Chester "Jeep" and "Swea'Pea"

Art Chester (1899 - 1949) began his career in aviation by making a parachute jump for a local barnstormer using a makeshift parachute that had been tested using a bag of rocks for weight. He learned to fly and almost immediately moved into air racing. It was a few years before he designed his own race plane in 1932, but his first effort was a good one. He built the "Art Chester Special" (NR-12930) which was later renamed the "Jeep" in 1934 after a comic strip character of the day. The Jeep was flown in several classes, usually the smaller displacement groups. In 1935, at the All-American Air Races in Miami, he broke the world's 100-km light plane record with a speed of 237.033 mph.

Art's second design was built to compete in the newly formed "Goodyear" air races now known as "Formula I" racing. All the racers used the same small displacement Continental engines and had to meet several weight and design parameters. Safety was the main theme with simplicity and low cost secondary.

The "Swea'Pea" (NX- 8400-H) incorporated several innovative features. The cooling air intake was through the spinner and the tail was a 'V' design similar to that used by the Beach Bonanza. In its first race, the "Swea'Pea" finished second at a speed of 165.383 mph. Chester sold the original craft and built two more slightly modified versions named "Swea'Pea II" and "Wimpy" (another comic book character).

The later versions were faster with "Swea'Pea II" clocking up to 209 mph in one race. Unfortunately, Art Chester was killed in a high speed stall during an air race in San Diego, April, 1949. He was following Steve Wittman in a pylon turn and suddenly Art's plane snap rolled and plunged into the ground inverted. Another aviation great had lost his life.

The "Jeep" was a conventionally built craft with steel tube fuselage 15 feet long faired with formers and stringers with a fabric covering. The wings were externally braced wood and fabric with a span of 16' - 8". The engine was an inverted design four cylinder supercharged Menasco rated at 150 hp. The double tapered wing measured about 52 square feet of area for the 1150 pound aircraft.

Several kits and plans are available for the "Jeep" in several sizes. The "Swea'Pea" was also a steel tube fuselage with a length of 15'-7 1/2" and a span of 18' - 6". The wings were ply covered cantilever design. Overall, the "Swea'Pea" was larger than the "Jeep", but almost half the weight.

A quarter scale model would have a 55 1/2" span and average chord of about 13" for a wing area of about 715 square inches. At 25 oz/sq ft, the weight would be about 7 3/4 pounds. Not bad. The plane was not raced with wheel pants, so the most difficult parts would be the engine cowl, spinner, and canopy. Ideally, a radio with mixing capability would allow easy elevator and rudder function with the V tail.