BUGATTI BLUE DREAM FINALLY FLIES

摘要

In 1938 Ettore Bugatti, the Milanese-born builder of some of the most technically and aesthetically outstanding 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 extensively 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.