schieferrobbins

Ray Wagner Collection Image

from SDASM Archives

• airmanisr2 said:

  Frank Schiefer was a prominent San Diego office furniture builder, who financed the building of the machine. The machine was a very lightweight fighter machine strongly resembling a Nieuport 28 with the landing gear resembling that of the S.E.5. The machine had a very high performance (147 miles/hour) and made about 100 flights without any failure or breakage. Striking is the last paragraph of the article: Quote: Perhaps the most significant thing that caused the demise of this unique aircraft was the fact that it just priced itself out of production. After paying as much as $5,200 for the nine cylinder engine, the completed aircraft was offered to the Army at a ridiculously low-price of $12,000. Washington laughed at the price--they were used to paying over $25,000 for aircraft that could attain speeds of only 100 mph., and could not conceive that such a low-price aircraft could perform as promised. flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft29142.htm