By Frederick Johnsen · August 11, 2022 · 1 Comment
If it looks like a Jenny, sounds like a Jenny, and flies like a Jenny, it’s a Jenny, right?
Except when it is a new-build airframe hosting a more-than-century-old refurbished motor.
When members of EAA Chapter 1414 joined forces with the Vintage Wings and Wheels Museum in Poplar Grove, Illinois, to build a flying classic for the museum’s collection, the choice of a Curtiss Jenny biplane trainer was a natural. The resulting replica looks like it should have a serial number one digit higher than the last actual Curtiss JN-4D. It’s that good.
The volunteers creating this beauty had access to 1,200 Curtiss drawings. From these, they fabricated everything.
The wooden turtledeck structure topping the aft fuselage was made on a CNC router, based on original drawings. The wire-spoked wheels were a serendipitous gift from someone who acquired a pair of new-build Jenny wheels made in Italy in the 1990s for anticipated restorations. The wooden propeller is new-made to the original drawing specifications for an OX-5-powered Jenny.
And the radiator — that classic arch-topped shiny brass hallmark of the Jenny — is all new. EAA Chapter 1414 member Don Perry made that complex metal art happen.
He was set to solder the grid of square radiator tubes that make up the core when he found a shop that would do that at a price that convinced him to purchase that part. But the carefully formed brass shell framing the radiator core was Perry’s handiwork, topped with a modified Model T Ford radiator cap that he vented as needed for the Jenny. Perry visited an archival source that held the drawings for the original JN-4D radiator as he researched this iconic Jenny part.
Glycol helps cool this JN-4D today. Its century-old counterparts may have relied on straight water, according to Perry.
The devil is in the details. When the building team could not locate brass hinges with exactly the right scalloping called for by Curtiss, they carefully took simple rectangular hinges and removed metal to achieve the vintage look.
The classic fish-scale burnishing of metal on forward fuselage panels of this Jenny is a nod to the post-World War I era of barnstorming Jennies. One of the team members explained this type of metal finish was found to hide minor scuffs, an occupational hazard for hard-working itinerant barnstormers.
Some classic Jennies had a steerable tailskid, and this new-build biplane uses that feature to help it on the ground.
The Jenny relies on a forest of built-up metal control horns to enable control surface deflections. Superficially similar in appearance, the control horns for tail surfaces are different than those for the ailerons to accommodate the best angle for routing control cables. Each horn was carefully fabricated to match the original specification.
All that handiwork was accomplished by about two dozen people spanning five years. They estimate 23,000 work hours went into completion of the airplane. First flight was in late 2021.
Pilot Ken Morris talked with other current Curtiss Jenny pilots in an effort to learn what to expect the first time he made the machine transfer its weight from wheels to wings. He said flying characteristics matched his expectations.
“You’re flying it every second,” he said.
“This airplane doesn’t know about it,” Ken told a crowd gathered in the Vintage area at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2022.
He added his flight from Illinois to Oshkosh, with one gas stop, averaged a leisurely 52 miles per hour groundspeed.
Like the original, this Jenny has no wheel brakes, so Ken said he has to anticipate ground-handling chores. Stout handholds on each lower wingtip can help. The Jenny is not generally a machine for one-person operation, between propping and ground-handling, and the team from Poplar Grove take pride in supporting the biplane’s requirements to get it airborne.
Using a mix of determination, curiosity, old-school woodworking, computer-aided manufacturing, and thousands of hours of sweat equity, EAA Chapter 1414 has delivered a classic worthy of its prominence at AirVenture 2022.
Fred Johnsen is a product of the historical aviation scene in the Pacific Northwest. The author of numerous historical aviation books and articles, Fred was an Air Force historian and curator. Now he devotes his energies to coverage for GAN as well as the Airailimages YouTube Channel. You can reach him at Fred@GeneralAviationNews.com.
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The only thing missing from your great article regarding the ’21st Century Jenny’ was a shot of it taking flight? Will it ever actually fly? You alluded that perhaps it had flown to the event. Boy, one ground-loop and… Understandable that the museum want to protect it’s sizable investment. But even Howard Hughes couldn’t resist, when given the chance, to let his great creation take wing. Thanks again.
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