Auster B.4 | |
---|---|
The Auster B.4 at the Farnborough SBAC Show in September 1953 | |
Role | Light freighter |
Manufacturer | Auster |
First flight | 7 September 1951 |
Number built | 1 |
The Auster B.4 was an unusual British development of the Auster family of light aircraft in an attempt to create a light cargo aircraft.
The conventional fuselage was considerably redesigned, turning it into a pod-and-boom configuration carrying the tail unit on a high boom. The rear of the fuselage pod was equipped with clamshell doors for easy loading and unloading, and a quadricycle undercarriage was fitted, retaining the mainwheels from earlier Auster designs, but adding a tailwheel to each side of the fuselage pod. The fuselage floor had fittings for seats, cargo tie-downs, or litters for the air ambulance role.
The prototype was exhibited at the Farnborough Air Show in September 1953.
Although evaluated by the British Army in military markings, neither civil nor military orders ensued, and no examples were constructed beyond the single prototype
Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1955–56 [1]
General characteristics
Performance
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
The SAI KZ III Laerke was a Danish light utility aircraft used by the Danish Air Ambulance Service and Danish Air Force.
The Blackburn B-101 Beverley was a heavy transport aircraft produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Blackburn Aircraft. It was notably the only land-based transport airplane built by Blackburn, a company that otherwise specialised in producing naval fighter aircraft.
The Aeronca Model 9 Arrow was a low-wing all-metal cabin monoplane with retractable landing gear. It was marketed to returning pilots from World War II and unveiled in 1947 but never went into production.
The Auster J/4 was a 1940s British single-engined two-seat high-wing touring monoplane built by Auster Aircraft Limited at Rearsby, Leicestershire.
The Auster J/5 Alpine was a 1950s British single-engined four-seat high-wing training and touring monoplane built by Auster Aircraft Limited at Rearsby, Leicestershire.
The Auster AOP.9 was a British military air observation aircraft produced by Auster Aircraft Limited to replace the Auster AOP.6.
The Agusta A.101 was a large prototype transport helicopter developed in Italy during the 1960s. Despite prospective orders from the Italian armed forces, no buyers emerged and the project was abandoned in 1971.
The Agusta AZ.8L, or Agusta-Zappata AZ.8L, was an Italian airliner prototype first flown on 9 June 1958. It was of conventional low-wing monoplane configuration with tricycle undercarriage and all-metal construction. Filippo Zappata's design grew out of a twin-engined transport designated AZ.1 that was never built.
The Auster Avis was a four-seat light aircraft developed from the Auster Autocrat. It featured a redesigned fuselage incorporating four doors and a circular cross-section towards the tail, new undercarriage, and new wing flaps. It was planned in two versions, the Mk 1 for civil use, and the Mk 2 for military and air ambulance duties. However, only two prototypes were built, and Auster abandoned the project in favour of the Auster J-5 Autocar.
The Avions Fairey Belfair, also known as the Tipsy Belfair after its designer, Ernest Oscar Tips, was a two-seat light aircraft built in Belgium following World War II.
The Brditschka HB-3, HB-21 and HB-23 are a family of motor gliders of unorthodox configuration developed in Austria in the early 1970s.
The Edgar Percival E.P.9 was a 1950s British light utility aircraft designed by Edgar Percival and initially built by his company, Edgar Percival Aircraft Limited and later as the Lancashire Aircraft EP-9 Prospector by the Lancashire Aircraft Company.
The Doman LZ-5 was a utility helicopter developed in the United States in the early 1950s by Doman Helicopters Inc. of Danbury, Connecticut. Despite the procurement of international manufacturing agreements, no series production of the aircraft ever occurred, and only three prototypes were built. Two of these were purchased by the United States Army as the YH-31, but eventually becoming VH-31.
The Kellett XR-8 was a helicopter built in the United States during World War II. It was a two-seat machine intended to demonstrate the feasibility of a twin-rotor system, and while it accomplished this, it also demonstrated a number of problems that prevented further development of this particular design.
The Kellett XR-10 was a military transport helicopter developed in the United States in the 1940s that only flew in prototype form. It was designed in response to a USAAF Technical Instruction issued for the development of a helicopter to transport passengers, cargo, or wounded personnel within an enclosed fuselage. Kellett's proposal followed the general layout that the company was developing in the XR-8, with twin intermeshing rotors, and was accepted by the Air Force on 16 October over proposals by Sikorsky, Bell, and Platt-LePage.
The Mráz M-3 Bonzo was a light aircraft built in Czechoslovakia in 1948 as a further development in the family of light aircraft that had commenced with the M-1 Sokol.
The SECAN SUC-10 Courlis was a French high-wing touring monoplane designed and built by Société d'Etudes et de Construction Aéronavales (SECAN), a branch of the automobile company Société des Usines Chaussons. The aircraft had problems with the engine installation and only 144 were built, some without engines and were scrapped.
The PZL-126 Mrówka (ant) is a Polish agricultural aircraft first flown in 1990. It is a diminutive low-wing monoplane of conventional if stubby appearance with a cruciform tail, an enclosed cabin and fixed, tricycle undercarriage. Significant parts of the design were undertaken by students at the training college attached to the PZL plant at Okęcie under the direction of Andrzej Słocinski, with the whole project treated initially as a platform for design innovation. Initial design work was completed in 1982 and detail work the following year. Plans to fly a prototype by 1985 were delayed by revisions to the aircraft's equipment, although a mockup was displayed at an agricultural aviation exhibition at Olsztyn that August. Legislation to outlaw certain agricultural chemicals was under consideration in Poland in the late 1980s, spurring interest in biological agents as an alternative and making a tiny aircraft like the Mrówka feasible as a useful piece of agricultural equipment.
The Ambrosini Rondone is an Italian-designed two/three-seat light touring monoplane of the early 1950s.
The I.S.T. XL-15 Tagak was a single-engine, twin-boom, high-wing monoplane designed after the I.S.T. XL-14 Maya and built in the Philippines in the mid-1950s. The result of a collaboration between a Government research institute and the Philippine Air Force, it was designed as a utility, liaison or ambulance aircraft and as a test bed for the use of local materials in aviation.