Legend of The Airplane Motorcycle

Here’s the deal, stirred up a couple of weeks ago with one shot of the above motorcycle, based on a seven-cylinder Rotec rotary airplane engine. Rumors spread quickly and we received another shot of an inline 8-cylinder airplane-based, rotary-engine motorcycle.

Of course I contacted my rare-motorcycle guru, Don Whalen, of Sierra Madre Motorcycles in Pasadena, California. He confirmed that the first motorcycle was spotted at the Legends of The Motorcycle Concourse in Half Moon Bay, California, a few weeks ago. “Jesse’s staff was having difficulty pushing the motorcycle across a grassy knoll,” Don explained. “It was so low the engine hung up in a grassy ridge and they had to recruit help to move it.”

He mentioned Jesse James, but I need confirmation. Another reader, Larry Curik, of Lone Star Choppers mentioned the bike to me and suggested that Jesse built it, based on the WCC frame emblem on the neck. I needed another confirmation and received a strange e-mail from Jesse about Sturgis, but at the bottom were two, out-of-focus shots of the bike in his shop. Done deal?

Ah, but the mystery didn’t end there. We are still trying to locate the owner of the 8-cylinder Rotary. In the meantime Don explained that in 1921 a German company produced 5-cylinder, 4-valve-per-head, dual over-head cam, airplane-based motorcycles.

Some 2000 Megola Motorcycles, from 1921-25, were produced with direct drives, no transmissions and the suggestion to orbit intersections, if you’re unable to enter. The Gnome-Et-Rhome engines powered the front wheel. These same engines powered WWI Sopwith Camel bi-planes and were so powerful that they had a tendency to flip the planes during take off. You can imagine the gyroscopic effect on a motorcycle’s front wheel.

Here’s a quote from a Sopwith Camel history site: The First World War saw the advent of the airplane as a viable military weapon. In a period of only a few years, military aircraft advanced from rudimentary flying craft to killing machines. During this time, aerial superiority over the front changed hands as often as new designs were introduced. In 1916, the Germans controlled the skies over the trenches, and the English developed three fighters to regain control of the air war.

The best and most famous of these three designs was the Sopwith Camel. Small and lightweight, the Camel represented the state-of the-art in fighter design at the time. The Sopwith Camel shot down 1,294 enemy aircraft during World War I, more than any other Allied fighter. However, it was so difficult to fly that more men lost their lives while learning to fly it than using it in combat.

So far the only know sighting of the Jesse James’ version took place at the Legend of the Motorcycle: International Concours d’Elegance, the first world-class concours exclusively for motorcycles.

The Saturday, May 6th inaugural event attracted approximately 4,300 participants to the lush coastal lawns of the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, California, and raised over $22,000 for charitable organizations.

In attendance were entrants and spectators from five continents admiring the more than 250 motorcycles on display, ranging from an 1895 Pennington brought down from British Columbia to a 2005 KTM Moto GP factory racer shipped over from Austria. While the concours only judged bikes made before 1976, many later models were on exhibit to represent the evolution of motorcycling. Whether it was a 1995 Britten or a recent custom creation from Arlen Ness, almost every facet of motorcycle sport and culture was represented.

Kiehl’s Since 1851 sponsored the Steve McQueen Award conferred by Ewan McGregor and Peter Fonda, along with Steve McQueen’s last wife, Barbara Minty McQueen, to Jim Lattin of California for his 1928 Cleveland Racer, while the Best of Show went to a 1940 Crocker owned by Mike Madden of California.

Pictures, a list of class winners from this year, and a complete list of sponsors are available on the website, www.LegendoftheMotorcycle.com.

“We couldn’t have done it without everyone’s support and we’re already planning for 2007,” says Zaugg. Next year’s event will take place the first Saturday in May and will have as its featured marques Vincent, Excelsior and Henderson.

They had a cool event, but didn’t have a Megola Motorcycle, but Don spotted one on E-bay less than a week ago. “Jay Leno has one,” Don told me, “but there are very few still around. They are worth between $150,000 and $200,000.” We hope to bring you more on this mystery as it unfolds.

AIRPLANE BIKE UPDATE: Less than 24 hours after this article launched, new information appeared on my screen. I’ll let Philip Wakeham’s words straighten out mine—Bandit.

Greetings from England.Loved the aero-engine bike article.I’ve attached a pic of the Megola, a fantastic machine, but it didn’t use the engine form a Camel!

Sopwith used a variety of engines from 100-hp Gnome, 130-hp Clerget to the 150-hp Bentley, but they were all big 9-cyl rotaries. Incidentally they didn’t have throttles power was reduced by cutting the ignition “blipping” whilst landing.Also none of the bikes in your articles are Rotary engines! They’re all Radials, the difference being that rotary engines the entire engine rotates whilst the crankshaft stays still!! Where as radials work like conventional engines with the crank rotating and the engine staying still.

The Megola did use a rotary the whole engine spinning with the wheel.

I’ve also included a pic of another bike with a small radial claimed to be a French bike from the 1900s but in fact made recently in England.

Though one of my favorite aero-engine bikes is the Curtis V8

Hope this is of some help

–Philip

P.S. did you here about the Australian guy who cut to cylinders off the end of a 27L (1647ci) Merlin v12 out of a spitfire to make a v twin for his bike! There are pics on the web some where.

Here’s what we know about the bike in the second image from the top: It’s a Rotec’s 7 cylinder 110HP R2800, and they make a Rotec’s 9 cylinder 150HP R3600.This 80% Stearman is Under Construction.It’s the1st Chopper to have a R2800 Fitted.Credits go to: Rotec’s Paul, Hevle’s Eric (Stearman), Ron Herron (Little wing) and John Levey (JRL Motorcycles)

You can Contact Rotec Engineering on International dial 61 3 9587 9530 9.00am to 5.00pm Melbourne Australian time, or within Australia call (03) 9587 9530 or Mobile 0412 469 964.

Latest update 7/06:

My name in Mike Redpath. I was the person who was originally contacted to modify the motor to work in a bike frame. The work was done 3-4 years ago. A guy from Kansas (can’t remember his name) called me with a project and would not tell me what it was except he wanted to modify a Rotec engine. When he showed up at my shop and had a bike frame in his van, I knew it was going to be a challenge to make the motor work like he wanted it installed.

A very good friend of mine, Robert Barnett, is a tool and die maker/machinist did all the machine work. We never mounted the motor in the frame, so I can’t say if that is the frame the guy had or Jesse’s frame design.

I always wondered what happened to the bike. The person we did the work for wanted to sell it to Jay Leno, Jesse James, or some like that who had the resources to bring the idea to life. Anyway’s, while watching “Motorcycle Mania 3” a couple years ago when it came out on TV, I caught a glimpse of the motor sitting on the back bench of Jesse’s shop. I am glad Jesse did finally build the bike. We had real doubts the bike would work and viewed it more as something to look at. I have included a picture of me (on the left) and the guy we did the work for (on the right).

I have shots from the original motor to removal of rear accessory drive all the way down to the crankshaft.

These pics show the plantary gears in the nose case that were removed and was replaced with the machined cover you see on the front of the bike. The parts are some of the new parts that were machined to make the rear output shaft work. The way the intake plumbs into the center of the rear case was odd and required a special billet adapter made to relocate the carb out of the way of the output shaft that had to come out of the back of the motor.

These final 4 pics show the parts going back on and the final product. That is me on the left and the original owner on the right. Don’t know if you can see it in the pics, but the modifications were done around January 1 2003. Let me know if you have any other questions. I will also be putting this info on my new website <http://www.musclerodz.com/>www.Musclerodz.com which should be up in 4-6 weeks when our new speedshop opens up.

Mike Redpath
405-414-1072

Ah, but a redhead toast to all who have kept this mystery alive.

This just in from a Bikernet Reader: