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Motorcycle Cannonball 2023

Written on September 13, 2023 at 6:19 pm, by hkraemer

3-Wheelers.com owner, Harry Kraemer was on hand for the 2023 start of the Motorcycle Cannonball in Virginia Beach. This was basically a networking and reconnaissance trip. Harry plans to participate in the race in the near future.

Enjoy these pictures and video from the event.

On day one, the bikes had their inspection and then they were lined up on the boardwalk for the public to see. Click here to open up a new window in Flickr to view the pictures of the bikes from day 1.

On day 2, the bikes were lined up on the Virginia Beach fishing pier for display and then they crossed the starting line. Click here for pictures and videos of the bikes from day 2.

Here is Harry’s YouTube video of the bikes going across the starting line.

Here is Harry’s video of the bikes on the fishing pier and then each bike crossing the starting line.

On day 3, the bikes gathered at Neptune Park near the boardwalk for the local media and for the public to see them one more time before they headed for their next location.

Click here for Harry’s pictures and video from day 3.

Here’s Harry’s video of the bikes arriving at Neptune Park on day 3.

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Flymall Wheels & Wings Newsletter August 2023

Written on August 29, 2023 at 5:42 pm, by hkraemer

Welcome to the Kraemer Aviation/Flymall.org Wheels & Wings Newsletter. This month our theme is “Overnight Delivery”. We have a little history on both UPS and Federal Express (FedEx).

You can view past newsletters here.

Want to have your business highlighted on the Flymall??? We offer inexpensive rates to have your business featured on our Wheels & Wings page. Contact us for more info.

History Trivia: We all know of UPS, how many know how this global company started? All the back to 1907, two teenage entrepreneurs had an idea that would become the world’s largest package delivery service. They started in a Seattle basement with a $100 loan. These two were Claude Ryan and Jim Casey. With this loan, they opened the American Messenger Company. They started by delivering telegrams and running errands for customers. They even walked dogs for their clients. By 1919, the company had expanded beyond Seattle to Oakland, California, where they started using the name United Parcel Service. That same year, the company painted the company’s vehicles its signature color brown, representing class, sophistication and professionalism. Brown was picked because it would not show the dirt and because the Pullman railroad cars were also brown, and they represented high class and elegance. By 1975, UPS became the first package delivery company to serve every address in the continental U.S. And by 1985, UPS Next Day Air service became the first air delivery network to reach every address in the 48-contiguous states, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. And in 1988, UPS won approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate its own aircraft, launching UPS Airlines.

If you enjoy history we have a new aviation history fact each day at the bottom of our webpages. Some days there may be more than one, just refresh the page. And if you like Beatles history, checkout our Events Calendar and select the Beatles category. This is a work in progress, we’re building the most comprehensive calendar of important dates in Beatle history. For those that like to stick with current news, we have an aviation news ticker on our home page. This is updated daily to show the current aviation news.

Was an August 1901 flight by Connecticut aviation pioneer Gustave Whitehead (pictured below) the first successful powered flight in history? It was in the summer of 1901 that Whitehead flew his airplane, which he called the Condor. In the early hours of 14 August 1901, the Condor propelled itself along the darkened streets of Bridgeport, Connecticut, with Whitehead, his staff and an invited guest in attendance. In the still air of dawn, the Condor’s wings were unfolded and it took off from open land at Fairfield, 15 miles from the city, and performed two demonstration sorties. The second was estimated as having covered 1½ miles at a height of 50 feet, during which slight turns in both directions were demonstrated.

Achievements & Special Recognition: This month we’re giving some special recognition to Harry’s friend Nir Blumenfeld whom passed his flight instructor checkride earlier this month. Nir is going to make an outstanding flight instructor.

Instructors, what to highlight your students first solo or other achievement here? Just send us a short write-up and a picture or two and we’ll post it here for you. Click here for our contact info.

Aviation/Aviators in the news: Last month was the annual EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh Wisconsin. Here’s some stats from this year’s event.

The aviation section of the Flymall is full of aviation news, training info, and much more for the aviator.

Let’s go way back to August 18, 1984, Harry received his first flight (logged flight lesson). He had been flying in general aviation aircraft since the 1960s. It was on this day, that he received his first flight lesson, and the rest is history. His first lesson was in N2346V, a Piper Tomahawk (pictured below).

Air show season is always just around the corner. Want to travel to air shows in your own aircraft? Visit our used aircraft page on the Flymall to view our inventory.

Car/Motorcycle Show News: The Laytonsville Cruise In is the place to be on a Friday night in Montgomery County. The Laytonsville Cruise In was started by Harry in 2010. It has become one of the most popular cruise ins in the area. You can follow Harry on Facebook for daily updates during the many shows and events he attends.

August 18 was an award night at the Laytonsville Cruise In. Click here for pictures of our award winners.

Our Events Calendar has the most current info regarding local and national car shows, air shows, and more. With nearly 30 categories, there is something for everyone. The Day Tripper section of the Flymall has dozens of day trip ideas and interesting places to visit. Check it out here.

August 26 1967: On this day in 1967, at the age of 68 and on a 47-year-old bike, Burt Munro set a new World Record in the Flying One Mile Class S-A 1000cc! His average speed of 183.586mph remains unbroken.

Barn Finds/Hangar Finds: Need an appraisal on your barn find? Visit our Appraisal Page for information on our appraisals.

While not exactly a barn find, here is the original (the plane which had carried the first Federal Express package) Federal Express Falcon 20 Jet. It now resides at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

When aviation businessman Frederick W. Smith was seeking an ideal aircraft with which to launch his new business, Federal Express; Smith soon identified the Falcon 20 as showing promise for his purposes, noting the availability of unsold aircraft due to an economic downturn and its atypically strong fuselage, the latter factor lending itself well to cargo operations.

It was in 1965 that Frederick W. Smith wrote a term paper at Yale University proposing a revolutionary way to accommodate time-sensitive shipments. Smith received an average grade on this term paper. On April 17, 1973: Federal Express began operations in Memphis, Tennessee, with 389 team members. That night, 14 aircraft delivered 186 packages to 25 U.S. cities.

Visit our online store to search for hard to find car parts, aircraft parts, and much more. You can pay online in our secure store, just click on the Store button on our home page.

Visit the Test Drive section of the Flymall for reviews on automobiles, aircraft, motorcycles, and more. Read about it before you buy it. You can also research price info on a wide variety of vehicles, collectibles, and more in the Market Watch section of the Flymall.

If you’re restoring a fabric aircraft, Ira Walker of Walker Aviation is your resource. Visit his page on the Flymall by clicking here.

CFI / DPE Notes: Visit Harry’s Practical Test page for information on his checkrides. You will also find useful information there to help you prepare for your checkride. You can also visit Harry’s Lesson Plan section of the Flymall for other flight training information. Visit our Flight Training page for information on our aviation training classes.

Weather in the news: On August 7 of this month, the Mid-Atlantic region had a major storm system move through the area that brought heavy thunderstorms.

And there was 2 more lines of storms after the first one passed.

And as hurricane season is heading into it’s peak time, in late August we had 2 tropical systems affecting the states.

Three Wheel Association (TWA) & 3-Wheelers.com: Harry started the Three Wheel Association in 2013 to promote/support the industry of three wheel vehicles of all types. Visit the Three Wheel Association page on the Flymall for more info on the association. The “NEW” 3-Wheelers.com site is up and running. Check it out here.

Here’s the latest addition to our collection of rare and unusual 3 wheelers. Its a pedal powered dragster. Click here for more information.

Want a reproduction vintage 3 wheeler. Walker Aviation can scratch built from pictures or drawings. Visit his page on the Flymall.

Prototypes: Federal Express founder, Frederick W. Smith, was the son of James Frederick “Fred” Smith, the founder of the Toddle House restaurant chain and the Smith Motor Coach Company (renamed the Dixie Greyhound Lines after The Greyhound Corporation bought a controlling interest in 1931). The Dixie Greyhound Lines (GL) began in 1925 in Memphis (on the Mississippi River and in the southwest corner of Tennessee) as the Smith Motor Coach Company, when James Frederick Smith, a former (and successful) truck salesman, received a used truck as a gift from his previous employer (John Fisher, a dealer, who owned the Memphis Motor Company).

Here’s a 1954 GM Scenicruiser, designed by Raymond Loewy and manufactured exclusively for Greyhound. In our research for this newsletter, we tried to find a picture of the very first coach built by Fred Smith, however, we could not find one.

Nautical Notes: Earlier in August, the Flymall team was at the Annapolis Sailing School earning their American Sailing Association 101 Certification. The weather was perfect. Two days were spent on the Chesapeake Bay sailing a 24 foot keelboat.

Pictures from day 1 of sailing school.

Pictures from day 2 of sailing school.

Pictures from day 3 of sailing school.

The Flymall team also received a PADI scuba refresher course/certification this month. We have some exciting dive trips planned. Flying, boating, and diving!

The Flymall team did a quarry dive earlier (August 25-26) this month in Lake Phoenix in Rawlings VA. Click here for more pictures.

The Flymall team arrived in Blackstone on Friday August 25 and enjoyed a nice dinner at 101 on Main Eatery and Pub. The building was built in 1900. Here’s a picture of the bar.

The team stayed in an old college for girls that was built in 1890 and recently converted into an Inn. It is now known as the Inn at Blackstone. Click here for more pictures of the Inn at Blackstone and some other historic buildings in town.

The visibility in Lake Phoenix was excellent. Click here for pictures of the dive.

There were lots of fish in the lake and they were not shy of the divers. Click here for more pictures of some of the fish in the lake.

Here’s a topside overview of the lake. Click here for more pictures.

Click here for Harry’s YouTube video montage of the dive highlights.

Riding The Rails: Fast Mail (MILW train) was an overnight delivery train service. The Fast Mail was a train service operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (the “Milwaukee Road”) on an overnight schedule between Chicago, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Native American Indian Transportation: Since were featuring overnight delivery this month and this section is about native American Indian transportation, here’s an American Indian owned transportation business. Tribe Transportation is owned by a female native American Indian. The company even created Tomahawk Truck Sales to help their drivers to become owner operator via another one of their companies called Cherokee National. This seems like an excellent company to work for.

Animals in the headlines: Long before we had overnight delivery via jets and state of the art trucks, America had a very famous delivery know as the 1925 serum run to Nome. One of the most famous dogs from the 1925 serum run was Balto. Balto (1919 – March 14, 1933) was an Alaskan husky and sled dog belonging to musher and breeder Leonhard Seppala. He achieved fame when he led a team of sled dogs driven by Gunnar Kaasen on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome. Pictured below is Balto with Gunnar Kaasen, his musher in the 1925 Serum Run.

On August 26, we celebrated National Dog Day.

We close this newsletter with these words: Here are some words of wisdom from John Lennon. “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

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Welcome to the Kraemer Aviation/Flymall July 2023 Wheels & Wings Newsletter

Written on July 28, 2023 at 10:01 am, by hkraemer

You can view past newsletters here. This month the theme is General Motors. We’re highlighting vehicles, ships, and planes built by General Motors.

Want to have your business highlighted on the Flymall??? We offer inexpensive rates to have your business featured on our Wheels & Wings page. Contact us for more info.

Kraemer Aviation hosted it’s annual 4th of July celebration. Click here for more pictures and videos from the event.

On July 4th, Harry was busy giving rides on our 1969 Ural, Manco Rustler, and our 1975 Lomax 223.

Our turtles were well feed on July 4th.

On July 4th, we presented Nir Levy with a congratulations cake for the Air Race Classic.

And July 5th was Mel Short’s birthday so we had a special cake made for him as well.

On July 26, one of our yellow-bellied sliders laid some eggs in one of our turtle habitats. This was remarkable for several reasons. This was also the anniversary of Delilah passing away in 2009. Delilah is buried just a few feet away from where this turtle laid her eggs. When Delilah passed away, Harry decided to create a garden of life around her grave. That is how all of the turtle habitats started. So Delilah’s garden of life is producing some new life (as long as the eggs were fertile).

Here is the yellow bellied slider digging: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

Here she is just getting ready to lay the eggs.

Here she is laying the eggs.

Here she is covering the nest. She spent about 30 minutes covering and hiding the nest.

After the nest was covered, she spend some time making sure that it was not visible and then she returned to the pond.

History Trivia: On July 6 1928 Amelia Earhart returned back to the United States after her flight (as a crew member) across the Atlantic Ocean.

After Charles Lindbergh‘s solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Amy Guest (1873–1959) expressed interest in being the first woman to fly (or be flown) across the Atlantic Ocean. After deciding that the trip was too perilous for her to undertake, she offered to sponsor the project, suggesting that they find “another girl with the right image”. While at work one afternoon in April 1928, Earhart got a phone call from Capt. Hilton H. Railey, who asked her, “Would you like to fly the Atlantic?”

The project coordinators (including book publisher and publicist George P. Putnam) interviewed Earhart and asked her to accompany pilot Wilmer Stultz and copilot/mechanic Louis Gordon on the flight, nominally as a passenger, but with the added duty of keeping the flight log. The team departed from Trepassey Harbor, Newfoundland, in a Fokker F.VIIb/3m named “Friendship” on June 17, 1928, landing at Pwll near Burry Port, South Wales, exactly 20 hours and 40 minutes later. There is a commemorative blue plaque at the site. Since most of the flight was on instruments and Earhart had no training for this type of flying, she did not pilot the aircraft. When interviewed after landing, she said, “Stultz did all the flying—had to. I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes.” She added, “… maybe someday I’ll try it alone.”^[

Earhart reportedly received a rousing welcome on June 19, 1928, when she landed at Woolston in Southampton, England. She flew the Avro Avian 594 Avian III, SN: R3/AV/101 owned by Lady Mary Heath and later purchased the aircraft and had it shipped back to the United States (where it was assigned “unlicensed aircraft identification mark” 7083).

When the Stultz, Gordon, and Earhart flight crew returned to the United States on July 6, they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes in Manhattan, followed by a reception with President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.

Achievements & Special Recognition: Earlier this month Chris Meyer passed his CFII checkride with Harry. This was their fourth checkride together. He is an excellent pilot and flight instructor. Chris wants to be an airline pilot one day.

Aviation/Aviators in the news: Earlier this month we celebrated Amelia Earhart’s birthday and National Amelia Earhart Day.

The aviation section of the Flymall is full of aviation news, training info, and much more for the aviator.

Air show season is always just around the corner. Want to travel to air shows in your own aircraft? Visit our used aircraft page on the Flymall to view our inventory.

During WWI and WWII, car manufacturers were called upon the assist in the war effort. During WWII, General Motors was a major manufacturer of aircraft and aircraft parts. One of the aircraft built by General Motors was the Grumman TBF Avenger. The Grumman TBF Avenger (designated TBM for aircraft manufactured by General Motors) is an American World War II-era torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air and naval aviation services around the world.

July 21st was award night at the Laytonsville Cruise In. We gave out 34 awards that evening. Click here for pictures of the award winners from July 21st award night.

Earlier this month we celebrated National Collector Car Appreciation Day. This is celebrated on the second Friday of July each year.

Are you familiar with the Greyhound Scenicruiser? Built by GMC specially for Greyhound from 1954 to 1956. The design was influence by the observation railroad cars. There were only 1001 made.

Barn Finds/Hangar Finds: Need an appraisal on your barn find? Visit our Appraisal Page for information on our appraisals.

How would you like to find a 1969 Chevy Camaro that has been sitting in a barn untouched for the last 45 years? This is exactly what Joe Al did. Click here to read this story on Hemmings.com.

Visit our online store to search for hard to find car parts, aircraft parts, and much more. You can pay online in our secure store, just click on the Store button on our home page.

If you’re restoring a fabric aircraft, Ira Walker of Walker Aviation is your resource. Visit his page on the Flymall by clicking here.

Weather in the news: Here in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region, we have settled into the typical summer time weather pattern. Thunderstorms most afternoons into early evening.

Three Wheel Association (TWA): Harry started the Three Wheel Association in 2013 to promote/support the industry of three wheel vehicles of all types. Visit the Three Wheel Association page on the Flymall for more info on the association.

Most of the major car manufacturers have toyed with building three wheel vehicles. General Motors is not exception. Here is a three wheeler designed by Peter Maier in 1966. Peter Maier At the age of 20, Maier was one of the youngest designers ever hired by General Motors Corporation.

Want a reproduction vintage 3 wheeler. Walker Aviation can scratch built from pictures or drawings. Visit his page on the Flymall.

Prototypes: The General Motors EV1 was an electric car produced and leased by General Motors from 1996 to 1999. It was the first mass-produced and purpose-designed electric vehicle of the modern era from a major automaker and the first GM car designed to be an electric vehicle from the outset.

The decision to mass-produce an electric car came after GM received a favorable reception for its 1990 Impact electric concept car, upon which the design of the EV1 drew heavily.

Nautical Notes: General Motors also made a very cool amphibious vehicle known as the Duck. The DUKW (GMC type nomenclature, colloquially known as Duck) is a six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the 2+¹⁄₂-ton CCKW trucks used by the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean War.

Designed by a partnership under military auspices of Sparkman & Stephens and General Motors Corporation (GMC), the DUKW was used for the transportation of goods and troops over land and water. Excelling at approaching and crossing beaches in amphibious warfare attacks, it was intended only to last long enough to meet the demands of combat. Surviving DUKWs have since found popularity as tourist craft in marine environments.

Here’s something very cool, although not General Motors related. This is the Pont du Sart Aqueduct in Belgium. This massive structure was built to carry the Centrumkanaal water channel, and is one of the longest of its kind.

Riding The Rails: And yes, General Motors also built trains.

Here is an abandoned General Motors Aerotrain. Only 3 were placed into service, beginning in 1955. They were rented to several railroads, including Pennsylvania RR, New York Central RR, Union Pacific, and Santa Fe. Although futuristic in appearance, they developed a poor reputation in service. Aerotrains reportedly were underpowered and unable to ascend Santa Fe’s Cajon Pass without assistance. Passengers complained about their discomfort. The coaches designed for Aerotrain service were modified Scenicruiser buses that GMC produced for Greyhound at the time. In the state of Michigan, they ran briefly in revenue service between Chicago and Detroit as the Great Lakes Aerotrain. Eventually, GM sold them to the Rock Island Line at a substantial discount. Rock Island used them in commuter service in the Chicago area until 1966. None have run in revenue service since then. Two survive on display at museums – one in St. Louis, Missouri and the other in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

This month in history. On July 3rd 1938 – A world speed record for a steam locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 125.88 miles per hour (202.58 km/h).

While not General Motors related or built, here is a YouTube video of Funbob, an insanely steep alpine coaster located at Adventure Park Cimone, in Sestola, Italy.

Native American Indian Transportation: Long before Detroit became know as the Motor City and even before the French and British came to America in the 1600s and 1700s, Michigan was home to several Native American Indian tribes. Michigan’s three largest tribes are the Ojibwe (also called Chippewa), the Odawa (also called Ottowa) and the Potawatomi (also called the Bode’wadmi).

Animals in the headlines: Nancy & Paul McCartney have recently adopted a new dog and they named him Jet. Here’s Nancy with Jet.

We close this newsletter with these words: You can improve your performance by improving your attitude.

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Kraemer Aviation / Flymall June 2023 Wheels & Wings Newsletter

Written on June 28, 2023 at 7:33 pm, by hkraemer

Welcome to the Kraemer Aviation/Flymall.org Wheels & Wings Newsletter. This month our theme is “What’s happening in Maryland this month”. We are covering wheels & wings in the great state of Maryland. And we have some other wheels & wings news that we’re covering as well. Its an interesting newsletter this month.

You can view past newsletters here.

Interested in living at an airport? Visit our Aviation Real Estate page here. You can view price data for airport property in our Market Watch section of the Flymall. Here is the data for all airport property. You can refine the search by “state” simply by searching for the desired state under “Model”. We’ve added some features to our new real estate section. If you’re looking to purchase aviation real estate, you can use this form to tell us what you’re looking for. If you’re selling, you can use this form to tell us about your property.

Want to have your business highlighted on the Flymall??? We offer inexpensive rates to have your business featured on our Wheels & Wings page. Contact us for more info.

Aircraft sales seem to be on the rise. Last month we sold 2 aircraft, a Cessna 152 and a Beech Sierra. Here’s a picture of the seller and buyer of the Beech Sierra. Both parties were very happy with the sale. The Cessna 152 sold for a very high price of $45,000.00 USD.

History Trivia: On June 4 1783, history was made when the Montgolfier bothers, Joseph and Jacques made the first public demonstration of their dream: To fly! It took place in Annonay, France. Of the two brothers, it was Joseph who was first interested in aeronautics; as early as 1775 he built parachutes, and once jumped from the family house. He first contemplated building machines when he observed laundry drying over a fire incidentally form pockets that billowed upwards. Joseph made his first definitive experiments in November 1782 while living in Avignon. He reported some years later that he was watching a fire one evening while contemplating one of the great military issues of the day—an assault on the fortress of Gibraltar, which had proved impregnable from both sea and land. Joseph mused on the possibility of an air assault using troops lifted by the same force that was lifting the embers from the fire. He believed that the smoke itself was the buoyant part and contained within it a special gas, which he called “Montgolfier Gas”, with a special property he called levity, which is why he preferred smoldering fuel.

Achievements & Special Recognition: This month we want to give some special recognition to Nir Levy and Carmel Haas. They competed in their first air race, the all women’s Air Race Classic. Kraemer Aviation is one of their sponsors. This is one of two teams that we sponsor for this race. Click here to help support them via their GoFundMe page. Here is a short writeup on the background of Nir & Carmel.

Below is Harry presenting Nir & Carmel with a check to get them started.

Harry was present to see them off for the start of the race. History was made, as this is the first Israeli team to compete in this race. Click here for more pictures of Team 6 departure from KGAI for the Air Race Classic.

Team 6 (Nir & Carmel) did excellent in their first air race. They came in 7th place out of 41 teams.

Aviation/Aviators in the news: Getting your private pilot certificate is a huge accomplishment. How about getting your private pilot certificate in a plane that you built? That is what Harry’s friend Laura did. Here’s her story in her own words: My name’s Laura and I’m currently in college at MNSU working on my commercial pilot certificate! I got into aviation in high school through our club, where I actually got to help build the plane that I got my private pilot’s license in. I originally was scared of flying (I never had been on an airplane, airline or otherwise), and just joined to help build the RV-12is. After some convincing from friends, I went up and ended up falling in love with it. The thing that helped me overcome my fear the most was having a deeper understanding of the airplane I was in. While in the club, I mainly focused on building the fuselage and the right wing. I joined my junior year. Covid slowed down the process a bit, as we had to stop meeting for a few months, and then there were also delays with the shipments of the kits. The plane was built by us students, with supervision from the club leader and a few parent volunteers. Last year I was attending Iowa State for aerospace engineering, but after not being able to fly for months, I realized I couldn’t live a life that didn’t involve flying frequently. This year I got my instrument rating, which was one of the hardest (but also one of the most fun) things I’ve ever done. As of now, I’m still not sure whether I want to do airlines or corporate aviation, but I know I’ll be happy as long as I’m in the sky. I would eventually like to join NOAA and their hurricane team. Flying has given me some of my closest friends and best memories, and I can’t wait to see what else is in store!

Here’s Laura while building the RV-12is.

The finished RV-12 with Laura.

Laura takes it to the skies.

The aviation section of the Flymall is full of aviation news, training info, and much more for the aviator.

Earlier this month, Pat & Harry’s friend, Laercio Saldaña passed his private pilot checkride. He worked very hard for this day.

Kraemer Aviation was one of the sponsors for the EAA Ford Trimotor visit to the Frederick Municipal Airport. On Thursday, June 15 a local Ford Model A club was present with some Model A Fords and some awesome photos. Click here for some more pictures from the Ford Model A (s) and the Ford Trimotor.

On Saturday, June 17, the local EAA chapter hosted a pancake breakfast at the airport for the sponsors and support team for the Ford Trimotor visit. Many thanks to them. Click here for a video highlighting the pancake breakfast.

On Saturday, Kraemer Aviation had a nice display setup with some promotional items and our 1928 Shelby Lindy and our 1886 Coventry Rotary Tandem. Click here for more pictures from Saturday with the Ford Trimotor.

Pat & Harry both got some right seat time in the Trimotor on Saturday. Click here for more pictures of Pat & Harry flying the Ford.

Harry’s flight in the Ford Trimotor makes 132 different type aircraft in his logbook that he has flown. This includes time in gliders, blimps, helicopters, jets, turboprops, seaplanes, and more.

Also on Saturday, Harry was busy giving rides on the Coventry Rotary Tandem. Click here for more pictures.

Sunday, June 18, the weather was perfect. Click here for more pictures from Sunday with the Ford Trimotor.

Sunday, Harry was busy giving rides on the Ural.

On Sunday, Harry’s friend Carlo had his Hatz biplane out. The Hatz Classic is an American homebuilt biplane, designed by Billy Dawson and produced by the Makelan Corporation of New Braunfels, Texas. The aircraft is supplied as a kit or, alternatively, in the form of plans for amateur construction. A few years ago, Carlo’s Hatz won the Lindy award at Oshkosh. This aircraft is an absolute masterpiece. Carlo carefully crafted it from scratch. Except for the engine and a few other fittings, he fabricated every single part – including learning to stitch leather to make the seats.

Air show season is always just around the corner. Want to travel to air shows in your own aircraft? Visit our used aircraft page on the Flymall to view our inventory. Kraemer Aviation has sold 3 planes in the last two months. If you’re looking to sell, give us a call.

The Laytonsville Cruise In Award Night is the third Friday of the month from May to October.

Here is what we have for awards this year:
Debbie Grasso’s Choice Award
Flymall Choice Award
Mel Short Best Original Vehicle
TFR Choice Award
Best Of Show for the “Themed vehicle” – Debbie Roberts, MD/VA/DC/DE real estate expert
Judges Choice – Frederick Flight Center
Second Place (numerous) – Atco Tire of Laytonsville – Just Riding Along Bicycle Shop
First Place (numerous) – Dr. Bobby Mozafari / Integrated Sport, Spine & Rehab
Nina’s Choice
Best Classic by Blue Skies Aviation
Best Paint – Washington International Flight Academy
Best Engine – Maryland Auto Service
Best Sports Car – Great American Landscapes
Best Classic by Randy McPhillips / Trust Partners Insurance
Best Wheels – Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists / Joe Dale
Best Muscle Car – Black and White Kitchen and Bath
Best Custom – Andrew Hyman-BlazeCut Fire Suppression System
Best Corvette – Orthodyne Laboratories
Best Import – UPS Store Milestone
Best British Vehicle – DC Metro Aviation Services
Best German Vehicle – Café Sophie

And we have a new sponsor for this month:

AirLaercio LLC – King of Kool award

Judging will start at 6:30 PM. Vehicles must be registered BEFORE 6:30 PM.

Last month, the Flymall team attended the District Harley Davidson “Blessing of the Bikes”. The weather was perfect for a ride in our 1969 Russian Ural. Click here for more pictures from the event.

Earlier in June, the Flymall team was at the British Car Day held at Lilypons Water Gardens. Our 1975 Lomax 223 Roadster earned a third place award. In fact, it was in a tie with a 1953 Lister Jaguar for third place, so both vehicles earned the award. Pictured below is the Lister Jaguar (the white Jaguar in the picture). Click here for more pictures from the event.

Barn Finds/Hangar Finds: Need an appraisal on your barn find? Visit our Appraisal Page for information on our appraisals. Earlier in June, Harry completed an appraisal on a WWII era AT-6 for a client in Hagerstown. Click here to review “North American” aircraft price information in the Market Watch section of the Flymall.

Visit our online store to search for hard to find car parts, aircraft parts, and much more. You can pay online in our secure store, just click on the Store button on our home page.

How about a “barn find” of 6 Tesla Roadster cars sitting behind a Tesla store in Owings Mills, Maryland. Yes, 6 of them just sitting there. Click here for the story on MotorTrend.com.

If you’re restoring a fabric aircraft, Ira Walker of Walker Aviation is your resource. Visit his page on the Flymall by clicking here.

Four years ago this month Harry passed the final checkride and all of the training to be designated a Designated Pilot Examiner. He has given about 400 practical test since then.

Weather in the news: The 2023 hurricane season started this month. Three named storms formed in June, tying the record for the most to develop in that month. Among them were tropical storms Bret and Cindy, which formed within a few days of each other, making this the first June in which two systems were active simultaneously since 1968.

Here is a cool motorcycle with sidecar taxi photographed on the streets of Baltimore Maryland in 1925.

Want a reproduction vintage 3 wheeler. Walker Aviation can scratch built from pictures or drawings. Visit his page on the Flymall.

Prototypes: Not exactly a prototype, however it is a rare and unusual car that was made in Maryland. Sinclair Scott Company, built a car called the Maryland. It was built at their factory at the corner of Wells and Patapsco streets in Baltimore. It had a reputation for being the “solidest of the extra solid cars” of its day. Henry Ford was so impressed with the Maryland when he saw it at the Baltimore Auto Show in 1906 that he asked its maker, John and Edwin Rife, to merge their Baltimore plant with his. This did not happen. The Maryland was made from 1907 to 1910.

Sinclair-Scott was a maker of food canning machinery and in the early 1900s started to make car parts. One of their customers, Ariel, failed to pay, so to make amends, Sinclair-Scott took over production of the Ariel, moved the factory to Baltimore, and marketed the car as the Maryland. Pictured here is an Ariel which is identical to the Maryland.

Nautical Notes: It is a surprise to many that Ford actually built planes such as the Ford Trimotor that we wrote about above in this month’s newsletter. In the early 1920s, Henry Ford, along with a group of 19 others including his son Edsel, invested in the Stout Metal Airplane Company. Stout was working on a single-engined “Stout monoplane”. In 1925, Ford bought Stout and its aircraft designs. The single-engined Stout monoplane was turned into a trimotor and eventually the Ford Trimotor. And you may also be surprised to learn that Ford also built boats. Ford Motor Company accepted a government contract to build “Eagle Boats” and began production at its partially developed industrial complex along the Rouge River in 1918. By late 1919, Ford had completed 60 Eagle Boats for the U.S. Navy. The Eagle-class patrol craft were anti-submarine vessels. They were steel-hulled ships smaller than contemporary destroyers but having a greater operational radius than the wooden-hulled, 110-foot submarine chasers developed in 1917. Pictured here is a Ford built Eagle boat.

Riding The Rails: Baltimore Maryland is also home for the B&O Railroad Museum. This museum has the largest collection of 19th-century locomotives in the states.

Native American Indian Transportation: During the 1660s, due to conflict among the native nations in the west, a large number of Shawnee bands emigrated south and east from their homes in what is now Illinois. Most fled into Kentucky, but one band, the Youghiogheny, traveled further, and settled in western Maryland in what later became Garrett County. They were also known as the Youghiogheny River Indians and/or the Monongahela Indians. One of their modes of transportation was likely a dugout canoe like shown here.

Animals in the headlines: Jett Kraemer turned 10 years old this month.

Jett sharing some ice cream on her birthday.

We close this newsletter with these words: Demand excellence and be willing to work for it.

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Flymall.org May 2023 Wheels & Wings Newsletter

Written on May 17, 2023 at 7:07 pm, by hkraemer

Welcome to the Kraemer Aviation/Flymall.org Wheels & Wings Newsletter. This month our theme is tracked vehicles.

So what was the world’s first tank or tracked vehicle? The answer is Little Willie. Little Willie was the world’s first operational tank in 1915. It was developed to tackle the problems of trench warfare under the direction of Winston Churchill.

You can view past newsletters here.

Interested in living at an airport? Visit our Aviation Real Estate page here. You can view price data for airport property in our Market Watch section of the Flymall. Here is the data for all airport property. You can refine the search by “state” simply by searching for the desired state under “Model”. We have added some features to our real estate section that allow users to submit information about their airport that they are selling and you can also send us information regarding what you are looking for in an airport or airport property.

Want to have your business highlighted on the Flymall??? We offer inexpensive rates to have your business featured on our Wheels & Wings page. Contact us for more info.

The Flymall Team attended the annual Laytonsville Volunteer Fire Department’s benefit breakfast on Mothers’ Day. Click here for more pictures.

EAA’s Ford Trimotor will be at the Frederick Municipal Airport from June 15 to June 18. Rides are available. Kraemer Aviation Services is sponsoring a portion of the Frederick visit. We will be there on June 17 and June 18. Stop by and say hello. For more info on the Frederick visit, click here.

History Trivia: A flying tank? Many of the world’s military have experimented with flying tanks, either on paper or a scale mock-ups. Here is one such vehicle by the Russians.

The Antonov A-40 Krylya Tanka (Russian: “tank wings”) was a Soviet attempt to allow a tank to glide onto a battlefield after being towed aloft by an airplane. A prototype was built and tested in 1942, but was found to be unworkable.

Here is a Russian Tupolev TB-3 Heavy Bomber carrying a tankette aloft to be dropped. The T-27 was a tankette produced in the 1930s by the Soviet Union.

Mercedes-Benz was one of the major manufacturers of tanks and other armored vehicles for Germany during World War II. And this month we celebrate the birthday of Bertha Benz.

May 3, 1849: German automotive pioneer and inventor Bertha Benz was born Cäcilie Bertha Ringer in Pforzheim. She was the business partner and wife of automobile inventor Carl Benz, and she was the first person to drive an internal-combustion-engined automobile over a long distance, field testing the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, inventing brake lining, and solving several practical issues during the journey of 65 miles. In doing so, she brought the Patent-Motorwagen worldwide attention and got the company its first sales.

Achievements & Special Recognition: Earlier this month, Delaney passed her initial flight instructor checkride with Harry. This is an extremely long test, just the ground portion is usually about 7 hours of one-on-one questioning and explaining.

Delaney is also an accomplished motorcycle racer and sailboat racer. Delaney earned second place in the Mid-Atlantic Motocross Association in the women’s class in 2016. Very cool!

Delaney earned the prestigious Unsung Hero award (for her sailing skills) at her high school.

Aviation/Aviators in the news: Kraemer Aviation hosted the DC 99s 90th Anniversary. Click here for more pictures of the event. Click here for a presentation of the DC 99s Chapter 75th anniversary/history.

Guest enjoyed feeding our turtles.

The aviation section of the Flymall is full of aviation news, training info, and much more for the aviator.

To an army, tanks and heavy bombers are invaluable military assets. Combining the two should be a winning combination, correct? The answer is , NO! During the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force experimented with a seemingly crazy idea for dispersing the weight of their heaviest bomber across the tarmac of airports and bases. They would fit the bombers with tank tread-inspired landing gear. The aim was to eliminate the need for long, reinforced runways and to ensure operations could be conducted on rough terrain. Click here for an interesting story on these test.

Air show season is always just around the corner. Want to travel to air shows in your own aircraft? Visit our used aircraft page on the Flymall to view our inventory.

Here are a couple of interesting aircraft, although they are not tracked vehicles, they’re interesting.

The Savoia-Marchetti S.55 is a double-hulled flying boat produced in Italy. All the passengers or cargo were placed in the twin hulls, but the pilot and crew flew the plane from a cockpit in the thicker section of the wing, between the two hulls.

This odd-looking contraption was among many research experiments conducted decades ago. What you see is a small outboard-powered outrigger hull that is pushing that glider to maintain flight. The engine’s throttle was controlled from the glider cockpit.

The Laytonsville Cruise In Award Night is the third Friday of the month from May to October.

May 19 2023 was the official opening night for the Laytonsville Cruise In. Kraemer Aviation sponsored free ice cream for the drivers and one guest. Free dash plaques sponsored by Kraemer Aviation. Click here for pictures of the award winners from opening night.

Judging will start at 6:30 PM. Vehicles must be registered BEFORE 6:30 PM.

On May 19 we had a great turn-out. We gave away 27 awards, dash plaques, and lots of free ice cream. Click here for more pictures from the opening night.

Harry was busy giving rides on the 1886 Coventry Rotary Tandem most of the evening. Click here for more pictures of Harry giving rides that evening.

Below is the schedule for the Laytonsville Cruise In award nights:
May 19 2023 – American Muscle Cars – Best Of Show Award for American Muscle
June 16 2023 – Motorcycle night – Best Of Show Award for a motorcycle
July 21 2023 – Race cars – Best Of Show Award for a race car
August 18 2023 – Corvette night – Best Of Show Award for a Corvette
September 15 2022 – Imports – Best Of Show Award for Imports
October 20 2023 – British Cars – Best Of Show Award for a British Car

This is a 1937 Mercier Motor Chenille 350 cc 1 cylinder was commissioned by the French Army. The Mercier crawler motorcycle was equipped with a 350-cc OHV JAP engine, rating 10 hp. at 3000 rpm. Additional cooling of the cylinder head was provided by a fan, which was driven by the engine. The Mercier crawler motorcycles were started with a kick starter and employed a three-speed gearbox with manual gear shifting. The military found the prototype interesting and useful but didn’t order the motorcycle in industrial quantities.

Our Events Calendar has the most current info regarding local and national car shows, air shows, and more. With nearly 30 categories, there is something for everyone. The Day Tripper section of the Flymall has dozens of day trip ideals and interesting places to visit. Check it out here.

On May 21st, the Flymall team attended Classic Motorcycle Day. This is an outstanding local event with 100s of classic motorcycles. We had our 1974 Indian MX74 on display and our 1976 Honda XR75. Both of our motorcycles received an honorable mention award at the show. Click here for more pictures from the show.

Harry spotted one of these Action Trackchairs at Classic Motorcycle Day (it was especially cool to see one of these since our theme this month is tracked vehicles). The owner/operator wasn’t open to any pictures or video, so here’s a picture from their website. It moved along quite well over the grass and hilly terrain.

Inventor J. Lehaitre rides the Tractor-Cycle in 1938. This model of tracked motorcycle was invented in 1937-1938 by J Lehaitre from Paris, for off-road movement. This motorcycle uses a tractor-type transmission belt to travel on various kinds of terrain.

Barn Finds/Hangar Finds: Need an appraisal on your barn find? Visit our Appraisal Page for information on our appraisals.

Tractors are often “barn finds”. Here’s a rare tractor that every tractor collector would love to find in a barn. This is a Hornsby tractor or Hornsby chain crawler. In 1904 David Roberts, Managing director of the firm Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham, patented a new form of crawler track which was applied to various prototype vehicles. One of these was tested by the War Office in 1907 and in 1909 this machine was ordered from Hornsbys for military use. It is said that the term Caterpillar was coined by soldiers who watched it moving along although the name was later adopted by an American company and is now world famous. In 1907 Hornsbys had fitted tracks to the 1905 military tractor that had proved so successful in the War Office trials as a wheeled vehicle. This makes it the first tracked vehicle to enter service with the British Army. It was powered by a two-cylinder Ackroyd heavy oil engine rated at 80hp and was also one of the largest vehicles built for military service at the time. Steering was by braked differential assisted by compressed air at 80 psi although the compressor had to be hand charged with a manually operated pump. Trials were conducted with the Hornsby tracklayer pulling what appears to be a sixty pounder gun.

There were also steam powered version of the Hornsby.

Here’s a scaled down “home made” version of the steam powered Hornsby. Click here for a YouTube video of this one in action. Here’s another YouTube video of an unusual “tracked” vehicle called the Dreschen mit dem Lanz Bulldog.

Visit our online store to search for hard to find car parts, aircraft parts, and much more. You can pay online in our secure store, just click on the Store button on our home page.

Here we have a B7 snowmobile. The B7 model was the first snowmobile mass produced by L’Auto-Neige Bombardier. It was designed for commercial use, and could carry up to seven passengers.

Below, the B12 CS snowmobile (Chrysler Special) was equipped with a more powerful engine and was produced by Bombardier Snowmobile Limited in 1950.

You can read about these historic Bombardier snowmobiles and other rare Bombardier items at

Museum of Ingenuity J. Armand Bombardier

If you’re restoring a fabric aircraft, Ira Walker of Walker Aviation is your resource. Visit his page on the Flymall by clicking here.

Weather in the news: Next month is the start of hurricane season. The forecasters are predicting a total of 15 named storms, which is slightly above the 30-year average. They’re forecasting 7 hurricanes, including 3 intense hurricanes. The place to watch for a greater risk of a hurricane impact may be south Florida through the northern Bahamas.

The Sd.Kfz.2 or Kleines Kettenkraftrad HK 101 (shortened to Kettenkrad) was one of the most successful tracked motorcycle designed for military use. The Kettenkrad started its life as a light tractor for airborne troops. The vehicle was designed to be delivered by Junkers Ju 52 aircraft. The vehicle had the advantage of being the only gun tractor small enough to fit inside the hold of the Ju 52, and was the lightest mass-produced German military vehicle to use the complex Schachtellaufwerk overlapped and interleaved road wheels used on almost all German military half-tracked vehicles of World War II. Click here for Harry’s Kettenkrad page on the Flymall.

Want a reproduction vintage 3 wheeler. Walker Aviation can scratch built from pictures or drawings. Visit his page on the Flymall.

Earlier in May, the Flymall team attended the Reed Martin collection auction in Frederick Maryland. The stars of the auction were two 3 wheelers. They were a 1900 Knox that sold for $80,000.00 and a 1898 DeDion Bouton that sold for $136,000.00 USD. Click here for more pictures from the auction.

Prototypes: Here is the Corvette Stingray that never was. This stretched version of a 1963 Corvette has rear seating and was built as ordered by Chevrolet chief Ed Cole. Here’s the story on Hagerty.com.

Pontiac also had a 2 seater that they experimented with and made a 4 seater. Here’s a 4 seat Pontiac Fiero. The car was built to demonstrate the flexibility of modifying the spaceframe chassis design with independent non-structure body panels. Click here for the story on Motor1.com.

Nautical Notes: How would you like a boat that can travers almost any terrain on land? A French company has just that. Iguana Yachts has developed a powerful boat and while on land, uses tracks to travel over almost any terrain.

Riding The Rails: While this looks like a steam locomotive, the Lombard Steam Log Hauler is actually used off of the rails. The Lombard Steam Log Hauler, patented 21 May 1901, was the first successful commercial application of a continuous track for vehicle propulsion. The concept was later used for military tanks during World War I and for agricultural tractors and construction equipment following the war.

Native American Indian Transportation: Have you ever wondered why United States Army helicopters are named after Native American Indians? The tradition of naming helicopters after Native Americans was once an official regulation. The regulation no longer stands, however the tradition continues. Click here for the story on Defense.gov.

Animals in the headlines: To continue with our theme of tracked vehicles, here are a few “dogs” of a different flavor.

The Snow Dog. Designed to travel almost anywhere, over ice, snow, through the forest, and in the fields. It is basically a tracked vehicle that you stand behind.

The Tinder Dog is similar to the Snow Dog, however, the Tinder Dog offers some more accessories, such as a snow plow as seen below. Very cool setup.

In 1928, Buddy, a German Shepherd, becomes the 1st guide dog for a US citizen Morris Frank. Morris Frank was a blind man from Nashville. His father read him an article by Dorothy Eustis, a woman living in Switzerland who had seen shepherds training dogs to lead blind people get around. Excited by the idea, Frank wrote a letter to Eustis and received a response letter 30 days later inviting him to come see for himself. Frank then took a ship to Europe and trained extensively with a dog that had been bred specifically to lead a blind person. The training was hard, but after weeks with the dog, Frank could get around the nearby Swiss village holding tightly to a harness to which Buddy was strapped.

Morris Frank returned to America. From the day he got off the ship, he was successful. At one point, in front of a group of dumbfounded reporters, Buddy led Frank safely across a busy New York street. “I shall never forget the next three minutes, Ten-ton trucks rocketing past, cabs blowing their horns in our ears, drivers shouting at us. When we finally got to the other side, and I realized what a really magnificent job he had done” Frank later wrote. When Frank returned to Nashville, people were amazed at the sight of the blind man and his dog successfully navigating busy sidewalks and couldn’t believe that it was the same blind boy they had so recently taken pity on. What amazed people the most was that Buddy had an ability best known as “intelligent disobedience,” which meant that he would obey Morris except when executing that command would result in harm to his master. If there was a low hanging branch ahead on the sidewalk, for instance, Buddy knew how to navigate around it to the point where Morris wouldn’t hurt his head on it.

About this time, Frank, Eustis and several others cofounded The Seeing Eye, an institution set up to train guide dogs and their blind masters. Today, the organization reports that it has, in its 80-year history, trained 14,000 dogs. Buddy is considered the first. In 1978, on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the school, the U.S. issued a commemorative stamp in honor of The Seeing Eye.

We close this newsletter with these words: Compliment at least three people everyday.

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Flymall April 2023 Wheels & Wings Newsletter

Written on April 28, 2023 at 8:46 am, by hkraemer

Welcome to the Kraemer Aviation/Flymall.org Wheels & Wings Newsletter. This month our theme is “V-8 Powered”. For May 2023, our theme will be tracked vehicles.

You can view past newsletters here.

Earlier this month, Kraemer Aviation hosted their annual Easter dinner. The weather was perfect. Sunny skies and warm temperatures. Click here for pictures.

On April 22, the Flymall team was treated to a private tour of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center including a stop by the restoration hangar. We learned about the museum’s Martin B-26B Marauder named Flak Bait. Click here for a story on her and the museum’s work on preserving her and her fabric panels. Here’s a nice picture of the restoration hangar highlighting some of the museum’s current projects. Click here for more pictures of the tour. Click here for more pictures of the restoration hangar.

Interested in living at an airport? Visit our Aviation Real Estate page here. You can view price data for airport property in our Market Watch section of the Flymall. Here is the data for all airport property. You can refine the search by “state” simply by searching for the desired state under “Model”. Our new and improved real estate section of the Flymall allows you to submit what you are looking for in terms of an airport and you can also submit information about your airport that you are trying to sell. Check it out here by clicking on the Real Estate tab.

Want to have your business highlighted on the Flymall??? We offer inexpensive rates to have your business featured on our Wheels & Wings page. Contact us for more info.

History Trivia: The first known V8 engine was the Antoinette engine, designed by Léon Levavasseur, which was first built in 1904. The Antoinette was built in France for use in speedboat racing and, later, airplanes.

In 1905, the first V8 engine used in a road-going car was the Rolls-Royce V-8 built in the United Kingdom. This model was initially produced with a 3.5 L (214 cu in) V8 engine, however only three cars were produced before Rolls-Royce reverted to using straight-six engines.

In 1906, Glenn Curtiss built a V-8 powered motorcycle. The Curtiss V-8 motorcycle was a 269 cu in V8 engine-powered motorcycle. With Glenn Curtiss at the controls it set an unofficial land speed record of 136.36 miles per hour on January 24, 1907. The air-cooled F-head engine was developed for use in dirigibles.

Who really made the first V-8 engine? Here’s an interesting story that says that Dale Gentry and Martin Lewis invented the first V-8 engine. Here is the same story as a pdf.

Achievements & Special Recognition: E.J. Potter and his V-8 powered motorcycles deserves some special recognition, in fact, in 1973 the Guinness Book of World Records awarded E.J. Potter’s V8 Dragbike “Widowmaker 7” the coveted title of “World’s Fastest Motorcycle”. The idea of building a V-8 motorcycle came to him at the young age of 16. He was drawing a Harley-Davidson V-twin motorcycle in class one day when he began wondering if he could build a bike with a V-8 engine. Well, if you can dream it, you can build it! Click here for a Hemmings.com article on these awesome bikes.

Aviation/Aviators in the news: A Ford Trimotor will be at the Frederick Airport June 15 to June 18 this summer. Rides are available as well as time in the co-pilot seat. Click here for more information. The Ford Trimotor (also called the “Tri-Motor”, and nicknamed the “Tin Goose”) is an American three-engined transport aircraft. Production started in 1925 by the companies of Henry Ford and ended on June 7, 1933, after 199 had been made. It was designed for the civil aviation market, but also saw service with military units.

The aviation section of the Flymall is full of aviation news, training info, and much more for the aviator.

Earlier this month, Kelly passed her initial flight instructor checkride with Harry. This is one of the longest checkrides a pilot will ever take. Just the ground portion is about 7 hours long. Harry said that she did an excellent job and that she will make a great instructor.

Kelly started flying in 2018 in Cincinnati where she received her PPL. She got exposed to the wonderful world of aviation while working as an engineer at GE Aviation designing jet engine components. After flying with a coworker in a Piper Cub one day after work, she loved the feeling of being able to pick herself up from the “real world” down below and go anywhere she wanted to, idealistically. She was also looking for a new challenge for herself, and learning to fly was the perfect goal!

After moving to DC, Kelly received her instrument rating in 2021, hoping this would enable her to fly farther and safer without having to cancel so many flights due to low ceilings. She continued on to her Commercial certificate, figuring it was a way to keep improving her piloting skills, but quickly started to see aviation as more than just a hobby. She then went right into CFI training, eager to begin exercising her certificate to share her passion for aviation with others.

The 1917 Liberty L-8— an aircraft engine is unique in that it has a V-angle of 45° (see picture below). Read more about these rare engine below under “Prototypes”.

Air show season is always just around the corner. Want to travel to air shows in your own aircraft? Visit our used aircraft page on the Flymall to view our inventory. We have several nice aircraft in our inventory. Check them out here.

LS7 – P51. Just a couple of numbers and letters, correct? Together they mean a LS7 powered P51 Mustang. Click here for a MotorTrend story on this awesome bird.

The company, Robinson V8 Power in Ontario Canada offers V8 conversions for the Seabee. A very cool conversion for a classic seaplane. The Republic RC-3 Seabee was designed by Percival Hopkins “Spence” Spencer. An aviation pioneer, he built his first hang glider in April 1911 at the age of 17 from plans he found in a Popular Mechanics magazine.

The Laytonsville Cruise In Award Night is the third Friday of the month from May to October.

May 19 2023 is the official opening night for the Laytonsville Cruise In. Kraemer Aviation is sponsoring free ice cream for the drivers and one guest. Free dash plaques sponsored by Kraemer Aviation.

Judging will start at 6:30 PM. Vehicles must be registered BEFORE 6:30 PM.

The Flymall team attended the annual Gas & Steam Engine and Tractor Show at the Agricultural History Farm Park in Derwood Maryland. The number of tractors and engines on display was very low as compared to other years. Usually there will be at least 2 dozen vintage/antique tractors on display and this there there were only about 9. Click here for more pictures from the event.

When you’re talking about V-8 engines and how good they are, wouldn’t a V-16 be twice as much better? Here is a Duesenberg 3,393 Cubic-Inch V16.

Here’s a view of a Harry A. Miller DOHC V-16 that is simply artwork.

Did you know that General Motors made a V12? They made one from 1961 to 1965. Know as the twin Six. It was basically 2 V-6 engines stuck together end to end. Click here for an interesting story on this very cool engine on Hagerty.com.

One way to get more horsepower from your V-8, was to give it more fuel. You could add a 4 barrel carburetor or maybe two 4 barrel carburetors. One idea that never quite caught on was the five 2 barrel carburetors setup. These intake manifolds were usually modified from a factory 2 barrel setup. The way they worked was the stock center carburetor would provide good idle characteristics and decent low-speed drivability, while the four outboard carbs provided the high-speed breathing and fuel capacity. Each two barrel outboard carburetor was ideally located right on top of an intake port pair for good air/fuel distribution.

Our Events Calendar has the most current info regarding local and national car shows, air shows, and more. With nearly 30 categories, there is something for everyone. The Day Tripper section of the Flymall has dozens of day trip ideals and interesting places to visit. Check it out here.

Want to set some records in the snow. Here’s the perfect vehicle for it. This is an Arctic Cat snowmobile called “Death Wish Freak Show”. The custom snowmobile is powered by a 5.3 L LSx V8 (Vortec 5300) from a Silverado truck with a turbocharger running 8 psi of boost. Behind the engine sits a Powerglide two-speed transmission. The snowmobile went 137.6 mph at a drag race event in Wisconsin.

Barn Finds/Hangar Finds: Need an appraisal on your barn find? Visit our Appraisal Page for information on our appraisals. This month we have a “sidewalk find (s)”. A local bicycle shop had a few used bicycles sitting outside and Harry noticed them. There were 2 Flandria 10 speed bicycles. The owner of the shop knows Harry and came out and told Harry that he could have them for free. He went on to say that someone dropped them off there and they are not bikes that he would sell. So free is a very good price. Flandria bicycles are made in Belgium. So these 2 bikes are the first vehicles in the collection from Belgium.

Visit our online store to search for hard to find car parts, aircraft parts, and much more. You can pay online in our secure store, just click on the Store button on our home page.

If you’re restoring a fabric aircraft, Ira Walker of Walker Aviation is your resource. Visit his page on the Flymall by clicking here.

Earlier this month, Gil Levi passed his private pilot checkride with Harry. What makes this checkride so special is that his daughter, Nir Levi was his flight instructor. Harry did 3 of Nir’s checkrides, her commercial, CFI, and CFII. Gil’s brother Ziv, owns the flight school that Nir teaches at. Gil has been flying for a long time. He holds a light sport equivalent pilot certificate in Israel. Gil actually got Nir into flying 9 years ago. He prepared her for her enrollment in a flight school in Israel.

Weather in the news: On April 5th, we had a storm system that stretched from Mexico all the way up into Canada.

We hope to have the new 3-Wheelers.com site up by the end of May. Look for many new features and some cool 3-Wheelers.com products.

Above we mentioned E.J. Potter and his V-8 powered motorcycles. He also built a jet powered trike that went nearly 200 mph.

Want a reproduction vintage 3 wheeler. Walker Aviation can scratch built from pictures or drawings. Visit his page on the Flymall.

Want your own V-8 trike or V-8 powered motorcycle? Boss Hoss Cycles, an American motorcycle manufacturer, founded by Monte Warne in 1990, has some awesome bikes.

Prototypes: The Liberty L-8 (also known as the Packard 1A-1100) was a prototype of the Liberty L-12 engine designed by Jesse Vincent and Elbert Hall. Fifteen L-8 prototypes were manufactured by several companies including Buick, Ford, Lincoln, Marmon, and Packard in 1917. The first of those built now resides in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., while fifteenth L-8 (the only running example) powers Liberty the Second housed by the Conneaut Lake Historical Society in Conneaut Lake, PA. Another L-8 is stored at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, OH.

The Czechoslovakian automaker, Tatra built a streamlined, rear-engine, V-8-powered car in 1937. It was a three litre V-8 that competed in endurance racing. It was air-cooled and featured hemispherical combustion chambers. Power output was 75 hp, which rivalled the contemporary Ford Flathead V-8. The Czechoslovakian automaker thought it had a winning formula with the design and continued producing a version of the V-8 throughout 1975. The final iteration produced 166 hp—more than a Chevrolet Corvette of the same period.

Did you know that Honda built a V-8 motorcycle? The Honda NR750. In the early 1990s, Grand Prix racing was dominated by two-stroke engines, but Honda wanted to put a four-stroke on the grid. Specifically, a four-stroke V-8 packed into a motorcycle frame. The catch? The rulebook stipulated just four combustion chambers. So Honda went the unconventional route and blended the eight cylinders together to create four oval cylinders. That makes an engine with a bore x stroke measurement that requires three numbers. The 101.2-mm x 50.6-mm x 42-mm bore and stroke made for a final displacement of 748 cc. Each of the oval pistons is supported by two connecting rods.

Nautical Notes: The Flymall team had their classic Walker Bay 8 out on Little Seneca Lake for the first time this year on April 13 2023. The weather was perfect for a day on the lake. Click here for a video montage from the day. Click here for more pictures.

Here’s a one-off 1975 Fiat 850 Amphicar. She’s powered by a Fiat 900cc four-cylinder coupled to a four-speed transmission while on land, however, the aquatic propulsion comes from a Berkley jet engine attached to the crank of the Fiat engine via a clutch drive mechanism. Click here for an interesting story (on AutoBlog.com) on this one-off vehicle.

Riding The Rails: Here’s a cool straight 8 cylinder engine designed for trains. This EMD® 710 Series engine is available in 8, 12, 16, and 20 cylinder configurations with continuous power ratings from 2,000 to 5,000 horsepower. These engines are made by Progress Rail, a Caterpillar company.

Enjoy this YouTube video of a CAT V-8 powered road train.

Native American Indian Transportation: Did you know? Racecar driver Cory Witherill, who is a member of the Navajo tribe, was born in California in 1971 and has remained a resident of that state. In 2001, he made motorsports history when he became the first full-blooded Native American to compete in the Indianapolis 500 (also known as the Indy 500) annual automobile race. Cory has raced in the Indy Racing League, Infiniti Pro Series, Indy Lights, and ARCA series.

Here is Cory with his No. 16 car.

Animals in the headlines: While not a V-8, here’s something from a bygone era. A 1915 Ford Model T dog catcher truck. From the days when men would drive around in these trucks looking for stray dogs. Some form of animal control has existed in the United States as early as the 18th century.

We close this newsletter with these words: Look for opportunities to make people feel important.

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Flymall March 2023 Wheels & Wings Newsletter

Written on April 1, 2023 at 6:56 pm, by hkraemer

Welcome to the Kraemer Aviation/Flymall.org Wheels & Wings Newsletter. This month our theme is “Treasure Hunters and their vehicles”.

You can view past newsletters here.

Want to have your business highlighted on the Flymall??? We offer inexpensive rates to have your business featured on our Wheels & Wings page. Contact us for more info.

History Trivia: Is there Nazi Treasure in Lake Toplitz? Legend has it that the Nazis dumped billions of dollars worth of stolen gold into the waters of Lake Toplitz. Lake Toplitz is an isolated lake located in the heart of a lush forest in the Alps. The gold is said to be valued at about 5.6 billion US dollars. Over the years, scuba divers have explored the lake and some currency has been found, although no sign of the gold yet.

Here’s a picture of Lake Toplitz. Click on the image for a larger view.

The Titanic was a very different type of treasure waiting to be found. Robert Duane Ballard, an American oceanographer and marine geologist whose pioneering use of deep-diving submersibles laid the foundations for deep-sea archaeology. He is best known for discovering the wreck of the Titanic in 1985. The Titanic sank in April of 1912 and was not found until 1985.

Argo was the system of television cameras and sonars that helped find the Titanic. Argo was named by Titanic expedition leader Robert Ballard for the mythical Greek vessel that carried Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece.

Achievements & Special Recognition: Four years ago this month (March), Harry was at the FAA campus in Oklahoma City for his initial Designated Pilot Examiner training class. He was actually selected over a year earlier, however the government shutdown of 2018-2019 closed the FAA. A DPE is part of a very élite group of highly qualified flight instructors. As of February 2022, there were 942 DPEs. At any given time, there are usually less than 1000 DPEs world wide.

Aviation/Aviators in the news: The Lost Squadron. Glacier Girl was part of the Lost Squadron. Glacier Girl is a Lockheed P-38F Lightning, World War II fighter plane that was restored to flying condition after being buried beneath the Greenland ice sheet for over 50 years. On 15 July 1942, due to poor weather and limited visibility, six P-38 fighters of 94th Fighter Squadron/1st FG and two B-17 bombers of a bombardment squadron were forced to return to Greenland enroute to the British Isles during Operation Bolero and made emergency landings on the ice field. All the crew members were subsequently rescued, but Glacier Girl, along with the unit’s five other fighters and the two B-17s, were eventually buried under 268 feet (82 m) of snow and ice that built up over the ensuing decades. The excavation of Glacier Girl was documented in an episode of The History Channel’s Mega Movers series, titled “Extreme Aircraft Recovery”. This is an incredible story. If you ever get a chance to see her fly, you’ll enjoy it. Pat Epps and Richard Taylor were the two original treasure hunters that set out to find the Lost Squadron, and they did, however they ran out of money and could not retrieve the plane from under the ice.

The aviation section of the Flymall is full of aviation news, training info, and much more for the aviator.

Earlier in March, the Flymall team attended their annual FAASTeam training at the historic College Park Airport.

Air show season is always just around the corner. Want to travel to air shows in your own aircraft? Visit our used aircraft page on the Flymall to view our inventory. We currently have a Piper Archer, Cessna 152, Beech Sierra, and a 172 XP for sale. Check them out by clicking here.

Imagine being a treasure hunter and flying to a spot to look for sunken treasure and instead of chartering a boat and submarine once you get there, your plane is your submarine. The United States Navy had project to develop such a vehicle. The Convair Submersible Seaplane (or “Subplane”) was a United States Navy project to produce a seaplane which could travel underwater as well as fly.

When we think about treasure, we often think about gold and gold mines. In our collection, we have a 1901 Miner’s Bicycle Teeter Railway Cycle, that was actually used in a gold mine. Click here for more information on this rare vehicle.

Our Events Calendar has the most current info regarding local and national car shows, air shows, and more. With nearly 30 categories, there is something for everyone. The Day Tripper section of the Flymall has dozens of day trip ideals and interesting places to visit. Check it out here.

Barn Finds/Hangar Finds: Need an appraisal on your barn find? Visit our Appraisal Page for information on our appraisals.

Here we have not a barn find, but a gold mine find. The Davis Motor Mine Cart. This was found in an abandoned Gold Mine in Northern California in the late 1970s. This Davis Motor Mine Cart is a home built creation using most of a 1926 Harley Davidson 21c.i. B-Model motorcycle. The machine also features a Ford Model-A transmission with electric start!

Not all treasure has the same value to everyone. For some treasures, it only has value to perhaps one person. During the 1960s, Harry enjoyed traveling a lot with his father, Ed Kraemer. Ed was a truck driver and loved being on the open road. In the 1950s and 1960s, your motel key was on a little plastic key chain with the name of the motel and the room number on it. Ed collected these. He probably had several hundred or more. Sadly, Ed passed away when Harry was only 23 years old. Harry moved away and his childhood home was sold and Harry thought Ed’s key chain collection was lost forever. The last time Harry saw the collection was in 1970s. As Harry’s aviation career “took off”, whenever Harry stayed in a motel, he kept the decorative key chain just as Ed did. Harry always had hopes that somehow he could be reunited with his father’s motel key chain collection and merge the two together. In the year 2021, Harry’s childhood home was sold and the new owner found the collection and thought that it should be given to Harry. A few phone calls and a meeting later, Harry was reunited with this lost treasure. Click on the image for a larger view.

Visit our online store to search for hard to find car parts, aircraft parts, and much more. You can pay online in our secure store, just click on the Store button on our home page.

If you’re restoring a fabric aircraft, Ira Walker of Walker Aviation is your resource. Visit his page on the Flymall by clicking here.

Weather in the news: March of 2023 brought us numerous large storms systems.

March 3 storm system.

On March 14 we had our first major Nor’easter of the year.

The March 14 storm brought high winds to the Mid-Atlantic region. Click on the image below for a larger view.

And on March 25, we had another large storm system moving across the country.

Kraemer Aviation recently purchased the popular 3 wheeler site 3-Wheelers.com. Look for some major updates/improvements coming sometime in 2023. We will have a new A to Z list and viewers will be able to submit vehicles/information to be added to the list. We also plan to have a online “For Sale” section where users can post vehicles, parts, and services for sale.

The Honda ATC90 makes a nice offroad vehicle for the amateur treasure hunter. The ATC90 can go most anywhere. Honda acquired the trademark on the term—the ATC90 (All Terrain Cycle), it was designed purely for recreational use. Clearly influenced by earlier ATVs, it featured large balloon tires instead of a mechanical suspension. Click here for information on the ATC90 in our collection.

Want a reproduction vintage 3 wheeler. Walker Aviation can scratch built from pictures or drawings. Visit his page on the Flymall.

Prototypes: We have the ultimate offroad treasure hunting vehicle. In the 1950s, LeTourneau Inc. developed several overland trains, essentially oversized semi-trailer trucks that could travel over almost any terrain. Their intention was to be able to handle logistics needs without being dependent on local road or rail systems, allowing them to operate in back-country areas. The US Army had three experimental units built, the largest reaching almost 600 feet long, which holds the record for the longest off-road vehicle. Road trains are in use in certain roles today, but the US Army examples and a few derivatives appear to be the only off-road examples built. Pictured here is the TC-497 Overland Train, Mk II. These were a fully equipped RV complete with bedrooms, kitchen, and bath. Fully self contained and could travel just about anywhere on land.

Nautical Notes: Roger Miklos was a flamboyant and well known treasure hunter. Mr. Miklos became renowned as a leading treasure hunter after a string of high-profile discoveries. One of his most impressive finds was the ship, Atocha that was lost in 1622. Atocha was carrying tens of millions of dollars worth of treasure. Mr. Miklos claimed to have located a famous German U-boat packed with gold. After Mr. Miklos passed away, his documents were handed over to diver and explorer Mike Fletcher. Mike picked up where Miklos left off. To date, there has been no word if the U-boat has been located.

One of the most famous treasure ships/pirate ships was Blackbeard’s ship Queen Anne’s Revenge. In May 1718, Blackbeard ran the ship aground at Topsail Inlet, now known as Beaufort Inlet in North Carolina. After the grounding, her crew and supplies were transferred to smaller ships. In 1996, Intersal Inc., a private firm, discovered the remains of a vessel that was later determined to be Queen Anne’s Revenge, which was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Riding The Rails: The mysteries of the Amber Room and the Nazi train (Wałbrzych gold train). The Amber Room was constructed in the 18th century in Prussia, the room was dismantled and eventually disappeared during World War II. Before its loss, it was considered an “Eighth Wonder of the World”. As recently as 2015, it was reported that a lost Nazi train could have parts of the Amber Room.

Native American Indian Transportation: Superstition mountains is a range of mountains in Arizona. The legend of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine centers around the Superstition Mountains. According to the legend, a German immigrant named Jacob Waltz discovered a mother lode of gold in the Superstition Wilderness and revealed its location on his deathbed in Phoenix in 1891 to Julia Thomas, a boarding-house owner who had taken care of him for many years. Several mines have been claimed to be the actual mine that Waltz discovered, but none of those claims have been verified. Native American Indians were rumored to know where the gold was, however they kept a good distance from the mountains because some believed that the hole leading down to hell, is located in the Superstition Mountains.

The gold rush of 1848 brought more devastation to native North American Indians. North American Indians were a big part of the gold rush of 1848, either as slaves, paid workers, or providing a rest stop and food to the voyagers on their way to California. Maidu and Miwok Indians knew exactly where to look for gold, although they had ignored it for centuries. The Indians were said to be very successful in finding gold.

Animals in the headlines: Here is a Native American with his pet wolf. Unlike the many fearsome myths created about wolves by settlers, Native Americans maintained a close and respectful relationship with wolves and had domesticated them to become pets and working animals for hunting and carrying packs.

We have started to move our turtles to their outside habitats for the summer. The first one out this year was our common snapping turtle. Kraemer Aviation sponsors/supports a not-for-profit turtle rescue. This snapping turtle is one of about 20 turtles in our turtle sanctuary. This turtle is about 20 years old.

We close this newsletter with these words: Commit yourself to quality!

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Flymall February 2023 Wheels & Wings Newsletter

Written on March 2, 2023 at 9:33 am, by hkraemer

Welcome to the Kraemer Aviation/Flymall.org Wheels & Wings Newsletter

This month, the theme is German engineering. Next month (March 2023), our theme is “Treasure Hunters and their vehicles”.

You can view past newsletters here.

You can sign up for our newsletter at Flymall.org. The sign-up box is in the upper right corner of our webpages.

Want to have your business highlighted on the Flymall??? We offer inexpensive rates to have your business featured on our Wheels & Wings page. Contact us for more info.

Earlier this month:

History Trivia: What is the history on letting a rodent forecast the weather? It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrows on this day and sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow because of cloudiness, spring will arrive early. The Pennsylvania Dutch were immigrants from German-speaking areas of Europe. The Germans had a tradition of marking Candlemas (February 2) as “Badger Day” (Dachstag), on which if a badger emerging from its den encountered a sunny day, thereby casting a shadow, it presaged four more weeks of winter. The Pennsylvanians maintained the same tradition as the Germans on Groundhog Day, except that winter’s spell would be prolonged for six weeks instead of four. For the Pennsylvania Dutch, the badger became the dox, which in Deitsch referred to “groundhog”

We cannot talk about German engineering without mentioning Wernher von Braun. Von Braun is widely seen as the “father of space travel”, the “father of rocket science” or the “father of the American lunar program”. In Germany he invented the famous V-2 rocket. He got the Americans to the moon and back. Near the end of WWII, von Braun and his team were making plans to surrender to the Americans, which they eventually did. Von Braun actually became NASA’s first director in 1960 and held that position until 1970. We could do an entire post on von Braun, however his Wikipedia page has a lot of good reading.

Achievements & Special Recognition: The spy gondola, spy basket, observation car or sub-cloud car (German: Spähgondel or Spähkorb) is a crewed vessel that an airship hiding in cloud cover could lower several hundred meters to a point below the clouds in order to inconspicuously observe the ground and help navigate the airship. They were used almost exclusively by the Germans in the First World War on their military airships. The Imperial War Museum in London exhibits a Zeppelin observation car that was found near Colchester after the Zeppelin air raid on the night of the September 2–3, 1916. It is believed to have been carried by the LZ 90 and was being deployed uncrewed when the winch accidentally ran out of control. The brave observer that was lowered down in one of these deserves some special recognition.

We can’t write about the spy gondola without something about the ship that carried it. Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin or Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin as he was known. Von Zeppelin was the inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. In 1863, Zeppelin took leave (from the German military) to act as an observer for the Union’s Army of the Potomac in the American Civil War. Ferdinand von Zeppelin served as an official observer with the Union Army during the American Civil War. During the Peninsular Campaign, he visited the balloon camp of Thaddeus S. C. Lowe shortly after Lowe’s services were terminated by the Army. Von Zeppelin then travelled to St. Paul, MN where the German-born former Army balloonist John Steiner offered tethered flights. His first ascent in a balloon, made at Saint Paul, Minnesota during this visit, is said to have been the inspiration of his later interest in aeronautics. His ideas for large airships were first expressed in a diary entry dated March 25 1874. After his resignation from the army in 1891 at age 52, Zeppelin devoted his full attention to airships. His first airship was designated the Zeppelin LZ1. On 2 July 1900, Zeppelin made the first flight with the LZ1 over Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen in southern Germany. Click here for more reading on von Zeppelin. See below (under Native American Indian Transportation) for more on his travels in the United States.

Have you ever flown a blimp or ridden in one? Here’s Harry in the cockpit of the Goodyear blimp about to takeoff from Martin State Airport getting his first Lighter Than Air hours in his logbook.

Here is a drawing of a Union Army observation balloon that would have been similar to the type that von Zeppelin rode in. Click on the image for a larger view.

Aviation/Aviators in the news: The Etrich Taube, was a pre-World War I monoplane aircraft. It was the first military aeroplane to be mass-produced in Germany. The Taube was very popular prior to the First World War, and it was also used by the air forces of Italy and Austria-Hungary. On November 1st 1911, Giulio Gavotti, an Italian aviator, dropped the world’s first aerial bomb from his Taube monoplane over the Ain Zara oasis in Libya. The Taube was designed in 1909 by Igo Etrich of Austria-Hungary, and first flew in 1910. It was licensed for serial production by Lohner-Werke in Austria and by Edmund Rumpler in Germany

The aviation section of the Flymall is full of aviation news, training info, and much more for the aviator.

Air show season is always just around the corner. Want to travel to air shows in your own aircraft? Visit our used aircraft page on the Flymall to view our inventory. Coming in April 2023, we will have a low airframe time, and very low engine time, 1975 Beech Sierra for sale.

Café Sophie at the Montgomery County Airpark was all decked out for Valentines Day this year. They had a special menu just for the occasion.

New for Season 14 – Dash Plaques (see the picture below) will be given away on the “Opening Night” which is May 19 2023. May 19 2023 is also the first award night of the season. We hope to see you there.

Also for the season at the Laytonsville Cruise In, we will be offering some very cool “gear” for sale. One item will be these very cool looking coffee cups.

Our Events Calendar has the most current info regarding local and national car shows, air shows, and more. With nearly 30 categories, there is something for everyone. The Day Tripper section of the Flymall has dozens of day trip ideals and interesting places to visit. Check it out here.

Here’s an unusual engine. A BMW 6 cylinder 2/stroke special made by Rudi Rupp.

Barn Finds/Hangar Finds: Need an appraisal on your barn find? Visit our Appraisal Page for information on our appraisals. We have a barn find for sale. She’s a 1969 Jaguar E-Type or XKE as they are known in England. Click here for more details on this one owner car.

Visit our online store to search for hard to find car parts, aircraft parts, and much more. You can pay online in our secure store, just click on the Store button on our home page.

February 11 2023, the Flymall team was at the Timonium Motorcycle Show. This is one of the largest motorcycle shows in the area. Click here for more pictures. Just about every motorcycle manufacturer was there displaying the best they have to offer, everything from motorcycles, jet skis, and off-road 4 wheelers like the one below.

The Flymall team was also at the Timonium RV show this year. We’re looking for a new RV to be our mobile classroom and office. Here’s some information on our Mobile Training Unit we developed in early 2005.

If you’re restoring a fabric aircraft, Ira Walker of Walker Aviation is your resource. Visit his page on the Flymall by clicking here.

Earlier this month, Kelly passed her commercial pilot checkride. Her maneuvers were text book perfect. Her steep spiral and go-around maneuvers were outstanding, the best Harry has seen in a while. Kelly has already started her CFI training. She plans to be teaching by early May this year. We wish her the best in her aviation career.

Weather in the news: On Saturday, February 4, the Mount Washington Observatory at the peak of the Northeast’s highest mountain, famous for its extreme weather conditions, recorded an actual temperature of minus 47 (minus 44 C), tying an observatory record set in 1934 and a wind gust of 127 mph. It also set a record for the coldest wind chill ever recorded at minus 108 degrees.

In the same month that we are setting records for cold temperatures, on February 23 2023, we set a record high temperature of 81 degrees in the Washington DC area. This is a record high that stood for nearly 150 years.

Three Wheel Association (TWA) & 3-Wheelers.com: Harry started the Three Wheel Association in 2013 to promote/support the industry of three wheel vehicles of all types. Visit the Three Wheel Association page on the Flymall for more info on the association. We are also the new owners of the very popular site 3-Wheelers.com. Look for a major revamping of the site early this year.

Three wheel vehicles became popular in many European countries because they were taxed as a motorcycle. You still had the enclosed security of a 4 wheel car, however, it was taxed as a motorcycle. Once such vehicle made in Germany was the Fuldamobil. Fuldamobil is the name of a series of small cars produced by Elektromaschinenbau Fulda GmbH of Fulda, Germany, and Nordwestdeutscher Fahrzeugbau (NWF) of Wilhelmshaven between 1950 and 1969. The car’s original design was conceived by Norbert Stevenson, a freelance journalist who had worked for the Rhein-Zeitung newspaper. As with many others involved in the field of automotive design, Stevenson had little in the way of formal qualifications in this area, although he had completed one term of mechanical engineering at the Technische Hochschule Berlin. His design concept was for a very simple three-wheeled car with room for two people inside, it would have two wheels at the front for stability, and be driven by a small engine at the rear.

Want a reproduction vintage 3 wheeler. Walker Aviation can scratch built from pictures or drawings. Visit his page on the Flymall.

The Messerschmitt KR200, or Kabinenroller (Cabin Scooter), is a three-wheeled bubble car designed by the aircraft engineer Fritz Fend and produced in the factory of the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt from 1955 until 1964. After WWII, Messerschmitt, was temporarily not allowed to manufacture aircraft, so they had turned their resources to making other products. In 1952, Fend approached Messerschmitt with the idea of manufacturing small motor vehicles. These were based on his Fend Flitzer invalid carriage.

The Fend Flitzer was a three-wheeled invalid carriage designed and built by Fritz Fend. The Flitzer established many of the basic concepts on which Fend’s later Messerschmitt Kabinenroller microcars were developed.

The Timonium Motorcycle Show is one of the largest motorcycle shows on the east coast. We usually attend this annual event and will often have a motorcycle or two on display. Click here for a YouTube video montage of some of the three wheelers at the Timonium Motorcycle Show, February 11 2023. Our 1912 AC Delivery Trike did win a Best of Show and Best in our class at this event several years ago.

Prototypes: A well know fact is that prior to and during WWII, the Germans were very much into tank development. What is not well know is that they also experimented with driverless tanks (self propelled). They actually produced a few and evaluated them. Most were “anti-tank” vehicles, based on half-track chassis. They tested a few, however they were never fully developed. One such prototype made was a vehicle called the 3.7 cm Selbstfahrlafette L/70 (pictured below).

There’s an episode on Hogan’s Heroes (Season 2 Episode 9: Tanks For The Memory) where they had a radio controlled tank and Hogan and his crew hijacked it. Here’s a picture from that episode. Did you know??? The actors who played the four major German roles—Werner Klemperer (Klink), John Banner (Schultz), Leon Askin (General Burkhalter), and Howard Caine (Major Hochstetter)—were all Jewish. In fact, Klemperer, Banner, and Askin had all fled the Nazis during World War II.

Nautical Notes: The German were very much into U-boats during WWII. And many of their U-boat commanders became legends. One such legend was Otto Kretschmer (pictured here). Otto Kretschmer, a German U-boat commander and WWII Ace. Otto was in command of U99, a Type 7 U-boat. Donald MacIntyre – A British destroyer captain from the beginning of the war almost to its end, captaining the destroyers Walker and Hesperus and the smaller Bickerton, as well as leading the famous Group 5 anti-submarine group, McIntyre established himself as one of the greats. He captured the number one German U-boat ace Otto Kretschmer (whose Zeiss binoculars he took and used for the rest of the war); in the same battle, he directed the attack that killed the second-scoring ace Joachim Schepke. Later in the war, his ship was torpedoed; before that he nursed a bent-nosed destroyer back to port after ramming a U-boat. The Zeiss binoculars were very special to Otto. They were presented by the high command to only the very élite U-boat commanders. To Otto, they were a part of his image.

Many do not know that the Germans actually invaded the coastal waters on the east coast of the United States during WWII. This attack was known as Operation Drumbeat. Reinhard Hardegen, the commander of the German U-boat 123, launched the first strike of Operation Drumbeat. Operation Drumbeat’s primary targets were merchant ships off of the coast of the United States. The Germans sank more ships in US coastal zones in one year, than nearly the rest of the war in all the oceans of the word combined.

The Germans used a number of different innovative torpedoes during WWII. One was especially designed as a specialized anti-convoy weapon, the FaT and LuT torpedo could be programmed to run in a straight line for a given distance, then if it did not hit a target, the torpedo then turned to the right or left (as pre-set) and began a zigzag search pattern until it struck a target or ran out of fuel. LuT was a more sophisticated version of the FaT, with more variable patterns, but was only used operationally towards the end of the war.

Riding The Rails: One of the high speed trains currently operating in Germany is the The ICE (InterCity Express). This is a high-speed train that connects all major cities in Germany. With speeds up to 186 MPH, this is one of the fastest ways to travel between cities such as Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne.

During WWII, Germany built some awesome trains. The best-known and the most produced German war locomotive, was the Kriegslokomotive.

Native American Indian Transportation: What’s the history on snow goggles?

Thousands of years ago, Inuit and Yupik people of Alaska and northern Canada carved narrow slits into ivory, antler and wood to create snow goggles. This diminished exposure to direct and reflected ultraviolet rays thereby reducing eye strain and preventing snow blindness.

While in the United States, von Zeppelin travelled to the Upper Midwest with a party that probably included two Russians. Led by Native American (probably Ojibwe) guides, they canoed and portaged (Portage or portaging is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water) from the western end of Lake Superior up the St. Louis River and across to Crow Wing, Minnesota, on the Upper Mississippi River.

Animals in the headlines: One of the most famous German shepherds is Rin-Tin-Yin. Saved by an American soldier serving in Germany during World War I, he was trained to act in film. Soon, he had made a name for himself, appearing in 27 Hollywood films. He was considered one of the elite stars in Hollywood during his day.

We close this newsletter with these words: We close this newsletter with one of Harry’s favorite quotes from John Lennon: “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

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Flymall January 2023 Wheels & Wings Newsletter

Written on February 1, 2023 at 9:19 am, by hkraemer

Welcome to the Kraemer Aviation/Flymall.org Wheels & Wings Newsletter.

This month is all about “Amphibious” vehicles.

You can view past newsletters here.

Want to have your business highlighted on the Flymall??? We offer inexpensive rates to have your business featured on our Wheels & Wings page. Contact us for more info.

History Trivia: Did you know??? The dashboard is a board on the front of a horse carriage meant to keep mud from kicking up on the passengers when the horse dashes. And over time it came to mean the front part of anything, as even a computer interface is sometimes called a dashboard. The first known use of the term (hyphenated as dash-board, and applied to sleighs) dates from 1847.

In the early 1900s, gasoline powered vehicles were still relatively new. A lot of manufacturers were conducting trips to show how reliable their vehicles were. On January 31st 1913, a Henderson motorcycle completed an ocean to ocean trip across the United States. The three riders had left Atlantic City, NJ on September, 20 1912 to promote the Henderson motorcycle and ended up in Los Angeles on January 31st. The motorcycle and Baxter wicker sidecar were said to have withstood the months long mostly off-road trip excellently.

Achievements & Special Recognition: WaterCar – Manufacturer of World’s Fastest Amphibious get our special recognition this month. They build some awesome amphibious vehicles. Checkout their site for more information.

Aviation/Aviators in the news: The NBAA’s International Operators Conference will be held February 13 to 15 in Austin Texas. This year they’re celebrating 50 years for the conference. If you’re a global operator of a biz jet, this is the conference to attend. Lot’s of good information to be shared.

The aviation section of the Flymall is full of aviation news, training info, and much more for the aviator.

Air show season is always just around the corner. Want to travel to air shows in your own aircraft? Visit our used aircraft page on the Flymall to view our inventory.

We have a one owner 1969 Jaguar E-Type (XKE) for sale. We just has the car professionally detailed and it looks great. This is a true classic that will be a hit at any car show this summer. Click here for more information.

1932 Amphibious bike ‘Cyclomer’. The design which has received the most coverage is “Saidullah’s Bicycle.” The Cyclomer launched in Paris in 1932 was the world’s first amphibious bicycle. A HYBRID among vehicles, an amphibian bicycle that can travel on land or water, was demonstrated by its French inventor at a Paris exposition. Its wheels are hollow, bulbous floats that, with-the aid of four smaller globes on outriggers, sustain it in the water. All of the floats revolve freely like wheels, resulting in a minimum of drag. When the rider pedals across the water, fins on the rear wheel serve as paddles to drive the machine forward. For a ride on dry land, the outriggers supporting the outer floats may be folded up clear of the ground. Proof that the floats would be sufficiently buoyant to support the rider was given when the inventor navigated his device, without difficulty, across a large swimming pool. The Cyclomer uses a simple tricycle frame to support three floaters which provide both the flotation and thrust. The wings on the powered wheels propel the vehicle in a similar way to a paddle wheel.

If you have been to a few car shows, we’re sure that you have seen a few Volkswagens. Here’s a Volkswagen that saw action in WWII that you probably have not seen at a car show. The Volkswagen Schwimmwagen. This is a four-wheel drive amphibious vehicle, used by the German ground forces during WWII. It is the go anywhere VW. Volkswagen Schwimmwagens used the engine and mechanicals of the VW Type 86 four-wheel drive prototype of the Kübelwagen and the Type 87 four-wheel drive ‘Kübel/Beetle’ Command Car, which in turn were based on the platform of the civilian Volkswagen Beetle. Schwimmwagens were produced by the Volkswagen factory at Fallersleben /Stadt des KdF-Wagens and Porsche’s facilities in Stuttgart; with the bodies or hulls produced by Ambi Budd in Berlin. 15,584 Type 166 Schwimmwagen were produced from 1941 through 1944; 14,276 at Fallersleben and 1,308 by Porsche; the VW 166 is the most-produced amphibious car in history. Only 189 are known by the Schwimmwagen Registry to remain today, and only 13 have survived without restoration work. Click on the image for a larger view.

Our Events Calendar has the most current info regarding local and national car shows, air shows, and more. With nearly 30 categories, there is something for everyone. The Day Tripper section of the Flymall has dozens of day trip ideals and interesting places to visit. Check it out here.

Here’s a 1966 Dolphin, a Russian amphibious car. There was no information online regarding this vehicle other than this picture.

We found an amphibious bus that is used in Scotland.

The last of the air-cooled Sportsters. 2022 was the last year for this iconic bike. Harley Davidson discontinued the air cooled Sportster. The 2023 model is a liquid-cooled bike with a new name.

Earlier this month, the Flymall team attended the first winter luncheon for our local car club. Bruno was our guest speaker. He spoke about his shop and some of the work that he does on classic and custom cars.

We were also at the first bike night of 2023 at the local Harley Davidson dealer. The 2023 models are on the showroom floor. Click here for more pictures.

An annual event in the area is the Howard County Motorcycle Swap meet. This is held indoors in a heated building at the Howard County Fairgrounds. This year the show was very well attended. It seems people are getting over Covid and are ready to move on. Click here for more pictures from the event.

Barn Finds/Hangar Finds: Need an appraisal on your barn find? Visit our Appraisal Page for information on our appraisals.

Here’s something. 1988 KSM Prototype Monotrack Tracked All Terrain Vehicle. This unusual vehicle is believed to be a one-off all-terrain vehicle built by KSM Innovations of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is powered by a Honda ATC125 engine that is connected to a one piece track drive system. KSM was working with Honda to develop the vehicle, but Honda pulled out due to design flaws. Click here for a YouTube video of it in action. Tracked motorcycles are more common place that you would think. The Hamyak mono-track ATV is one that is relatively new. During WWII, the Kettenkrad was a successful tracked vehicle. They were built by NSU for the German military between 1939 and 1944..

Visit our online store to search for hard to find car parts, aircraft parts, and much more. You can pay online in our secure store, just click on the Store button on our home page.

If you’re restoring a fabric aircraft, Ira Walker of Walker Aviation is your resource. Visit his page on the Flymall by clicking here.

On January 30, Bryan passed his CFII checkride with Harry. He did an excellent job. He was very well prepared for the test. We wish him much success in his aviation career. He did the checkride in a plane that Harry sold new back when he was the aircraft sales manager for Frederick Aviation.

Weather in the news: January 12 storm system.

January 25, 2023 brought us another large storm system. Here are a few pictures of it as it progressed.

Here’s a cool pedal power three wheeler we found online. It looks very simple, perhaps these were built from plans offered in a magazine.

Want a reproduction vintage 3 wheeler. Walker Aviation can scratch built from pictures or drawings. Visit his page on the Flymall.

Prototypes: On December 1 2022, Textron delivered the first prototype of the 6×6 Cottonmouth wheeled amphibious reconnaissance vehicle to the U.S. Marine Corps. This is one of two designs competing to become the Corps’ next Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle or ARV. Variants of the winning ARV are slated to succeed the service’s four-decade-old Light Armored Vehicle, or LAV, family of vehicles. This looks very cool to us.

Nautical Notes: The Tupolev A-3 Aerosledge. An amphibious vehcile, designed to transport passengers and light freight in remote areas of the Soviet Union. It uses a single pusher propeller mounted behind the enclosed cabin to propel the craft over snow or water. Year-round transportation of mail, passengers, and light freight has always been a problem in remote areas of Siberia and Eastern Europe. Many communities are surrounded by deep snow, hummock ice, marshes that remain unfrozen, and natural waterways choked by weeds. The constantly changing conditions faced by these communities required the development of a vehicle capable of traveling over a widely varied surface at high speeds in order to deliver mail and supplies, as well to transport passengers, and provide emergency medical relief and evacuation to hospitals. To satisfy these requirements, the Tupolev Design Bureau developed an amphibious aerosledge with the appearance of a speedboat, powered by a single radial engine.

The Manta5 HYDROFOILER XE-1, is basically a hybrid bicycle and hydrofoil. They’re cool but pricey. At just under $9,000 USD, its a toy for the rich.

If you’re into ice fishing, we found the perfect vehicle for you. Meet the WilCraft. It’s an amphibious vehicle with an enclosure that is designed for ice fishing. Very cool!

This cool 3 wheel boat (that can also be driven on the road) was posted on 3-wheelers.com Facebook page. This is a Reliant frame and drivetrain with the speedboat mounted on top. Click on each picture for a larger view.

Riding The Rails: Our theme this month is amphibious vehicles and this section is dedicated to trains. So it makes sense that we have an amphibious train here and we did find one. This amphibious train is designed so that a railroad can convert any of its engines and cars to be able to float and be used in the water. We’re not sure if there are any actual applications of one in use. The installation consists of a water intake on the front of each unit, a propeller for propulsion in the water on the back of each unit, a rudder for steering on the back of each unit, and many inflatable airbags. Emergency airbags will be installed on top, in case the train begins to sink.

We did find a Russian train that was amphibious and may have been in use at one time. Click on the images below for a larger view.

Here’s a different type of “amphibious” train. Here’s a car that drives on the road and is also equipped with rail wheels to be driven on train tracks. This is a 1956 Pontiac Hy-Rail.

Native American Indian Transportation: Many native American Indians used dog sleds for transportation. Although dog sledding may have existed before, the oldest archeological evidence of this mode of transportation has been dated to around 1,000 A.D.

We did find an interesting video of an amphibious sled being pulled by reindeer. Click here for the video on Facebook.

Animals in the headlines: Here’s a dog powered “vehicle” we found online. We could not find any details on it, just the picture. In theory, it should work! Its like a giant hamster wheel.

We close this newsletter with these words: Live your life, take chances. Because, right now is the oldest you’ve ever been and the youngest you will be ever again.

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Twas The Night Before Christmas – grieving mothers

Written on December 26, 2022 at 5:20 pm, by hkraemer

“It was the night before Christmas and Santa was busy making his rounds, he was light on his feet making sure he didn’t make a sound.
But he took notice that some homes didn’t have that Christmas Glee.so he decided to stop because he thought that just can’t be.
He crept in a mommy’s bedroom and stopped dead in his steps, as he saw a little angel hugging his mom as she slept
The little angel looked up and cried ” oh Santa you are finally here!! I’ve been waiting for you to help me let Mommy know I am near”.
Santa picked up the wee angel and asked him ” What can I do? I’m just a simple toy maker I can’t make your mommy’s dreams come true”.
So the two of them sat and they sat for a while until the tiny angel jumped up and screamed with a smile, .”let’s leave her a sign a beautiful sign from above, let her know it’s from me sent from heaven with love”!!!
So Santa dug and he dug deep, in that big glorious bag that was filled with lots of treats .
He pulled out a beautiful white feather that look like it was made out of snow. And he thought such a beautiful sign that only a grieving mother would know.
He placed it on her nightstand and kissed the angel on his head. Then placed him next to his mom as she slumbered in bed.
I think I’ll stay here with Mommy and visit her in her dreams tonight, she misses me dearly and needs to know I’m all right.
Santa made his way to his sled, and wiped a tear from his eye. He fell to his knees and managed to cry.
Merry Christmas to all the grieving mothers across this big land. And let it be known your angels are with you holding your hands….”

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Twas The Night Before Christmas – grieving mothers

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