Thorp Aircraft - The first time I saw Thorp-T18 was like seeing a ghost I reviewed the details of the carefully constructed side-by-side, two-seat, all-metal, low-profile horn, a red drop stream and a flying tail finder. I wanted to know more about its designer An old man who smiled at this builder said secretly, "You know." You run from the Pepper Cherokees, don't you? I laugh I've spent my fair share of time as a flight instructor in Piper Cherokee 140's, Warriors, Archery and Archery. Yes, he said, even John Thorp had to design his hand
In fact, Thorp, a former Lockheed employee, held the patent on the entire tail of the aircraft Instead of the traditional combination of stabilizer and horizontal elevator, the flying tail moves one part of the stabilizer and changes its angle of attack in the air flow, which gives the aircraft a relaxed force about the control box axis. Thorp realized that he could simultaneously increase the aircraft's pitch agility and pitch stability, and allow the horizontal stabilizer to move the anti-servo tabs opposite the angle of attack. Then the entire horizontal surface of the tail creates a huge lift, which is the opposite of the traditional stabilizers and elevators of the cardinal complex. The stabilizer allowed horizontal tail surfaces to be only 25% smaller than conventional horizontal tail surfaces with the same effective pitch. Aircraft with stabilizers have lighter features and require less construction materials This full flying tail became Thorpe's signature aircraft over the past 40 years.
Thorp Aircraft
I shouldn't be surprised If you spend some time behind the monitors of many FAA-certified airplanes, you'll find experimentalism at its core. Four decades ago I was looking at a T-18 designed with a non-composite wing and a NACA 63A-412 with a 50 inch airfoil chord. Powered by the Licente O-360A1A, the cruising speed reached 190 mph, and most of these aircraft had a gross weight of 1,800 to 1,900 pounds, with an empty weight of between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds. That's a pretty good payload in two seats Its wooden parts were predictably light, and overall the T-18's designers reflected a unique goal: to create a light, efficient and fun to fly personal aircraft. That's what Thorpe was all about
Thorp T 18: Covers, Plugs, Sun Shades, & More
John Willard Thorpe (1912-1992) grew up in the home his grandparents lived in the San Joaquin Valley 50 years before his birth. Lockford Town, California was his hometown when Thorpe was shot by a crazy relative (according to his mentor) on his first flying bug.
He told me the story of a local pilot who was related to the family. A man would fly over the house, and Mom would say, 'No, my son...'" says Thorpe protégé Richard Eklund, who now owns the Lockford House, a bed and breakfast near Lauda, California. This is the house in which Thorpe was raised and came home to in later years Eklund, the builder and owner of the Thorp T-18, is the principal of Eklund Engineering, which sells T-18 designs and sub-assembly kits (reserving rights to other Thorp designs with companies worldwide). He and his wife have created a small museum of Thorpe memorabilia in an old barn on the farm, and at the inn they entertain guests, who invented, designed, or were the makers of so many airplanes and aviation equipment.
"He just learned to fly at Lodi Field on Highway 99," Eklund says He got it from day one In high school, Thorp developed an open spark plug using rods and spacers that, when throttled down, slowed the spark in Ford engines. Eklund is convinced that the sale of that patent to the Ford Motor Company financed Thorpe's engineering education.
With good money in his pocket, Thorp moved from his native San Joaquin Valley to Oakland, California, and enrolled at the Boeing School of Aeronautics in 1929. In six years he had several planes and some good ideas. How to build them too
Aircraft Photo Of C Gixp
The T-1 was nothing more than a study plan for a biplane, a fixed-wing aircraft designed in 1931. It was a low-wing, all-metal, monocoque aircraft with a wide tail construction In the early 1930s, he spent most of his time at the Boeing School of Aeronautics, and in a commercial context, Thorpe had the opportunity to help design and later produce the Boeing 247, the world's first passenger airliner. Maybe he spent time in Seattle Oakland, but after more than six months in native California, he returned to Oakland to teach school. "The weather probably brought him back," Eklund said.
The first models, the T-1 through the T-6, were probably a collaboration with builder Rudy Paulik, with whom Thorp Rudy Paulik and John W. Thorp formed the Aircraft Corporation in 1940. Both had different ideas for personal lighting from airplanes . 1935 to 1940, which coincided with Paul's XT-3 design, an extension of the original all-metal trainer. The XT-3 featured a revolutionary tricycle engine and stabilizer, which Thorpe patented. But time was running out, and by the start of the war designers were concentrating on more pressing tasks, such as the design and construction of Lockheed's original P2 Neptune.
Thorpe rose to the position of assistant preliminary design engineer at Lockheed during the war years, but it was his own light aircraft ideas that kept him up at night and in the realm of great aircraft design. He wrapped up his plans by swapping the 50-horsepower Franklin engine for a 65-hp Licente, and then swapping the taildragger gear for a new tricycle-style kick gear with extra-long oil struts. Meanwhile, Lockheed built a sheet with Thorpe's design, calling it a nightmare Lockheed's test pilots loved flying it, but the Army didn't see its value and dropped the company.
After the war, Thorp took over and created the Thorp Aircraft Corporation with nine employees. On August 15, 1946, Model NX-91301 took off from Van Nuys Airport. It was the original Skyscooter Intended for the post-war boom predicted by every aircraft manufacturer (think of all those pilots coming back from the war wanting to fly), the Skyscooter was the first aircraft that would be affordable enough for anyone to own and own. Escape is fine, that's what Thorpe hoped for But the production and certification of the corrupt scam and the SkyScooter was already up for sale for $2,000, or whatever it was, it was over, and there were no buyers.
Frontiers Of Flight Museum/plane Wrap For The Thorp T 18
Not to be outdone, Thorp brought the project to the Flatter Aviation Corporation of California and developed it with Wendell S. Flatter into a miniature ground attack aircraft, the FD 25 Defender. While the FD 25 Defender never hit much ground, its agricultural counterpart, the FU 24, was sold to New Zealand and later the rest of Asia as a crop duster. The aircraft was equipped with a 225-hp Continental engine, but over the years it was modified with 240, 260, 285, 300 and even 400 hp. Today in Asia you can find the 550 front-engined Flatter
Despite the success of airframes as a brush crop, Thorp continued to think that the Skyscooter would make a perfect airplane. In the 1950s he renamed it the T-111 again and, working under contract with Piper, it moved to the capital to continue with the Cessna 150. But nothing has really been done about it The aircraft continued to be available through plans and kits provided by John, and later by subsequent teams in the 1980s. Many times its weapons are powerplants Originally designed with a Franklin 50-hp engine, it never flew with one. By the time the design was mature enough to build, it sported first a 65-hp, then a 75-hp Lycam engine.
While Piper abandoned his plans for the SkyScooter, Thorpe's passion for the project never waned In the 1970s the aircraft was revived as a kit engine, this time as the T-211, with a 100 hp Continental O-200. Things took a stand when Indian Airlines bought the rights to the FAA Part 23 certified version. The company now manufactures it in Bangalore, India and ships and is certified as an aircraft at Dallas Executive Airport, where certified aircraft are assembled for sale as light sport aircraft and where the facility helps first-time builders get a leg up. . In their experimental version
Thorp's contract with Piper continued for the SkyScooter release He helped make rapid changes on the Comanche series of aircraft and was the lead designer with Carl Berge and Fred Wick on the Pipe Cherokee. Cherokee
Thorp T 111 Sky Skooter · The Encyclopedia Of Aircraft David C. Eyre
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