He removed the original Continental C-85 engine and installed a C-90. In August 1948, without having flown the aircraft, Betty Skelton bought the Pitts Special for $3,000 and named it The Little Stinker Too. The name The Little Stinker was initially applied to a 1929 Great Lakes 2TlA biplane (NX2O2K) that Skelton had flown in 1946, 1947, and 1948.
Contents.OriginsIn 1929, the Great Lakes Aircraft Company (GLAC) was formed inat the former site of theCompany. They builtcivilian biplanes, as well as biplane under contract to the.The model that most people think of today when someone says, 'GreatLakes aircraft,' is the enduring 2T biplane; also known as theGreat Lakes Sport Trainer. It was designed and sold as a two-place,open cockpit biplane.
The first were an 85 hp (63 kW) American Mk III. The 2T biplane wasnot as large as some of its contemporaries manufactured by,and. Great Lakes 2T-1A SportsterThe original models had a wing span of 26 feet 8 inches andlength of 20 feet 4 inches. The useful load was 578 (262 ) and it was stressed for 9positive and 6 gnegative. It had outrigger landing gear with spring oleo shockstruts, and the range was 375 miles.
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The sale price started out at$4,990 dollars but as the came itwas lowered to $3,985. The first four Sport Trainers built were ofa rare straight-wing design, one of which was modified into aspecial racer. Because of problems recovering from flat spins, thetop wing was swept back and that is what most people recognizefirst when looking at a Sport Trainer. AcroplanesBecause of the Depression, the Great Lakes Aircraft Company wentout of business, closing their doors in 1936. As the years went by,the original Cirrus engine was replaced by radials, inlineMenascos or, andhorizontally-opposed Lycomings, Franklins, or Continentals.
TexRankin, a well-known stunt pilot of the 30s and 40's, made theGreat Lakes Sport Trainer famous. He had one specially modified andinstalled a 150 hp Menasco engine. It waspainted red, white and blue with his name upright on one side, andupside down in the other, so folks would know who he was when heflew by upside down. Tex's airplane is now being restored by the Aviation Museum.For about 30 years, until the late 1960s, the Great Lakes SportTrainer was the top American-made acro plane. Other pilots who madethe Great Lakes reputation famous were: Hal Krier, Hank Kennedy,Lindsay Parsons, Dorothy Hester,Charley Hillard, and Frank Price. The first entryin a worldcontest was a Great Lakes biplane that Frank Price of took to in1960. Re-establishment of thecompanyDuring the 1960s Harvey Swack of,obtained the rights to the Sport Trainer design and all the factorydrawings for it.
Harvey then sold plans to homebuilders until 1990,when he sold off the plans business to Steen Aero Lab of Pam Bay. There have been agreat number homebuilt Great Lakes Sport Trainers built over theyears, which kept interest in this old biplane alive.In 1973 Doug Champlin brought the Great Lakes back intoproduction. The general design was not changed much. The fuselagewas strengthened by using thicker walled tubing, and the enginesused were 150 or 180 hp Lycomings. The wings utilized in place of, and on some models,additional were added to the top wing. Thefactory rights were sold to various people until 1985, whenproduction ceased. Doug Champlin also built one Turbine poweredGreat Lakes 2T.
With 420 hp (310 kW), it was quite a show stopper.In2000, of, bought theGreat Lakes Sport Trainer type certificate and tooling. In 2006Doncan announced his plan to bring the Sport Trainer back intoproduction once again. When he gets 10 airplane orders, the factorywill begin production. Duncan's company today is called The GreatLakes Aircraft Company LLC.
Betty Skelton, Aviation, Class of 2008For more than half a century, Betty Skelton has been known as the 'First Lady of Firsts.' The Florida native earned her nickname the hard way, whether flying at 29,000 feet or traveling at speeds greater than 300 miles per hour in a jet-powered car.
In the process of setting 17 aviation and race car records, she also paved the way for women to enjoy equal opportunities in aviation, sports and business. Nearly 35 years after retiring, Betty still holds more combined aircraft and automotive records than anyone in history.Betty Skelton was born in Pensacola, Florida on June 28, 1926 and made her very first solo flight at the tender age of 12 at the controls of a 40-hp Taylorcraft. She took up aerobatics at 18, giving her first public performance in a borrowed Fairchild PT-19. She bought a 1929 Great Lakes 2T1A biplane and began her professional aerobatic career in 1946 at the Southeastern Air Exposition in Jacksonville.She won her first International Feminine Aerobatic Champion on Jan. 1, 1948 flying her Great Lakes.
It was there that she noticed a striking new little biplane, the Pitts Special S-1C, an experimental single-seat open-cockpit biplane, and the smallest aerobatic airplane in existence at the time. In it she became the first woman to perform an inverted ribbon cut. Betty won her second and third consecutive International Feminine Aerobatic Championships in 1949 and 1950. That plane named 'Little Stinker' now hangs in the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F.
Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport. Naturally it is suspended inverted.Betty sought other records too. She raced in the 1949 Cleveland Air Races and set a women's altitude record of 29,050 feet in a Piper Super Cub. Walter and Olive Ann Beech asked her to fly demonstration flights of the Beech T-34 for an Air Force evaluation team and Beech won the contract. Skelton also wrote columns for aviation magazines and appeared in advertisements.By late 1950, Betty had achieved the highest marks in aerobatics but, with the barriers in place against women, she had little incentive to continue. That year she met NASCAR founder Bill France, who talked her into driving at Daytona Beach during Speed Week.
Not only did she drive the pace car at Daytona, she also set a stock car record in a 1954 Dodge Red Ram V8 on the beach. All of a sudden, Betty had a new career.
As auto industry's first female test driver, she guided 'L'il Miss Dodge,' a jump boat, over a 1955 Custom Royal Lancer on a ramp at Florida's Cypress Gardens and she was part of a team that drove a 1955 Dodge to 395 new records at the Bonneville Salt Flats. In 1956, Betty became one of the a top women advertising executives working with the General Motors Company in print, television, and automobile demonstration runs. Driving mostly Corvettes, because she was the official spokeswoman for Chevrolet, Betty earned a number of Feminine Speed Records over the measured-mile, plus a transcontinental mark as well.In 1959, Look magazine asked her to undergo numerous physical and psychological tests given to original Mercury 7 astronauts. She landed on the cover of Look, and, although she would have loved the chance, she never had any illusions that a woman would be selected for the Mercury program.Motorsports Hall of Famer Art Arfons offered Betty a chance in 1965 to drive his open cockpit; F-86-D J-47 Sabre-jet powered 'Green Monster – Cyclops' on the Bonneville Salt Flats. She went on to set the Women's Land Speed Record with a 276 mph average – while posting a one-way run of 316 mph.Throughout her life, Betty has served as a great ambassador for aviation and an inspiration for men and women alike. So much so that each year the United States National Aerobatic Championships honor the highest placing female pilot with the' Betty Skelton First Lady of Aerobatics' award.by Dorothy Cochrane.