Restoration
"That Big Biplane" | 1929 Zenith Z6A
- By Don Parsons
- Air & Space magazine, March 2007
One of the Zenith's most distinctive features is the large cabin in front of the pilot, which holds a table and four seats. Don Parsons
We’ve all heard of airplane restoration projects that drag on until people begin to suspect the restorer doesn’t really want to finish; he’s happy just to be tinkering. This isn’t one of those projects. It did drag on—for 17 years—but knowing Glenn Peck and the late John Mullen, the two men responsible for it, I never doubted that one day the airplane would fly.
In 1986, Mullen, an electrical engineer from St. Louis, bought a rare and battered biplane at an auction in Boise, Idaho, and trucked it home to Creve Coeur, a small Missouri airport with a paved runway and a grass landing strip that he owned with two partners (see “The People and Planes of Creve Coeur,” June/July 2003). Creve Coeur was already home to dozens of antique aircraft and today has a large collection of Wacos, Stearmans, Staggerwings, rare or one-of-a-kind types, and one particularly stunning Fairchild 24 (mine). But compared with the others, Mullen’s Zenith biplane was a monster. It weighed almost 4,400 pounds with a full tank and full complement of pilot and cargo, and it had a 41-foot wingspan and an enormous cabin in front of the pilot. Around the airport, most people referred to it as “that big biplane of John’s.” We think seven were built, and only Mullen’s survived—barely.
The airplane Mullen brought to Creve Coeur was a daunting project: It had wings, a fuselage, and a whole bunch of parts. With scant records from the manufacturer, nine old black-and-white photos, and a 30-second film clip, he gradually pieced together the airplane’s history and decided what the restoration should make it look like.
The Zenith Aircraft Corporation built the airplane in 1929 at the request of A.A. Bennett, a transport pilot who needed a sizable craft to get men and materials up to the mines in Idaho and Alaska. Zenith had been manufacturing farm implements in Midway City, California, until Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 Atlantic crossing convinced its owners—as it did many entrepreneurs around the country—that there might be something to this airplane thing. The company’s first airplane was a tri-motor the builders called the Z-12 Albatross. It barely got airborne. They tried again with the Zenith Z6A before the Depression took its toll and they went back to farm equipment.
Bennett bought the third and fourth Z6s, which he used to haul everything—sheet metal, saws, pianos, cows—to the Idaho miners. In 1946, Bennett sold the Zenith to the Blue Moon Sky Ranch in Boise, Idaho, where it was put to work flying supplies. It passed through a handful of owners before ending up with a cropduster named Pete Fountain. He flew the airplane until 1964, when operating expenses forced him to park it alongside the runway in Boise, where it stayed until the auction in 1986.
Mullen took the airplane apart, cut the fiberglass hopper (for insecticide) out of the fuselage, and built the fuselage back up. He cleaned up the landing gear and had a new tail wheel assembly and gas tank built. And that’s about as far as the restoration got when the 1993 Missouri River flood shut down the airport and halted the effort. Mullen, focused on lining up financing for repairs to the airport, turned to Glenn Peck.
Peck is the director of maintenance for the Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum at Creve Coeur and one of the finest craftsmen I’ve ever known. I’ve seen him transform a half-dozen airplanes—including a 1928 Curtiss Robin that in 2001 was recognized in a restored classic category at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Oshkosh, Wisconsin fly-in. In his 25-year career, he’s restored 30 tube-and-fabric aircraft. He started work on the Zenith in 1996, and, because it had been outside for three years, took the airplane back to the point where no two pieces were connected. For eight years, he worked in his free time on weekends and in the evenings, whenever he had the chance, putting the pieces back together.
By spring 2004, Peck had made enough progress on the airplane that he and Mullen thought he could finish it in time to show it at Oshkosh that July. Peck hurried to overhaul old instruments and install modern ones, like a moving-map GPS receiver. He installed brakes from a Vultee BT-13, a heavy World War II Navy trainer, but found that even these were marginal when trying to hold the airplane during the run-up of the 550-horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-1340 engine (from a Curtiss SOC Navy Scout).
Related topics: Airplane Restoration Fixed Wing Aircraft Golden Age of Flight
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Comments (8)
What a wonderful surprise to come across this article on the Zenith Z6A. My Grandfather, Sterling Price and uncles, Morris and Gerald Price were the owners of Zenith Aircraft and built both the airplanes and the farm equipment (mainly threshing machines for harvesting lima beans).
There is very little information in the family about the airplanes and I assumed they were all lost. It is very exciting to discover that one survives.
Any chance that you could put me in touch with Shaun Mullen or Glenn Peck or anyone else who has information on the Bennett plane?
Posted by Keith Brown on April 6,2008 | 10:01 PM
I got a chance to see this at Oshkosh. What a nice aeroplane. I want to thank the owners for bringing it for every one to see.
Skot Ingram
Posted by Skot Ingram on August 18,2008 | 01:14 PM
Mr. A. A. Bennett is a relitive of mine. He married my fathers sister, Hattie L. Burnet, Dana,Bennett.
I went to their flight school and later went in to the USAF as a pilot in B24's
His daughter Marian, my cousin is still here with us and can tell a great deal more about Ben than any one else knows.
Thank you for your page;
Edward G. Burnet Sr.
Posted by Edward G. Burnet on October 11,2008 | 09:23 PM
That airplane the Zenith 6A was my uncles airplane. I have the history of this plane from the begining in the 30's
Posted by Edward G. Burnet on October 11,2008 | 09:27 PM
Yes I can. But would you please let me know just what I have to do to send all this information to you.
I really appreiciate other historians in Aviatiin on my side. I have a large file on Ben in my drawers of HIS HISTORY.
Edwrad G. Burnet SR.
Posted by Edward G. Burnet on October 11,2008 | 09:36 PM
I am a relitive of A. A. Bennett. I have a great deal of child hood history of this Zenith and my uncle A. A. Bennett.
Edwradr G. Burnet Sr.
Posted by Edward g. burnet on October 21,2008 | 08:36 PM
Sterling Price was also my grandfather. Through my father, Maurice Dean Price, I inherited the official seal of the company that built the Zenith airplane, which I treasure.
Posted by Gail Price Rottweiler on September 7,2010 | 11:03 AM
I helped John Mullen when he began the restoration of this unique aircraft. I had become a 'airport bum' at Creve Coeur with a dear friend of mine, Bob Roussin. I also helped another great pilot friend, Bud Fuchs with his D17S Staggerwing, N17679, and had many flights in the Staggerwing, Mullen's Stearman, a L19 Birddog, just to name a few. I then began my dream of getting my license at Creve Coeur airport and subsequently a year later began working at the Million Air FBO at Spirt of St.Louis(SUS). But sadly moved back to Texas in early 1992 and had to give up flying before I could take my written and checkride. I am glad to see the Zenith had finally been completed and returned to the skies!!!
Posted by Brian Collins on January 13,2012 | 11:47 AM