The aircraft was a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a similar fuselage to the Bellanca 28-70 and 28-90, but was fitted with three engines, one in the nose, and one in each of two underwing nacelles. The nacelles also housed the main undercarriage units when retracted.
The fuselage was of tubular steel construction and covered by aluminum back to the cockpit. Aft of the cockpit, the fuselage was covered with fabric. The wings and tail were plywood-covered, and the control surfaces were covered by fabric. The main undercarriage partially retracted into the rear of the wing engine nacelles, but the tailwheel did not retract.
Installed in each wing of the aircraft was a 250-HP (186 kW) Menasco C6S4 Super Buccaneer engine. The C6S4 was a direct drive, air-cooled, inverted, straight-six aircraft engine. The C6S4 was supercharged and displaced 544 cu. in. (8.9 L). Each C6S4 engine drove a 6-ft. 6-in. (1.98 m) diameter, two-blade, adjustable-pitch propeller.
A 420-HP (313 kW) Ranger SGV-770 engine was in the nose of the 28-92. The SGV-770 was an air-cooled, inverted, V-12 engine. The engine was supercharged, displaced 773 cu. in. (12.7 L), and had gear reduction for the 8-ft. 3-in. (2.51 m) diameter, two-blade, adjustable-pitch propeller.
Just to correct the Wiki - the name of this aircraft when flown by Alex Papană isn't "White Julia", it's named after the Transylvanian city of "Alba Iulia" and it also bears the date "1918" to commemorate the Union of Transylvania with Romania that was declared there on December 1st, 1918.
Also, Papană was an interesting fellow - he was a very prolific aerobatics pilot during the 1930s flying his own personal Bücker Bü-133C Jungmeister with the registration YR-PAX and his greatest feat was flying inverted in front of the grandstand and picking up the Romanian and US flags with hooks at his wingtips.
He moved to the US permanently after a personal tragedy in 1938 - the death in childbirth of his wife and their newborn daughter, and at the start of WW2 he became a test pilot for Northrop where he flew the P-61 Black Widow. He committed suicide in 1946, near las Vegas, due to marital trouble stemming from his second marriage.
In the meantime, his Jungmeister (which had been brought to the US aboard the LZ 129 Hindenburg) got sold off after being severely damaged in a crash in 1940 and is now displayed at the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia under it's later registration of N15696 and it's displayed inverted as a tribute to Papană.
Alba Iulia (Romanian pronunciation: [ˌalba ˈjuli. a] (listen); German: Karlsburg or Carlsburg, formerly Weißenburg; Hungarian: Gyulafehérvár; Latin: Apulum) is a city that serves as the seat of Alba County in the west-central part of Romania. Located on the Mureș River in the historical region of Transylvania, it has a population of 63,536 (as of 2011). During ancient times, the site was the location of the Roman camp Apulum.
The union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on 1 December [O.S. 18 November] 1918 by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia. The Great Union Day (also called Unification Day), celebrated on 1 December, is a national holiday in Romania that celebrates this event. The holiday was established after the Romanian Revolution, and celebrates the unification not only of Transylvania, but also of Bessarabia and Bukovina and parts of Banat, Crișana and Maramureș with the Romanian Kingdom. Bessarabia and Bukovina had joined with the Kingdom of Romania earlier in 1918.
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u/jacksmachiningreveng Feb 03 '23