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The G.46 was a conventional, low-wing monoplane with tailwheel undercarriage, the main units of which retracted inwards. The pilot and instructor sat in tandem under a long canopy. The first prototype, powered by a 205 hp (153 kW) Alfa Romeo 115-Ibis engine, made its maiden flight on 25 June 1947. Testing revealed excellent flying characteristics and suitability for aerobatics, and the type was ordered into production. Apart from the 150 ordered by the Aeronautica Militare, 70 aircraft were exported, to Austria, Argentina and Syria. Variants G.46-1B two-seater with Alfa Romeo 115bis engine, one prototype and initial production of 25 for the Italian Air Force. G.46-2B two-seater with de Havilland Gipsy Queen engine for the Argentine Air Force, 70 built with an additional 12 for the Syrian Air Force. G.46-3B two-seater with Alfa Romeo 115ter engine for the Italian Air Force, 25 built. G.46-4B two-seater with Alfa Romeo 115ter engine for the Italian Air Force, 55 built. G.46-5B two-seat navigation trainer (prototype only) G.46-4A single-seater with Alfa Romeo 115ter engine for the Italian Air Force, 35 built.

The Tachikawa Ki-9 (九五式一型練習機, Kyūgo-shiki ichigata renshuki) was an intermediate training aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force built by Tachikawa Aircraft Company Ltd in the 1930s. It was known to the Allies under the nickname of "Spruce" during World War II. This aircraft was mistakenly identified as a Tatchikawa by the British. The Ki-9 was a two-seat, unequal wingspan biplane design. Tachikawa originally planned to use the same basic airframe for both basic training and intermediate training, differentiating the two models by the use of different engines. The prototype Ki-9 flew on 7 January 1935, powered by a 261 kW (350 hp) nine-cylinder Hitachi Ha-13a radial engine. The second prototype was identical, and the third prototype was powered by a 112 hp (80 kW) Nakajima NZ seven-cylinder radial engine. The third prototype exhibited stability problems due to a center of gravity issue, and, as a result, the primary trainer model was abandoned and the Ki-9 was developed only for the intermediate trainer. Tachikawa subsequently developed the Ki-17 for the primary trainer role. The first production aircraft were delivered in 1935. The Ki-9 was introduced to service as the Army Type 95-1 Medium Grade Trainer Model A under the former aircraft naming nomenclature system. The first version had a complex, split-axle landing gear with fairings over the top of the wheels. In 1939, this was modified and simplified, the fuselage slightly shortened, and the total weight reduced. The resulting Army Type 95-1 Model B or Ki-9-kai had improved maneuverability and flight characteristics. This version was quickly superseded by the Army Type 95-1 Model C, or Ki-9-otsu, in full production. Both versions were used widely for blind-flying training with a folding hood over the rear cockpit, and several were modified with a glazed canopy over the rear cockpit for use as a staff officer transport plane. Some were pressed into service for use as "special attack" (kamikaze in American terminology) aircraft in the closing days of the war, fitted with either a 100 kg anti-ship bomb, an oil drum filled with explosives, or fuel in the rear cockpit. Production by Tachikawa totaled 2,395 aircraft, ending in 1942. At least another 220 Ki-9s were constructed by Tokyo Gasu Denki (also known as Gasuden) from 1943 to 1945. The Ki-9 was also flown in wartime by Japanese satellite countries and postwar by the fledgling government of Indonesia and captured units by the Republic of China. Variants Ki-9 (Army Type 95-1 Medium Grade Trainer Model A): Initial version two-seat intermediate trainer aircraft. Ki-9-ko (Army Type 95-1 Medium Grade Trainer Model B): Improved version. Ki-9-otsu (Army Type 95-1 Medium Grade Trainer Model C): Standard production version.

The Pilatus PC-8D Twin Porter was a Swiss ten-seat light transport built by Pilatus Aircraft. The type did not go into production and only one was built. Work on the Twin Porter started in 1966, it was a modified Pilatus PC-6 high-wing monoplane with the nose-mounted engine removed and two 290 hp Lycoming IO-540-GIB engines mounted on the wing leading edges.The prototype first flew on 28 November 1967. Only one aircraft was built as flight testing was halted in 1969.

The Lasco Lascondor (also frequently known by the misspelling "Lasconder") was a 1930s Australian 8-seat passenger and mail carrier aircraft built by the Larkin Aircraft Supply Company (Lasco) at Coode Island, Victoria. It is claimed to be the first multi-engined aircraft designed and built in the Southern Hemisphere. Development of the Lascondor began in June 1928, concurrently with the company's Lascoter; the two aircraft had 90% commonality of structural parts. Like the Lascoter the Lascondor was a high-wing monoplane with a tubular steel structure, featuring a tailwheel undercarriage and a fully enclosed cabin for the passengers and the pilot. A major change was the Lascondor's three Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose engines instead of the Lascoter's single more powerful Siddeley Puma engine. The Lascondor also had greater fuel capacity and a slightly longer fuselage with a redesigned cabin to accommodate an extra row of seats. In addition, while the Lascoter had two sets of flying controls in the cockpit the Lascondor had only one to allow for another passenger seat, giving an overall capacity of seven passengers and one pilot. The only available photo of the Lascondor.

The Mitsubishi Ki-46 was a twin-engine reconnaissance aircraft that was used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. Its Army Shiki designation was Type 100 Command Reconnaissance Aircraft (一〇〇式司令部偵察機); the Allied brevity code name was "Dinah". On 12 December 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force issued a specification to Mitsubishi for a long-range strategic reconnaissance aircraft to replace the Mitsubishi Ki-15. The specification demanded an endurance of six hours and sufficient speed to evade interception by any fighter in existence or development, but otherwise did not constrain the design by a team led by Tomio Kubo and Jojo Hattori. The resulting design was a twin-engined, low-winged monoplane with a retractable tailwheel undercarriage. It had a small diameter oval fuselage which accommodated a crew of two, with the pilot and observer situated in individual cockpits separated by a large fuel tank. Further fuel tanks were situated in the thin wings both inboard and outboard of the engines, giving a total fuel capacity of 1,490 L (328 imperial gallons). The engines, two Mitsubishi Ha-26s, were housed in close fitting cowlings developed by the Aeronautical Research Institute of the Tokyo Imperial University to reduce drag and improve pilot view. The first prototype aircraft, with the designation Ki-46, flew in November 1939 from the Mitsubishi factory at Kakamigahara, Gifu, north of Nagoya.[3] Tests showed that the Ki-46 was underpowered, and slower than required, only reaching 540 km/h (336 mph) rather than the specified 600 km/h (373 mph). Otherwise, the aircraft tests were successful. As the type was still faster than the Army's latest fighter, the Nakajima Ki-43, as well as the Navy's new A6M2, an initial production batch was ordered as the Army Type 100 Command Reconnaissance Plane Model 1 (Ki-41-I). To solve the performance problems, Mitsubishi fitted Ha-102 engines, which were Ha-26s fitted with a two-speed supercharger, while increasing fuel capacity and reducing empty weight. This version, designated Ki-46-II, first flew in March 1941. It met the speed requirements of the original specification, and was ordered into full-scale production, with deliveries starting in July. Although at first the Ki-46 proved almost immune from interception, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force realised that improved Allied fighters such as the Supermarine Spitfire and P-38 Lightning could challenge this superiority, and in July 1942, it instructed Mitsubishi to produce a further improved version, the Ki-46-III. This had more powerful, fuel-injected Mitsubishi Ha-112 engines, and a redesigned nose, with a fuel tank ahead of the pilot and a new canopy, smoothly faired from the extreme nose of the aircraft, eliminating the "step" of the earlier versions. The single defensive machine gun of the earlier aircraft was omitted not long into the production run. The new version first flew in December 1942, demonstrating significantly higher speed 630 km/h (391 mph) at 6,000 m (19,700 ft). The performance of the Ki-46-III even proved superior to that of the aircraft intended to replace it (the Tachikawa Ki-70), which as a result did not enter production.[8] During operational testing in March 1944, it was discovered that replacing the engines' single exhaust collector ring with individual pipes provided extra thrust and an increase in top speed to 642 km/h (399 mph). In an attempt to yet further improve the altitude performance of the Ki-46, two prototypes were fitted with exhaust driven turbosupercharged Ha-112-II-Ru engines. This version first flew in February 1944, but only two prototypes were built. Mitsubishi factories made a total of 1,742 examples of all versions (34 x Ki-46-I, 1093 x Ki-46-II, 613 x Ki-46-III, 4 x Ki-46-IV) from 1941 to 1944. For details of operational history and 18 variants, click here.

The Kyūshū J7W Shinden (震電, "Magnificent Lightning") is a World War II Japanese propeller-driven prototype fighter plane with wings at the rear of the fuselage, a nose-mounted canard, and a pusher engine. Developed by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as a short-range, land-based interceptor, the J7W was a response to Boeing B-29 Superfortress raids on the Japanese home islands. For interception missions, the J7W was to be armed with four forward-firing 30 mm type 5 cannons in the nose. The Shinden was expected to be a highly maneuverable interceptor, but only two prototypes were finished before the end of the war. A jet engine–powered version was considered, but never reached the drawing board. In the IJN designation system, "J" referred to land-based fighters and "W" to Watanabe Tekkōjo, the company that oversaw the initial design. The idea of a canard-based design originated with Lieutenant Commander Masayoshi Tsuruno, of the technical staff of the IJN in early 1943. Tsuruno believed the design could easily be retrofitted with a turbojet, when suitable engines became available. His ideas were worked out by the First Naval Air Technical Arsenal (Dai-Ichi Kaigun Koku Gijitsusho), which designed three gliders designated Yokosuka MXY6, featuring canards. These were built by Chigasaki Seizo K. K. and one was later fitted with a 22 hp Semi 11 (Ha-90) 4-cylinder air-cooled engine. The feasibility of the canard design was proven by both the powered and unpowered versions of the MXY6 by the end of 1943, and the Navy were so impressed by the flight testing, they instructed the Kyushu Aircraft Company to design a canard interceptor around Tsuruno's concept. Kyushu was chosen because both its design team and production facilities were relatively unburdened, and Tsuruno was chosen to lead a team from Dai-Ichi Kaigun Koku Gijitsusho to aid Kyushu's design works. The construction of the first two prototypes started in earnest by June 1944, stress calculations were finished by January 1945, and the first prototype was completed in April 1945. The 2,130 hp Mitsubishi MK9D (Ha-43) radial engine and its supercharger were installed behind the cockpit and drove a six-bladed propeller via an extension shaft. Engine cooling was to be provided by long, narrow, obliquely mounted intakes on the side of the fuselage. It was this configuration that caused cooling problems while running the engine while it was still on the ground. This, together with the unavailability of some equipment parts postponed the first flight of the Shinden. Even before the first prototype took to the air, the Navy ordered the J7W1 into production, with a quota of 30 Shinden a month given to Kyushu's Zasshonokuma factory and 120 from Nakajima's Handa plant. It was estimated some 1,086 Shinden could be produced between April 1946 and March 1947. On 3 August 1945, the prototype first flew, with Tsuruno at the controls, from Mushiroda Airfield. Two more short flights were made, a total of 45 minutes airborne, one each on the same days as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred, before the war's end. Flights were successful, but showed a marked torque pull to starboard (due to the powerful engine), some flutter of the propeller blades, and vibration in the extended drive shaft.

The Cessna 190 and 195 Businessliner are a family of light single radial engine powered, conventional landing gear equipped, general aviation aircraft which were manufactured by Cessna between 1947 and 1954. The 195 model was also used by the United States Air Force, United States Army, and Army National Guard as a light transport and utility aircraft under the designations LC-126/U-20. The Cessna 190 and 195 were Cessna's only postwar radial-engined aircraft. The first prototype flew in 1945, after the end of World War II and both the 190 and 195 entered production in 1947. The 195 was the first Cessna airplane to be completely constructed of aluminum and features a cantilever wing, similar to the pre-war Cessna 165 from which it is derived. The wing differs from later Cessna light aircraft in that it has a straight taper from root chord to tip chord and no dihedral. The airfoil employed is a NACA 2412, the same as used on the later Cessna 150, 172 and 182. The 190/195 fuselage is large in comparison to other Cessna models because the 42" diameter radial engine had to be accommodated in the nose. There are two rows of seats: two individual seats in the first row, with a comfortable space between them and up to three passengers can be accommodated on a bench seat in the second row. The 190/195 has flat sprung-steel landing gear legs derived from Cessna's purchase of the rights to Steve Wittman's Big X. Many have been equipped with swiveling crosswind landing gear which allows landing with up to 15 degrees of crab. While the crosswind gear simplifies the actual landing, it makes the aircraft difficult to handle on the ground. The 195 is equipped with a retractable step that extends when the cabin door is opened, although some have been modified to make the step a fixed unit. The aircraft was expensive to purchase and operate for private use and Cessna therefore marketed them mainly as a business aircraft under the name "Businessliner". The engines fitted to the 190 and 195 became well known for their oil consumption. The aircraft has a 5-US-gallon (19 L) oil tank, with 2 US gallons (7.6 L) the minimum for flight. Typical oil consumption with steel cylinder barrels is 2 US quarts (1.9 L) per hour. A factory-produced floatplane version was equipped with a triple tail for improved yaw stability. The Cessna 195 produces a cruise true airspeed of 148 knots (274 km/h) (170 MPH) on a fuel consumption of 16 US gallons (61 L) per hour. It can accommodate five people. Including the LC-126s, a total of 1180 190s and 195s were built. The 190 was originally introduced at a price of USD$12,750 in 1947 (equivalent to $173,978 in 2023). When production ended in 1954 the price had risen to USD$24,700 (equivalent to $280,239 in 2023) for the 195B. This compared to USD$3,495 for the Cessna 140 two seater of the same period. Variants The main difference between the 190 and the 195 models was the engine installed. 190 Powered by a Continental W670-23 engine of 240 hp (180 kW) and first certified on 1 July 1947. 195 (Specifications below) Powered by a Jacobs R-755A2 engine of 300 hp (225 kW) and first certified on 12 June 1947. 195A Powered by a Jacobs L-4MB (R-755-9) engine of 245 hp (184 kW) and first certified on 6 January 1950. 195B Powered by a Jacobs R-755B2 engine of 275 hp (206 kW) and first certified on 31 March 1952. It featured flaps increased in area by 50% over earlier models. LC-126A Military designation for the Cessna 195, five-seat communication aircraft for the US Army, it could be fitted with skis or floats, 15 built. LC-126B Similar aircraft to the LC-126 for Air National Guard use, five built. LC-126C Variant of the LC-126A for instrument training/liaison, 63 built. U-20B LC-126B redesignated by the USAF after 1962. U-20C LC-126C redesignated by the USAF after 1962.

The Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar (Navy and Marine Corps designation R4Q) is an American military transport aircraft developed from the World War II-era Fairchild C-82 Packet, designed to carry cargo, personnel, litter patients, and mechanized equipment, and to drop cargo and troops by parachute. The first C-119 made its initial flight in November 1947, and by the time production ceased in 1955, 1,183 had been built. The Air Force C-119 and Navy R4Q was initially a redesign of the earlier C-82 Packet, built between 1945 and 1948. The Packet had provided limited service to the Air Force's Tactical Air Command and Military Air Transport Service before its design was found to have several serious problems. Though it continued in service until replaced, all of these were addressed in the C-119, which had its first test flight already in 1947. To improve pilot visibility, enlarge the cargo area, and streamline aerodynamics, the C-119 cockpit was moved forward to fit flush with the nose, rather than over the cargo compartment. The correspondingly longer fuselage resulted in more usable cargo space and larger loads than the C-82 could accommodate. The C-119 also got new engines, with 60% more power, four-bladed props to three, and a wider and stronger airframe. The first C-119 prototype (called the XC-82B) made its initial flight in November 1947, with deliveries of C-119Bs from Fairchild's Hagerstown, Maryland factory beginning in December 1949. In 1951, Henry J. Kaiser was awarded a contract to assemble additional C-119s at the Kaiser-Frazer automotive factory located in the former B-24 plant at Willow Run Airport in Belleville, Michigan. Initially, the Kaiser-built C-119F differed from the Fairchild aircraft by the use of Wright R-3350-85 Duplex Cyclone engines in place of Fairchild's use of the Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engine. Kaiser built 71 C-119s at Willow Run in 1952 and 1953 (AF Ser. No. 51-8098 to 51-8168) before converting the factory for a planned production of the Chase C-123 that never eventuated. The Kaiser sub-contract was frowned upon by Fairchild, and efforts were made through political channels to stop Kaiser's production, which may have proven successful. Following Kaiser's termination of C-119 production the contract for the C-123 was instead awarded to Fairchild. Most Kaiser-built aircraft were issued to the U.S. Marine Corps as R4Qs, with several later turned over to the South Vietnamese air force in the 1970s, a few others were later shipped to Belgium and Italy. The AC-119G Shadow gunship variant was fitted with four six-barrel 7.62 mm (0.300 in) NATO miniguns, armor plating, flare launchers, and night-capable infrared equipment. Like the AC-130 that replaced it, the AC-119 proved to be a potent weapon. The AC-119 was made more deadly by the introduction of the AC-119K Stinger version, which featured the addition of two General Electric M61 Vulcan 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon, improved avionics, and two underwing-mounted General Electric J85-GE-17 turbojet engines, adding nearly 6,000 lbf (27 kN) of thrust. Other major variants included the EC-119J, used for satellite tracking, and the YC-119H Skyvan prototype, with larger wings and tail. In civilian use, many C-119s feature the "Jet-Pack" modification, which incorporates a 3,400 lbf (15,000 N) Westinghouse J34 turbojet engine in a nacelle above the fuselage. For details of operational history and 21 variants, click here.

Powered by four turboprop engines each driving a pair of contra-rotating propellers, the design was the first wide-body transport aircraft and remains the world's largest turboprop-powered aircraft to date. The An-22 first appeared publicly outside the Soviet Union at the 1965 Paris Air Show. Thereafter, the model saw extensive use in major military and humanitarian airlifts for the Soviet Union, and is still in service with the Russian Air Force. In the late 1950s, the Soviet Union required a large military transport aircraft to supplement the Antonov An-8 and An-12s then entering service. Originally known as the An-20, the model is a conventional multi-engined high-wing design. In the early 1960s, the Antonov bureau produced a wooden mock up at its Kyiv, Ukraine, workshops of what was designated the Model 100. The prototype, now designated the An-22, was rolled out on 18 August 1964 and first flew on 27 February 1965. The prototype was given the name Antaeus (sometimes misspelled Antheus) and, after four-months of test flying, was displayed at the 1965 Paris Air Show. All aircraft were built at the Tashkent State Aircraft Factory and the first military delivery was made to the Air Transport Wing at Ivanovo Airbase in 1969. The aircraft was designed as a strategic airlifter, designed specifically to expand the Soviet Airborne Troops' capability to land with their then-new BMD-1 armoured vehicles. The An-22 cargo hold can accommodate four BMD-1s compared to only one in the An-12. It has the capability to takeoff from austere, unpaved, and short airstrips, allowing airborne troops to perform air-landing operations. This is achieved by four pairs of contra-rotating propellers, similar to those on the Tupolev Tu-114. The propellers and exhaust from the engines produce a slipstream over the wings and large double-slotted flaps. The landing gear is ruggedized for rough airstrips. In early versions tire pressures could be adjusted in flight for optimum landing performance. That feature was removed in later models. A total of 69 units were built. For more information on the development, operational history and variants, click here.

The Tachikawa KKY, full name Tachikawa Army Small and Light Ambulance Aircraft, was designed to rescue injured or sick patients from places without established airfields. Following two earlier prototypes, twenty-one production examples were built between 1936 and 1940 and served in the Second Sino-Japanese War. In August 1932, the Japanese Army placed an order for a small ambulance aircraft, capable of using rough airstrips and holding two stretcher cases and a medical attendant, with what was then the Aeroplane Factory of Ishikawajima Shipbuilding Company. Though the prototype was completed in December 1933, its development was protracted, and it was not ready for production until 1936. By then, the Ishikawajima Company had become the Tachikawa Aeroplane Co. It was a single bay cabin biplane with wings attached to the upper and lower longerons and braced on each side with near-parallel interplane struts. The wings had wooden structures and were fabric-covered. The KKY was powered by a 120–130 hp (89–97 kW) Cirrus Hermes IV four cylinder air-cooled, inverted inline engine and the later KKY-2 by a 150 hp (110 kW) Gasuden Jimpu seven cylinder radial engine. The fuselage had a welded steel tube structure, flat-sided behind the engine, with a windowed cabin that included the pilot's seat just ahead of the wing leading edge with the patients and attendant under the wing. The tail, with an aluminium structure and fabric-covered, was conventional with a tailplane on top of the fuselage and braced to it from below. The vertical tail had a strongly-blunted triangular profile. As its purpose was to rescue patients from rough airfields or unmade airstrips, the ambulance needed a robust undercarriage. This had split axles mounted on a short, central, V-strut from the fuselage underside. Both short, faired shock absorber legs and their rearward drag struts were mounted on the lower fuselage longerons. Wheels with wide, low-pressure tires were available for missions to unmade strips. Twenty-one Aikoku-go (privately funded) production KKYs were built between 1936 and 1940. They were active in the Second Sino-Japanese War, which began in 1937 and became part of World War II, when China entered on the Allies' side shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Arsenal VB 10 was a French fighter-interceptor aircraft developed during and shortly after World War II. It was a low-wing monoplane with retractable tailwheel undercarriage and of largely orthodox configuration. The ultimate product of a design that began with the Arsenal VG 10 prior to the war, the VB 10 added a second engine behind the cockpit which drove a second propeller, coaxial with and contra-rotating to the propeller driven by the engine in the nose. In January 1937 Arsenal were given a contract to develop a twin-engined heavy interceptor built from wood, powered by two 590 hp Hispano-Suiza 12X engines mounted in tandem inside the fuselage, driving co-axial propellers in the nose. Work on the VG 10 was abandoned in June 1937 in favour of the VG 20, which was essentially similar but powered by two 900 hp Hispano-Suiza 12Y engines. The VG 20 was abandoned in turn in January 1938, but the design work and studies were used for the design of the all-metal VB 10. For research in the development of the VG 10 and VG 20, Arsenal designed and built the VG 30 powered by a single 690 hp Hispano-Suiza 12X engine, which in turn led to the high-performance fighter prototypes of the VG 30 series. Although the aircraft was first designed, and ordered, in 1940, little progress was made during France's occupation, and the prototype did not fly until after VE day. By then, it was already apparent that the future of the fighter lay with jet power, but development of the VB 10 continued as a safety net for France's nascent jet fighter programmes. In December 1945, a contract for 200 machines was placed by the French government, the first of which flew on 3 November 1947. By the time the fourth had been delivered in September 1948, the entire order was cancelled, with the French Air Force relying on surplus British and American fighters to tide it over until domestically produced jet fighters appeared shortly thereafter.

The McDonnell FH Phantom is a twinjet, straight-wing, carrier-based fighter aircraft designed and first flown during late World War II for the United States Navy. As a first-generation jet fighter, the Phantom was the first purely jet-powered aircraft to land on an American aircraft carrier and the first jet deployed by the United States Marine Corps. Although only 62 FH-1s were built it helped prove the viability of carrier-based jet fighters. As McDonnell's first successful fighter, it led to the development of the follow-on F2H Banshee, which was one of the two most important naval jet fighters of the Korean War; combined, the two established McDonnell as an important supplier of navy aircraft. McDonnell chose to bring the name back with the third-generation, Mach 2-capable McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, the most versatile and widely used Western combat aircraft of the Vietnam War era. The FH Phantom was originally designated the FD Phantom, but this was changed as the aircraft entered production. In early 1943, aviation officials at the United States Navy were impressed with McDonnell's audacious XP-67 Bat project. McDonnell was invited by the navy to cooperate in the development of a shipboard jet fighter, using an engine from the turbojets under development by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Three prototypes were ordered on 30 August 1943 and the designation XFD-1 was assigned. Under the 1922 United States Navy aircraft designation system, the letter "D" before the dash designated the aircraft's manufacturer. The Douglas Aircraft Company had previously been assigned this letter, but the USN elected to reassign it to McDonnell because Douglas had not provided any fighters for navy service in years. McDonnell engineers evaluated a number of engine combinations, varying from eight 9.5 in (24 cm) diameter engines down to two engines of 19 inches (48 cm) diameter. The final design used the two 19 in (48 cm) engines after it was found to be the lightest and simplest configuration. The engines were buried in the wing root to keep intake and exhaust ducts short, offering greater aerodynamic efficiency than underwing nacelles, and the engines were angled slightly outwards to protect the fuselage from the hot exhaust blast. Placement of the engines in the middle of the airframe, behind the center of gravity, required the cockpit with its bubble-style canopy to be placed ahead of the wing, also granting the pilot excellent visibility in all directions. The long nose allowed designers to use tricycle gear, thereby elevating the engine exhaust path and reducing the risk that the hot blast would damage the aircraft carrier deck. The construction methods and aerodynamic design of the Phantom were fairly conventional for the time; the aircraft had unswept wings, a conventional empennage, and an aluminum monocoque structure with flush riveted aluminum skin. Folding wings were used to reduce the width of the aircraft in storage configuration. Provisions for four .50-caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns were made in the nose, while racks for eight 5 in (130 mm) High Velocity Aircraft Rockets could be fitted under the wings, although these were seldom used in service. Adapting a jet to carrier use was a much greater challenge than producing a land-based fighter because of slower landing and takeoff speeds required on a small carrier deck. The Phantom used split flaps on both the folding and fixed wing sections to enhance low-speed landing performance, but no other high-lift devices were used. Provisions were also made for Rocket Assisted Take Off (RATO) bottles to improve takeoff performance. For more details of development. operational history and variants, click here.

The Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant ("Giant") was a German military transport aircraft of World War II. It was a powered variant of the Me 321 military glider and was the largest land-based transport aircraft to fly during the war. In total, 213 were made, with 15 being converted from the Me 321. The Me 323 was the result of a 1940 German requirement for a large assault glider in preparation for Operation Sea Lion, the projected invasion of Great Britain. The DFS 230 light glider had already proven its worth in the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael in Belgium (the first ever assault by gliderborne troops), and would later be used in the invasion of Crete in 1941. However, in order to mount an invasion across the English Channel, the Germans would need to be able to airlift vehicles and other heavy equipment as part of an initial assault wave. Although Operation Sea Lion was cancelled, the requirement for a heavy air transport capability remained, with the focus shifting to the forthcoming Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Early in 1941, as a result of feedback from Transport Command pilots in Russia, the decision was taken to produce a motorized variant of the Me 321, to be designated Me 323. French Gnome et Rhône GR14N radial engines, rated at 1,180 PS (1,164 hp, 868 kW) for take-off as used in the Bloch MB.175 aircraft were chosen for use. This would reduce the burden on Germany's strained industry. Like the Me 321, the Me 323 had massive, semicantilever, high-mounted wings, which were braced from the fuselage out to the middle of the wing. To reduce weight and save aluminium, much of the wing was made of plywood and fabric, while the fuselage was of metal-tube construction with wooden spars and covered with doped fabric, with heavy bracing in the floor to support the payload. The "D" series had a crew of five - two pilots, two flight engineers, and a radio operator. Two gunners could also be carried. The flight engineers occupied two small cabins, one in each wing between the inboard and centre engines. The engineers were intended to monitor engine synchronisation and allow the pilot to fly without worrying about engine status, although the pilot could override the engineers' decisions on engine and propeller control. For more details of development, design, operational history and 18 variants, click here.

The Metal Aircraft Flamingo was a monoplane produced in Cincinnati, Ohio by the Metal Aircraft Corporation in the 1930s. The Metal Aircraft Corporation purchased the design from the Halpin Development Co. and unveiled it at the 1929 National Air Races with Elinor Smith. Following an accident at Bowman Field in May 1928, the prototype Flamingo was redesigned with a different nose, windscreen, and tail. The interior was insulated with Balsam-Wool Blanket. The Flamingo was first flown from Lunken Airport on 8 April 1928 by Thomas E. Halpin. At one point, the aircraft carried an African-American porter in a red suit named Benny Smith. Following a teaser, marketing for the new airplane began in March 1929 and dealers were being solicited by the following month. One G-2-W, named El Rio Caroní, is best remembered for its role in the discovery of Angel Falls by Jimmy Angel in 1935. Although well known to the local indigenous population, the falls had been glimpsed only by European explorers until Jimmy Angel crash-landed while attempting to land above the falls on Auyán-tepui during gold exploration. The Metal Aircraft Corporation Flamingo that crashed above the falls was recovered by helicopter in the 1960s by the Venezuelan government and is on display at the entrance of the Ciudad Bolívar airport, in Venezuela. A replica was put in its place for visitors of the crash site. Other operators included the Mason & Dixon airline. Another operator of the aircraft was United States Airways which flew a route from Denver to Kansas City in the early 1930s. Stops were made Goodland, Salina, and Topeka, Kansas. Number built 21 Variants Halpin Flamingo six-passenger 410hp P&W G-1 five-passenger 450hp P&W G-2 six-passenger G-2-H six-passenger 525hp P&W G-2-W (Specifications below) eight-passenger 410hp P&W G-MT-6 five-passenger 410 or 525 P&W

The Kalinin K-5 was an airliner produced in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, built in larger quantities than any other Soviet airliner of its time, with some 260 aircraft constructed. It was a conventional, high-wing, strut-braced monoplane with a fully enclosed cabin and cockpit, and followed the general pattern developed by Kalinin in his earlier designs, though on a larger scale. Kalinin had first considered an airliner for 10-12 passengers as early as 1926, but it was not until Ukrvozdukhput expressed interest in such a machine late the following year that work on the design began in earnest. The prototype was ready by mid-autumn 1929, and first flew on October 18 with Mikhail Artemevich Snegirev at the controls. Safety trials for the State Commission commenced on 30 May 1930, and were passed successfully. Ongoing problems with the aircraft's Gnome et Rhône-built Bristol Jupiter engine resulted in the second prototype being powered by a Pratt & Whitney Hornet instead. This machine undertook further testing and a number of promotional flights before series production of the K-5 commenced. Early production examples were used on trial services between Kharkiv and Moscow, Mineralnye Vody, and Baku. Problems with the Bessonov M-15 engines became quickly apparent, with frequent failures and operational lifespans measured in only dozens of hours. K-5 operations were suspended by the Inspectorate of Civil Aviation until the issues were resolved. Kalinin turned to the Shvetsov M-22 as an alternative powerplant. While reliability increased, this engine installation also created more drag than the M-15 had, and performance decreased accordingly. State Acceptance trials carried out in May–June 1932 confirmed the reliability of the engine with 550 takeoffs and landings and 2,000 steep turns, but found that the payload capacity was now unacceptably low. By this time, however, the M-15 had become reliable enough for restrictions to be lifted and K-5 production resumed, and eventually about 100 K-5s were fitted with this engine. The reliability of the revised M-15 design was vindicated by a gruelling flight through the Caucasus on 25 June 1933. Eventually, the Mikulin M-17F provided the definitive powerplant for the K-5, offering an increase in power and performance over the M-15, but decreasing the aircraft's payload and range due to its greater weight. The new engine also required strengthening of the wing design; the first K-5 fitted with this engine suffered structural damage during flight tests due to the increase in engine power. The K-5 was widely used by Aeroflot, displacing German-built Junkers F 13s and Dornier Komets in regular service. The first scheduled route flown by K-5s was Moscow-Kharkov, followed by services between Moscow and Sverdlovsk, Tashkent, and Arkhangelsk. They remained in service until 1940, becoming the backbone of Aeroflot's domestic operations. The K-5 was also used by the Soviet Air Force as a transport aircraft, operating in this capacity until 1943.

The Isaacs Spitfire is a single seat homebuilt sporting aircraft design created by John O. Isaacs, a former Supermarine employee and retired schoolmaster and designer of the Isaacs Fury, as a 6/10th scale replica of a Supermarine Spitfire. Its first flight was on 5 May 1975. As per the original Spitfire, the Isaacs Spitfire was a cantilever low-wing monoplane of semi-elliptical planform. The twin spar wing was built in one piece, mainly of spruce with birch plywood skin. The fuselage was of identical construction. The landing gear is fixed and included a tailwheel. Plans are available for sale to home constructors.

The Griffon Lionheart is an American single-engined, six-seat biplane designed and produced in kit form for home building by Griffon Aerospace of Harvest, Alabama. The Lionheart is based on the Beechcraft Staggerwing biplane of the 1930s but unlike the steel tube, wood and fabric construction of the Staggerwing it has a composite structure. The Staggerwing has strut-braced wings but the Lionheart has cantilever wings with a total area about 20% less than the wings of the Staggerwing. It is powered by a 450 hp (336 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior radial engine with a three-bladed propeller. It has a retractable conventional landing gear with a tailwheel. The enclosed cabin is slightly longer than the Staggerwing's cabin to allow room for the pilot and five passengers, and it has a split airstair access door on the port side. The Lionheart first flew on 27 July 1997 and was first displayed in public at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh a few days later. Five kits were sold by April 1998, and two of the kits were completed by 2001, with another almost complete. As of August 2011, three Lionhearts are registered in the United States, with another example on display in an aviation museum at Tullahoma Regional Airport in Tullahoma, Tennessee. Kits are no longer being produced.

The Fulton FA-2 Airphibian is an American roadable aircraft manufactured in 1946. Designed by Robert Edison Fulton Jr., it was an aluminum-bodied car, built with independent suspension, aircraft-sized wheels, and a six-cylinder 165 hp engine. The fabric wings were easily attached to the fuselage, converting the car into a plane. Four prototypes were built. In December 1950, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) (later to become the FAA) certified one of the prototypes and gave it an 1A11 Aircraft Specification, N74104. Lou Achitoff, was the CAA test pilot. The N74154 is the aircraft that is today in the main building of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, having previously been on display in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The craft made its debut in November 1946 at Danbury, Connecticut. Financial concerns forced Fulton to sell to a company that never developed it. Only four aircraft had been completed. The Airphibian took the approach of converting from an aircraft to a roadable vehicle by a conversion process that left aircraft sections behind during road use. The process consisted of removing a three-bladed propeller and placing it on a hook on the side of the fuselage, cranking down support casters, and disengaging lock levers connecting the flight unit to the road unit. The wing and aft fuselage are detached for road use. In the mid-1990s, one of the surviving Airphibians was restored by Fulton III, along with David Dumas and Deborah Hanson. Later, it was put on display for several years at the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in their main display hall, but in 2009 it moved to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (annex of the National Air and Space Museum).[6] Since 2022 it has been on display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

The FMA 20 El Boyero ("Shepherd") was a light utility aircraft produced in Argentina in the 1940s. It was a conventional high-wing strut-braced monoplane with a fixed tailskid undercarriage, seating two side by side in an enclosed cabin. The Fábrica Argentina de Aviones (FMA) began design work on the El Boyero in 1939, to meet the needs of Argentine flying clubs for a training aircraft. Two prototypes were built, with the first, powered by a 50 hp (37 kW) Continental A50 flat four engine, flying on 2 November 1940, and the second early the following year. The El Boyero was a single-engine tractor high-wing monoplane, with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage. Its fuselage had a steel tube structure with fabric covering, while the aircraft's wing, which was braced to the fuselage with steel tube struts, had spars of spruce, with ribs of aluminium alloy. Pilot and instructor sat side-by-side in an enclosed cabin, and were provided with dual controls. As FMA was busy building military aircraft production rights were sold to the private firm Sfreddo y Paolini [es] but they were unable to start production due to a shortage of materials and equipment as a result of the Second World War. After the end of the war, production rights were re-assigned to Petrolini Hermanos. This company received an order for 160 aircraft from the Argentine government, and commenced deliveries in January 1949. The aircraft, powered by 65 hp (48 kW) Continental A65-8 or 75 hp (56 kW) Continental A-75 engines, were distributed to Argentina's aeroclubs and to the military, which used it as a spotter and liaison aircraft. Petrolini experienced great difficulties sourcing sufficient materials to complete the order, and in 1951 ceased production, having completed 130 aircraft.

The XCG-16 was a military transport/assault glider ordered by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), from General Airborne Transport Co., for competition against the Waco CG-13A at Wright Field. The XCG-16’s preferred tow aircraft was the Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar. Design of the CG-16 evolved from the lifting fuselage theories of Vincent Burnelli laid out in U.S. Patent No. 1,758,498, issued on 13 May 1930, which advocated the use of "lifting fuselages" providing a high proportion of the total lift. To enter a competition at Wright Field for a new assault glider for the USAAF, Hawley Bowlus and Albert Criz designed a Burnelli style lifting fuselage assault glider as the Bowlus-Criz MC-1. To prove the concept and aerodynamic qualities Bowlus designed a 1:2 scale prototype, which flew successfully. The flight tests of the 1:2 scale MC-1 maintained confidence in the full-sized glider. A contract for three MC-1 gliders, two flyable and one for static testing, was given to the Airborne and General aircraft company, which had been formed by Bowlus and Criz. This company soon transformed into the General Airborne Transport company, which built the full sized MC-1 gliders with the military designation XCG-16. Flight tests of the full sized MC-1, registered to the Albert Criz company on 19 July 1943 as NX21757, commenced at March Field, California, on 11 September 1943, but tragedy struck on a demonstration flight with Richard Chichester du Pont, special assistant to Gen. Hap Arnold; Col. Ernest Gabel, another glider specialist on the staff of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and C. C. Chandler, thrice soaring champion aboard. Inadequately secured ballast came loose when the glider flew through the Lockheed C-60 tow plane's propwash, causing a catastrophic rearward shift in the center of gravity. The now uncontrollable MC-1A released from tow and entered an unrecoverable flat spin. Three of the crew and passengers jumped out, but only two survived the parachute jump. In spite of all the design problems and the MC-1 crash, a contract was approved on 13 November 1943 for two test flight articles and one static test article of the MC-1 glider designated as the USAAF XCG-16. Only one XCG-16, (44-76193), was manufactured and tested, demonstrating good flying qualities, but major issues with military equipment and procedures precluded the CG-16 from a production contract, as it did not meet military expectations as a combat glider. The contract for all remaining work on the CG-16 was cancelled on 30 November 1944. Variants Bowlus-Criz MC-1 half-scale A flying 1:2 scale model of the MC-1/XCG-16. Successful flight trials proved the aerodynamic qualities of the MC-1. After completion of CG-16 related flying the 1:2 scale MC-1 was converted to a flying wing by Don Mitchell, one of Hawley Bowlus' friends and a colleague at Bowlus Sailplanes. Airborne and General MC-1 The full-scale civilian prototype of the CG-16, destroyed on its second flight during a demonstration flight. General Airborne Transport XCG-16 Three prototypes of the military XCG-16 were ordered, but only one was completed as 44-76193. Trials revealed major deficiencies in the ability of the CG-16 to fulfill the intended mission, despite good flying qualities.

The Piaggio P.108 Bombardiere was an Italian four-engine heavy bomber that saw service with the Regia Aeronautica during World War II. The prototype first flew on 24 November 1939 and it entered service in 1941. It was one of a handful of Italian combat aircraft that could match the best manufactured by the Allies. Four versions of the P.108 were designed, but only one, the P.108B bomber, was produced in any quantity before the armistice. The other variants included the P.108A anti-ship aircraft with a 102 mm (4 in) gun, the P.108C, an airliner with an extended wingspan and re-modelled fuselage capable of carrying 32 passengers, and the P.108T transport version designed specifically for military use. Only one P.108A and 24 P.108Bs were built. The combined total number of all versions (and prototypes) was at least 39, almost certainly more than 44. Most of the P.108Cs were subsequently modified for use as military transport aircraft and could accommodate up to sixty passengers.[5] Nine P.108 Ts were used by Luftwaffe transport units until the end of the war. Number built 36 + 1 prototype (P.108B bombers); 12 + 1 prototype (P.108T transport) For details of design and development of the variants, click here.

The Fiat CR.42 Falco (Falcon, plural: Falchi) is a single-seat sesquiplane fighter developed and produced by Italian aircraft manufacturer Fiat Aviazione. It served primarily in the Italian Regia Aeronautica in the 1930s and during the Second World War. The CR.42 was a development of Fiat’s earlier CR.32 fighter, powered by the more powerful supercharged Fiat A.74R1C.38 air-cooled radial engine and with improvements. It proved to be relatively agile in flight, attributed to its very low wing loading and a sometimes decisive tactical advantage. RAF Intelligence praised its exceptional manoeuvrability, further noting that "the plane was immensely strong", though it was technically outclassed by faster, more heavily armed monoplanes. While primarily used as a fighter, variants such as the CR.42CN night-fighter model, the CR.42AS ground-attack aircraft, and the CR.42B Biposto twin-seat trainer aircraft had other roles. During May 1939, the CR.42 entered service with the Regia Aeronautica; it was the last of the Fiat biplane fighters to enter front line service. By 10 June 1940, when Italy entered the Second World War, roughly 300 had been delivered; these defended metropolitan areas and important military installations at first. By the end of 1940, the Falco had been involved in combat on various fronts, including the Battle of France, the Battle of Britain, Malta, North Africa, and Greece. By the end of the war, Italian CR.42s had been used on further fronts, including Iraq, the Eastern Front and the Italian mainland. Following the signing of the Italian armistice with the Allies on 8 September 1943, the type was relegated to use as a trainer by the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force, while some Italian CR.42s were seized by the Germans and used by the Luftwaffe for ground-attack operations. The CR.42 was produced and entered service in smaller numbers with the air forces of other nations, including Belgium, Sweden and Hungary. By the end of production, in excess of 1,800 CR.42s had been constructed, making it the most numerous Italian aircraft to be used during the Second World War. It has been claimed that the fighter had performed at its best during its service with the Hungarian Air Force, specifically during its deployment against Soviet forces on the Eastern Front of the war, where it reportedly achieved a kill to loss ratio of 12 to 1. Number built 1,817–1,819; First flight 23 May 1938; Retired 1948 For more details of development, design, operational history and 13 variants, click here.

The Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse (Hornet) is a heavy fighter and Schnellbomber ("Fast Bomber" in English) designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt. It was flown by the Luftwaffe during the latter half of the Second World War. Work began on producing a successor to the Bf 110 in 1937, however, the resulting Me 210 proved to be unsatisfactory, leading to production being halted in April 1942. Various options were considered, including the ambitious Me 310 derivative. Officials favoured an incremental improvement which was represented by the Me 410. Although visually similar to the preceding Me 210, and was sharing sufficient design similarities that incomplete Me 210s could be converted into Me 410s, there were key differences between the two aircraft. Chiefly, the Me 410 was powered by larger Daimler-Benz DB 603 engines, had a lengthened fuselage, and automatic leading edge slats. During late 1942, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) were sufficiently convinced by the programme to proceed with quantity production of the type, the first Me 410s being delivered during January 1943. Various models were produced, including the Me 410A-1 light bomber, the A-1/U1 aerial reconnaissance aircraft, the A-1/U2 bomber destroyer, and the A-2/U4 night fighter. Upon their entry to service, the type was promptly flown on night time bombing missions in the British Isles, where the night fighters of the Royal Air Force (RAF) typically struggled to intercept it.[2] The Me 410 was also used as a bomber destroyer against the daylight bomber formations of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF); it was moderately successful against unescorted bombers through 1943, but proved to be no match in a dogfight with the lighter Allied single-engine fighters, such as the North American P-51 Mustang and Supermarine Spitfire. Following the Normandy landings, Me 410s were amongst the numerous Axis aircraft sent against the incoming Allied forces. From mid-1944, all Me 410s were withdrawn from Defence of the Reich duties and production was phased out in favour of heavily armed single-engine fighters as dedicated bomber destroyers. The final role of the Me 410 was aerial reconnaissance. Only two Me 410s have survived in preservation into the twenty-first century. Number built 1,189; First flight 14 March 1942; Retired 1945 Fpr details of development, design, operational history and variants, click here.

The Davenport BD-2 Nuggit (sic) is an American biplane developed for homebuilt construction. The B-2 Nuggit is a single place biplane with conventional landing gear. The cockpit is covered with a sliding bubble canopy. The fuselage is welded steel construction with aircraft fabric covering. A round cowling covers the engine to appear like a radial engine installation. The wing uses a wooden spar with aluminum wing ribs.

The Falconar SAL Mustang, also called the 2/3 Mustang and the SAL P-51D Mustang is a Canadian amateur-built aircraft, originally produced by Falconar Avia and introduced in 1969. The aircraft is a 2⁄3 scale replica of the North American P-51 Mustang and is supplied as a kit or as plans for amateur construction. Since the winding up of business by Falconar Avia in 2019, the plans are now sold by Manna Aviation. In 1963 Falconar partnered with designer Marcel Jurca to produce the Jurca Gnatsum. By 1967, Falconar recommended a large number of changes to the design, which resulted in Jurca leaving the project. The modified aircraft was developed as the SAL Mustang and first flown in 1971 after significant cost overruns. Falconar Aircraft Ltd was sold to George F. Chivers and other investors, and operated as Sturgeon Air Ltd (SAL) with Falconar as an employee until 1973.[4] The SAL Mustang features a cantilever low-wing, a single-seat, or optionally a two-seats-in-tandem, enclosed cockpit under a bubble canopy, retractable conventional landing gear, including a manually retractable tailwheel and a single engine in tractor configuration. The aircraft is made from wood covered with fibreglass cloth and doped aircraft fabric. Some parts, like the belly air scoop are made from fibreglass. Its 24.8 ft (7.6 m) span wing has an area of 110 sq ft (10 m2) and mounts flaps that may be electrically or manually operated. The cockpit is 24 in (61 cm) wide and the bubble canopy is jettisonable. The aircraft's recommended engine power range is 200 to 350 hp (149 to 261 kW). Engines that have been used include the 200 hp (149 kW) Lycoming IO-360 horizontally opposed engine, the 200 hp (149 kW) Ranger L-440 inverted inline, the 180 to 235 hp (134 to 175 kW) Avia M 337 inverted inline, 230 hp (172 kW) Continental O-470 horizontally opposed, the 200 hp (149 kW) Ford 230 cu in (3.77 L) V6 automotive conversion, as well as other automotive V-6 or V-8 powerplants. Construction time from the supplied kit is estimated as 2500 hours. The paper plans supplied total an area of 450 sq ft (42 m2), weigh 13 lb (5.9 kg) and include a construction manual. An alternative set of plans allows constructing a tandem two-seat version. The plans are very detailed and complete and one builder rated them as "the best I have seen on any homebuilt airplane". The prototype was introduced at the 1971 EAA airshow painted in the same gold and red colors as the Canadian Golden Hawks airshow team. In July 2012 the manufacturer indicated that 18 examples had been completed and flown in the 43 years that the plans and kits had been available.

The Kamov Ka-26 (NATO reporting name Hoodlum) is a Soviet light utility helicopter with co-axial rotors. It looks like it has twin turbine engines in nacelles on each side of the body, but they are radial engines with turbofans for cooling. The Ka-26 entered production in 1969 and 816 were built. A variant with a single turboshaft engine is the Ka-126. A twin-turboshaft–powered version is the Ka-226. (All the Ka-26/126/128/226 variants are code-named by NATO as "Hoodlum"). The fuselage of the Ka-26 consists of a fixed, bubble-shaped cockpit containing the pilot and co-pilot, plus a removable, variable box available in medevac, passenger-carrying and crop duster versions. The helicopter can fly with or without the box attached for flexibility. It is powered by two 325 hp (239 kW) Vedeneyev M-14V-26 radial engines mounted in outboard nacelles. The Ka-26 is small enough to land on a large truck bed. The reciprocating engines are more responsive than turboshaft engines, but require more maintenance. It runs mostly at 95% power in crop dusting with usually excess payload, leaving little reserve power for emergencies. Due to frequent overloads, the interconnect shaft joining the two engines is prone to breakage and requires frequent inspection. The standard instrumentation of the Ka-26, like larger naval Kamovs, may be overkill for civilian or crop dusting use. The 18-dials cockpit panel masks a part of the right-downwards view, needed to avoid telephone and power lines at low altitudes. The instrument panel may be simplified to retain the six main dials. As there is a low rotor clearance at the aircraft front, it is approached from the rear when the rotors are turning. Due to the limitations of the Ka-26, USSR and Romania agreed under the Comecon trade to build a single-turboshaft engine version, the Kamov Ka-126, with better aerodynamics and range. The Ka-26 is eminently useful for civil agricultural use, especially crop dusting. The coaxial main rotor configuration, which makes the Ka-26 small and agile, also results in a delicate airflow pattern under the helicopter, providing a thorough, yet mild distribution of chemicals onto plants. The Ka-26 is often used to spray grape farms in Hungary, where conventional "main rotor and tail rotor" layout helicopters would damage or up-root the vine-stocks with their powerful airflow. Hungarian Kamov operators claim that coaxial rotors of the Ka-26 creates an airflow which allows well-atomized pesticides to linger longer in the air, causing more of the residue to settle underneath, rather than on top of, the leaves. This results in a more efficient distribution of pesticides, as most pests and parasites do not live on the top side of foliage. Additionally, the coaxial vortex system is symmetrical, allowing the distribution of the pesticide to be more uniform, without the side currents induced by the tail rotor, making it easier to avoid contaminating adjacent non-crop areas. In some Warsaw Pact armies, the Ka-26 was used only in the light paratroop or airborne role, but not the civilian agricultural role[citation needed]. In the military role, its slow (150 km/h) cruise speed compared with the Mi-2 (220 km/h) limits effective general-purpose military use, although its shorter length (7.75 m) compared with the Mil Mi-2 (11.9 m) and smaller rotor diameter (13 m vs. 14.6 m) are advantageous for military operations in an urban area. Its operational range is also greater than the Mil-2. On 30 June 2020, Moldovan police and prosecutors closed down an illegal factory producing unlicensed copies of the Ka-26. The factory had a production line with ten air frames in various stages of completion that were intended for sale to clients in former Soviet countries. Variants Ka-26 Hoodlum-A One- or two-crew utility light helicopter, powered by two 325-hp (239-kW) VMK (Vedeneyev) M-14V-26 radial engines. 850 built. Ka-26SS NOTAR technology testbed for the Ka-118 fitted with tail jet beams. Ka-126 Hoodlum-B One- or two-crew utility light helicopter, powered by one 720-shp (537-kW) OMKB "Mars" (Glushenkov) TVD-100 turboshaft engine. First flown in 1986, built and developed by Industria Aeronautică Română in Romania. 2 prototypes and 15 series helicopter built. V-60 A prototype light armed escort helicopter based on the Ka-126. Ka-128 One prototype, powered by a 722-shp (538-kW) Turbomeca Arriel 1D1 turboshaft engine. Kamov Ka-226 Six- or seven-seat utility helicopter, powered by two 450-shp (335-kW) Rolls-Royce (Allison) 250-C20R/2 turboshaft engines.

The Buhl AirSedan was a family of American civil cabin sesquiplane aircraft developed and manufactured by the Buhl Aircraft Company in the late 1920s. One example completed the first transcontinental non-stop roundtrip flight, made in 1929 by the CA-6 Spokane Sun-God, and the first Pope to have flown did so in a Buhl Airsedan. The Airsedan series were designed by Etienne Dormoy following the departure of Alfred V. Verville from Buhl, with whom he had worked previously. Dormoy had worked with Deperdussin before World War I, flew combat operations during the war before returning to work with SPAD, travelled to the US to coordinate production of SPADs with Curtiss until the project was cancelled with the end of the war. He then worked with Packard on automobiles for a year in 1919 before working as a civilian with the United States Army Air Corps with Verville, who convinced him to work at Buhl. As a Frenchman, he was familiar with the advantages of the sesquiplane concept as it was a popular configuration in France, such as with the Breguet 26T airliner, but rare in the US. The fuselage framework, lower wing and empennage were welded chromium-molybdenum alloy steel tubes faired with wooden battens, with the lower wing integral with the fuselage structure. The upper wings were built around spruce spars, with built up ribs made from spruce and plywood. The entire airframe was covered with doped aircraft-grade fabric. To reduce control forces, projecting aerodynamic balance horns on rudder and elevators, while inset aerodynamic horns were used on the ailerons, which were fitted to the upper wing only. To provide trim control, the rudder was ground adjustable while the elevators could be adjustable in flight. Depending on the models, three different designs of lower wings were used - either constant chord with reversed N struts on the CA-5, a triangular wing with a vee strut on the CA-3, CA-6 and CA-8, or a constant chord wing with two rigged struts, on Canadian built CA-6Ms. All were conventional sesquiplanes with fully enclosed cockpits, fitted with dual controls in front of a passenger cabin. The number in the designation generally referred to the number of occupants as originally designed, with a larger number of seats corresponding to a larger airframe. The first variant built was the CA-5, while later variants had a much slimmer fuselage, a greatly improved windscreen design and a modified cockpit. The CA-5 had the undercarriage legs connected to the fuselage, and part way out from the fuselage, on the lower wing. The CA-3 had the undercarriage mounted solely to the fuselage, while the CA-6 and CA-8 had additional bracing struts from the top of the fuselage to the lower wing which allowed the undercarriage track to be widened. Buhl asserted that its undercarriage design reduced camber changes during landing, and the tendency to yaw due to bumpy ground. The CA-6 was certified to use Edo J-5300 floats. Canadian production. After Buhl had ceased operations in 1932 due to declining sales as the Great Depression deepened, the drawings and jigs were purchased by the Ontario Provincial Air Service (OPAS) in Canada who then built four CA-6M's for use as fire spotting aircraft at their facility in Sault Ste. Marie between 1935 and 1937. These differed from the original aircraft in having Canadian Vickers floats, a new fin and rudder and larger lower wings. Due to the excessive weight of the Canadian-Vickers built floats, the first Ontario Provincial Air Service-built CA-6M refused to leave the water until given a more powerful 440 hp (330 kW) Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine. For details of opertational history and 20 variants, click here.

The Vickers Warwick was a British twin-engined bomber aircraft developed and operated during the Second World War that was primarily used in other roles. In line with the naming convention followed by other RAF heavy bombers of the era, it was named after a British city or town, in this case Warwick. The Warwick was the largest British twin-engined aircraft to see use during the Second World War. The Warwick was designed and manufactured by Vickers-Armstrongs during the late 1930s. It was intended to serve as a larger counterpart to the Vickers Wellington bomber. The two aircraft share similar construction and design principles but development of the Warwick was delayed by a lack of suitable engines. Its first flight was on 13 August 1939 but delays to its intended powerplant and by the time adequate engines were available, it was obsolete. The Warwick entered production during 1942 and squadron service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). Barely a dozen aircraft were built as bombers. The type was used by RAF Transport Command as a transport, and by RAF Coastal Command as an air-sea rescue and maritime reconnaissance aircraft. The Warwick was also operated by the Polish Air Forces in exile in Great Britain and the South African Air Force. A civil operator, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), also operated a handful of transport Warwicks. In October 1932, the British industrial conglomerate Vickers-Armstrongs tendered for the Air Ministry Specification B.9/32, which called for the development of a twin-engined medium bomber. During late 1934, when the company was already developing their Type 271 to meet Specification B.9/32, Vickers received a draft requirement for a larger bomber. The draft specification developed into Air Ministry Specification B.1/35, which sought a twin-engined heavy strategic bomber. It was intended to make use of more powerful engines, of 1,000 hp (750 kW), that were being developed, to enable the bomber to be faster and carry a heavier bomb load than the earlier B.3/34. Among the requirements of Specification B.1/35 was a speed of no less than 195 mph (314 km/h) while flying at 15,000 ft (4,600 m), a range of 1,500 mi (2,400 km) while carrying 2,000 lb (910 kg) of bombs, and the engines were to be furnished with variable-pitch propellers. It was designed in parallel with the smaller Wellington, both aircraft having been derived from the Vickers Type 271 design, developed for Specification B.9/32. By the end of July 1935, the Air Ministry was considering eight designs. These included Vicker's proposal, the Type 284, powered by a pair of Bristol Hercules engines, which exceeded the specifications. Vickers received an order for a prototype on 7 October 1935, while the Air Ministry also ordered prototypes from Armstrong Whitworth (the AW.39, a development of the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley) and Handley Page (the HP.55). These alternative designs were cancelled before being built, as Handley Page and Armstrong Whitworth switched to work on newer specifications released for medium (P.13/36) and heavy (B.12/36) bombers. For more details of development and design, operational history and 12 variants, click here. Total number built was 846.

The Fleetwings Sea Bird (or Seabird) was an American-built amphibious aircraft of the 1930s. The Sea Bird was an amphibious utility aircraft designed under contract in 1934–1935 by James C. Reddig for Fleetwings, Inc., of Bristol, Pennsylvania. While the aircraft's basic configuration had a precedent in the design of the Loening "Monoduck" developed by the Grover Loening Aircraft Company as a personal aircraft for Mr. Loening (for whom Reddig worked from 1925 to 1933), the Sea Bird was unusual because of its construction from spot-welded stainless steel. It was a high-wing, wire-braced monoplane with its engine housed in a nacelle mounted above the wings on struts. The pilot and passengers sat in a fully enclosed cabin. Fleetwings initially planned to manufacture 50 production units, but at a price approaching $25,000 during the Depression, there proved to be no sustainable market. The Sea Bird found use with private pilot owners and saw service with the oil support industry in Louisiana, including operation by J. Ray McDermott & Co. Variants F-4 Sea Bird - 4-seat prototype (1 built) F-5 Sea Bird - 5-seat production aircraft (5 built)

The CubCrafters CC19 XCub is an American light aircraft, designed and produced by Cub Crafters of Yakima, Washington, introduced in June 2016. The aircraft is supplied complete and ready-to-fly. In 2020 the manufacturer certified a new version of the design, the NXCub, (Nosewheel XCub) with tricycle landing gear, only available with the Lycoming IO-390 (CC393i) engine. With additional parts, an XCub or NXCub can be readily converted between conventional and tricycle landing gear configurations, with NXCub simply being the model designation for aircraft factory-built with tricycle landing gear. The task of converting an aircraft requires two people and takes around four hours. An XCub or NXCub can also be fitted with floats. In a 2020 flight review of the tricycle landing gear-equipped CC19-180 NXCub model, KitPlanes magazine editor Marc Cook wrote, "truth is, for many pilots who came up in the period after 'real' Cubs made taildraggers the everyday airplane, the presence of a nosewheel on an airplane that’s as capable of off-pavement work as the NXCub will make the whole hard to resist. In fact, for many this is probably the backwoods airplane they’ve been waiting for all along."

The Bede BD-17 Nugget is an American single-seat monoplane. designed by Bedecorp for amateur construction from a kit. The Nugget was announced in June 2000 and was designed to be easy to build with a maximum of 100 parts. The first flight of the tricycle landing gear prototype was on 11 February 2001. It is an all-metal low-wing monoplane, it has optional folding wings and is available with fixed conventional landing gear with a tailwheel or a tricycle landing gear. It can be fitted with an engine between 45 and 80 hp (33.6 to 59.7 kW). The prototype had a 60 hp (45 kW) HKS 700E two-cylinder four-stroke engine. The pilot has an enclosed cockpit with a rearward-sliding canopy.

The Vought F6U Pirate was the Vought company's first jet fighter, designed for the United States Navy during the mid-1940s. Although pioneering the use of turbojet power as the first naval fighter with an afterburner and composite material construction, the aircraft proved to be underpowered and was judged unsuitable for combat. None were ever issued to operational squadrons and they were relegated to development, training, and test roles before they were withdrawn from service in 1950. A specification was issued by the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) for a single-seat, carrier-based fighter powered by a Westinghouse 24C (later J34) axial turbojet on 5 September 1944. Chance Vought was awarded a contract for three V-340 (company designation) prototypes on 29 December 1944. The XF6U was a small aircraft with tricycle undercarriage and with straight wings and tail surfaces. The wings were short enough that folding wings were not used to reduce the aircraft's footprint on a carrier deck. To fit more aircraft into crowded hangars, the nose gear could be retracted and the aircraft's weight would rest on a small wheel attached by the ground crew. This raised the tail up so that it could overlap the nose of the aircraft behind it, allowing more aircraft to fit into available hangar space. The turbojet engine was mounted in the rear fuselage and was fed by ducts in each wing root. The most unusual feature of the aircraft was its use of "Metalite" for its skin. This was made of balsa wood, sandwiched between two thin sheets of aluminum. "Fabrilite" was also used for the surfaces of the vertical stabilizer and rudder; this was similar to Metalite but used fiberglass instead of aluminum. Two fuel tanks were fitted in the center of the fuselage; the forward tank, ahead of the wing, contained 220 US gallons (830 L; 180 imp gal) and the rear tank, 150 US gallons (570 L; 120 imp gal). These were supplemented by two jettisonable 140-US-gallon (530 L; 120 imp gal) tip tanks. The cockpit was well forward and was provided with a bubble canopy which gave the pilot good visibility. He was provided with a Mk 6 lead-computing gyro gunsight. Underneath the cockpit were four 20 mm (0.79 in) M3 autocannon. Their 600 rounds of ammunition were carried behind the pilot. The empty casings of the two upper guns were retained in the aircraft, while those from the two lower guns were ejected overboard. After a company-wide contest to name the aircraft, the initial prototype received the name Pirate and made its first flight on 2 October 1946. Flight testing revealed severe aerodynamic problems, mostly caused by the airfoil section and thickness of the wing. The vertical stabilizer also had to be redesigned to smooth out the airflow at the intersection of the horizontal and vertical stabilizers. Other changes included the addition of dive brakes on the sides of the fuselage and the replacement of the Metalite panels near the engine exhaust with stainless steel ones. The first XF6U-1 prototype was powered by a Westinghouse J34-WE-22 turbojet with 3,000 lbf (13.34 kN) thrust, one third of the weight of the aircraft. To help improve the underpowered aircraft's performance, the third prototype, which first flew on 10 November 1947, was lengthened by 8 feet (2.4 m) to use a Westinghouse J34-WE-30 afterburning engine of 4,224 lbf (18.78 kN) thrust, the first United States Navy fighter to have such a powerplant. Variants XF6U-1: Three prototypes, two with a Westinghouse J34-WE-22 turbojet engine (BuNo 33532, 33533), one with a J34-WE-30 with afterburner (BuNo 33534). F6U-1: Afterburner-equipped production version, 30 built (BuNo 122478-122507), 35 cancelled. F6U-1P: Conversion of one F6U-1 (BuNo 122483) for photo-reconnaissance.

The Chase XCG-18A and YC-122 Avitruc (known internally as the Chase MS.7) was a military transport aircraft designed by Chase Aircraft and produced in limited numbers in the United States in the late 1940s, initially as a glider, but definitively in powered form. The design was based on the CG-14 cargo glider but was substantially larger and featured all-metal construction. It was a high-wing cantilever monoplane. The fuselage was of rectangular cross-section and featured a loading ramp at its rear. The main undercarriage units were carried at the sides of the fuselage and were fixed, while the nosewheel was retractable. In its powered form, two radial engines were fitted in nacelles in the wings. The USAAF's experiences with cargo gliders during World War II indicated a role for a similar aircraft in the post-war inventory, but one capable of carrying a substantially heavier load and with greater recoverability than the essentially expendable wartime wooden assault gliders. Chase's CG-14 was selected as a starting point, and in January 1947, the USAAF placed an order for an enlarged, metal version of this aircraft, initially designated XCG-14B but redesignated to XCG-18A to reflect the basically all-new nature of the aircraft. When the prototype flew that December, it was the world's first all-metal transport glider. One of the major improvements was the use of a thinner wing section which allowed high tow speeds and small aircraft like the P-47 fighter being able to tow it into the air and to its release point. In March 1948, the service (now the USAF) ordered four more aircraft under the new designation XG-18A and a fifth to be fitted with engines as the YC-122. The air force eventually lost interest in purchasing assault gliders, but continued with the development of the powered variant, purchasing two more examples for evaluation as the YC-122A and redesignating the second of these as the YC-122B when the original Pratt & Whitney engines were swapped for Wright units. This aircraft would form the basis for the definitive service trials version, the YC-122C. Nine of these aircraft were ordered and although they performed well in evaluation (first at Sewart AFB, Tennessee, later at Ardmore AFB, Oklahoma), the USAF no longer saw a need for a small transport aircraft and cancelled the project. Despite the short-lived history of the aircraft, it was used extensively at Ardmore AFB. By February 1955, at least one pilot, Captain Phillip C. Gromley of the 16th Troop Carrier Squadron, 463rd Troop Carrier Wing, achieved 1,000 hours in piloting the aircraft. All aircraft were replaced by Fairchild C-123B Providers by July 1955. The last YC-122C assault transport was flown to Tucson, Arizona, on 30 August 1955, for storage at Davis-Monthan AFB. Captain Gromely is recorded as making the final flight of a YC-122C to Tucson. The remaining machines served on in utility roles until 1957. Following their retirement, the fuselage of one of the YC-122s was used in the construction of the Hiller X-18. Variants Chase MS.7 Company designation for the XCG-14B / XCG-18A XCG-18A XCG-14B re-designated XG-18A revised glider version (4 built) YC-122 prototype powered version, an XG-18A with Pratt & Whitney R-2000-11 engines (one built) YC-122A refined version of the YC-122 (two built) YC-122B YC-122A re-engined with Wright R-1820-101 engines (one converted) YC-122C definitive service trials version (nine built)

The Hispano HA-200 Saeta (English: Arrow) is a twin-seat jet advanced trainer designed and produced by Spanish aircraft manufacturer Hispano Aviación. It has the distinction of being the first Spanish aircraft to harness jet propulsion. The German aircraft designer Willy Messerschmitt can be largely credited for his role in designing the HA-200, which reused a substantial portion of the earlier piston-powered HA-100 Triana. On 12 August 1955, the first prototype conducted its maiden flight. It was not until 1962 that the first production aircraft performed its first flight. That same year, deliveries of the trainer aircraft commenced to the Spanish Air Force. It would be used in this capacity by the service for multiple decades. The HA-200 was later further developed into the Hispano Aviación Ha-220 "Super Saeta", which functioned as a dedicated ground attack platform, armed with rockets, bombs, and other munitions. The HA-220 served in the Spanish Air Force throughout the 1970s, seeing action during the Polisario uprisings against insurgents. The HA-200 was also exported, the type being produced under license by Egypt, where it was designated as the Helwan HA-200B Al-Kahira. During the 1980s, the more capable CASA C-101 was introduced to Spanish service, supplementing and eventually succeeding the older HA-200 in both trainer and light attack roles. The HA-200 Saeta is a jet-powered trainer aircraft. In terms of its configuration, it is a low-winged monoplane, featuring all-metal construction and a retractable tricycle undercarriage arrangement. Structurally, it was relatively conventional for the era, using semi-monocoque lightweight alloy construction. The cockpit of the HA-200 accommodated a crew of two in a tandem seating configuration; however, the ground-attack orientated HA-220 was furnished with a single-seat cockpit instead. For greater crew comfort, this cockpit was pressurised, the HA-200 being the first Spanish aircraft to possess this facility. The HA-200's propulsion consisted of a pair of Turbomeca Marboré turbojet engines, which were installed in a side-by-side arrangement inside the forward fuselage and mounted on a stressed-skin structure that forms the outer surface of the fuselage's underside. Air was fed to the engines via a large intake on the front of the nose; this particular intake arrangement has been described as being unique amongst jet aircraft. The engine's exhaust nozzles were located upon the lower fuselage, just aft of the trailing edge of the wing. A maximum of 261 gallons of fuel could be carried across a pair of fuselage tanks, two wing tanks and two permanently-attached tip tanks; provisions were made for jettisoning fuel in emergency situations. For weapons training purposes, the HA-200 featured provisions for the carriage of armaments. For more details of development, operational history and 10 varients, click here.

The Fisher Super Koala is a two-seat, high wing, conventional landing gear, single-engined, light kit aircraft designed for construction by amateur builders. The aircraft was inspired by the design of the Piper J-3 Cub and strongly resembles that design. It can also be built wuth tricycle landing gear or floats. Fisher Flying Products was originally based in Edgeley, North Dakota, United States but the company is now located in Dorchester, Ontario, Canada. The Super Koala was designed by Fisher Aircraft in the United States and was first flown in 1983. It has two seats in side-by-side configuration. With its 400 lb (181 kg) empty weight and 830 lb (376 kg) maximum gross weight, the Super Koala was intended for the US homebuilt aircraft category. The construction of the Super Koala is unusual for aircraft in its class. The aircraft's structure is entirely made from wood, with the wooden fuselage built from wood strips arranged in a geodesic form, resulting in a very strong and light aircraft with redundant load paths. Like the Cub, both the wings and fuselage on the Super Koala are covered with doped aircraft fabric. The wings are strut-braced and utilize jury struts. The landing gear is bungee suspended and the tail wheel is steerable. The Super Koala has flaps, with brakes optional. The company claims it takes an average amateur builder 500 hours to construct a Super Koala. Engine options are the 50 hp (37 kW) Rotax 503 and the 64 hp (48 kW) Rotax 582 engine. With the Rotax 503 the gross weight is 740 lb (336 kg) and with the Rotax 582 is 830 lb (376 kg).

The Socata TB 30 Epsilon is a light military trainer aircraft produced by SOCATA (then part of Aérospatiale). It is a tandem two-seater with a metal airframe. The first prototype flew on 22 December 1979. In 1978, the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) published a requirement for a new basic trainer aircraft to partially replace the Fouga Magister in the early parts of the syllabus for pilot training. The new aircraft was expected to have tandem seating, be powered by a 224 kW (300 hp) piston engine and have a three-hour endurance. Similar designs were proposed by the SOCATA subsidiary of Aérospatiale (based on their TB 10 Tobago light aircraft) and by GEPAL (the GEPAL Mk II). The SOCATA proposal, the TB 30B, was chosen in February 1979. The first of two prototypes flew on 22 December 1979, but testing showed that the Epsilon had poor handling and it was redesigned with a new swept back fin supplemented by a ventral strake and a larger tailplane, while the wing was fitted with elliptical tips increasing the wingspan from 7.40 m (24 ft 33⁄8 in) to 7.59 m (24 ft 113⁄4 in). The first prototype flew again with these changes on 31 October 1980, and it was soon found that the handling problems had been fixed. The Epsilon is a low winged cantilever monoplane of all metal construction. It is powered by a Lycoming O-540 flat-six piston engine driving a two-blade propeller, and is fitted with a retractable nosewheel undercarriage. The pilot and instructor are sat in tandem under a sliding Plexiglas canopy, with cockpit layout designed to aid transition to the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet to which French students graduate after completing the Epsilon part of their training syllabus. The first prototype was modified into a testbed for the Turbomeca TP 319 Arrius turboprop engine, flying in this form on 9 November 1985. The testbed was then modified into a dedicated turboprop trainer, the TB 31 Oméga, powered by a 360 kW (483 shp) Arrius 1A2 and fitted with ejection seats, returning to flight on 30 April 1989. While it was offered for the United States Air Force/United States Navy Joint Primary Aircraft Training System competition to replace the Beechcraft T-34 Mentor and Cessna T-37 Tweet, it was rejected, with no sales resulting. The Armée de l'Air placed an initial order for 30 Epsilons in 1981, with further contracts following with a total of 150 ordered. First deliveries started in 1983, with the first training courses based on the Epsilon starting in September 1984. Export orders were received from Togo for three armed Epsilons in 1984, delivered in 1986 (with a fourth supplied later to replace a crashed aircraft) and from Portugal in 1987 for 18 aircraft, to be assembled in Portugal by OGMA. Variants TB 30 Epsilon: Military trainer aircraft TB 31 Oméga: Proposed turboprop powered version of the TB 30 Epsilon. Only one aircraft built

The Boeing Model 40 is a United States mail plane of the 1920s. It was a single-engined biplane that was widely used for airmail services in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, especially by airlines that later became part of United Airlines. It became the first aircraft built by the Boeing company to carry passengers. In 1925, the US Post Office issued a requirement for a mailplane to replace the ex-military DH-4s then in use. The new aircraft was required to use the same water-cooled Liberty V12 engine as used by the DH-4, of which large stocks of war-built engines were available. The resultant aircraft, the Boeing Model 40, was a conventional tractor biplane, with the required Liberty engine housed in a streamlined cowling with an underslung radiator. The aircraft's fuselage had a steel tube structure, with an aluminum and laminated wood covering. Up to 1,000 lb (450 kg) of mail was carried in two compartments in the forward fuselage, while the single pilot sat in an open cockpit in the rear fuselage. The wings and tail were of wooden construction, and the Model 40 had a fixed conventional landing gear. The Model 40 made its first flight on July 7, 1925. Although the prototype was purchased by the US Post Office, the production order went to the Douglas M-2. The Contract Air Mail Act of 1925 set out the gradual privatization of the Post Office's Air Mail routes. In late 1926, bids were requested for the main transcontinental trunk mail route, which was to be split into eastern and western sections, with Boeing bidding for the western section. Boeing revived the design for the tender, with the Model 40A replacing the Liberty engine with a 425 hp (317 kW) air-cooled Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engine, which was 200 lb (91 kg) lighter than the Liberty, even ignoring the weight of the Liberty's radiator and cooling water. The fuselage was redesigned to make more extensive use of welded steel tubing, and an enclosed cabin was fitted between the mail compartments, allowing two passengers to be carried as well as 1,200 lb (540 kg) of mail. Boeing's bid of $3 per lb was much less than any of the competing bids, and Boeing was awarded the San Francisco to Chicago contract in January 1927, building 24 Model 40As for the route (with a further aircraft being used as a testbed by Pratt & Whitney). The next model to reach production was the Model 40C, with an enlarged cabin allowing four passengers to be carried. Meanwhile, Boeing Air Transport's Model 40As were modified by replacing their Wasp engines with 525 hp (391 kW) Pratt & Whitney Hornet radial engines to become the Model 40B-2. The Model 40B-4 was a new-build aircraft combining the four-passenger cabin of the Model 40C with the Hornet engine of the B-2. Production continued until February 1932. Boeing's airline, Boeing Air Transport, commenced operations on the San Francisco–Chicago route on July 1, 1927. Variants Model 40 Original 1925 design with Liberty engine. Model 40A Revised 1927 design for BATC. the aircraft was powered by a Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engine, plus seating for two passengers in an enclosed cabin; 25 built. Received Dept of Air Commerce Approved Type Certificate #2. Model 40B Model 40As re-engined with a 525 hp (391 kW) Pratt & Whitney Hornet radial piston engine. 19 Model 40A were converted. Redesignated Model 40B-2. Model 40B-4 Revised Model 40B with seating for four passengers and other improvements. Equipped with openable windows, plus seating for four passengers; 38 built. Model 40B-4A (Specifications below) One Model 40B used as engine testbed by Pratt & Whitney. Model 40H-4 Four Model 40B-4s built by Boeing Canada. Two aircraft were exported to New Zealand. Model 40C Similar to Model 40B-4 but with Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine of Model 40A. (ten built, all later converted to Model 40B-4 standard). Model 40X Unique special-order machine similar to Model 40C with only two-passenger cabin and extra open cockpit forward of pilot's cockpit. Model 40Y Unique special-order machine similar to Model 40X, but with Pratt & Whitney Hornet engine.

The Bloch MB.120 was a French three-engine colonial transport aircraft built by Société des Avions Marcel Bloch during the 1930s. The MB.120 design was selected by the French government for transport use in French overseas territories. It was an all-metal high-wing cantilever monoplane. The prototype was re-worked from the MB.71. Standard accommodation was for a crew of three and up to 10 passengers. The civil aircraft normally carried only four passengers, the rest of the aircraft was filled with mail. Ten production aircraft were produced, six for civil use and four for the French Air Force. The aircraft entered operation in 1934 for Air Afrique, which was a new airline set up by the French government on 11 May 1934 to provide service between the French African territories. Both the civil and military aircraft served only in French Africa. Variants MB.120.01 : First prototype. MB.120 : Three-engined colonial transport aircraft. Ten built.

The Hungaro Copter is a Hungarian helicopter produced by Hungaro Copter Limited of Verpelét, an affiliate of the Steel Riders Limited company. The lead engineer for the design was Farkas Gábor. The aircraft is supplied as a kit for amateur construction. The aircraft was designed to comply with the European microlight aircraft rules. It features a single main rotor and tail rotor, a single-seat enclosed cockpit with a fairing, or an open cockpit without a windshield, skid landing gear and a four-cylinder, four stroke 135 hp (101 kW) Subaru EJ22 or 160 hp (119 kW) Subaru EJ25 automotive conversion engine. The six-cylinder 125 hp (93 kW) D-Motor LF39 powerplant has also been used. The aircraft fuselage is made from welded steel tubing. Its two-bladed rotor has a diameter of 7.0 m (23.0 ft). The aircraft has a typical empty weight of 300 kg (661 lb) and a gross weight of 430 kg (948 lb), giving a useful load of 130 kg (287 lb). The construction time from the supplied kit is estimated as 300 hours.

The RMT Bateleur (named for the bird species) is a German ultralight and light-sport aircraft, designed by Andre von Schoenebeck and produced by RMT Aviation of Bad Bocklet. The aircraft is supplied as a kit for amateur construction or as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft. The aircraft was designed by von Schoenebeck as his first full-sized aircraft after a career of designing competition model gliders. The Bateleur was intended to comply with the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale microlight rules and US light-sport aircraft rules. The company also plans to type certify it to FAR 23 standards. The Bateleur features a delta wing layout with a canard. The wing is a cantilever low-wing design. The aircraft also features two-seats-in-tandem under separate bubble canopies, fixed or optionally retractable tricycle landing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration. The light-sport version will have fixed landing gear as that category's rules require and a gross weight of 600 kg (1,323 lb). The aircraft is made from composites. Its 6.25 m (20.5 ft) span wing has an area of 14 m2 (150 sq ft) and flaps mounted on the main and canard wings. Standard engines available are the 100 hp (75 kW) Rotax 912ULS and the turbocharged, 115 hp (86 kW) Rotax 914 four-stroke powerplants. Landing gear is fixed for the US light-sport aircraft market or retractable for the homebuilt version. Production was initially established in South Africa, moved to Germany, and finally to the United States in 2012. As of March 2017, the design does not appear on the Federal Aviation Administration's list of approved special light-sport aircraft.

The Dornier S-Ray 007 is a two-seat amphibious aircraft concept designed by Dornier Technologie. The concept is similar to that of the Dornier Libelle from the 1920s, and thus originally, the aircraft also carried the name Dornier Libelle. However, it was later changed to Dornier Stingray. Before the first aircraft could be built, the name was changed a third time to the Dornier S-Ray 007. The leader of the project is Iren Dornier , grandson of Claude Dornier and owner of Dornier Technologie. The flying boat is a high-wing aircraft, featuring a one-piece wing which is connected with the centrally-mounted Rotax 912S engine and propeller, on a stable aerodynamically-shaped central support pylon, to the fuselage. The S-Ray 007 is built from reinforced plastics with carbon fibre reinforcements, which makes the flying boat very resistant to salt water. The aircraft is equipped with retractable landing gear, and two 50 litre fuel tanks. The maiden flight of the Dornier S-Ray 007 was held on 14 July 2007 at Friedrichshafen airport, and the aircraft was piloted by Gerhard Thalhammer.

The Wilson Private Explorer is an American-built recreational aircraft of the late 1990s. The Private Explorer was designed by Hubert de Chevigny as a scaled-down single-engine version of his twin-engined Wilson Global Explorer. The Private Explorer is a strut braced high wing aircraft which utilises a tubular steel frame covered in fabric. The interior has four passenger seats in the front section and a rear accommodation compartment which contains a double bed and two armchairs. The tricycle undercarriage is fixed and can be quickly removed for attachment of floats for operations off water. Various Lycoming engines have been fitted ranging from 235 to 300 hp (175 to 224 kW). The aircraft has an excellent short-field performance and an endurance of up to 8 hours. The aircraft is supplied to amateur constructors in kit form. The type has been tested with a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop engine.

The Velie Monocoupe was an American general aviation aircraft manufactured from 1927 to 1929 by the Mono-Aircraft Corp, a division of Velie Motors Corporation (founded by Willard L. Velie, maternal grandson of John Deere). The Velie Monocoupe was a wooden framed, doped fabric-covered monoplane, seating two people side-by-side in an enclosed cabin (hence the name). Conceived by pilot/businessman Don A. Luscombe, who developed a mock-up in 1926, and developed into a flying airplane by farmer-turned-plane-designer Clayton Folkerts—first produced by Central States Aircraft Corp in Davenport, Iowa—the little plane was a revolution in personal aviation: small, relatively inexpensive, quick and efficient (70-80 mph on just 55 horsepower), and with an enclosed cockpit (protected from the weather) for two people. In an era of big, costly, lumbering, open-cockpit biplanes, the Monocoupe was like a flying sports car coupe. In all there were 350 Velie Monocoupes produced under the approved type certificate number 22. Upon W. L. Velie's death, his son had planned to continue production of the aircraft but he died within months of his father. The company, and design, survived, however. Company change Upon the death of Velie's founder, in 1929 the Mono Aircraft Division was transferred to the holding company Allied Aircraft Co., which split the airplane division into Mono Aircraft Co. and Lambert Motors Co. Mono Aircraft would continue to produce the Monocoupe, in various versions—ultimately changing its name to Monocoupe Corp. The company producing the Monocoupe line changed ownership and location several times from 1926 to the early 1950s.

The Vought SB2U Vindicator is an American carrier-based dive bomber developed for the United States Navy in the 1930s, the first monoplane in this role. Vindicators still remained in service at the time of the Battle of Midway, but by 1943, all had been withdrawn to training units. It was known as the Chesapeake in Royal Navy service. In 1934, the United States Navy issued a requirement for a new Scout Bomber for carrier use, and received proposals from six manufacturers. The specification was issued in two parts, one for a monoplane, and one for a biplane. Vought submitted designs in both categories, which would become the XSB2U-1 and XSB3U-1 respectively. The biplane was considered alongside the monoplane design as a "hedge" against the U.S. Navy's reluctance to pursue the modern configuration. The XSB2U-1 was of conventional low-wing monoplane configuration with a retractable conventional tailwheel landing gear, the pilot and tail gunner being seated in tandem under a long greenhouse-style canopy. The fuselage was of steel tube construction, covered with aluminum panels from the nose to the rear cockpit with a fabric-covered rear fuselage, while the folding cantilever wing was of all-metal construction. A Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin-Wasp Junior radial engine drove a two-blade constant-speed propeller, which was intended to act as a dive brake during a dive bombing attack. The use of propeller braking was not entirely successful, and in practice US Navy Vindicators lowered the aircraft's undercarriage to act as a speed brake and dived at shallower angles. A single 1,000 lb (450 kg) bomb could be carried on a swinging trapeze to allow it to clear the propeller in a steep dive, while further bombs could be carried under the wings to give a maximum bombload of 1,500 lb (680 kg). For more details of design and development, operational history and eight variants, click here.

The Seversky SEV-3 was an American three-seat amphibian monoplane, the first aircraft designed and built by the Seversky Aircraft Corporation. The SEV-3 was an all-metal cantilever low-wing monoplane powered by a nose-mounted 420 hp (313 kW) Wright J-6 Whirlwind radial engine. It had two cockpits in tandem, a forward cockpit for the pilot and a rear cockpit for two passengers, both with sliding canopies. It could either be fitted with twin amphibious floats which had main wheels fitted in the floats to allow it to operate from land, or with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage with the mainwheels enclosed in large fairings. The SEV-3 first flew as a floatplane in June 1933, demonstrating excellent performance as both an amphibian and a landplane. It was built in small numbers mainly for export. An SEV-3 established a world speed record for piston-engined amphibians in 1933, and on 15 September 1935, a Wright Cyclone-powered SEV-3 set a record of 230 mph (370.8 km/h) which stood for 49 years. A landplane version was also developed with conventional landing gear. The design influenced a long line of Seversky and later Republic aircraft, eventually leading to the development of the P-47 Thunderbolt. A landplane version was used by the United States Army Air Corps as a basic trainer with the designation BT-8, 30 of which were ordered in 1935. This proved grossly underpowered and was quickly replaced by the North American BT-9. One BT-8 was delivered to Bolling Field, on 11 June 1936, for use by Chief of the Air Corps Major General Oscar Westover, and assigned to the 14th Bombardment Squadron, GHQ Air Force. It replaced an O-38F, which was reassigned to the 21st Observation Squadron, GHQ Air Force, for general flying. Variants SEV-3XAR Landplane trainer SEV-3XLR Landplane SEV-3M-WW Amphibian for the Colombian Air Force, six built (only delivered four to Colombia), with Wright Whirlwind engines. BT-8 (Specifications below) Landplane basic-trainer for the United States Army Air Corps, developed from SEV-3XAR. 30 built. SEV-X-BT multi-discipline trainer version of the BT-8 with retractable undercarriage. The sole SEV-X-BT lost in competition to the North American BT-9 and was reportedly scrapped for spares to service the Seversky 2PA.

The Fisher P-75 Eagle was an American fighter aircraft designed by the Fisher Body Division of General Motors. Development started in September 1942 in response to United States Army Air Forces requirement for a fighter possessing an extremely high rate of climb, using the most powerful liquid-cooled engine then available, the Allison V-3420. The program was cancelled after only a small number of prototypes and production aircraft had been completed, as it was no longer required in its original role, could not be quickly deployed, and possessed no significant advantages over aircraft already in production/ In October 1942, the contract for two prototypes, designated "XP-75", was signed with the Fisher Body Division of GM. The design concept was to use the outer wing panels from the North American P-51 Mustang, the tail assembly from the Douglas A-24 (SBD), and the undercarriage from the Vought F4U Corsair in a general layout much as in the Bell P-39 Airacobra with the engine located amidships with the contra-rotating propellers driven through extension shafts. At an early design stage, however, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk outer wing panels were substituted for the P-51 panels. In mid-1943, the need for long-range escort fighters became more urgent than fast climbing interceptors so a decision was made to order six more XP-75 airplanes modified for the long-range role. At this time, an order for 2,500 production aircraft was also let, but with the stipulation that if the first P-75A was not satisfactory the complete order might be canceled. At the time, General Motors was busy in several projects towards the war effort, including the mass production of several different aircraft types, among them the Grumman TBF Avenger. Some sources[2] claim that the P-75 was the result of a scheme to get General Motors out of being forced to build Boeing B-29 Superfortresses; the P-75 project being a "high-priority" project to help GM avoid the added strain of Superfortress production. The "Eagle" was given extensive media coverage prior to its first flight, being trumpeted as a "wonder plane". Powered by a V-3420-19 24-cylinder engine rated at 2,600 hp (1,900 kW) driving co-axial contra-rotating propellers, the XP-75 flew for the first time on 17 November 1943. The second XP-75 flew shortly thereafter, with all six long-range XP-75s entering the test program by the spring 1944. The test program brought up numerous teething problems, including miscalculation of the fighter's center of mass, failure of the engine to produce its expected power, inadequate engine cooling, high aileron forces at high speed, and poor spin characteristics. Redesigns were introduced into the long-range XP-75s including a modified tail assembly, new "bubble" canopy, and a V-3420-23 engine that corrected most of the deficiencies by the time the first P-75A Eagles entered flight testing in September 1944. By this time, the Army Air Forces had decided to limit the number of combat aircraft types in production and not enter into large-scale production of new types that might not be available before the war ended. As the twin-engine Lockheed P-38 Lightning and North American P-51 Mustang demonstrated excellent long-range capabilities, the production run of the P-75A Eagle was subsequently terminated on 6 October 1944. It was decided to use the six completed production aircraft for experimental work and development of the V-3420 engine. As a result of those events, the P-75A did not complete formal performance trials due to termination of the production contract. Ultimately, only eight XP-75s and six P-75As were built.

The Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (キ84 疾風, lit. "Gale") is a single-seat fighter flown by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service in the last two years of World War II. The Allied reporting name was "Frank"; the Japanese Army designation was Army Type 4 Fighter (四式戦闘機, yon-shiki-sentō-ki). The Ki-84 is generally considered the best Japanese fighter to operate in large numbers during the conflict. The aircraft boasted high speed and excellent maneuverability with an armament (up to two 30 mm and two 20 mm cannon) that gave it formidable firepower. The Ki-84's performance matched that of any single-engine Allied fighter it faced, and its operational ceiling enabled it to intercept high-flying B-29 Superfortress bombers. Pilots and crews in the field learned to take care with the plane's high-maintenance Nakajima Homare engine and landing gear prone to buckling. The difficulties of Japan's situation late in the war took a toll on the aircraft's field performance as manufacturing defects multiplied, good quality fuel proved difficult to procure, and experienced pilots grew scarce. Nevertheless, a well-maintained Ki-84 was Japan's fastest fighter. A total of 3,514 aircraft were built. Design of the Ki-84 commenced in early 1942 to meet an Imperial Japanese Army Air Service requirement for a replacement to Nakajima's own, earlier Ki-43 fighter, then just entering service. The specification recognized the need to combine the maneuverability of the Ki-43 with performance to match the best western fighters, and heavy firepower. The Ki-84 first flew in March 1943[6] and deliveries from Nakajima's Ota factory commenced the following month. Although the design was itself solid, growing difficulties in securing skilled pilots, proper fuel and construction materials, and adequate manufacture often prevented the aircraft from reaching its full potential in the field. The design of the Ki-84 addressed the most common complaints about the popular and highly maneuverable Ki-43: insufficient firepower, poor defensive armor, and lack of climbing speed. The Ki-84 was a cantilever low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction, except for the fabric-covered control surfaces, with conventional landing gear.[8] Armament comprised two fuselage-mounted, synchronized 12.7 mm (.50 in) machine guns — these proved challenging to synchronize properly with the Hayate's four-blade propeller — and two wing-mounted 20 mm cannon, a considerable improvement over the two 12.7 mm (.50 in) machine guns used in the Ki-43 Hayabusa. Defensive armor offered Hayate pilots better protection than the unsealed wing tanks and light-alloy airframe of the Ki-43. In addition, the Ki-84 used a 65 mm (2.56 in) armor-glass canopy, 13 mm (.51 in) of head and back armor, and multiple bulkheads in the fuselage, which protected both the methanol-water tank (used to increase the effectiveness of the supercharger) and the centrally located fuel tank. It was the Nakajima firm's own-designed 35.8-litre (2,180 cu in) displacement, Ha-45 Homare ("Praise" or "Honor") air-cooled eighteen-cylinder radial engine, first accepted for military use in 1941, that gave the Hayate its high speed and prowess in combat. Derived from the Nakajima Homare engines common to many Japanese aircraft, the Hayate used several versions of the Homare engine, including the carbureted model 21 and the fuel-injected model 23 versions of the engine. Most Homare engines used water injection to aid the supercharger in giving the Ki-84 a rated 1,491 kW (2,000 hp) at takeoff. This combination theoretically gave it a climb rate and top speed roughly competitive with the top Allied fighters. Initial Hayate testing at Tachikawa in early summer 1943 saw test pilot Lieutenant Funabashi reach a maximum level airspeed of 624 km/h (387 mph) in the second prototype. In 1946, US Technical Intelligence bench-tested a Homare 45, Model 21 engine and verified the engine's maximum horsepower output using 96 octane AvGas, plus methanol injection. The first major operational involvement was during the battle of Leyte at the end of 1944, and from that moment until the end of the Pacific war the Ki-84 was deployed wherever the action was intense. The 22nd Sentai re-equipped with production Hayates. Though it lacked sufficient high-altitude performance, it performed well at medium and low levels. Seeing action against the USAAF 14th Air Force, it quickly gained a reputation as a combat aircraft to be reckoned with. Fighter-bomber models also entered service. On April 15, 1945, 11 Hayates attacked US airfields on Okinawa, destroying many aircraft on the ground. In the final year of the war the Ki-84, the Ki-100 (essentially a radial-engined version of the inline-powered Kawasaki Ki-61) and Kawanishi's N1K2-J were the three Japanese fighters best suited to combat the newer Allied fighters. For details of the 18 variants, click here. A total of 3,413 units were produced.

The Rutan VariViggen is a homebuilt aircraft designed by Burt Rutan. The aircraft is a tandem two-seater of primarily wooden construction with a delta wing and a canard foreplane. The VariViggen is powered by a 150 hp Lycoming O-320 aero engine in pusher configuration. The prototype was designated Model 27, and the production version was Model 32. The VariViggen was named after the Swedish fighter plane, the Saab 37 Viggen. This and the XB-70 Valkyrie inspired the design. Rutan became interested in aircraft which resisted stalls and spins, and the VariViggen was his first full scale design. He began working with the design as a student at Cal Poly in the early 1960s, and started building the prototype in his garage in 1968. After four years of work, the aircraft made its first flight in April, 1972. In order to increase efficiency, the Model 32 (also known as the VariViggen SP) had a slightly longer fuselage, a larger wingspan and winglets. The Rutan Aircraft Factory sold 600 plan sets for the VariViggen to homebuilders, and eventually about 20 of the aircraft were built. Following the crash of one in New Brunswick, Canada in September 2006 due to wing tank fuel contamination, fewer than five are currently still flying. The prototype aircraft, N27VV, can be seen in the 1975 movie Death Race 2000 and was eventually donated to the EAA AirVenture Museum in 1988. Currently, (August 2024), there are 63 listed on airport-data.com. Rutan also began work on an all-aluminum variant, the MiniViggen, but later abandoned the project and focused his efforts on the VariEze.

It was developed from the company's C-119 Flying Boxcar, and was unique in the unconventional use of removable cargo pods that were attached below the fuselage, instead of possessing an internal cargo compartment. The XC-120 Packplane began as a C-119B fuselage (48-330, c/n 10312) with a point just below the flight deck cut off to create the space for the detachable cargo pod.. The wings were angled upwards between the engines and the fuselage, raising the fuselage by several feet and giving the plane an inverted gull-wing appearance. Smaller diameter "twinned" wheels were installed forward of each of the main landing gear struts to serve as nosewheels, while the main struts were extended backwards. All four landing gear units, in matching "nose" and "main" sets, could be raised and lowered in a scissorlike fashion to lower the aircraft and facilitate the removal of a planned variety of wheeled pods which would be attached below the fuselage for the transport of cargo. The goal was to allow cargo to be preloaded into the pods; it was claimed that such an arrangement would speed up loading and unloading cargo. Production aircraft were to be designated C-128. Only one aicraft was built, Though the aircraft was tested extensively and made numerous airshow appearances in the early 1950s the project went no further. It was tested by the Air Proving Ground Command at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, in 1951, before the project was abandoned in 1952. The prototype was eventually scrapped. The heading photo is a composite of two photos of the one aircraft.

The Bell 505 Jet Ranger X (JRX) is an American/Canadian light helicopter developed by Bell Helicopter and produced by Bell Textron Canada. The Bell 505 was unveiled at the 2013 Paris Airshow in June 2013 as the Bell SLS (Short Light Single). The Bell 505 designation was officially announced in February 2014. Its first flight occurred on November 11, 2014. The helicopter was certified by Transport Canada in December 2016. The helicopter was unveiled at the 2013 Paris Airshow on June 17, 2013 as the Bell SLS (Short Light Single). The model designation was later announced at HAI Heli-Expo 2014 in Anaheim, California on February 25, 2014. The Bell 505 is a "clean sheet" design, but uses some dynamic components, such as the rotor system, of the Bell 206L-4. The airframe is constructed of metal and composites, and has a 22-square-foot (2.04 m²) flat floor and an 18-cubic-foot (0.51 m³) luggage bay. The Safran Arrius 2R is the type's engine with a dual-channel FADEC and a 3,000-hour Time-between-overhaul. The 505 cockpit is equipped with the Garmin G1000H glass avionics suite. Various options such as a cargo hook are available. The 505 was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration in June 2017 and received high altitude certification (22,500 feet density altitude) in June 2019. Bell delivered the 100th 505 Jet Ranger X in June 2018, and the 200th in August 2019.