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Christensen Zipper

FieldValue
nameZipper
aircraft_typeAir racer
national_originUnited States
designerHarvey Christensen
introduction1948

The Christensen Zipper is an air racer that was built to compete in the Goodyear midget air races.

Design and development

The Christensen Zipper was developed by Harvey Christensen and was patterned after Steve Wittman's Bonzo and Buster midget racers.

The Zipper is a single-place, mid-winged aircraft with conventional landing gear. The fuselage was constructed from welded steel tubing with fabric covering. The wing used two wooden spars with strut wire bracing and fabric covering.

Operational history

During the 1948 National Air Races the aircraft was disqualified due to a spar structure inspection.

In the 1949 National Air Races the Zipper flew with the race number 59, sponsored by Rich-O-Root Beer with a qualifying run of 156.245 mph. Christensen flew to third place, but landed one lap early after seeing the checkered flag for a competitor who had lapped him. The Zipper fell to tenth place for landing early.

Specifications (Zipper)

|prime units?=imp General characteristics

|max takeoff weight kg= |max takeoff weight lb= |max takeoff weight note= Powerplant

Performance

|never exceed speed kmh= |never exceed speed mph= |never exceed speed kts= |never exceed speed note= |wing loading kg/m2= |wing loading lb/sqft= |power/mass= |thrust/weight=

References

References

  1. Sport Aviation. (May 1958)
  2. Warren Eberspacher. (Spring 2004). "Life at the 1949 National Air Races with the Christensen Goodyear Midget "Zipper"". AAHS Journal.
  3. Exxon Air World
  4. (August 2017). "air racing".
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

racing-aircraft homebuilt-aircraft mid-wing-aircraft aircraft-first-flown-in-1948
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