The Driggs-Johnson DJ-1 Bumblebee was a single engine, low power, single seat, parasol wing sports monoplane built in the US in 1924. It and its immediate development the Driggs Dart 1 had some competition successes; the design was further developed into two seat

sesquiplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

s known as the Driggs Dart 2 and Skylark. In all, about twenty were built.

Design and development

The Bumblebee was designed by Ivan Driggs and built by the Johnson Airplane Company. It had advanced features: cantilever monoplanes were uncommon in the 1920s, steel tube framed lightplanes novel and enclosed cockpits rare. Its parasol wing had two spars of laminated

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, the number of laminations decreasing outboard, and a birch skin from the leading edge to the rear spar. Behind this the wing was fabric covered, as were the steel framed

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

s. In plan the wing was tapered with rounded tips. The wing was attached to the fuselage with four

cabane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

s on each side, plus one sloping downwards aft centrally. The Bumblebee was powered by a Henderson four cylinder engine, carefully cowled with a cooling air inlet beneath the drive shaft of the two blade

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

. The fuselage was built from internally wire braced welded steel tubes, a method user by

Fokker Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names. It was founded in 1912 in Berlin, Germany, and became famous for its fighter aircraft in World War I. In 1919 ...

aircraft but unfamiliar on light planes. The forward fuselage including engine,

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

and wing mounting was rectangular in cross-section, becoming triangular, vertex up, aft. The pilot sat under the forward part of the wing not in an open cockpit as usual at the time but surrounded by curved celluloid sheet, attached to the cabane struts, which extended upwards vertically from the fuselage to the wing underside but sloping aft. There was a celluloid window in the wing over his head to provide upward vision. Access to the cockpit was via a port side door. The empennage of the Bumblebee was, like the fuselage, steel framed. Its straight edged, braced tailplane and split elevators were mounted on top of the fuselage; the fin had a curved leading edge, the rudder moving in an elevator cut-out. The undercarriage was of the fixed, conventional type, with mainwheels on a single axle, each side attached to the fuselage by a single streamlined strut. The first DJ-1 flew in 1924, with the Henderson engine. Some images show it without its cockpit transparencies. On its earliest outings it was referred to as the Driggs-Johnson Jimmie. A developed version, the

Driggs Dart The Driggs Dart was an American-built light sporting aircraft of the late 1920s. Development Ivan Driggs designed the Dart I single-seat high-wing monoplane in 1926. In 1927 he developed the design into the two-seat Dart II, which was a sesquipl ...

1, was flown in 1926; powered by a Anzani engine, this had a maximum speed of , though it was later fitted with a Wright-Morehouse engine.

Operational history

At least two DJ-1s were built. The first of these won the race sponsored by the Dayton Daily News in early October 1924 and came second in both the speed and efficiency competition and a cross country race for the Rickenbacker trophy. The second was sold to the US Army and was fitted with

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s and flaps. The Wright-Morehouse powered Dart 1 received a lightplane prize in the 1926 Ford Air Tour, despite failing to complete the course, as it was the only lightplane competing.

Variants

;Driggs-Johnson DJ-1: 1924 prototype. ;

1: 1926 development powered by Anzani engine, later by a Wright-Morehouse. Revised undercarriage with three struts per side.

Specifications (DJ-1)

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite journal, date=13 November 1924 , title=The Driggs-Johnson light monoplane, journal= Flight, volume=XVI, issue=45, pages=721–2, url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1924/1924%20-%200721.html {{cite journal, date=30 October 1924 , title=Light 'plane and glider notes, journal= Flight, volume=XVI, issue=44, pages=696–7, url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1924/1924%20-%200696.html {{cite web , url=http://www.aerofiles.com/_d.html, title=Driggs-Johnson, access-date=10 May 2013 {{cite book , title=The Ford Air Tours 1925-31 , last=Forden , first=Lesley , pages=33, 40, year=1972, publisher= Nottingham Press, url=http://www.nationalairtour.org/pdf/ford_pdf_files/intro.PDF Single-engined tractor aircraft Parasol-wing aircraft 1920s United States sport aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1924