Curtiss Wright Junior CW-1

The Curtiss Wright Junior was Curtiss-Wright’s Depression-era effort to get into the light plane market. For the price of an automobile, $1495, you could own this two-place, open-cockpit pusher aircraft. Despite the Great Depression, some 270 Curtiss Wright Juniors were sold. This delightful pusher monoplane did have its drawbacks. The unreliable Szekely was prone to shed cylinders and damage the propeller. Operators took caution and wrapped a steel cable around the three cylinders to keep the unpredictable engine from coming apart in the air. The unusual location of the propeller behind the engine and passenger cockpit invited unwitting encounters as passengers disembarked. Finally, in 1932, a well-publicized fatal crash ended all prospects for further sales.

After WW2, this Curtiss Wright Junior was left with a mechanic who was asked to fix it. Upon completion, the owner refused to pay the bill, forcing the mechanic to store it in the rafters of his shop. Later the ceiling was insulated and sealed with the Junior tucked inside. Years later, Walt Bullock remembered seeing the Junior in the rafters. He rediscovered the Junior and, at some point in the early 1970’s it wound up at the Aerodrome. It flew regularly in the Pants Race, a competition of speed pitting three pilots and their not-so-fast Lindbergh-era flying flivvers. It was retired in the 1980’s and awaits restoration. The Pants Race continues to be staged every Saturday during airshow season.

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