gizmo at the front end of the starter drive is on a sliding square shaft, and it is extended and engaged into the claw by hand by someone standing on the platform at the front of the truck. (Not an OSHA-approved method, as Henry mentioned.) When the plane's engine starts, the claw spits out the truck's sliding part, just as your Model T's crankshaft spits out the hand crank. Here's a closeup pic:



That whole end is welded to the sliding square shaft, which is inside the round drive shaft to the left in the pic. The guy on the front platform slides it out and gives it a twist to engage the claw. (Then he jumps down, presumably.) I don't have a pic of a claw, but imagine the business end of your Model T crank and it'll be pretty close.

Hasegawa used to have a model Huck's type starter truck in 1/72nd scale, but on a '30's truck chassis. Between your truck and David's ambulance model, I may have to kitbash the Huck's gear from the Hasegawa kit onto a Model T chassis.

I don't remember the drive you used, Mike, but is it reversible, for starting British engines?

rdr

Ralph -- The starter drive will turn either direction. Use either the low pedal or reverse pedal to drive it, depending upon the airplane being started. Power is transferred through a Muncie aux. tranny with a PTO. Just put the Muncie in neutral, so the truck doesn't move.

BTW, the original Hucks trucks were not like that. They used a custom-built PTO in place of the Muncie, where you could move a sliding dog forward to engage the prop drive, and rearward to drive the truck. Rather than have all those very expensive parts fabricated, I opted to save my customer a bunch of money and use the Muncie with the PTO already built in.