| Aeronca C-2 | |
|---|---|
 Aeronca C-2 in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum | |
| General information | |
| Type | Monoplane |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Aeronca Aircraft |
| Designer | |
| Number built | 164 |
| History | |
| First flight | 1929 |
| Developed from | 1925 Roche Monoplane |
| Variants | C-1 Cadet, Aeronca C-3 Master |
The Aeronca C-2 is an American light monoplane designed by Jean A. Roche and built by Aeronca Aircraft.
Jean A. Roche was a U.S. Army engineer at McCook Field airfield in Dayton, Ohio. Roche developed an aircraft with automatic stability and was granted U. S. Patent No. 1,085,461. Roche published his engineering ideas for the aircraft in Aerial Age Weekly and Slipstream Monthly magazines. The prototype was started in Ohio in 1923 with the assistance of fellow engineer Quinten Dohse. The aircraft used a triangular cross-section welded steel tube fuselage, with wood wings, was fabric-covered, and used wire bracing throughout. A Henderson engine was installed, but did not perform well. Next a custom 29 hp two-cylinder Morehouse engine was developed for the aircraft. On September 1, 1925, the aircraft was successfully test flown. Many pilots including Jimmy Doolittle tried out the aircraft. Wright Aeronautical hired Morehouse and rights to his Wright-Morehouse WM-80 engine. Left without an engine, They turned to Robert E. Galloway of the Aeronautical Corporation of America to use the Aeronca E-107 engine. The rights to the aircraft were sold to Aeronca in 1928 as the basis for the C-2 Design. [1]
The Aeronca C-2, powered by a tiny two-cylinder engine, made its first flight in October [2] 1929, with its public debut in St. Louis in February 1930. [2] It was flying at its most basic—the pilot sat on a bare plywood board. The C-2 featured an unusual, almost frivolous design with an open-pod fuselage that inspired its nickname, The Flying Bathtub. (It was also nicknamed "Airknocker" and "Razorback". [2] ) The general design of the C-2 could have been inspired by Jean Roche's initial flight experiences with an American-built copy of the Santos-Dumont Demoiselle, which had a similar triangular "basic" fuselage cross-section, and wire-spoked main landing gear wheels against the fuselage sides.[ citation needed ] The C designation derived from the fact that Aeronca had earlier been formed as the Cincinnati Aeronautical Corporation, [3]
Equipped with only four instruments (altimeter, oil temperature, oil pressure, and tachometer), [2] a stick, and rudder pedals (brakes and a heater at extra cost), the C-2 was priced at a low $1,555 (later US$1,245), [2] bringing the cost of flying down to a level that a private citizen could perhaps reach. [4] Aeronca sold 164 of the economical C-2s at the height of the Great Depression in 1930-1931, helping to spark the growth of private aviation in the United States. [5]
The Aeronca C-2 also holds the distinction of being the first aircraft to be refueled from a moving automobile. A can of gasoline was handed up from a speeding Austin automobile to a C-2 pilot, (who hooked it with a wooden cane) during a 1930 air show in California.[ citation needed ]
A single Aeronca C-2, G-ABHE, was converted to a glider by H.J. Parham in England after an in-flight engine failure and forced landing. The nose was faired in after the removal of the engine. It first flew as a glider 15 May 1937 and went to the Dorset Glider Club but was destroyed in the club hangar during a storm in November 1938. [6]
Note that a P prefix, as in PC-2N, would indicate that the aircraft was fitted with floats, P standing for Pontoon. [8]
Data from Aeronca C-2: The Story of the Flying Bathtub [23]
General characteristics
Performance
Related development
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