The Restoration Project

The Restoration Project

I should call this section—What have I done??? This is all that came with the project, plus a clear title and most importantly; a valid airworthiness certificate dated 1969. I purchased the project from Don Sitta who had the project stored in his hangar in Farmington, NM for a number of years. Don had planned on converting the airplane to a clipwing. Don was friends with Ed Saurenman, the holder of the Monocoupe 110 Type Certificate, and Ed went through the fuselage and brought it back to original specifications. In fact, this fuselage was used by Ed to build the fuselage jigs when he was working with Aviat Aircraft to bring the Monocoupe 110 Clipwing back into production. Ed had also replaced the original motor mount with the Edmundson-Owl motor mount per prints SK01 and SK02. This motor mount supports Warner motors up to 200 hp.

The project included a new set of Clipwing tail feathers (which have been sold) and 24’ long Douglas Fir spar blanks to build the one-piece clipwing. The original tail feathers were in reasonable shape. A set of Type F racing landing gear is included, but a new set will be made. The original aluminum wheel pants were included, but need a lot of “banging out” by DJ Short. DJ also made a new NACA bump cowling for the project. The original speed ring was included. 

A collection of rib parts were in a box and will be used for templates. All of the original wing hardware and fittings were in good shape only needing bead blasting and priming/painting. One almost useable wing strut and one bad one. A decent right aileron and 90% of the left. A door. Plus a couple of boxes of miscellaneous parts.

The end result of the restoration: