Custer Channel Wing

I just got back from a weekend ride to a flat track race at the Meadowlands facility in New Jersey with a side trip to the Mid Atlantic Air Museum to see how the P-61 Black Widow restoration was proceeding. More on that in a later post. 

In the meantime, we got the tour of their collection which included this oddity, the Custer Channel Wing. 

Willard Custer was a mechanic in West Virginia who stepped into a barn for shelter during a thunderstorm. The wind popped the roof off the building which then flew away a short distance.  This prompted him to ponder the concept of lift on an airplane wing. He ended up deciding that if the air was moved faster artificially over the top of a wing, it would be a much more efficient airfoil. Several prototypes were built that proved the concept, including this one that now rests on the tarmac at the Museum. The Channel Wing Corporation has been revived, full story here

Sidecar Sunday

Austin Healey Sprite

1971Johnson Skee Horse Rampage

Around our parts OMC snowmobiles showed up badged as Snowcruisers or less frequently Evinrudes, I don't think I ever saw a Johnson till recently. The company stopped snowmobile production in 1976

Steamer Norumbaga on the rocks

The steamer Norumbega was built in 1902 and for twenty eight years sailed around Penobscot Bay with only one accident marring its career. In 1912 the boat ran aground off Southwest Harbour when the engines stopped and steering capability was lost. At the next high tide it was lifted off the ledge and refloated with the help of a tug, assisted by the strategically timed wash from the nearby steamer Moosehead.

At low tide the crowds came to see the sight.

Allie Ryan, Penobscot Bay Mount Desert and Eastport Steamboat Album, Down East Enterprises, 1972

Norumbega in happier times

Hub center steering

The Classic MotorCycle, Jan 1994

Ner-a-car

Is this where Rollie Free learned his technique?

Another 2CV

This one in the Toronto area at Fast Eddie's Motorfest in Stouffville.

Monday Mystery, Patent model

This appears to be a model of some 19th century steam powered device. The auction description was that it was American-made to illustrate an alleged patent infringement. The explanatory tag that accompanied it went missing and now we have a bit of a mystery! 
A boiler supplies steam to a steam engine which appears to provide motion to the wheels by means of a worm gear. Two pulleys might transfer power via flat belts (missing) to a front mounted shaft with what look like hammers placed to drive pins downwards.   Although the wheels do not have flanges, this might have been a self propelled railroad tool to drive railway spikes? The spacing doesn't seem to be right for fastening rails but perhaps that could be adjusted. 
All guesswork but perhaps someone might recognize what it really is?

1954 TWN Triumph 350 cutaway

Thank you, Cutaway Collector

Twin carbs, twin pipes, two pistons but only one combustion chamber. This German split single has pistons side by side instead of fore and aft like the Puch (Allstate 250).