My "other" Mistress

[Yeti]

I know you guys are mainly interested in Italian cars, but I thought some of you might be interested in a project I am involved with.

In its day, Ettore Bugatti built over 8000 cars, several boats and a few railcars but what is largely unknown is that he also built an aircraft - the Bugatti 100p. This was built primarily to win a prestigious air race - The Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe, but Bugatti also had his eye on a French Air Force contract for a high speed pursuit plane and had a contract to build a prototype.

To cut a long story short, the aircraft never flew. It was nearing completion in Bugatti's Paris workshops when war broke out and the aircraft was hidden away to prevent it falling into German hands.

For my sins, I am involved with a guy in the States who is building a replica. This is now well advanced and will fly later this year after which we will be bringing it to Goodwood for the Revival meeting.

For those of you wanting to know more, I've put together a website with some history and pics of the replica build. Hope you enjoy having a browse, it's a fascinating aeroplane with an incredible history which one day we aim to tell in a book.

http://www.bugatti100p.com

 

[safrane]

Hope to see it there Yeti, what a wonderful piece of art.

 

[Dan!]

Good luck with it! I'll certainly look forward to seing at Goodwood.


And this is going on my office wall, at the point where the wall meets the ceiling as that is where my eyes normally land when I'm day-dreaming....

DREAMS

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935), better known as Lawrence of Arabia

 

[Yeti]

Good luck with it! I'll certainly look forward to seing at Goodwood.


And this is going on my office wall, at the point where the wall meets the ceiling as that is where my eyes normally land when I'm day-dreaming....

DREAMS

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935), better known as Lawrence of Arabia

It's an awesome quote that one. Which is of course why I put it up there. (-:

 

[Easyplan66]

Nice, look forward to seeing it at Goodwood Revival....

 

[Yeti]

Nice, look forward to seeing it at Goodwood Revival....

We'll be there. We have also been invited to display at the Farnborough airshow amongst others, so it could be a very busy year.

 

[toomanyhorses]

Such a shame that Bugatti and de Monge didn't get to see it finished and fly. What a project to be involved with!

Nicely built site too, by the way

 

[Yeti]

Such a shame that Bugatti and de Monge didn't get to see it finished and fly. What a project to be involved with!

Nicely built site too, by the way

It is a shame indeed, but interestingly the great nephew of de Monge has been working on the replica with us.

Thanks for the compliment on the site.

 

[lozcb]

It's an awesome quote that one. Which is of course why I put it up there. (-:

And absolutely true in so many historical cases ,

without doubt i think you'll have plenty from here viewing at Goodwood , used to be my local track , and my claim to fame is that i was actually watching when Stirling had his distasterous crash back in the 60's , certainly a fitting place for the display , roll on spring/summer , inspiring to have you on our forum


regards loz

 

[Yeti]

In case any of you are still interested, work on the Bugatti gearbox is now well advanced and we've just posted some images of the gearbox casings on the website. FWIW the 7075-T6 billets for the main casings were 800 quid!

http://bugatti100p.com/index.php?p=1_22_Latest-News-Engines-and-Gearbox

 

[hodroyd]

Hi Yeti,
Cracking looking aircraft, so advanced for the year and projected 500mph is astonishing, pity it never flew. Am I correct in saying that there were not many aircraft that adopted the bidrectional twin blade system, I remember seeing some, but not many. You mention that you are going to change this part of the design to a single blade, will the projected performance be the same?

Cheers
H

 

[Emtee]

What an astonishing project Yeti. Never heard of it, but it looks amazing. Love the tail particularly.

Hope everything goes to plan from here-on in.

 

[Parisien]

Absolutely magic!

P

 

[BennyD]

Who's the test pilot? It will take a big pair to take it airborne for the first time. However well made it is, and it looks superb by the way, it is still an experimental aircraft that has never flown, built from photos and plans that don't really exist and modelled on a computer. What could possibly go wrong!? I look forward to seeing it in the air. All the best.

 

[Parisien]

Ian.....I think you should put your name forward as test pilot.....no one else on the forum comes close to you in the aahheeemmm....department....


P

 

[BennyD]

Not me mate, sorry. I only fly things that someone else has proved can fly. I don't mind taking risks when having fun but I don't take risks while working. I don't get paid enough for that.