Verville Air Coach

Last updated
Verville Air Coach
Verville-air-coach.PNG
RoleLuxury coach
Manufacturer Verville Aircraft Company
Designer Alfred V. Verville
First flight 1929
Produced1929-1931
Number built10-16

The Verville Air Coach was a four-passenger, high-wing monoplane designed in 1927 by Alfred V. Verville and produced by his company, Verville Aircraft Company. It was a comfortable, good-looking cabin monoplane which sold for $10,500. The plane made its debut at the Detroit Air Show in 1929. [1]

Contents

Sources vary, but only 10-16 were built [2] before Verville declared bankruptcy in 1931 at the beginning of the great depression. [3]

Details

Verville Air Coach promo cover. Verville Air Coach Brochure.png
Verville Air Coach promo cover.

Having been powered originally by a 110 HP, 7 cylinder Warner Scarab, it was then sporting a 5 cyl. Wright J6 of 165 HP. Ultimately, the Air Coach would be powered by the 7 cyl. J6 of 225 HP as the model 104-C, with ATC #267. At least six of this model were produced through 1931. It spanned 44' of Clark Y, had a length of 28' 9" and a useful load of 2166 lbs, grossing at 3400 lbs. Speed maxed at 130 mph, cruised at 110, and would land at 50 mph. Edo floats were also available for this ATC.

Construction of the fuse and tail was steel tube with a clever arrangement that eliminated awkward framing around the windows of the passenger compartment. The sponsons served as attach points for both the landing gear and the forward wing struts, and also were storage for tool kit, battery and other miscellany! Wings were wood with aluminum ailerons and leading edge sheeting. The cabin was mohair fabric upholstered in a style that rivaled the finest automobiles. Navigation lights, cabin and instrument lights, metal propeller, and a choice of electric inertia starter or Heywood compressed air starters was all standard equipment. [1]

The most interesting model of the air coach, produced later, was the diesel 104-P, which was powered by 9-cylinder Packard DR-980 diesel engine. Some evidence exists that a 104-P was sold in Italy. [4]

Variations

Verville Air Coach advertisement Verville-air-coach.png
Verville Air Coach advertisement

See also

Related Research Articles

Dornier Do 12 Flying boat

The Dornier Do 12 Libelle III was the third of a line of small German flying boats of the 1930s. It started with the Dornier A Libelle I and the Dornier A Libelle II, though the Do 12 was not a continuation, but an entirely new aircraft.

The Adams-Toman Cruiser was a US-built civil utility aircraft of the 1920s. It was a three-seat, high-wing monoplane with an enclosed cabin, and possibly a variant of the Grays Harbor Activian.

Monocoupe 90

The Monocoupe 90 was a two-seat, light cabin airplane built by Donald A. Luscombe for Monocoupe Aircraft. The first Monocoupe was built in an abandoned church in Davenport, Iowa, and first flew on April 1, 1927. Various models were in production until the late 1940s.

Aeronca L

The Aeronca L was a 1930s American cabin monoplane designed and built, in small numbers, by Aeronca Aircraft. It differed significantly from other Aeronca planes by the use of radial engines, streamlining, and a cantilever low wing.

Cessna Model A

The Cessna Model A was a 1920s American high-wing four-seat tourer built by the Cessna Aircraft Company, the first in a long line of high-wing single-engined monoplanes.

Buhl-Verville CA-3 Airster

The Buhl-Verville CA-3 Airster, was a utility aircraft built in the United States in 1926, notable as the first aircraft to receive a type certificate in the US, issued by the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce on March 29, 1927. It was a conventional single-bay biplane with equal-span unstaggered wings and accommodation for the pilot and passengers in tandem open cockpits. Marketed for a variety of roles including crop-dusting, aerial photography, and freight carriage, only a handful were built, some with water-cooled engines as the CW-3, and others with air-cooled engines as the CA-3. One CA-3 placed second in the 1926 Ford National Reliability Air Tour.

Buhl Airsedan 1927 American single-engine sesquiplane cabin light transport aircraft

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.

Fairchild 45

The Fairchild Model 45 was a 1930s American five-seat cabin monoplane aircraft designed and built by Fairchild.

The SIAI-Marchetti SM.101 was a 1940s Italian single-engined light transport cabin monoplane designed and built by SIAI-Marchetti.

The Bratu-220 was a Franco-Romanian prototype three-engined airliner of the 1930s, built in France.

Luscombe Phantom

The Luscombe Phantom was a 1930s American two-seat cabin monoplane and the first product of the Luscombe Aircraft Engineering Company.

Stinson Detroiter

The Stinson Detroiter was a six-seat cabin airliner for passengers or freight designed and built by the Stinson Aircraft Syndicate, later the Stinson Aircraft Corporation. Two distinct designs used the Detroiter name, a biplane and a monoplane.

Ryan Foursome

The Ryan C-1 Foursome, also known as the "Baby Brougham" was a single-engine, four-seat light aircraft built by Ryan Aeronautical in the United States in 1930 as an executive transport. It was a high-wing, braced monoplane based on Ryan's highly successful Brougham design, but substantially smaller. The interior was luxuriously furnished, with deeply upholstered seats, and an oversize cabin door was fitted to ease boarding and disembarking for the three passengers.

Alfred V. Verville

Alfred Victor Verville was an aviation pioneer and aircraft designer who contributed to civilian and military aviation. During his forty-seven years in the aviation industry, he was responsible for the design and development of nearly twenty commercial and military airplanes. Verville is known for designing flying boats, military racing airplanes, and a series of commercial cabin airplanes. His planes were awarded with the Pulitzer Speed Classic Trophy in 1920 and 1924.

Stinson Junior

The Stinson Junior was a high-winged American monoplane of the late 1920s, built for private owners, and was one of the first such designs to feature a fully enclosed cabin.

Aero-Craft Aero-Coupe

The Aero-Craft Aero-Coupe is an American, 2-passenger, semi-cabin, all-purpose, commercial biplane that was designed by Captain Clement Brown in 1928 and manufactured by Aero-Craft Manufacturing Company. The aircraft was intended for use as an air taxi, as well as for mail and express feeder service. The Aero-Coupe was manufactured by Aero-Craft Manufacturing Company, based in Detroit, Michigan. Aero-Craft Mfg. Co. was founded in 1928, and the Aero-Coupe was the first production model that was released by the company. The Aero-Coupe was a "semi-cabin" aircraft: the three passengers were situated within a closed cabin in the aircraft's fuselage near the nose, while the aircraft's single pilot was positioned in an open cockpit, above and behind the passenger cabin, behind the wings. The aircraft was first introduced to the public in 1928 during the Detroit Aero Show, also known as the All-American Aircraft Show, which occurred from April 14–21. Its price, as mentioned in Volume 20 of Flight International, was $6500, when it was first exhibited to the public. It was powered by a single, seven-cylinder Warner Scarab rotary engine, which provided 120 hp. The aircraft had a range of 740 kilometres, and was capable of flying as fast as 185 km/h. The wings were of unequal span.

Eastman E-2 Sea Rover

The Eastman E-2 Sea Rover, also called the Beasley-Eastman E-2 Sea Rover, was a light seaplane built in the late 1920s for business and shuttle use.

Swanson Coupe

The Swanson Coupe Model W-15 was a high-wing, cantilever-type monoplane produced in 1931 by Swedish aircraft designer and manufacturer Swen Swanson. Its design was considered innovative and the aircraft was viewed as part of a trend of producing safe and economical airplanes, which would appeal especially to automobile drivers. The Swanson Coupe was also designed to function as trainer aircraft.

G.A.C. 102 Aristocrat

The G.A.C. 102 Aristocrat or General 102 Aristocrat is a single-engined cabin monoplane built in the US just before the Great Depression. It proved popular, with over forty built; an early example was taken on an aerial survey of Antarctica. One survives.

The Simplex Red Arrow was a US single-engined monoplane produced in the late 1920s and early 1930s and intended as club machine or mail transport. Most used radial engines in the 90–110 hp (67–82 kW) range. They carried one or two passengers whose seats could be open or enclosed. One variant, the Red Arrow Dual Plane, was easily converted from monoplane to biplane and was available with two versions of the much more powerful Wright Whirlwind engines. In all about 20 were built.

References

  1. 1 2 Joseph P Juptner's US Civil Aircraft, Volumes 3 & 4 (Page 60). ISBN   978-0830643684 & ISBN   978-0830643691
  2. "Verville Sport Trainer AT". Aviation-history.com. Retrieved 2014-05-26.
  3. Donald M. Pattillo. A History in the Making: 80 Turbulent Years in the American General Aviation Industry. p. 9.
  4. "Flight Global Archive, May 16th, 1929, Page 397". Flightglobal.com. 1929-05-16. Retrieved 2014-05-26.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Verville Air Coach at Wikimedia Commons