Check out this article about Snow Planes. Been around for years and I'd never heard of it. Just goes to show, what you don't know.


http://www.nwcn.com/sharedcontent/north ... 21702.html


See ya, Bub

I believe Polaris made these also many years ago. I have seen a couple over the years at auctions. Never was able to bid on one or really know what they sold for. Pretty cool though

When I was young, we had two of them. We lived in SW Montana, in the mountains, and it was 28 miles to the nearest plowed road in winter. We used these to get to the car, which was stored in "town".

One had a Kinner 5, the other actually had a Wright Whirlwind.

A lot of years later, in conversation with a couple of fellows restoring antique aircraft, they noted how hard it was getting to find rebuildable antique engines. I mentioned these sleds, and their engines, and these guys got pretty interested. I understand they did go to that part of Montana, and bought some engines.

MTV

There was some controversy a while back in Grand Teton National Park. Apparently enthusiasts like to take these out to Jackson Lake, ands the NPS was trying to regulate snowmobiles. These might or might not be snowmobiles depending on your definition. Never did hear how it turned out.

I grew up in the teton valley, many folks had these, and we used them on jackson and jenny lakes all the time.

They are a gas to drive. Not many around now. The ones we had when I was a kid had 540s on them.

With a bit of room they can really go.

I saw the episode of Northwest Backroads on TV which featured the story on this guy's snowplane. It was a bit of a disappointment, they didn 't even talk very much about the snowplane except to say it had "an airplane engine". Instead they showed the same sound bite over & over in which the owner said " it doesn't have any brakes" in a very goofy manner. It unfortunately made him look like an idiot.

Eric