TULSA, OKLAHOMA — It’s much more now than just the sum of it’s many parts.
The famous Bugatti 100p looks ready to fly, thanks to a man who’s practically lived in this Tulsa hangar for the past 5 years.
“The vision, the courage, the entrepreneurial spirit, those things. That’s where the focus is,” says Scotty Wilson.
“It’s an airplane at the end of the day. But it happens to be a very cool airplane with an interesting story.”
Wilson was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Airforce when he first heard about the only airplane Etorre Bugatti ever designed.
He and engineer Loui de Monge spent three years building the 100p to be the fastest, lightest aircraft in the world.
Wilson recalls, “I really was captivated first by the airplane.”
It was ahead of its time, but in 1940, just as it neared a first test flight, World War II broke out.
The 100p was hidden in a barn and largely forgotten.
Wilson says, “I call it the most historically significant airplane that never flew.”
The original aircraft was salvaged but now sits in a museum, it’s wooden super-structure too brittle to fly.
Scotty wanted to complete the long forgotten project.
He planned for a year, got support from a Kickstarter project online, and received parts and help from all over the world.
He’d never built a plane before, let alone something this complicated.
The gear box alone took a year to fashion, but early in 2014 he sees this long-awaited project coming together.
“It is the elegant solution to the problem of flying very fast,” says Wilson
It’s been nearly 75 years, but the Bugatti 100p is almost ready to fly.
Scotty insists, “We’re confident in how it will fly and that it will fly, and that we can do it safely.”
His dream involves telling the story of this airplane from the sky.
On March 25th, 2014 the Bugatti 100p will join a collection of cars and other Bugatti artworks for an exhibit at the Mullins Museum in California.
Some media outlets had the 100p’s maiden flight taking place as part of that exhibition.
Instead,Wilson told us his aircraft won’t fly for the first time until Fall 2014.
For more information about the aircraft and its amazing story go to www.bugatti100p.com or
www.facebook.com/TheBugatti100pProject
