The Laird-Turner RT-14 Meteor, also called the Turner TR-14, Ring Free Meteor, PESCO Special, Miss Champion, Turner Special and the Turner Meteor is the winning aircraft of the 1938 and 1939

Thompson Trophy The Thompson Trophy race was one of the National Air Races of the heyday of early airplane racing in the 1930s. Established in 1929, the last race was held in 1961. The race was long with pylons marking the turns, and emphasized low altitude fly ...

races.

Design and development

The aircraft was commissioned and designed by

Roscoe Turner Roscoe Turner (September 29, 1895 – June 23, 1970) was a record-breaking American aviator who was a three-time winner of the Thompson Trophy air race and widely recognized by his flamboyant style and his pet, Gilmore the lion, Gilmore the L ...

in 1936. The Meteor would be the last of the Matty Laird race planes as well as the last race plane flown by Roscoe Turner. The aircraft is a conventional geared

mid-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing config ...

monoplane with a

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating engine, reciprocating type internal combustion engine, internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinder (engine), cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. ...

built in California. It was modified in 1936 by Mattie Laird at the E. M. Laird Airplane Company in Chicago with three-foot longer wings,

wing flaps A flap is a high-lift device used to reduce the stall (flight), stalling speed of an aircraft wing at a given weight. Flaps are usually mounted on the wing trailing edges of a fixed-wing aircraft. Flaps are used to reduce the take-off distance ...

, a longer

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

and a fuel tank. In 1938 wheel pants were added for the Oakland races.

Operational history

The aircraft was known by many names. Initially the RT-14 for "Roscoe-Turner 14 cylinder". The air commerce bureau labeled it the Model No. LTR-14, Serial No. 11, Type 1 POLM. The first sponsor was the Ring-Free Oil company, naming the aircraft the ''Ring-Free Meteor''. The 1938 sponsor, Pump Engineering Service Corp renamed the aircraft "The PESCO SPECIAL". In 1939, the Champion Spark Plug Co borrowed the name from its 1931

Pitcairn PCA-2 The Pitcairn PCA-2 was an autogyro (designated as "autogiro" by Pitcairn) developed in the United States in the early 1930s.Taylor 1989, p.735 It was Harold F. Pitcairn's first autogyro design to be sold in quantity. It had a conventional design ...

autogyro, giving the aircraft the name "Miss Champion". *1937

National Air Races The National Air Races (also known as Pulitzer Trophy Races) are a series of pylon and cross-country races that have taken place in the United States since 1920. The science of aviation, and the speed and reliability of aircraft and engines grew ...

- Turner placed third after missing a pylon in the sun at . A fire from a leaking fuel tank prevented Turner from racing in the

Bendix Trophy The Bendix Trophy is a U.S. aeronautical racing trophy. The transcontinental, point-to-point race, sponsored by industrialist Vincent Bendix founder of Bendix Corporation, began in 1931 as part of the National Air Races. Initial prize money f ...

race and required the fabric to be recovered before competing. *1938 National Air Races - Turner won the Thompson Trophy Race at *1938 Oakland Air Race - Second place The original aircraft was put into storage at Weir Cook Airport for 29 years until it was restored, then donated to the

Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum is a transportation museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Western Reserve Historical Society's Cleveland History Center in University Circle, and its collection includes about 170 cars. It ...

. In December 1972 the plane along with many of Roscoe Turner's trophies were transferred to the Smithsonian. The aircraft retired with less than 30 hours flying time.The Meteor is on display at the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

The

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

minted a $2 Coin in 2008 featuring the Laird-Turner Meteor LTR-14 as part of its 1930s Air Racing Collection

Variants

* In 2003, Tom Wathen built a replica of the LTR-14, demonstrating it at the 2003

EAA Airventure EAA AirVenture Oshkosh (formerly the EAA Annual Convention and Fly-In), or just Oshkosh, is an annual air show and gathering of aviation enthusiasts held each summer at the Wittman Regional Airport and adjacent Pioneer Airport in Oshkosh, Wisco ...

airshow.

Specifications (Laird-Turner RT-14 Meteor)

References

{{Laird Aircraft

Meteor A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, creating a ...

1930s United States sport aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Racing aircraft Mid-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1936

Design and development

Operational history

Variants

Specifications (Laird-Turner RT-14 Meteor)

See also

References