My Story
I was born in Salmon Idaho in 1956. My dad, Charles Dahle, was a well-driller and pump installer. He was also an inventor. He built one of the first jet boats in the year I was born. I spent my childhood going up and down the Salmon River in his jet boats. I had a blast!
Figure 1 Here is an old photo of me at the contols of my Dad’s first jet boat that he called "The Barge." It was powered by an Oldsmobile “Rocket” V-8. The Barge was an old pontoon barge used for bridges in World War II. It was Army green. The Barge was ugly, but fun!
His boats were powered by large V-8 engines with no mufflers. They were loud, fast and fun! His project was a family affair. His brothers Voyd and Norman were also involved in his jet boat adventure. Not only did I get to ride in the jet boats, but I was able to socialize with my cousins. I had fun childhood to say the least!
Scores of people came down to the river to see my dad’s boat and hopefully go for a ride. His invention was a very big deal back then. His best jet boat could pump 8,000 gallons of water per minute out a 6 inch nozzle! It looked like an uncorked fire hydrant! It impressed everyone who saw it! As a consequence of my happy childhood I wanted to be an inventor like my dad.
Figure 2 His best jet boat was 24 feet long powered and by a 390 Cadillac engine rated at 345 horsepower. It was the first welded aluminum jet boat used on the Salmon River and was custom made in Portland Oregon.
I learned a lot from my dad. When I was 14 I had him read an article I found in the World Book Encyclopedia about the Hiller Flying Platform. This was an invention that I was very interested in. After he read the article I told him that I wanted to build one. He replied, “You’re going to get yourself killed!”
Figure 3 Here is photo of the Hiller Flying Platform. Pretty cool, right? How could I get myself killed? It looks safe, right?
In spite of his disdain for such a dangerous looking contraption, we talked about the technology that made it work. It was quite obvious why it didn’t fly as well as it should have. The inventors of the Hiller Flying Platform made a couple of fundamental mistakes that limited its performance. I planned on rectifying those mistakes someday when I built my own version of the flying platform. I quietly held onto that dream for 40 years while I pursued other interests like getting an education, having a family, and making a living.
Eventually I found work working within the nuclear industry. I worked at the Advanced Test Reactor in Idaho for 14 years and then took a job in the west desert of Utah at a facility that buries low-level radioactive waste. This facility is now called Energy Solutions. I had told some of my co-workers there about the Hiller Flying Platform and how I wanted to build it after I retired.
My friend and co-worker, Matt Elliot, suggested that I not wait until retirement, but that I should start working on it now. He was convinced that I could make a flying platform that qualified as an ultralight air vehicle. An ultralight aircraft is classified by its weight. If an aircraft weighs 254 lbs. or less then it qualifies as an ultralight aircraft and as a consequence a pilot’s license is not required to fly it.
I didn’t think that I could build a version of the aircraft that only weighed 254 lbs. because I had read that the second prototype weighed 370 lbs. Matt encouraged me to look into it which I did.
I found the original patent at Google Patents. I didn't expect the patent to tell me how much the original prototype weighed. To my surprise the weight was listed. I got chills when I read that the original prototype weighed exactly 254 lbs!
At that point I decided to start building my version of the Hiller Flying Platform. I started that project in October of 2012. It took me a long time how to figure out how to build the crazy thing. I had to figure out how to make molds for the parts and then covered the molds with fiberglass and then attached the parts together. It took several years for the machine to take shape.
Figure 4 My version of the Hiller Flying platform looks similar on the outside, but is quite a bit different on the inside. In this photo we see the engines equipped with expansion chambers. I need more power, so I will replace the expansion chambers with turbochargers. Eventually I am going to switch to 4-stroke engines. I find 2-strokes to be too temperamental.
I had several “test flights.” I hate calling them test flights because it hasn’t flown yet. With each test I discovered a new problem that needed fixing. (Lots of problems) Eventually I had all of the technical problems worked out and realized that my engines lacked enough power to get me airborne. The aircraft is designed to fly on one engine. The second engine is required as a safety precaution, because a flying platform has the glide ratio of a rock.
I installed a turbo supercharger on one of the engines. My plan is to turn up the boost until it either flies of blows the engine. All I have left to do is install the boost gauge and the alcohol / water injection system. I have a hunch that the two-stroke snow machine engines are not going to work well in the long run. My goal is to switch to using 4-stroke engines eventually. Due to the cold weather, back surgery, and lack of money, I put this project on hold for a while.
As far as my shotguns are concerned, I became familiar with the idea of a slam fire shotgun a few years ago. These slam-fire shotguns all shared one weakness. They could not be reloaded very quickly. They could be reloaded slightly faster than a Revolutionary War musket, but not by much. I decided to build a slam-fire shotgun with a detachable magazine on the bottom.
It turns out that this project was much more complicated than I thought it would be. I made numerous design changes and followed many technical dead-ends before I came up with the final design. My test firing went pretty well until one of my shells didn’t load all of the way into the barrel and blew the hot gasses out the bottom. The shot and the wad remained inside the plastic shotgun shell. This was a major problem and I didn’t have the will to fix yet another problem! I had spent a year and hundreds of hours on this project! So I decided to shelve the idea for a while, because I was burned out on this design and I was very frustrated!
So I went with a much simpler design. Everyone who likes guns has heard about John Browning, but few people have heard of his father Jonathan Browning who taught him in the gun making business. Jonathan Browning’s claim to fame was a rifle nicknamed the “harmonica” rifle. The 5 round magazine was mounted horizontally and loosely resembled a harmonica.
This rifle was “state-of-the-art in the 1830s and 1840s because it could fire multiple rounds fairly quickly. I decided to make a harmonica style shotgun because I could manually load the live rounds into the magazine/barrel assembly and know that they would operate properly and safely. Because of the simplicity of the design I could have a working model in a few months rather than a year.
I went to work on the thing. The biggest problem I had was figuring out a way to lock the magazine in position, so that the shotgun shell would be perfectly lined up with the main barrel. After I figured that out the construction of the gun went fairly quickly. There is probably a better way to lock the magazine in place, but for now my method works just fine.
I successfully finished my Harmonica shotgun and tested it. It worked really well, so I returned to working on my Slam-fire shotgun. I made several changes to the original design and got it to work reliably and safely. I finished the plans for both shotguns. These plans consist of several photographs with captions that explain the construction process. These plans are available for sale on my website. After I finish my shotgun project, then I will resume my efforts on my flying machine. If my aircraft works it will be the most versatile recreational vehicle ever made!
Its most useful role will probably be as an air ambulance. It is difficult for a large vehicle like an ambulance to get to victims when there is a multi-vehicle pileup on the freeway. With my aircraft a paramedic could fly over the wrecked vehicles and help the people who needed medical care the most. Once a victim was stabilized he or she could be flown to a better-equipped ambulance and taken to the hospital. Anyway, I hope to finish that project someday.
I always wanted to be an inventor like my dad. I have a lot of other ideas in mind, but for now these are the ones that have the highest priority.
Figure 5 Johnathan Brownings Harmonica Rifle
