Aviation History - March 2016 USA

March 2016 AH 7

OPPOSITE PHOTOS: STEVE DUNN; RIGHT: (TOP) ALBANESEBRANDING.COM; (BOTTOM) ©DAVID COLE/ALAMY

145-hp carbureted Lycoming

four. The main landing gear

and center box are from a

Cessna 182; the beefed-up

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doors, seatback-parachute

seats, long-range fuel tanks,

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130 extra pounds of radios

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has no rear seat.

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says. The paint scheme

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during the CIA-run “secret

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and a Piper Cub L-4.

Stephan Wilkinson

Air Quotes

“THE AIRPLANE WON’T

AMOUNT TO A DAMN THING

UNTIL THEY GET A MACHINE

THAT WILL ACT LIKE A

HUMMINGBIRD.”

–THOMAS EDISON

I

n 1938 Ettore Bugatti, the Milanese-born builder of

some of the most technically and aesthetically out-

standing automobiles of his day, began designing

an airplane to compete in the 1939 Deutsch de la

Meurthe Cup, the European equivalent of the American

Thompson Trophy race. Aided by engineer Louis D.

de la Monge, he came up with a design every bit as

striking as his autos. Mostly of wood construction, the

Bugatti 100 featured forward-swept wings, an automatic

flap system, a V-shaped tailplane with mixed controls,

retractable landing gear and two 450-hp Bugatti 50B

engines, internally mounted behind the pilot’s exten-

sively glazed-over cockpit, geared to drive two contra-

rotating propellers. Bugatti expected it to reach from

500 to 550 mph and, with war clouds looming, he hoped

to turn it into a lightweight fighter. But the plane was not

completed by the race’s September 1939 deadline, and

when the Germans overran France in June 1940, it was

hidden in a barn to prevent the enemy from capturing it.

Restored after the war, it has been displayed since 1996

at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisc.

The Bugatti 100 never did fly, but in 2011 an engineer-

ing team, headed by Scott Wilson and John Lawson,

set out to reconstruct the airplane. Lacking plans, they

reverse-engineered the original to produce a replica

powered by two Suzuki Hayabusa engines. Variously

called the Bugatti 100P and Blue Dream, the reproduc-

tion underwent taxi tests at Clinton-Sherman Airport

near Tulsa, Okla., on July 4, 2015. During its first test

hop on August 19, the plane landed farther down the

runway than planned and the right brake failed, causing

it to ground loop. Damage was minor, however, and on

October 17 the Blue Dream took off and completed a

full circuit of the airport. According to its pilot, it per-

formed perfectly in the course of a “flawless” flight. It

remains to be seen how much of the Bugatti’s potential

will be realized as its owners put it through its paces.

Jon Guttman

Bugatti Blue

Dream Finally Flies

76 years late

The Bugatti 100P

leaves the hangar in

2015 for its first flight.