Fred Austin sent some background and photos in late November about the first flight of "Mister Dickenson":
Here's a little information on Bruce Dickenson's hybrid "Mister Dickenson". First off this is not a modified Howard DGA. Bruce Dickenson, whose grandfather was one of the original founders of the Santa Paula Airport in the 1920's designed and built "Mr. D" from scratch. He emphasizes that he borrowed a bunch from Benny Howard's DGA and Howard's famous racer Mr. Mulligan designs and why not. He was pretty familiar with the Howard line of airplanes. The Dickenson family has been flying the same Howard DGA for almost half a century.
Bruce wanted and airplane with a little more performance than the DGA. He decided what he needed was a cross between the comfort and nice flying characteristics of the DGA and the speed and performance of Howard's racer "Mr. Mulligan". The result after eights years of painstaking labor is the beautifully crafted "Mister Dickenson". Bruce built the airplane pretty much by himself. Of course there are a lot of talented people around the Santa Paula Airport that lent a hand when it was needed. And naturally getting advice on how to do anything around and airport is never a problem.
Bruce is in the blue plaid shirt
"Mister Dickenson" is powered by a 600 HP Pratt & Whitney 1340 engine. It was designed to have a cruise airspeed of 210 MPH. The first reports look like the airplane is going to meet that target.
When you're in Southern California drop in to Santa Paula some weekend and take a look at "Mister Dickenson" and the other wonderful antique and Classic airplanes that live at the airport. Try and coordinate your visit to Santa Paula Airport on one of the days that the Aviation Museum of Santa Paula is open. They have a new museum facility and a "Chain of Hangars" which is a great walking tour of some great aircraft and aviation displays.
