TomCassuttGrandson
Member
- Joined
- May 22, 2022
- Messages
- 12
Hello!
My name is Justin Lemon and I'm the grandson of the late great Tom Cassutt, a self-taught aeronautical engineer & designer of the original 1950's Cassutt Special 111 Sport/Racer and Cassutt Special II Real Racer for Formula One Air Racing, Aerobatics, and Sport Flying.
Tom was a self-taught aeronautical engineer specializing in weight reduction, aerodynamics, and internal aerodynamics (air flow through the engine out the cowl). As President of the Tom Cassutt Aviation Preservation Project, I've spent the last 4yrs digging all kinds of amazing relics, information, and subject matter expert content found in the primary sources from his personal archives here in Austin, TX.
Here are 3 magazine articles from the 50's and 60's that document the public release of his lightweight Special Racers blueprint plans and construction drawings for his Cassutt 111M and 11M. Designed in 1951, these same Cassutt 111M and 11M plans are used in >85% of the current International Formula One fleet and has been the mainstay of the sport of air racing here in the U.S., Europe, Australia and other parts around the world since 1962 when the plans were 1st released to the public.
All of these primary source documents come from Tom's personal design files and archives here in Austin, Texas and will be featured in our upcoming multi-volume book series and documentary The Tom Cassutt Chronicles which will be free and available to the public. It is a culmination of everything ive been able to dig up and learn during the last 4yrs of this project.
These articles and pictures have some fascinating line markups from Tom that could give some insight into the design, aerodynamics, etc. + what's going on in the mind of the designer. I see these line markups everywhere in Tom's archives.
I'm not an aeronautic engineer so I can't say for sure what it means but based on my ability over these last 4yrs trying to break the Tom Cassutt Codex is that it has something to do with 2 of his golden rules: determining it's C.G. location (center of gravity) and/or angle of attack. I'm hoping intelligent folks such as yourselves can help provide me further insight and explanation to what he's doing here with the line markups and what it all means. Together WE can crack the Tom Cassutt Codex!
I attached this magazine article and 2 others related to this post (EAA Sport Aviation, May 1962 that included the official Cassutt Plans + National Aeronautics, 1963) along w/ pictures, for anyone that wants to download them. All pictures are direct copies the master versions from Tom's archives which were the same thing he would give to the media outlet to use as the featured images in their articles.
This is the 1st time we've released these primary sources or any materials from the Tom Cassutt Aviation Preservation Project, so much more to come.
Justin Lemon
President
Cassutt Aviation Preservation Project
Grandson
Austin, Texas
My name is Justin Lemon and I'm the grandson of the late great Tom Cassutt, a self-taught aeronautical engineer & designer of the original 1950's Cassutt Special 111 Sport/Racer and Cassutt Special II Real Racer for Formula One Air Racing, Aerobatics, and Sport Flying.
Tom was a self-taught aeronautical engineer specializing in weight reduction, aerodynamics, and internal aerodynamics (air flow through the engine out the cowl). As President of the Tom Cassutt Aviation Preservation Project, I've spent the last 4yrs digging all kinds of amazing relics, information, and subject matter expert content found in the primary sources from his personal archives here in Austin, TX.Here are 3 magazine articles from the 50's and 60's that document the public release of his lightweight Special Racers blueprint plans and construction drawings for his Cassutt 111M and 11M. Designed in 1951, these same Cassutt 111M and 11M plans are used in >85% of the current International Formula One fleet and has been the mainstay of the sport of air racing here in the U.S., Europe, Australia and other parts around the world since 1962 when the plans were 1st released to the public.
All of these primary source documents come from Tom's personal design files and archives here in Austin, Texas and will be featured in our upcoming multi-volume book series and documentary The Tom Cassutt Chronicles which will be free and available to the public. It is a culmination of everything ive been able to dig up and learn during the last 4yrs of this project.
These articles and pictures have some fascinating line markups from Tom that could give some insight into the design, aerodynamics, etc. + what's going on in the mind of the designer. I see these line markups everywhere in Tom's archives.
I'm not an aeronautic engineer so I can't say for sure what it means but based on my ability over these last 4yrs trying to break the Tom Cassutt Codex is that it has something to do with 2 of his golden rules: determining it's C.G. location (center of gravity) and/or angle of attack. I'm hoping intelligent folks such as yourselves can help provide me further insight and explanation to what he's doing here with the line markups and what it all means. Together WE can crack the Tom Cassutt Codex!
I attached this magazine article and 2 others related to this post (EAA Sport Aviation, May 1962 that included the official Cassutt Plans + National Aeronautics, 1963) along w/ pictures, for anyone that wants to download them. All pictures are direct copies the master versions from Tom's archives which were the same thing he would give to the media outlet to use as the featured images in their articles.
This is the 1st time we've released these primary sources or any materials from the Tom Cassutt Aviation Preservation Project, so much more to come.
Justin Lemon
President
Cassutt Aviation Preservation Project
Grandson
Austin, Texas
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