![]() ![]() Stressing the favorable economy of Cub airplanes selling at $1,325, Taylor urged the War Department to consider the Cub as a trainer, saying: "If some of these Army contracts were passed around to the manufacturers of light airplanes, it would greatly strengthen their Writing to the Assistant Secretary of War for Air late in 1931, Taylor pointed out that lightweight airplanes had dropped in average price from $5,000 to $3,500 between 19 and predicted that in another year the light airplane would be outselling all other types. One of the manufacturers of lightweight airplanes, the Taylor Aircraft Company, had no intention of abandoning the military market for training airplanes. Taken collectively, the utter lack of standardization and interchangeability presented a most serious objection to the use of commercial aircraft for military use, and the division gave up the ![]() All others contained objectionable features, for the most part structural members that did not conform to Army-Navy material specifications. Despite the fact that 40 manufacturers expressed an interest in the project, the division found only one model that was at all suitable. The history of the Air Corps interest in light airplanes dates back as early as 1929, when the Materiel Division conducted an extensive survey to determine the possibilities of using light commercial aircraft in lieu of existing specialized training equipment. His record stood for a little over two years, when theĮvolution of the Liaison-Type Airplane, 1917-1944: Part II The French had practically monopolized the record from 1906 to 1935, when Howard Hughes sped his Hughes Special 352 mph. One of the most coveted of all records is for the maximum speed over a three-kilometer course. In November, the media featured the saga of Lincoln Ellsworth and his pilot, Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, as they made their way across 2,000 miles of Antarctica to the South Pole. ![]() Two Army balloon specialists soared to a height of 72,395 feet with the National Geographic’s 3,700,000 cubic foot balloon. The Keys brothers set a new endurance record when they stayed in the air 533 hours with their Curtiss Robin. Other achievements during the year included Laura Ingalls setting new women’s records for transcontinental flights in both directions. This record was broken a month later with an American Airlines crew who made the trip in eleven hours and thirty-four minutes. On the 15th of that month, Major James Doolittle, with two passengers aboard flew an American Airlines plane from Los Angeles to New York City, nonstop, in eleven hours fifty-nine minutes, just barely breaking the twelve-hour mark for commercial transports. Amelia Earhart set the pattern on January 11, when she made the first solo flight from Honolulu to Oakland, with her Lockheed Vega. It was also a notable year for aviation enthusiasts with record flights and performances. The year 1935 was a notable one in the history of commercial aviation. As it turned out, the Beech with its twoīarkley-Grow T8P-1, CF-BLV, "Yukon Queen" in factory photo. The first Beech 18 did not make its first flight until January 20, 1937, and the T8P-1 took to the air in April of that year. The competition was won by the L-12 based on its performance, but also because with a great deal of effort Lockheed had managed to get the first aircraft into the air on June 27, 1936, three days before the Bureau’s deadline. Beech produced the Model 18, Lockheed the L-12 Electra Junior and Barkley-Grow the T8P-l. Other requirements included accommodation for a crew of two and six passengers, de-icing on the leading edges of the wings, adjustable propellers and a double radioīut the most-demanding requirement was that the first aircraft would have to make its maiden flight no later than June 30, 1936, the end of the government’s Fiscal Year 1936 to be considered for altitude on one engine and a maximum takeoff distance of 1,500 ft. A secondary use intended by the Bureau was for use by its inspectors on their trips across the country.Īmong the Bureau’s requirements were a maximum speed of at least 175 mph, a landing speed no higher than 65 mph, be able to maintain a 3,200 ft. Today we would call this a commuter aircraft. On August 15, 1935, the Bureau of Air Commerce issued a request for the supply of a small twin-engine aircraft for use as a feeder liner by smallĪirlines. But it never emerged from the shadow of its two competitors, the Lockheed L-12 and especially the Beech Model 18. The Barkley-Grow T8P-l was one of those innovative products of the American aircraft industry in the 1930s that started with much promise. Of the Liaison-Type Airplane, 1917-1944: Part II - Capt.įrance- courtesy of Bob Kennedy and Gerald Liang ![]()
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