Help,What Is This Aircraft??

Hello friends,

Some information published by AIR International magazine, about the airplane referred…

Best regards,

Iván Siminic
CHILE

Me too, AA, what a treasure…………!!! Just shows what is lying around waiting to be discovered. Glad it has passed into safe hands and not been “skipped”….

Well this one certainly had everyone thinking.

Planemike

We don’t because you’d never get off the Forum posting all those photos!:D

Wieesso pulls the rabbit out of the hat, again!:)

Me too, AA, what a treasure…………!!! Just shows what is lying around waiting to be discovered. Glad it has passed into safe hands and not been “skipped”….

Well this one certainly had everyone thinking.

Planemike

With help from a Latin American forum friend:

It is a Government Workshops Triciclo-Experimental (Chile 1947) with a Franklin O-225-4A4-10 100hp. The registration was XX-01.

http://ivansiminic.blogspot.com/2006/11/los-primeros-pasos-del-pilln.html

Martin

Wow! I’m impressed. Going back to Hairy’s overnight post, I wish that a box of a couple of thousand photos like that would come to me!

………..and Martin please pass my thanks along to your Latin American friends.:cool:

Yes! Result.
Many thanks for your effort Martin. :D:cool:

Cor! Fancy you lot not knowing that :rolleyes:

Moggy

*Runs for cover*

Martin / Wieesso – maximum respect for the ID!

With help from a Latin American forum friend:

It is a Government Workshops Triciclo-Experimental (Chile 1947) with a Franklin O-225-4A4-10 100hp. The registration was XX-01.

http://ivansiminic.blogspot.com/2006/11/los-primeros-pasos-del-pilln.html

Martin

Unfortunately the photos came to me all mixed up in a cardboard box with a couple of thousand others from all different countries, there is nothing written on the back except for the printed “Kodak Velox Paper”. Most of the photos are from the immediate postwar period to about 1953(ish). As for the origins of the photos some are from manufacturers, some from photographic studios (mainly Whites Aviation here in NZ), agency photos and private photos.

So sorry not much help from that direction.

Amazing that this photo puzzle is baffling the combined talenst of the Western world! I was expecting Hairy to provide a location for the photo. This photo would obviously be a good candidate in the annual recognition contest run by Air Britain (?). Problem is, someone would have to know the answer!

Why not try posting it on the History & Nostalgia section of PPRUNE – There are some very knowledgeable people on it?

Hairy, you still haven’t told us anything about the provenance of the photo. Did you take it, buy it or what? Where was it taken or bought? With a little more information the task of identification might be eased!

Thanks for the effort guys.
I am thinking of re-naming this THE UNIDENTIFIABLE UNIDENTIFIED AIRCRAFT ’cause these pics are now on FOUR different forums and no luck.

– Dave Homewoods ‘Wings over New Zealand’ forum.
http://rnzaf.proboards43.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=6195&page=1
– Flypast.
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=81468
– WIX
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=22356
– PlaneTalk
http://forum.planetalk.net/viewtopic.php?p=56212#56212

The first thing that most people seem to think is, “Ercoupe, no, wait a minute, ummmmmm……….”

Probably the most promising sounding lead so far is on Dave Homewoods ‘Wings over New Zealand’ forum, posted by yak2 which is the following…………..

“It sure has an Ercoupe/Culver look to it. The bloke who designed the Ercoupe (Frank Weike?) also had an earlier design (W317?) but Mr Google can’t find any pics for me unfortunately. The windscreen is similar to a Piper Cherokee, also designed by him later in life. Maybe this is it.”

The mystery continues…………………………………….
:confused:

After going through my Juptner books, it doesn’t appear to be an American certified type.
It has several features of many late-30’s aircraft…as mentioned the Culver and Ercoupe… but also a few types that remained one-offs, or had very small production runs (It looks like a sleeker monoplane version of the General Skyfarer with the landing gear of the tubby Gwinn Aircar…an attempt to make an “anyone can fly” plane, a market later filled by Ercoupe).

I thought it might be an early or prototype Ercoupe, but it seems the design was always designed for a metal fuselage. They might have thought about a wood & fabric structure after the government limited metal sales in 1940 for the war effort…just as Ercoupe production was starting in ernest…but I can’t find any mention of a non-metal plane ever being made. Even then, the plane pictured has a different cowl and gear…unnecessary changes.

Sorry I couldn’t find a positive identity. I hope you find out what it is.

Solved, it is obviously the Chevrolet Aircraft Corporation prototype, check the badge on the nose!:D

No. it’s not a Culver..unless it’s some rare prototype. Same goes for an Ercoupe variant..but to the best of my knowledge, they all had metal fuselages.

Lockheed made a similar looking plane before the war (Starliner?) but it was larger …this ship looks like it only seats two.
I’d say it’s also from the late 30s based on the stylish wheel pants.

If it was certified in the U.S., it will be in the 9 volume series by Juptner that details every type-certificated U.S. plane from 1928 to the late 40s (when the CAA went from a central numbering system to a regional numbering system).
I can look through my copies after work.

If it’s a one off…I’d suggest contacting the late Peter M. Bowers…anyone know a good medium?:D

You could fill Duxford with all the U.S. GA designs people thought would turn them into the next Piper, Cessna or Beech.
A surprising number were type approved (back when that was fairly cheap), others were one off or proof of concept vehicles.

Really is nothing like an Ercoupe, wait till Avions Ancien sees this thread, he will nail, won’t he?:D

Sorry to disappoint you, New Forest, but it doesn’t ring any French bells with me. However unless someone comes up with an answer beforehand, I’ll try to do a spot of sleuthing over the weekend.

I have to say that it doesn’t look very French. Not pretty enough for that! My gut feeling tells me that it may have started life on the other side of the pond, although if Hairy took or acquired the photo in New Zealand, maybe it is an indigenous Kiwi beast!

Culver comes to mind….? but no reference material to hand to check.

Roger Smith.

Looks like an Ercoupe with a cabin rather than a cockpit. I checked the first production (cn 1), but it had the usual bubble cockpit, now with NASM (see http://www.ercoupe.net/N15692.html).
Otherwise, I am stuck.

Undercarriage, wings & engine cowlings are wrong. I have no idea what this weird little doodah is but its nowt from Ercoupe.

Bex