Tyrone man completes 15 year aviation project

TYRONE—In 1998, Larry Huntley came home and said he had found parts and pieces for a building project to reconstruct a classic Funk Airplane. Little did he and wife Mary Huntley know, this project would cover a span of over 15 years.  
The skeleton for the wings of this plane was  in a chicken coop near Baldwinsville. The engine was in a hangar near Palmyra, with more parts near Sodus. No part was larger than a bread box.  The Huntleys found a picture of a Funk, and eventually met a pilot who owned one.
The Funk brothers, Joe and Howard, were from Akron, Ohio, and originally built gliders in the 1930s. They  put engines in their aircraft some time before World War II and had several engine models mounted in their fabric covered planes. When the war began for the U.S., they, like other small plane manufacturers, stopped building planes to sell to private individuals.
The twin brothers moved their manufacturing business to Kansas. In Coffeyville, they did very well with their patented transmission for agriculture use. When the war ended, they went back to airplanes. The plane Larry Huntley found was a conglomeration of pre-war and post-war parts, which he said added to the difficulty of trying to reconstruct it as it was when it left the factory in 1946. Unfortunately, this model had an engine that was not reliable. In fact, there were only a few built. Huntley said he was determined to complete this project as close to original as possible.  
Long hours were spent on the phone tracking down someone who might be able to give a clue where a part might be found or what was done those many years ago. According to the blueprints, the door handle, for example, was from a 1937 Ford pick-up truck. The required elevator trim system was a screen door spring from Acme Door Co., the approved engine air cleaner was from an early Chevrolet. Much fitting together or making of new parts was based only on “witness marks” visible on the parts Huntley had.
Finally, on a summer day in 2009, Mary and her 99-year-old mother witnessed the plane’s first flight since 1954. It lasted a total of three minutes. The engine overheated, so Huntley had to put it down in a field and go back to the drawing board.  
After some engine repair, modifications to the cooling system and another thorough inspection by an authorized inspector, Huntley attempted another flight. Again, the engine overheated and an led to an aborted flight.
Huntley, by now a discouraged builder, tucked his time-consuming, blue monster back in a corner of the hangar. It sat there while insects permanently stained the blue finish, mice chewed on the headliner and the wind blew a section of the hangar door onto the tail section, damaging it.     
Two summers ago at an airport near Buffalo, there was a junk airplane for sale. It had a different engine that was more reliable than the one the Huntleys owned.  Huntley bought the whole pile of junk.
Then Friday, May 9, after more modifications, the new engine was on the plane. Again, the plane has been inspected and has flown for more than three minutes. If all goes well, the next sunny day might see a blue Funk flying over the Finger Lakes.