I
know, I know. So easy to call it names. But look at it from another perspective,
more art-like: imagine you see it in the MoMA, MoCA, or SFMoMA. That’s what
I’m talking about.
I don’t know what intentions brothers Ervin and Lyle Joy had, but
I know what they achieved: A remarkable, out-of-the-ordinary piece of design,
considering that the year was 1935.
Regarding the flying abilities, one could say that it hoped and it
hopped. Eventually, a wire fence prevented what could have been a record number
of UFO sighting reports.
With five rudders, two engines and what can be considered as a
lifting body lodging a no doubt pensive pilot, this apparatus deserves our
admiration just for the mere fact of being.
The Joy JX quite precisely falls –in this case the use of the
verb depicts more than it intends- in the category of lifting fuselage designs.
Usually you have, in “normal” planes, different parts accomplishing specific
functions: The fuselage lodges the payload, the wings are in
charge of the lift and the tail performs the control and gives stability to the
whole. In the case of lifting bodies or flying wings, those functions are
accomplished blending, eliminating or fusing some of the above-mentioned
elements together, thus reducing drag, weight and cost, and hopefully improving
the overall efficiency of the system.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The search for
information on this one was arduous and rendered just enough to go ahead
and concoct a three view.
Since this was bigger than what my Super-Mattel Psychedelic
Machine can handle in its little vacuforming plate, two styrene shells
were cut and formed as per images, trying to convey the underlying tubular
structure of the original. An interior was produced as well as the other,
many, flying surfaces –one fin/rudder, one stab/elevator, two auxiliary
rudders under the stab, two more following the engines nacelles, one fin
under the fuselage and last but no least a small wing between the engines.
Bombs from the spares bin were transformed into more useful
engine nacelles (I always like that part). The abundance of struts was
dealt with using metal Strutz from Aeroclub, from where the two Salmsons
and wheels came too. Decals of course were home made.
It wasn’t that difficult: just get a stork, an umbrella, a pancake, two
blenders and a fish. Mix everything well and Presto!
I
can’t feel but admiration for the boldness, creativity and gills of the
remarkable bunch of designers, mechanics and pilots -some times one and the same
person- that contributed so much to aviation and, in the process, to general
amusement.
A real Joy.
Gabriel Stern
Click on
images below to see larger images
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