MMPL Kanpur

Kanpur
Role	Four-seat general-purpose light aircraft
National origin	India
Manufacturer	Maintenance Command Development Centre, Kanpur
Designer	Harjandar Singh
First flight	October 1961 (Kanpur II)

Last updated April 10, 2023

The MMPL Kanpur was an Indian light four-seat aircraft, designed for service and agricultural work in the early 1960s. It is a rare example^[1] of an aircraft designed and built by a national air force for its own use.

Design and development

The Kanpur I was designed by an Indian Air Vice-Marshal and built in 132 days at the Indian Air Force Maintenance Command Development Centre at their Kanpur air base. A more powerful version, the Kanpur II, was intended for production as a military general-purpose and army observation machine, though serious consideration was also given to an agricultural role. For this, the prototype Kanpur I was fitted with spray bars. The Kanpur I dates from about 1960 and the Kanpur II first flew in October 1961.^[1]^[2]

The four-seat Kanpur was a conventional single-engine, braced high-wing monoplane with a fixed conventional undercarriage. It had a steel structure, mostly fabric-covered. The constant chord wings were built around two spars and with 1° 26' of dihedral. They were braced on each side with a pair of V-struts from the two spars to the lower fuselage longerons. Metal-skinned split flaps and fixed leading edge slots were fitted.^[2]

The fully glazed cabin was under the wing, with the four occupants in two rows of side-by-side seats. The Kanpur pilot had standard blind flying instrumentation and a STR-9X radio. The air-cooled engine, a flat four in the Kanpur I and a flat six in the Kanpur II, drove a two-blade propeller. The Kanpur's main wheels were mounted on cantilever, faired legs attached to the lower fuselage through liquid shock absorbers. There was a small tailwheel at the extreme tail, where the tailplane was placed on the upper fuselage. The elevator had a cut-out for the rounded rudder which extended to the keel, hung on a fin smoothly merged into the upper fuselage.^[2]

Variants

Kanpur I: Prototype, with a four-cylinder, 142 kW (190 hp) Lycoming air-cooled horizontally opposed engine.

Kanpur II: Intended for production with a six-cylinder, 186 kW (250 hp) Lycoming air-cooled horizontally opposed engine. It was 250 mm (9.8 in) longer, a little heavier on take-off and had a maximum speed 39 km/h (24 mph) greater.

Specifications (Kanpur II)

Data from Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1962/3^[2]

General characteristics

Crew: One
Capacity: Three passengers
Length: 8.07 m (26 ft 6 in)
Wingspan: 11.53 m (37 ft 10 in)
Height: 2.29 m (7 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 18.58 m² (200.0 sq ft) gross
Airfoil: NACA airfoil 4312
Empty weight: 771 kg (1,700 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 1,179 kg (2,599 lb)
Fuel capacity: 182 L (40 imp gal; 48 US gal) in wing tanks, provision for wing strut mounted external tanks.
Powerplant: 1 × Lycoming O-540-A1B5 flat six, air-cooled, 190 kW (250 hp)
Propellers: 2-bladed Harzell A2XK-1

Performance

Maximum speed: 220 km/h (140 mph, 120 kn) at sea level
Cruise speed: 161 km/h (100 mph, 87 kn) economical
Stall speed: 66 km/h (41 mph, 36 kn)
Never exceed speed: 274 km/h (170 mph, 148 kn) in dive
Range: 740 km (460 mi, 400 nmi) internal tanks
Service ceiling: 6,250 m (20,510 ft) service
Rate of climb: 5.9 m/s (1,160 ft/min) at sea level
Take-off run: 131 m (430 ft)
Landing run: 106 m (348 ft)

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References

1 2 "Asia's Aircraft Industries". Flight . Vol. 82, no. 2785. 26 July 1962. p. 136. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014.
1 2 3 4 Taylor, John W R (1962). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1962–63. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd. pp. 73–4.

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[Flight-1] 1 2 "Asia's Aircraft Industries". Flight . Vol. 82, no. 2785. 26 July 1962. p. 136. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014.

[JAWA62-2] 1 2 3 4 Taylor, John W R (1962). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1962–63. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd. pp. 73–4.

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