Ernest
Rupel, an Indianapolis physician, is a brother of Albert Rupel. Although the
Wright Brothers had made their famous flight at Kitty Hawk late in 1903, Albert
Rupel's efforts to build a successful airplane, as well as Chanute's earlier
experiments with gliders, suggest that the time was at hand for the coming of
the airplane in the early 1900's.
Had a nail not punctured the foot of a young man on Aug. 12, 1905,the history of aviation might have carried at one other name to fame. On that date this young man was waiting to put the final touches on an airplane of his own design and construction when he stepped on a nail. In five days tetanus developed and in two more days he was dead.
This is a story of Albert Ulysses Rupel who was born July 1, 1880, at Wall in Jay County, Indiana. Wall is no longer on the map but at one time had two general stores, a telegraph office, a saloon, and the post office. It was a community that had sprung up with the coming of the oil wells and finally disappeared with them.
Albert attended the local public school, graduated from the eighth-grade and went on into high school at Poling-- the central point of the township. There were only two or three students in the high school and it soon closed, leaving him no choice but to return to grade school to repeat his studies. He did just that for a couple of school years.
This was the time when the gas boom in Indiana was at its height. Frames from gas pipes of large dimensions lighted the area at night and burned as beacons in the daytime, instilling everyone living in or passing by the "field" with a desire to be a part of that great adventure. The ambition of every young man in that area was to be a factor in producing oil, and a prominent person in getting a well into production was the "driller." But to be a driller one had to be a "tool dresser" first. The tool dresser was of lesser importance than the driller since he was the official assistant in sharpening the drill bit. He stood on one side of the bit swinging a sledgehammer while the driller swung from the opposite side. This rhythmic beating so sharpening the bit that it to considerable drilling to wear it down before it would need resharpening.
These and other mechanical operations caused interested persons to familiarize themselves with all that had to do with the production of oil. Steam broilers, steam engines, gas engines, power units, and the like, fascinated young Albert Rupel. One day in 1903, while repairing a gas engine, the flywheel fell has foot, crushing it. This accident incapacitated him, and he immediately signed up for a course in stationary engineering with the American Correspondence School.
With natural gas plentiful in his area in 1902 in 1903, Albert made many small engines with cylinders ranging from a hand bicycle pump to a two-inch piece of brass tubing. These motors were all on the principle of a one cycle type, using gas for pressure and allowing it to escape at the end of the stroke. All bearings, pistons, crankshafts, flywheels were made by him using babbitt for the metal; he also made his own patterns and molds. With the engines he furnished power for running washing machines and churns that were originally designed for hand power but could be caused to running indefinitely if not turned off.
Then came the newspaper story of the flying machine. This intrigued him. Here was a new device that offered possibilities. He had fashioned kites of various designs and then decided to build an airplane.
From hickory wood, selected for its strength and pliability, he fashioned long strips 5/16 of an inch in thickness that were glued or wired to make a frame. Then the using similar strips, he made what he called "ribs" which radiated from a central or focal point on either side of the frame so that a wing spread of considerable proportion could be obtained when these ribs, or wings, were covered with oil cloth. The tips of each wing were supported by small wires running from an upright on the framework, thus holding the wings at an angle somewhat like those of a soaring bird. A similar group of wires reached out from the base of the central frame to the tips so that any lift of the wings would carry the central framework with it. The wing spread was eight feet; each wing was four feet long.
Extending backward, made of the same hickory, was a tail not unlike that of a pigeon's tail spread in flight. The desired angle of lift was determined and the tail held in place by a brace to the frame.
With a small wire stretching from the front of one wing to the other, and a similar wire holding the back tips, the whole plane was fairly solid. In it Albert placed various objects, even as much as two bricks weighing four pounds each. Using a long cord he tested his model by simply running and pulling on the string. It sailed into the air, carrying its load, and settled down without accident. Time after time these trial flights were made after varying the wing angle and tail upturn in an effort to decide about what angle seemed most efficient.
After satisfying himself that a machine could be made large enough to carry a person or persons and to do all that the model had done, only proportionately more, Albert set out to make a real one. Here the frame was constructed of angle iron, the ribs of the cold-drawn seamless steel tubing-- bicycle frame tubing made by the Shelby Steele Tube Co. Instead of oil cloth for wing and tail covering, he used eight ounce duck with tunneled sleeves, sewn on by the Jay Garment Co., Portland, Indiana, and through which the smooth steel tubes easily slipped. A rudder placed on top of the tail had similar construction
Beneath the frame there were four specially constructed wire wheels covered with pneumatic tires. These wheels were 14 inches in diameter, one placed at each corner of the frame. Rupel had two propellers fashioned somewhat like an electric fan. He used four blades on each propeller. These were bolted to a shaft is steel held by a casting. This casting was so constructed that the propeller blades could be set at a desired pitch to give an optimum pull with available rotating speed. The two propellers were placed one on either side up front of the solid steel shaft that ran to a sprocket on the back. A chain from there could transmit the power from an engine beneath the seat. (see insert facing page 327.)
Where to get an engine was the next problem. There were only marine motors available so Albert deferred that detail. He decided to make a trial flight by having the machine pulled by a hay rope attached to an automobile.
At the trial, when the car reached a moderate speed the plane lifted, but a gust of wind tipped a wing so that the wheels on the opposite side were crushed. As a substitute, ordinary boards like skis were used. Then the one cylinder Cadillac (or Buick) stalled without getting the plane off the ground. Horses just had to be used. A team the draft horses, ridden at a gallop by Jim Hollingsworth, R. R. 3, Winchester, Indiana, pulled the rope and caused the plane to soar as high as the tree tops. It settled to the ground without incident. Albert turned it around and the plane soared back across the field. This was in October, 1904. Being satisfied that his invention would work, he rested a bit to investigate engines that might be practical.
To house this enormous flying machine with its 475 square feet of wing surfaces required that the bracket to which the wing ribs were attached be rebored in a staggered pattern so that the wings could be laid back to be more or less parallel, one with the other. Thus, the machine could be pushed or drawn through a door and stored in the barn. This facility had been provided for and the machine was laid aside for the winter.
During the summer some of the details in construction were perfected, and early in August that year Albert stepped on a nail that punctured his foot. From this puncture wound, tetanus developed and in a week he was dead.
For more information read Dr. Gillium's Fate of Flight.