Key Publishing

Curt Zimmerman

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September 2, 2005 at 7:27 am in reply to: Help idendify a vintage aircraft? #1414864

Curt Zimmerman
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If it’s not to rude to ask mate , WHO was your grandfather Curt .

Not rude at all Stormbird. His name is Oscar H. Banker, an Armenian immigrant to the US. He is most remembered for inventing the first practical automatic transmission for cars and trucks. He was a very quiet inventor, and we are still learning about many of the things he worked on. He had about 450 patents during his career. Like I mentioned earlier, he worked on the Stout Skycar, but we don’t know exactly what parts or systems he worked on.

Curt Zimmerman

August 28, 2005 at 6:44 pm in reply to: Help idendify a vintage aircraft? #1422815

Curt Zimmerman
Participant

Sorry, I’ve been “offline” for awhile. Thank you to everyone, I very much appreciate all of your help!

I have been digging through piles of old family photos looking for clues, and found one. On the border of one of the photos was the hand written title “Stout Skycar”. The photos are from the Chicago area, and were probably taken around 1941-44. The Aerocar that Texastomcat linked to is very similar, and the Stout Skycar appears to pre-date it by just a few years. That would put the date at about the right point as well. The Aerocar in his link was dated 1949. Now I can start searching for the aircraft by name!

Here is a link to the clue photo:

http://user.mc.net/~cwz/aircraft06.jpg

My mother is one of the twin girls in the front seat of the aircraft. She celebrated her 70th birthday yesterday, so that helps to estimate the date as well. In this photo, it looks like the aircraft is still in the mock-up or construction stage of development.

The aircraft actually flew, and appeared to fly fairly well. I have home movie footage of it actually flying.

Original photos:

http://user.mc.net/~cwz/aircraft01.jpg
http://user.mc.net/~cwz/aircraft02.jpg
http://user.mc.net/~cwz/aircraft03.jpg
http://user.mc.net/~cwz/aircraft04.jpg
http://user.mc.net/~cwz/aircraft05.jpg

August 10, 2005 at 4:00 am in reply to: Help idendify a vintage aircraft? #1350150

Curt Zimmerman
Participant

It looks very similar to the one in your photo, but I think the mystery aircraft is older. The aircraft in your photo looks like a newer, more streamlined version of this. The mystery aircraft is quite possibly an experimental or prototype. My grandfather was a prolific inventor, and worked on a wide variety of projects. I doubt he designed or built the whole aircraft, but he probably designed some of the parts or systems in it. In the late ’40s and early ’50s he designed some helicopter parts.

Curt Zimmerman
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