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Friday, 21 August 2009

What's This?


H/T Brian

3 comments:

ajdshootist said...

Abrams P1 Explorer

Ric Locke said...

That, my friends, is an (actually the) Abrams P-1 Explorer. It was built in the late Thirties for Abrams Aerial Survey corp. of Lansing, Michigan, and used for aerial photography up until the early Fifties.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsaAeLaNr60

Abrams did a lot of other cool stuff, as did their direct competitor Mark Hurd. If you go to the Pima Air Museum in Arizona, you can see the airplane Abrams used for side-looking radar surveys of the Amazon basin -- an early version of the strategy displayed by use of the Shuttle Imaging Radar to probe the Egyptian desert.

Regards,
Ric

Maj Bach said...

Abrams Explorer 1937

Designed specifically for mapping and aerial survey, the Abrams Explorer featured a twin-boom tail and pusher engine configuration for excellent stability and visibility. Its supercharged engine allowed high altitude flight, while ports on the floor accommodated heavy vertical cameras. Also called the Stratoplane, the Explorer was used extensively for five years before being retired. Only one example was built.
Engine: Wright Whirlwind R-975, 450 hp


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsaAeLaNr60

http://www.k5dxm.com/Area51.html