Culver Aircraft Company

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Culver Aircraft Company
Industry Aerospace
Predecessor Dart Aircraft Company
Founded1939;87 years ago (1939)
Founder
Defunct1946;80 years ago (1946)
SuccessorSuperior Aircraft Company
Headquarters Columbus, Ohio, Wichita, Kansas
Number of employees
130 (1941)

The Culver Aircraft Company was an American aircraft manufacturer of light aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s.

Contents

History

The Dart Manufacturing Corporation was founded in Columbus, Ohio, by Monocoupe dealer Knight K. Culver and Al Mooney to purchase the rights to the Mooney-designed Monosport G from the defunct Lambert Aircraft Corporation. [1] The company was renamed the Culver Aircraft Company in 1939. In December 1939, Culver produced the Culver Model L, later renaming it Cadet. Production was supervised by Al's brother, Art Mooney. [2]

Having moved from Columbus to Wichita, Kansas, after producing 50 aircraft, two retractable-gear models, the LFA and LCA, were introduced, and in 1941 the company was taken over by Walter Beech (founder of Beechcraft) and Charles Yankey. [3] The company switched to subcontract work during World War II. Culver produced a radio-controlled pilotless aircraft based on the LFA for use as target drones. Over 3000 PQ-8/TDC and PQ-14/TD2C gunnery target drones were produced for the USAAF and USN. [4] [5]

T. Bowring Woodbury was promoted to president in 1945. [6] That same year, Culver developed the Model V. The V, also known as the M-17, featured a patented flight control system, known as Simpli-Fly Control, which automated a number of flight functions; [7] the system was looked down upon by pilots, and the Model V was not considered a success. [3] The Model V was developed into the XPQ-15 drone, but did not win production orders; not very long after the end of World War II, Culver Aircraft entered bankruptcy, the Mooney brothers departing to form the Mooney Aircraft Company [3] and the manufacturing plant was purchased by the Coleman Company. [8] In 1956, the Superior Aircraft Company was established, purchasing the assets of the Culver Aircraft Company, [9] and put the Model V back into production as the Superior Satellite. [10]

Aircraft

A Culver PQ-14 Culver PQ-14 USAF.jpg
A Culver PQ-14
Model nameFirst flightNumber builtNotes
Dart G 193850
Dart GC 193910
Dart GK 193825
Dart GW 19398
Dart GW Special 19392
Cadet LCA 1939
Cadet LFA 1939
Cadet LFA-90 1941
LAR (Army A-8) 1941Redesignated as PQ-8 [4]
LAR-90 (Army PQ-8) 1941200 [4]
PQ-8A 1941200 [4]
Q-8A Redesignated PQ-8s. [4]
PQ-10 1940s0
TDC-1 19411 [4]
TDC-2 1941201 [4]
XPQ-14 19421Converted PQ-8 [5]
PQ-14A/TD2C Turkey 19421400 [5]
PQ-14B 1100 [5]
XPQ-14C 1Converted PQ-14B [5]
Q-14 Redesignated PQ-14s [5]
XPQ-15 1945
Culver Model V 194690

References

  1. ↑ "Culver TD2C-1" . Retrieved November 12, 2010.
  2. ↑ Joseph P. Juptner. U.S. Civil Aircraft Series, Volume 8.
  3. 1 2 3 Murphy, Daryl. "Culver's Travels". Wings Over Kansas. Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Parsch, Andreas. "Culver PQ-8/TDC Cadet". designation-systems.net. Accessed 2010-11-14.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Parsch, Andreas. "Culver Q-14/TD2C". designation-systems.net. Accessed 2010-11-14.
  6. ↑ "New Culver Head". Aviation News. Vol. 4, no. 15. McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. November 5, 1945. p. 5. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Culver Model V", August 1946, Popular Science bottom page 30
  8. ↑ Wood, Robert H. Aviation News, Volume 7. McGraw-Hill, 1947.
  9. ↑ Mondey, David. The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Aircraft. New York: A&W Publications, 1978. ASIN   B001SLTA1U
  10. ↑ Plane & Pilot Magazine. The Plane & Pilot International Aircraft Directory. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995. ISBN   978-0-07-050304-5.
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