Mr. Dalrymple’s Racer

In 1936 veteran Stearman engineer Wayne Dalrymple designed and built a diminutive racing monoplane in his spare time. The airplane’s empty weight was only 260 pounds with a maximum weight of 450 pounds. The tiny ship had a wingspan of 20 feet four inches and a length of 14 feet. Total wing area was a mere 54 square feet, and Wayne chose an M-6 airfoil section for low drag without sacrificing low-speed handling characteristics. The fixed main landing gear featured fairings to reduce drag, and a simple tailskid sufficed for maneuvering on the ground. A two-cylinder, 30-horsepower Aeronca E107A piston engine powered the racer, fed by a five-gallon fuel tank that provided a maximum range of 200 statute miles. Dalrymple estimated the aircraft had a maximum speed of 115 mph and a landing speed of 46 mph.

 

Although the fate of Dalrymple’s racer is unknown, its builder and pilot was involved in the crash of a Cessna EC-2 “Baby Cessna” monoplane on January 2, 1933. Wayne had purchased the two-place Cessna in June of 1932 and had been flying it on a regular basis, but it was reported to have been “unlicensed” when the accident occurred. The day of the crash Dalrymple had been giving flight instruction to Forrest Mangan – a 25-year of service station attendant – at the airfield on East Central Avenue used by the Buckley Aircraft Company. A number of eyewitnesses reported that after a short flight the ship “entered a tailspin” on final approach at an altitude of about 200 feet. The EC-2 was destroyed and Mangan was killed, but Dalrymple survived and was hospitalized with serious injuries. Dalrymple is not a well-known name in the “Air Capital of the World,” but his story adds another interesting twist to Wichita’s rich history of aviation.