Guggenheim Safe Aircraft Competition
The Guggenheim Safe Aircraft Competition was a competition held in the United States in 1929 to promote the design of safer airplanes. Officially, it aimed "to achieve a real advance in the safety of flying through improvement in the aerodynamic characteristics of heavier-than-air craft, without sacrificing the good, practical qualities of the present-day aircraft."
The Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics offered a prize of $USD 100,000 for the most outstanding aircraft design, plus five prizes of $10,000 for safety innovations. The competition was announced on April 20, 1927 to run between September 1, 1927 until October 31, 1929 unless the judges deemed that the competition objectives had been met earlier.
Criteria
The aircraft were to be judged against the following criteria:- Use a reliable powerplant
- Be structurally sound
- Carry of load per of engine power
- Have adequate visibility for the pilot and observer
- Demonstrate good stability
- Be able to recover from abnormal flight conditions
- Remain maneuverable, controllable, and safe if the engine failed during a steep climb
- Have a maximum speed of at least, a minimum speed of at most, and a minimum gliding speed of at most
- Be able to take off within and land within
- Be able to clear a obstacle within of take-off and of landing
Judges
The judging panel comprised:- Orville Wright, Chairman
- Admiral Richard E. Byrd, aviator and explorer
- F. Trubee Davison, Assistant Secretary of War for Air
- Dr. George W. Lewis, aeronautical engineer
- William P. MacCracken, Jr. U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics
- Edward Pearson Warner, early aviation pioneer
Entries
The organizers originally anticipated over 100 entries, but by the closing date only twenty-seven applications were received. These were mostly from American manufacturers, but also five from the UK and one from Italy. Of these, only fifteen applicants presented an aircraft before the closing date of the competition. Although the judges had expected to evaluate designs throughout the competition period, the first aircraft was not presented until August 1929, and almost all aircraft arrived in the last month before the competition closed. This, combined with poor weather at the testing location, and the barely-ready state of many of the aircraft caused significant challenges for the judging process. One entry, the Dare Safety Plane suffered a structural failure in flight before arriving at the competition, killing its test pilot and its designer.The entries received were:
| Entrant | Nation | Aircraft | Result |
| Heraclio Alfaro | USA | Alfaro X-13 | Disqualified; insufficient speed |
| Bourdon Aircraft Company | USA | Bourdon B.4 Kitty Hawk | Disqualified |
| Società Italiana Ernesto Breda | Italy | Breda Ba.18 | Did not start |
| Brunner-Winkle Aircraft Corporation | USA | Brunner-Winkle Bird | Disqualified |
| Vincent Burnelli | USA | Burnelli GX-3 | Withdrew |
| Cierva Autogiro Company | UK | Weymann-LePère C.18 | Did not start; built for Cierva's entry, but transferred to Pitcairn for their entry instead. |
| Command-Aire | USA | Command-Aire 3C3 | Disqualified |
| Cosmic Aircraft Corporation | USA | Did not start | |
| Cunningham-Hall Aircraft Corporation | USA | Cunningham-Hall Model X-90(N) | Disqualified |
| Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company | USA | Curtiss Tanager | Winner |
| Dare Airplane Company | USA | Dare Safety Plane | Did not start; fatal crash July 17, 1929 |
| de Havilland | UK | - | Did not start; canceled entry before August 3, citing too much work from British government contracts. |
| Fleet Aircraft | USA | Fleet Model 2 | Disqualified |
| Ford-Leigh Safety Wing | USA | modified Brunner-Winkle Bird | Disqualified |
| Gates Aircraft Corporation | USA | Stampe et Vertongen RSV.26/100 "mono-biplane" | Withdrew |
| Gloster | UK | Did not start | |
| Charles Ward Hall | USA | Did not start | |
| Handley Page | UK | Handley Page Gugnunc | Disqualified; failed glide test requirement |
| J. S. McDonnell Jr and Associates | USA | McDonnell Doodlebug | Crashed |
| Mercury Aircraft/Schroeder-Wentworth | USA | Schroeder-Wentworth Monoplane | Crashed |
| Moth Aircraft Corporation | USA | de Havilland Moth fitted with Handley Page automatic leading-edge slots | Withdrew |
| Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro Company of America | USA | Pitcairn PCA-1 | Did not start; not ready in time. Pitcairn arranged to enter the Weymann-LePère C.18 imported as Cierva's entry, but this was not ready either. |
| Rocheville Aircraft Corporation | USA | Did not start | |
| Taylor Bros Aircraft Corporation | USA | Taylor C-2 | Disqualified |
| Vickers | UK | - | Did not start; canceled entry before August 3, citing too much work from British government contracts. |
| Whittelsey Manufacturing Company | USA | Whittelsey Avian fitted with Handley Page automatic leading-edge slots | Did not start |
| John H. Wiggins Company | USA | DNS=Did not start |
Results
Flight tests were completed on January 1, 1930. The Curtiss Tanager and Handley Page Gugnunc were the only two aircraft to complete the entire testing program. The Gugnunc was unable to meet the glide test requirements, leaving the Tanager as the only fully qualified entry and therefore the winner. Of the other thirteen aircraft that presented for testing, three withdrew, two were damaged during testing and could not complete the program, and eight others were disqualified. The result was announced on January 6, 1930.However, the win led to legal action by Handley Page, because the company accused Curtiss of using their patented automatic wing slot design on the Tanager without permission. In a separate action, A. J. Leigh accused Handley Page of copying his "Safety Wing" design. These matters were never resolved in court.