Swallow LT65

LT65
Role Civil trainer
National origin United States
Manufacturer Swallow Airplane Company
Designer Harold Dale
First flight 1938
Number built 2

The Swallow LT65 or LT-65 was a trainer aircraft marketed by the Swallow Airplane Company in 1940.[1] Swallow purchased the prototype from its builder, Dale Aircraft,[2] but was unable to start manufacturing it before the demands of wartime production changed priorities for the company.[2][3] This was Swallow's final attempt to produce an aircraft.[4]

Design

The LT65 was a conventional, low-wing-monoplane with seating for the pilot and instructor in tandem, fully enclosed under an extensively glazed canopy.[5] The wings were braced to the fuselage by struts and wires, and by wires to the main units of the fixed, tailwheel undercarriage.[5] Those units were fully enclosed by large spats.[5] Power was supplied by a piston engine in the nose driving a tractor propeller.[5] It had a conventional tail.[5]

The fuselage, empennage, and center sections of the wings were constructed from welded steel tube, and the wing outer panels had spruce spars and ribs.[5][6] The whole aircraft was covered in fabric.[5]

Development

Although Swallow's marketing of 1940 described the LT65 as "new" and "no re-hash of an old model",[7] they had purchased the manufacturing rights and the prototype from the Dale Aircraft Company of Pomona, California,[2] The Dale Aircraft Company logo is partially visible on Swallow's promotional picture of the type.[7]

The first iteration of the design, the Dale A, registration NX18972 (later, NC18972) was powered by a 40-horsepower (30 kW) Continental A-40 engine.[a][2]

When the 50-horsepower (37 kW) Menasco M-50 engine became available, designer Harold Dale built a second prototype to take advantage of it.[2] This was called the Dale Air-Dale M-50,[2][9] registration NC21736,[2] and Dale entered a business partnership with George M. Frohlich and Roland J. Brownsberger to market it.[2][9] It was offered in open-cockpit and canopied versions.[6]

Swallow bought this second prototype and the manufacturing rights to the design, hoping to market it to flying schools with a more powerful 65-horsepower (48 kW) Continental engine,[2] dual controls, and provision for dual flight and engine instruments.[5] It was marketed as being easy to fly, maintain, and overhaul.[5] In 1941, Swallow was preparing for production of the type in a new factory with 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) of floorspace.[10] However, the outbreak of World War II disrupted the civil aviation market, and diverted resources and manufacturing capacity.[2][3][4] Swallow never sold any LT65s,[2] and spent the war years training aircraft mechanics[3] and manufacturing components for Boeing bombers.[4]

Variants

Dale A
First prototype, with Continental A-40 engine
Dale Air-Dale M-50
Second prototype, with Menasco M-50 engine
Swallow LT65
Second prototype offered for sale by Swallow with a 65-hp engine

Specifications (LT65)

Data from Swallow Low-Wing Trainer 1940, p.113

General characteristics

  • Crew: 1 pilot
  • Capacity: one instructor
  • Length: 21 ft 9 in (6.63 m)
  • Wingspan: 27 ft (8.2 m)
  • Height: 6 ft (1.8 m)
  • Wing area: 126.6 sq ft (11.76 m2)
  • Empty weight: 650 lb (295 kg)
  • Gross weight: 1,200 lb (544 kg)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Continental four-cylinder, horizontally-opposed, air-cooled piston engine, 65 hp (48 kW)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 115 mph (185 km/h, 100 kn)
  • Cruise speed: 100 mph (160 km/h, 87 kn)
  • Range: 350 mi (560 km, 300 nmi)
  • Service ceiling: 12,000 ft (3,700 m)
  • Rate of climb: 600 ft/min (3.0 m/s)

Notes

  1. ^ Aviation historian K. O. Eckland speculated that this aircraft might itself have been based on an earlier aircraft, the Alker Sport (one built, registration NC12872), but called this identification "unconfirmed".[8] A 1962 feature article in Sport Aviation on the Air-Dale and its designer discusses the aircraft as if Dale designed and built it himself.[2]

References

  1. ^ Taylor 1993, p.851
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Whittier 1962, p.16
  3. ^ a b c Mingos 1942, p.342
  4. ^ a b c Haynes 1967, p.81
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Swallow Low-Wing Trainer 1940, p.113
  6. ^ a b Non-Certificated Aircraft 1939, p.76
  7. ^ a b Swallow Airplane Company 1940, p.142
  8. ^ Eklund 2008
  9. ^ a b Non-Certificated Aircraft 1939, p.74
  10. ^ Mingos 1941, p.276

Bibliography

  • "Follow the Swallow". Private Pilot. Covina, California: Gallant. 1967. pp. 76–81.
  • Mingos, Howard (1941). The Aircraft Year Book for 1941. New York: Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America.
  • Mingos, Howard (1942). The Aircraft Year Book for 1942. New York: Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America.
  • "Non-Certificated Aircraft". Western Flying. Vol. 19, no. 4. Los Angeles: Occidental Publishing. April 1939. pp. 70–89.
  • Whittier, Bob (May 1962). "Harold Dale's... 1938 Air-Dale". Sport Aviation. Vol. 11, no. 5. Hales Corners, Wisconsin: Experimental Aircraft Association. p. 16.
  • Swallow Airplane Company (October 1940). "There's Something New in the Air [Advertisement]". Aero Digest. Vol. 37, no. 4. New York: Aeronautical Digest Publishing. p. 142.
  • "Swallow Low-Wing Trainer". Aero Digest. Vol. 37, no. 4. New York: Aeronautical Digest Publishing. October 1940. p. 113.
  • Taylor, Michael J. H. (1993). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions.