| | I am Billy F. Baumann, first cousin to Jack Baumann, designer of the Mercury BT-120, President and Chief Engineer of the Mercury Aircraft Company. Jack was 9 years older than me and the others involved with building the Mercury BT-120 were around 10 or more years older than me, so now at my age of 87 I may be the only surviving one who was with the BT-120 from the very beginning of it’s construction which was in Knoxville, Tennessee where Jack and I were both born and grew up. I wish to correct some of the data you show for the BT-120. I was 16 at that time and made some of the original parts of the airplane where it started in Knoxville before the company was moved to Menominee. I traveled with Jack to Menominee in June 1940. The first BT-120 was built during that summer. I worked in the shop during that summer and made many parts for the airplane. The first flight of that first BT-120 was made about 3 weeks after I had to return to Knoxville in mid-September to finish my last semester of High School. I returned to Menominee after graduation from High School in January, 1941 and was then assigned to the engineering department and made many of the detailed drawings of the BT-120. Flight tests were underway and were completed in the spring of 1941, not in 1946 as your data show. The FAA Type Certificate was awarded to Jack Baumann in August 1941, not in 1993 as your data show. Your data does indicate correctly that the BT-120 serial number N933900 is now in the hands of Eugene Horsman in Golden, Colorado. I have met Eugene and have been to his home several times where he is refurbishing the BT-120. The Mercury inflight photograph that you show on your web site is of the painting I did and which was donated to the Museum in Menominee. I also gave the museum the book, “The Story Of The Mercury BT-120”, which includes many photographs taken at the time the airplane was being built and other information that tells the story of the Mercury BT-120. You can learn much from that book. |
by Billy F. Baumann @ MARINETTE/