"Hot as a '44' and twice as fast." Or: no country for old men. The Wedell-Williams Model 44/ NR536V “Miss Louisiana”

What associations come to mind when you hear the keyword ‘USA around 1930'? Do images of the Great Depression, Prohibition and gangsters like Al Capone or Bonnie and Clyde come to mind? Or are they happier images full of an affinity for technology and a hands-on vision of the future that would fit better in an America of Roosevelt's ‘New Deal'? Whether Dust Bowl or Hoover Dam: it seems to have been a violent and greedy, fast-moving time in which speed was worshipped, self-earned success was respected and failure was not tolerated. It will be interesting to see in the following how well the biographies of Jimmy R. Wedell and Harry P. Williams, the two men behind the original of the racing aeroplane shown here, fit into the scenario just painted!

The Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation

The name ‘Wedell Williams Model 44' refers to the Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation founded by the two in 1929. The company was to offer the first regular flight connection from New Orleans to Houston, as well as taking over mail flights and, when business was good, even running its own flying school.
The company founders, the two Wedell brothers Jimmy and Walter and Harry P. Williams, had met in the mid-1920s through their fascination with flying. By this time, Jimmy Wedell was not only a well-known racing pilot, but had also made a name for himself as an aeroplane designer. He held more records than any other pilot of his time, including such prestigious records as the world land speed record set in 1933.

Harry P. Williams, born in 1889 and therefore slightly older than Wedell, had made a fortune in lobster farming, which was important in Louisiana, but was also very successful in his business with oil and mineral leases. As a self-made millionaire, he found a connection to politics and soon sat on the boards of influential companies in the estate and sugar industries. Married to one of the most famous (silent) film actresses of the time, he was part of the jet set of his day. Harry Williams and Jimmy Wedell met through their shared enthusiasm for flying: inspired by Lindbergh's Atlantic flight, Williams bought a Ryan monoplane to learn to fly, and Jimmy Wedell was hired as his instructor. This business connection led to a friendship that was to last the rest of their lives.

The Model 44

Against this background, it is not surprising that the Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation produced a number of interesting aircraft designs from 1929 onwards. The Wedell Williams Model 22 was the first - it became known under the clever name ‘We Will', derived from the company abbreviation. However, a truly outstanding success was achieved with the successor model ‘44', a braced low-wing monoplane equipped with the Pratt & Whitney R1690 radial engine. The superior performance of the Model 44 was to dominate all major air races in the USA for several years. The three examples of the Model 44 that were built were reliably to be found on the winners' podiums of the Bendix Trophy in 1932, 33 and 34 as well as the Thompson and Shell Trophy in 1934. The engine, which produced around 1000 hp, accelerated the design, which weighed just 1200 kilograms, to 532 km/h. With a skilled pilot there was no match for a Model 44 for quite some time

Wedell-Williams was even willing to build a Model 44 on request for the legendary racing pilot Roscoe Turner. However, the test flight of the newly built aircraft, carried out by Jimmy Wedell himself, almost ended in tragedy. Under high g-loads, one of the wings collapsed and broke away, but Wedell was narrowly able to save himself with a parachute. In response, the wings and their bracing were reinforced, a measure that was retrofitted to the aircraft already built. Roscoe then received a second 44 with the revised wing structure, which he subsequently used intensively.

Despite the success of its racing aeroplanes and the entrepreneurial spirit and courage of its founders, the Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation was not destined to have a long existence. Within two years, all three company founders were to die in the wreckage of their aeroplanes. Jimmy Wedell lost his life in June 1934 while giving flying lessons in a Gipsy Moth. The inexperienced student pilot survived, but pilot legend Wedell was dead. A year later, his brother Walter Wedell died in a crash, the circumstances of which could not be clarified: his aircraft was lost over the Gulf of Mexico without a trace. The following year, company founder and financier Harry P. Williams died in the wreckage of a Beechcraft Staggerwing he was piloting, which stalled immediately after take-off and hit the ground. He and the factory chief pilot John Worthen, who was travelling with him, were killed instantly. The company did not survive this chain of tragic events for long. In 1936, Williams' widow Marguerite Clark Williams sold the company to Eddie Rickenbacker - also no unknown name in aviation - in his capacity as chairman and representative of Eastern Airlines.

Roscoe Turner's gold-coloured Model 44 /NR61Y is today the only surviving original and can be admired in the Crawford Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. The Louisiana State Museum, on the other hand, displays excellent replicas of the three Model 44s that were built; the aircraft shown here, ‘Miss New Orleans' with the black 92, is one of them. Mary Hazlip, one of the most famous and best pilots of the time, flew this Model 44 with the civilian registration NR536V with great success and to several victories. It is a stroke of luck that the internet seems to have a lot of film material on this aircraft. You really should take a look at the sleek lines of the ‘Miss Louisiana' in motion to get an idea of the racy and powerful appearance of the original!

About the kit and building process

What I always like about the kits from Williams Brothers are the building instructions. All three possible Model 44s are presented here in a well-designed graphic format and the major and minor differences between ‘Miss Patterson', ‘Miss New Orleans' and Turner's 44 are clearly labelled. For the ‘Miss New Orleans' shown here, for example, there are components for a separate undercarriage and the instructions to mount the tailplane relatively far back and to attach a small ‘hump2 on the top of the engine cowling. Incidentally, I created these streamlined fairings with an aerodynamically moulded drop of ‘Kristal Klear' using a toothpick.

The kit parts are of usable quality and have the necessary minimum level of detail. The cockpit interior, however, requires a little more detail: here, not only some round and flat wire was used, but also seat belts from Eduard etched parts. The tensioning of the wings and the tailplane was carried out in the usual way with flat wire from ‘SBS Production', which was a novelty for me with a monoplane, but turned out to be a pleasantly uncomplicated matter.

I was looking forward to applying the decals with a certain amount of excitement after I had experienced a nasty surprise with the Laird Super Solution. I was also surprised here - but by the high quality and robust nature of the beautifully made decals! My only real complaint is the quality of the transparent part for the canopy/windscreen. On the one hand, a two-part design would have been desirable, on the other hand, the transparency of the ‘clear part' proved to be improvable; probably the use of the in-house thermoforming machine would have been called for here. As it was, however, I only made the components as transparent as possible by polishing them and then used them as they were.

Once again, I can start my conclusion by saying how much I appreciate the kits from Williams Brothers. Not only are the models on a pleasantly large scale and have so far always proved to be really well to build - the required improvisation of some components does not have to be a disadvantage - but they also offer insights and access to aircraft worlds that would otherwise be difficult to enter. In this sense, I am already looking forward to the next project with a WB kit!

21 additional images. Click to enlarge.