Viewing page 13 of 38

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

working in a small building in Burbank, California where they built their first one-man pusher type flying wing plane which was successfully test flown through 1931, using a 90 H.P. Menasco engine. Following this Allan Lockheed and Stadlman formed the Alcor Aircraft Company in San Francisco, California, and early in 1934 they brought out a very unusual twin engine, high wing cabin monoplane, using two Menasco 6 cyl. 250 H.P. engines lying horizontally in the nose of the machine just far enough apart to give propeller tip clearance. This plane, designated the C-6-1 Junior Transport, carried 8 passengers and was intended for feeder line use. It was test flown by the well known experimental test pilot E. T. Allen.

Stadlman remained with Alcor on development work until 1937. Then, in an abandoned hotel in Hawthorne, California, he built an experimental plane, known as the "Jeep", using two 65 H.P. engines. Entirely of wood construction, it made over 200 flights, then was given to Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio.

In March 1939 the Northrup Aircraft, Inc. was organized in Hawthorne, with Stadlman again in the group, and they built another Flying Wing, known as Model NIM, using two 275 H.P. pusher engines. It was flown at the Government Test Base at Muroc, California. It had a retractable tricycle landing gear and was a true flying wing with no tail surfaces nor fuselage. Engines and personnel were housed within the airfoil.

During World War II Stadlman was at North American Aircraft Company and the Alameda Naval Air Station, engaged as a specialist on the design and construction of jigs, fixtures and manufacturing processes. Following this he returned to Northrup where he helped design and build the fabulous XB-35 172-ft. span Flying Wing on an Air Force contract, using four Pratt & Whitney R-436O Wasp Major engines, driving counter-rotating pusher propellers.

Tony Stadlman became a member of the Early Birds in 1937 and received his 50 Year Commemorative Plaque at the 1962 Annual Reunion of the Early Bird organization at Birmingham, Alabama. He is living in retirement at San Francisco, California where he enjoyes [[enjoys]] the arts and literature, but especially

                                                        8