1. The Zerbe Air Sedan was an early attempt at a passenger plane
2. At the Dominguez Air Meet in California,
Professor J. S. Zerbe attempted to fly his
multiplane
Picking up speed, its front wheel hit a hole
Collapsed… damaged a wing
3.
4. Zerbe began building an airplane for a
group of Missouri businessmen
The design had with a fully enclosed
cockpit and passenger area
The aircraft looked more like a small bus
with four wings mounted on top
5. Zerbe used a wing warping system for control
The more common elevator system would have
worked better
The war surplus rotary engine from France
threw castor oil on the planes windshield,
blocking the pilot’s vision
6.
7. It supposedly flew 1,000 feet
Some say the plane flew fifty feet off the ground
Some say fifty inches
Others mention a few hops off the ground
8. After Washington County Fairgrounds,
Zerbe disappears from history
The fate of the Zerbe Air Sedan
remains a mystery
Could it be in some old Arkansas barn?
