9-21-79
History of the Morrisey Nifty
(Varga Kachina)
A bit of background, going back to June, 1940, is in order to understand what
led up to the arrangement for the design of the "Nifty". This writer
arrived at Rearwin Airplanes in June of 1940, fresh from aeronautical school and
anxious to try his hand in the engineering field. I met a fine young engineer by
the name of George Stark, who had started at Rearwin, several years earlier, and
as aviation was progressing very rapidly in those pre-war years, offered me
considerable guidance. Before long, George and I were creating the next version
of the Rearwin "Skyranger", which subsequently was manufactured in
1946 and 1947 as the Commonwealth 185. With war signs all around, I went to work
for North American on the airport in Kansas City, Kansas and Mr. Stark joined
me. We participated in the growth development of the B-25 Bomber through all its
variants. However, by 1944 we were anxious to get back into small airplanes. It
was decided in the spring of 1944 to design and build a small single seat
general aviation airplane and with the help of the local CAA branch, obtained
the necessary priorities for material and tools. In the spring of 1945, the
"Skyhopper" flew and was properly documented as a historical fact in
all the aviation trade journals. It became obvious that financial backing was
going to be a difficult proposition. By March of 1946, it was dropped as a
business venture and George Stark and I split up. The plane was retained by
myself and subsequently flown to Los Angeles where I was now a senior
engineerinig executive on a Navy Bomber being designed by North American
Aviation. The Skyhopper received considerable attention in local aviation
circles, since experimental small planes were nowhere as abundant as today
thanks to the efforts of the EAA.
One Saturday I was repainting the Skyhopper in the "Navion"
delivery hanger at the LA airport when in strolled Bill Morrisey. I noticed the
he had flown in with a "Cub". I chided him about his J-3 and in the
course of the discussion discovered that he, too, was from Kansas City, and we
had mutual friends. Bill was a former CAA test pilot and currently was a test
pilot at Douglas Aircraft. It was the start of a very pleasant but sometimes
difficult relationship. Bill approached me a short time later, with the idea of
designing and building a modern trainer to replace the Cub's and Aeronca's
currently in vogue. It had to be tandem but tricycle gear, snappy in performance
and attractive. Tailored around the Continental C-85 engine could I come up with
a good idea and would I design the plane and oversee the construction? After
several meetings in Bill's apartment in Long Beach we signed a mutual assistance
pact and I rented space in an engineering office and started the project as an
evening venture. Not being encumbered with a family made the situation easy for
me. I spent 3 evenings a week and Saturday at the task and within 6 months had
completed the preliminary design, the Aerodynamic report, the Basic Loads
report, enough drawings to start fabrication and had done my work well with the
CAA, so that they "blessed" everything to date. Morrisey assembled a
crew and space to build the prototype at Long Beach airport and the parts
started showing up. Many hours were spent driving to Long Beach keeping track of
construction and assuring compliance with the design. My memory tells me that
Wayne Flannery was a fantastic craftsman, who fabricated the majority of the
plane. Bill gave impetus and leadership to the program and was the financial
father of the effort. It is difficult to evaluate the teamwork necessary
complete an undertaking of this magnitude. This was not a "homebuilt",
but a full fledged type certificate undertaking. Peoples personal lives were
involved as well as their families and these suffered, too. The prototype was a
beauty and flew just like Bill wanted it to, thanks to a good basic aerodynamic
configuration. The help received from several of my aero friends a North
American payed off quite well. The original prototype called the
"Nifty", had elliptical wings and tail with steel, wood and fabric
construction. Bill gave the plane a very thorough flight test, at which he
certainly was well qualified to do. Minor changes were made and finally the
project was identified as ready for the next phase. "Money". What a
difficult object to induce out of banks. The task that Bill undertook was time
consuming and nerve wracking, and more than I was interested in being involved
with. Time was getting on with me to stop being an airport "rat", and
to latch on to one of the lovely girls I was seeing between evenings at the
office, factory or airport. My involvement with Bill Morrisey ended around 1950,
about a year after first flight. The Nifty was considerably ahead of its time in
concept but good enough to withstand the change in times in aviation. The fact
that it is still around attests to its good approach to flying qualities and
details design. Unfortunately I failed to make copies of all the drawings and
reports I prepared on the Nifty, so have no record of the original design.
However I did save all the layouts and sketches which I have stored away for
some historical fact that as yet has not matured to date.
Gene Salvay
17201 McCormick
Encino, CA 91316
Mr. Varga
Much water has gone over the dam since 1950. My two most formidable projects
were yet to come, Chief Engineer of the Sabreliner and Director of Structural
Design for the B-1. So you see the "Kachina" did have a very good
"family tree". After the Nifty, I brought out the plans to build the
single seat Skyhopper in 1958 and in 1962 I brought out a 2 place Skyhopper. By
1963-64 I was too deeply involved with the Sabreliner and had to forego my love
relationship with small planes.
Gene Salvay