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1 Wichita's Wee Wooden Wonders http://www.wingsoverkansas.com/history/article.asp?id=895 How Culver & Mooney Became Wichita Airplanes Copyright 2003, 2008 by Richard Harris Originally published in InFlightUSA, 2003 Revised for WingsOverKansas.com, 2008 This is the first in our series "Wichita's Wee Wooden Wonders", about the Wichita roots of Culver and Mooney Aircraft Companies, tracing the career of their creator, Al Mooney. Kansas's most famous general aviation plane-makers of today are Cessna, Beech (now Hawker-Beechcraft) and Learjet (now a division of Bombardier). But there is another legendary general aviation airplane manufacturer -- still very much alive today -- that started in Wichita, as well: Mooney Aircraft. In fact, the Mooney company started in Wichita twice -- and, in between, its namesake founder brought another remarkable planemaker to Wichita: Culver, who would quietly build a thousand tiny military planes in secret, and over a hundred civilian planes as well. And all the Wichita Culvers and Mooneys -- extraordinary performers for their size and power, and powerful trend-setters -- would be made of wood. This is the story of the pioneering genius behind them, and how his remarkable craft came to be "Wichita's Wee Wooden Wonders." And along the way, many other Kansas aviation names come into play, in shaping a legendary career. As a boy, young Al Mooney, on his own, studied aircraft engineering by burrowing into the books of the Denver Public Library. Raised by a Rocky Mountain railroad bridge-builder, and having spent time building such things with his own hands, big, husky Al had an ingrained fascination with engineering -- and airplanes were the most fascinating engineering puzzle of the times. Albert W. Mooney (image courtesy of MooneyMite.com) Four Laird Swallows, in 1920, waiting for delivery in Wichita. The one in the foreground appears to be the same model Swallow as the first plane owned by the 'Alexander Aircraft Co.' Note the short wings, which gave the Swallow a speed advantage at low altitudes (because of reduced drag), but severely limited its lifting ability at high altitudes and airport elevations, like Denver's.

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How Culver & Mooney Became Wichita Airplanes

Transcript of Wichita's Wee Wooden Wonders

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Wichita's Wee Wooden Wonders http://www.wingsoverkansas.com/history/article.asp?id=895

How Culver & Mooney Became Wichita Airplanes Copyright 2003, 2008 by Richard Harris Originally published in InFlightUSA, 2003 Revised for WingsOverKansas.com, 2008 This is the first in our series "Wichita's Wee Wooden Wonders", about the Wichita roots of Culver and Mooney Aircraft Companies, tracing the career of their creator, Al Mooney. Kansas's most famous general aviation plane-makers of today are Cessna, Beech (now Hawker-Beechcraft) and Learjet (now a division of Bombardier). But there is another legendary general aviation airplane manufacturer -- still very much alive today -- that started in Wichita, as well: Mooney Aircraft. In fact, the Mooney company started in Wichita twice -- and, in between, its namesake founder brought another remarkable planemaker to Wichita: Culver, who would quietly build a thousand tiny military planes in secret, and over a hundred civilian planes as well. And all the Wichita Culvers and Mooneys -- extraordinary performers for their size and power, and powerful trend-setters -- would be made of wood. This is the story of the pioneering genius behind them, and how his remarkable craft came to be "Wichita's Wee Wooden Wonders." And along the way, many other Kansas aviation names come into play,

in shaping a legendary career. As a boy, young Al Mooney, on his own, studied aircraft engineering by burrowing into the books of the Denver Public Library. Raised by a Rocky Mountain railroad bridge-builder, and having spent time building such things with his own hands, big, husky Al had an ingrained fascination with engineering -- and airplanes were the most fascinating engineering puzzle of the times.

Albert W. Mooney (image courtesy of MooneyMite.com)

Four Laird Swallows, in 1920, waiting for delivery in Wichita. The one in the foreground appears to be the same model Swallow as the first plane owned by the 'Alexander Aircraft Co.' Note the short wings, which gave the Swallow a speed advantage at low altitudes (because of reduced drag), but severely limited its lifting ability at high altitudes and airport elevations, like Denver's.

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In 1925, he chased an airplane to a local airstrip, where it landed, and correctly diagnosed a rigging problem that was handicapping its flight. It was a Wichita-built "Swallow" biplane [NOTE: There seems to be a bit of confusion as to whether it was an original 1920 "Laird Swallow" (designed by Matty Laird), or a later "New Swallow" (designed by Lloyd Stearman and manufactured under the supervision of Walter Beech). Photos seem to indicate a 1920 Laird Swallow.

The boy's aeronautical acumen impressed the Swallow's owner, who asked the bright boy to come to work for him -- beginning one of the most diverse and legendary careers of American aviation.

The impressed owner of this particular Swallow was Denver movie-ad tycoon J.Don Alexander. It was the first of a handful of planes that Alexander would try to use to put his national team of movie-ad salesmen in the air, something never done before by any sizeable sales force. At this time, in the early 1920s, Americans didn't have TV -- they had the movies, and everyone went to them, every week, spending a whole afternoon at the theatre watching movie after movie, punctuated by commercials. Alexander Film Co. had become the nation's leading supplier of those movie ads, and its huge sales force traveled constantly back and forth across the country.

J. Don Alexander had the outlandish idea of buying several-dozen aircraft (one for everyone in his sales force) in a time when even the government wasn't placing aircraft orders of that size -- and all the leading aircraft-makers turned him down, unable to meet Alexander's massive airplane needs in his time frame, or unable to believe the sincerity and sanity of his "order."

Alexander's Swallow, designed in Wichita (where the elevation was a scant 1,300 feet above sea level) was simply too short of wing for effective flight in the thin air of mile-high Denver. And in any case the entire production of the Swallow factory couldn't keep up with Alexander's ambitions.

THE LONGREN "SOLUTION"

Alexander decided to solve the problem by starting his own aircraft manufacturing firm -- by buying up the designs and assets of the defunct Longren Aircraft Co. of Topeka, in 1924. Longren AK / Fibre Sport Plane / New Longren Sport / Commercial, first "composite shell" airplane: its hollow streamlined fuselage was made of fibres reinforced with vulcanized rubber. Shown with its short wings folded back, and an extra pair of wheels under the tail, for towing to a garage. This was the approximate state of the art in Longren planes, about the

time Alexander acquired the Longren company's assets. (Courtesy of Aerofiles.com )

Longren barnstorming poster (Kansas State Historical Society photo)

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Longren was a bit of Kansas history. In Topeka in 1911, Albin K. Longren developed the first flying airplane built in Kansas -- the first of hundreds of thousands of Kansas-built planes that would someday fly from Kansas soil. And Longren developed some exotic and pioneering ideas (including the first "composite"-shell aircraft, today considered the wave of the future).

But after producing a handful of two-seat biplanes (some of them rather remarkable), Longren went bankrupt in 1924, and wandered off into an almost anonymous life as one of the great unsung pioneers of aircraft manufacturing technology -- a role he would develop at Spartan Aircraft in Oklahoma, then for Cessna Aircraft in Wichita, quietly creating manufacturing techniques that would someday revolutionize airplane building.

Meanwhile, J.Don Alexander hauled off four Longren airplanes and various other assets, and set up shop in Denver under the banner "Alexander Aircraft Co." The Topeka-designed Longren Flyer "fleet" (four planes) was reassembled in Denver with the help of former Longren engineer Dan Noonan. They were re-named Alexander Eaglerock biplanes (for the company's pet eagle, and the surrounding Rocky Mountains). But, alas, the low-land Longrens, like the low-land Swallow, flew poorly, or not at all, in the thin air of mile-high Denver. Renaming the Longrens for an eagle in the Rocky Mountains just couldn't make them fly like one.

MOONEY'S DESIGN DEBUT: THE LONG-WING EAGLEROCK

Alexander turned to engineer Noonan, and directed him to create a new plane design, from scratch, using some of the extra parts acquired with the Longren fleet. It was a daunting task, made all the more difficult by the fact that Noonan was only a "shirtsleeves" engineer, lacking the formal training of a "real" engineer.

Further, Alexander was insisting that the new plane seat four people -- in a time when even the best biplanes (Swallows, Travel Airs, WACOs) only seated three. Noonan crafted a plane resembling a mix of Swallow, Longren and early Travel Air biplanes. But it was too heavy to get off the ground in the thin air of the mountain country.

With backing from Noonan, 19-year-old Al Mooney persuaded Mr. Alexander to let him design a better plane – the very effective, stong-hauling Alexander Long-Wing Eaglerock – starting one of the most successful biplane families of the 1920's. Mooney privately nicknamed the plane his "M-1" – first of many Mooney planes.

The Long-Wing Eaglerock had a distinctive appearance that set it apart from all other biplanes. The span of bottom wings was wider than the span of the top wings. It was a bit of clever engineering on the part of young Al -- who wanted to gain efficiencies of mass production by making the top and bottom wings the same. The bottom wing appeared to be different because the fuselage sat between the left and right lower wings, adding a few feet to their span, but not between the left and right upper wings.

Overall, though, the plane had LOTS of wing -- its huge wingspan (40 feet), was easily five to ten feet more than any contemporary competing design -- crucial to its role as a plane to fly in the high country. And that wing could lift three passengers and a full load of fuel. (J. Don Alexander was grateful to finally have something

Alexander Eaglerock, designed by Al Mooney. Heavy hauling, even at low altitudes on a meager 90-hp OX-5 engine (shown here), this 3-seater was in great demand for serious airplane users. Over 850 of these would sell, nationwide, in just a few years -- even briefly

making Alexander Aircraft the nation's leading producer of 'commercial' airplanes.

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that worked, and let the fourth-seat issue fade away.) The A-1 Eaglerock was the first biplane to really make flying almost as easy in the mountainous West as it was in the lowlands of the Midwest and East.

A later "combo-wing" Eaglerock -- essentially the same as Mooney's first design, updated with a big radial engine and an extra wing panel inserted between left and right halves of the upper wing. Shown here during the 2003 National Air Tour stopover in Wichita.

As a result, the plane was an instantly in demand with buyers throughout the West. And its extra lifting capability (even more impressive in the lowlands) made it a hit with commercial flying operations across the country. Faced with a swarm of customers, opportunistic J. Don Alexander got serious about mass-production. Around 1926, Alexander Aircraft Co. briefly became the nation's top producer of "commercial" (civilian) airplanes, in sheer numbers. Even Charles Lindbergh listed the Eaglerock among the planes he sought as possible mounts for his later, famous, transatlantic solo. Ironically, J. Don Alexander never did put his salesmen in the planes -- he was too busy selling them, more profitably, to others!

This was the first of the airplanes that Al Mooney would claim as his designs. He privately referred to it as "M-1," beginning a numbering system that would eventually climax with a legendary public airplane design name: Mooney M-20.

FIRST FORAY TO KANSAS: MARSHALL/MONTAGUE

Young Al teamed with his mechanic-brother Art and skilled metalworker Bill "Mac" McMahon as a talented trio of airplane craftsmen -- with Al the visionary engineer leading the pack. They would remain lifetime colleagues, roaming the country in search of Al's dreams. Restless Al took a shot at being "chief engineer" for a start-up company in the Kansas City suburb of Marshall, Missouri.. There, the Montague monoplane company faded before Al could get his parasol-winged "M-2" monoplane into production. (Parasol-winged monoplanes have a single wing perched on struts above the airplane's fuselage).

BACK TO ALEXANDER -- THE BULLET: FAST & DEADLY

Al rejoined Alexander Aircraft in Denver (soon moved to Colorado Springs). While leading its design work, Al mastered new federal "aircraft certification" regulations, ushering new designs through the Washington bureaucracy. He helped Alexander put two more designs into production. By age 21, he was on his fourth certified airplane design.

Al's last Alexander plane, his "M-4," was a radical advance: the Alexander Bullet -- a radial-engined, enclosed-cabin, 4-seater, with retractable landing gear, and a clean "cantilever" (un-braced) low-wing – quite an extraordinary leap forward for its time. With its clean lines, the Bullet could squeeze 120 mph out of 165 horsepower, it won every race it entered, until a new racing division was created exclusively for it.

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But like its namesake, the Bullet was more than fast. It was deadly. Al Mooney had warned J. Don Alexander that the Bullet was not ready for production, and argued passionately that an extensive testing program was needed before such an exotic and radical new airplane should enter production, regardless of whether the government certified the plane or not.

Alexander, though, facing a host of economic pressures and temptations, insisted on pushing the plane forward.

It was the final frustration for Al Mooney, and he left the company -- at the invitation of a couple of Wichita businessmen, who wanted him to come to the "Air Capital City" and add his talents to the city's famous pool of aviation geniuses. Al accepted, and headed to Wichita.

Meanwhile, Mooney's concerns about the Bullet's hazards, due to inadequate research and development proved all too right.

Since the greatest killer of pilots, in those days, was an uncontrolled spinning fall -- usually resulting from uncoordinated flight at dangerously low speeds -- the government required all planes to be "spin-tested" before they could be certified for manufacture. The planes were required to be spun hard, by test pilots, 6 revolutions in each direction during their fall, and then recovered, under the watchful eye of regulators -- to demonstrate that spin-recovery was possible.

But the Bullet would not spin under any normal pilot-induced flight conditions. Sticklers for the rules, however, the feds insisted that the Bullet be spun the full dozen times, and recovery demonstrated. Various ballast and other gimmicks had to be added to prototypes to force them to spin. But when they did, they entered the dreaded "flat" spin, from which recovery proved impossible.

Some say the weight-distribution (center-of-gravity) shifted too much when the heavy landing gear retracted aft, changing the plane's inertial characteristics. Mooney's hopes of changing to the more benign flight characteristics of inward-retracting gear (as most planes are today) were thwarted by Alexander's impatience.

With only 11 Bullets manufactured, four wound up falling from the sky in a deadly, unrecoverable test spin -- two of them killing test pilots who failed to parachute to safety (including one who died as his children watched). Others Bullets had landing accidents from pilot error -- particularly due to pilots failing to remember to extend the Bullet's novel "retractable" landing gear.

The Bullet was abandoned by Alexander, but Mooney would revive the design in Wichita, as his next design.

MOONEY AIRCRAFT -- PART 1

In 1929, restless young Al arrived to attempt starting a company of his own in Wichita, Kansas, the "Air Capital City" – already home to Swallow, Cessna and Stearman – and 1929's largest civilian plane maker, Walter Beech's Travel Air.

With the help of a couple of local businessmen who led the Guarantee Title Co. and oil-drilling equipment manufacturer Bridgeport Machine Co., Mooney opened shop on the northern outskirts of town in the old Burton

Alexander Bullet, (sometimes mislabelled the "Alexander Eaglerock Bullet"), aloft over its home turf -- Pikes Peak and Colorado Springs. The first retractable-geared cantilever (strutless) monoplane developed for mass-production -- designed by Al Mooney. Only 11 would be built. Accidents from design flaws, and inadequate testing, left few flying. But before they all vanished, they'd won win races, inspired imitators, and pioneered a powerful new concept for personal aircraft -- retractable-geared single-engine cantilever-winged aircraft. Today's Mooneys -- and Bonanzas and Comanches and Centurions and Arrows and Malibus and so on -- started here. The timeless Bellanca Viking is remarkably similar.

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Car Works (now Bridgeport's factory). In was the same factory building where Clyde Cessna, in 1916, had built Wichita's first airplane, and where Lloyd Stearman had revived his failed California company in 1925.

Wichita factory for the Burton (railroad) Car Works, Jones Six Automobile, Bridgeport oil rigs, and the first Wichita factory for four great airplane-makers: Cessna (shown here), Stearman, Culver, and Mooney. Today, it's part of the Johnson Controls / York / Coleman air-conditioner factory, in north central Wichita -- still busy after more than a century.

Young Al delighted in the company of Wichita's many other aviation greats, as he developed the Mooney A-X/A-1/A-2 (his "M-5") – an improved 5-seat version of the Alexander Bullet.

Mooney AX (M-5) - repeating the Alexander Bullet's clean cantilever (unbraced) wing, gave this plane amazing speed for an enclosed-cabin 4-seater in 1929: over 120 mph on a 165-hp engine. (It wasn't the Beech Bonanza which brought that matched pair of sleek-design features to Wichita and general aviation manufacturing. It was a Mooney!)

April 4th, 1930, to garner publicity for his design, Al took off in his new "Mooney Low Wing" on a non-stop transcontinental record attempt, for his airplane's weight class, from Los Angeles to New York (Glendale, Calif. to Long Island, N.Y., to be exact). But alas, a broken fuel pump spoiled the record attempt -- forcing the plane down near Ft. Wayne, IN -- only setting an unofficial record of 1,980 miles covered in 22 hours, 27 minutes. It was, nevertheless, a stout feat for a personal plane of 1930.

Despite inspiring apparent imitators, only a handful of the A-X/A-1/A-2 were built before the stock-market crash of 1929 ushered in the Great Depression, and the collapse of American industry, including -- most particularly -- American aviation. Mooney was bankrupted, but Bridgeport's president graciously ate most of the losses.

And lucky Al left Wichita with a special treasure: a wife and child.

Swallow MODEL C-165 (1929), resembling Mooney's Alexander Bullet and Mooney A-X/A-1/A-2. It was probably the closest imitation, and built by the factory closest to Mooney's own -- less than three miles away.

Sullivan Model K-3 Crested Harpy: another Wichita monoplane resembling Mooney's Alexander Bullet and Mooney A-X/A-1/A-2. Wichita's bullish Jake Moellendick, Swallow founder, is rumored to have been part of this project.

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Another product went with him, too. Long hours at his factory had been punctuated by tinkering with another design, a tiny single-seat "sport" monoplane, with a fuselage of shaped plywood, dubbed "M-6," which Mooney hoped would fly on only 36 horsepower. Only one did. But it would serve as the prototype for a new style of Mooney airplane: compact, efficient, quick and affordable -- and made of wood.

AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER: MOONEY at BELLANCA

Al took a job in New Jersey as chief engineer of commercial production for Bellanca, working under a man he called "The Master" – Giuseppe Bellanca – the Italian-born godfather of 1920's aerodynamics and wooden wings. Now well-experienced with the Washington, D.C. aircraft-certification bureaucracy, Al ushered Bellanca design changes through certification – particularly variations of Bellanca's stout, heavy-hauling single-engined Airbus, including a military version, the C-27 – Al's "M-7."

The Bellanca C-27A cargo aircraft, 1932, in Army Air Corps markings. Able to outhaul even the Ford TriMotor, these were treasured tools, until new rules against single-engine airliners, and the growing doubts about wooden airplanes, made them obsolete.

While at Bellanca, Mooney again designed a small-but-speedy-airplane. He crafted a Bellanca race plane, the Irish Swoop -- a low-winged monoplane racer for the 1934 England-to-Australia MacRobertson Air Race -- the world's longest (and, at the time, riskiest) air race. All engine and wing, with a bit of room for fuel and pilot, it resembled the "unlimited" racers of the U.S. National Air Races, like the GeeBee and the Wedell-Williams Special.

Bellanca 'Irish Swoop' racer, built for the 1934 MacRobertson England-to-Australia air race.

Alas, the plane's pilot was forced to withdraw from the race, just hours before the start, when the "Irish Swoop" was found to be overweight. Facing a long journey over deserts, jungles, mountains and ocean, the pilot refused to sacrifice fuel load to bring the weight down, and withdrew. Perhaps it was just as well. Famed insurer Lloyd's of London figured that contestants had a 1 in 12 chance of being killed.

When the government outlawed single-engine airliners in 1934, the big single-engine Bellancas lost out to competing twins and tri-motors. The famed company was suddenly eclipsed by rivals with multi-motored airplanes, like the Curtiss Condor and the famous trimotors of Ford, Fokker and Stinson.

The wood wings that had given Bellancas so much lift with so little weight were soon to lose their popularity, too in a ghastly airliner crash near Moundridge, Kansas. A rotting wooden main spar, in the wing of a Fokker trimotor, broke in flight -- sending the entire planeload of passengers plummeting to their deaths. And among them was America's most beloved football coach, Knute Rockne. (A nearby memorial on the Kansas Turnpike commemorates the first airliner tragedy that really horrified the nation.) The infamous incident made wooden airplane structures unacceptable for large planes, from that day forward.

Bellanca's entire design technology had been focused on an exceptional mastery of wood -- and could no longer compete successfully in the airliner arena -- nor even much longer in the market for private big-cabin

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luxury aircraft. And with military orders at a lacklustre pace, Al was no longer needed in the dwindling Bellanca enterprise. But Al had learned to make the most of a material that would someday become the only material available for building personal planes, and his experience with aeronautical wood-crafting would eventually lead to his definitive signature designs.

MONOCOUPES: A TWIN AND A DART THE FIRST LIGHT TWIN: TWIN MONOCOACH

Al moved on to St.Louis' Monocoupe-Lambert, replacing chief engineer Don Luscombe who had left to start his own company. There, Al created the "first light twin" – the Twin Monocoach (his "M-8"). Cessna's first light twin, a few years later, would bear a striking (if only coincidental) resemblance to the Twin Monocoach, and both would have comparable design characteristics and dimensions.

However, the Twin Monocoach was severely handicapped by its tiny 90-horsepower Lambert engines -- which Mooney was obliged to design into the airplane, since they were manufactured by the same company as the plane. In the coming years, virtually no light twin would ever succeed with engines of less than 150-horsepower, and ones of the size of the Twin Monocoach would commonly rely on engines in the 200-300 horsepower range. Not surprisingly, the world's "first light twin" never got far.

AERIAL SPORTS CARS: MONOSPORT-G and CULVER DART

Another Monocoupe design had more promise – Al's "M-9, "the Monosport G, derived from his little 36-horse Wichita "M-6" idea. When Monocoupe-Lambert succumbed to the Depression, Monocoupe's Cleveland dealer, wealthy Knight K. Culver (son of the founder of Culver Military Academy), bought the cheap, efficient Monosport-G design, opened a factory in Columbus, Ohio, and hired Al to convert it into the tiny Dart G sport monoplane.

The lively Dart, fully aerobatic, with seating for two, galloped up 120mph behind a 90-horse radial engine. That was a lot of bang-for-the buck in those days, resulting in fuel mileage better than most of today's light planes, and -- coupled with really good acrobatic capabilities -- made the Dart a serious "sportsman's airplane," in reach of many more pilots than most light planes.

Twin Monocoach An experimental Monocoupe-Lambert "Twin Monocoach" at Wichita Municipal Airport in 1936. The photo of the visitor from Robertson, Missouri was taken by a Stearman photographer.

The Cessna T-50 Bobcat -- Cessna's first twin -- bears a remarkable (if only coincidental) resemblence to Al Mooney's preceding, failed, Twin Monocoach design. But unlike the Monocoach, struggling aloft with tiny 90-horse Lambert engines, the Bobcat benefitted from big 300-hp Jacobs radial engines, and was a great success.

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The Dart's exceptional acrobatic qualities attracted a minister-turned-acrobatic-pilot named Leonard Roosevelt "Pete" Peterson. Peterson's claim to fame was NOT the wildness of his stunts (though they were daring, indeed), but their extraordinary precision. While other aviators were purely showmen, Peterson was a top pioneer of high-speed precision acrobatics -- knowing, meticulously, the precise timing and amount of control deflection to achieve a specific maneuver with mathematical and geometric perfection -- an approach that would soon become a standard of excellence for competition aerobatics.

With this precision, Peterson knew better than anyone where the edge of a maneuver was, and went right up to the edge, time and again, astonishing audiences. His most daring trick -- doing loops that included touching his wheels on the runway during the bottom of the loop -- was done one time too many, and he finally touched the runway too hard, breaking the landing gear, sending the plane cartwheeling to his death.

But most acrobatic aviators survived the Dart, and became superior pilots from the experience. Among those was William K. Kershner, whose famous flying textbooks have been used to train hundreds of thousands of pilots -- probably more than any other writer. Like fellow Dart pilot Peterson, Kershner's unique approach to flying, too, has been his preoccupation with mathematical precision.

By most measures, the Dart was a substantial -- if not glorious -- success, and did much to vindicate Al Mooney's notion that small and sporty was the way to go.

CULVER CADET

Demand grew, but approaching World War II led to a military confiscation of most metal, diverted to weaponry. In 1940, Mooney redesigned the Dart -- still using anachronistic all-wood construction, but with the advance of "retractable" landing gear, first ever in such a tiny production airplane -- and company owner Knight Culver renamed the company (for himself). The result was the Culver Cadet – the first popular retractable-geared light airplane.

WingsOverKansas webmaster Carl Chance, with 90-hp Culver Cadet, 1941

Built almost entirely of wood, the sleek, sporty, pocket-sized tail-dragger used a compact (low-drag) tiny-but-modern, four-cylinder, 75-hp "flat" engine (cylinders horizontally mounted). That reduced drag. But the retractable landing gear reduced drag even more. In all, the plane could squeeze over 110mph (some say 120mph) out of it's cheap, thrifty 75hp engine.

1938 Culver Dart -- Knight Culver acquired this design from Monocoupe, and the designer, too. This one has modern modifications: bubble canopy, and a flat engine in place of the original small radial. Known as a lively 2-seater acrobatic airplane, it was fun sportsman's airplane, with sprightly performance -- particularly snappy in a time when most acrobatics were performed in big, slow, lumbering biplanes. (Courtesy of mooneymite.com ).

Culver Cadet viewed from the side, shows the clean lines of this retractable-geared, compact, personal 2-seater. Note slots visible on the underside of outer wing panel.

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The Cadet also featured another new idea: an elliptical wing. When viewed from above, its rounded shape resembled an ellipse -- about the time that the same idea was being applied, famously, to Britain's Supermarine Spitfire fighter. Elliptical wings offered a good mix of aerodynamic efficiency, good flight manners, and structural strength.

To further refine the Cadet's manners, at slow speeds, slots were designed into the leading-edges of the outer wing sections, to ensure good airflow over the ailerons at all speeds, maximizing pilot control of the plane. Alas, the plane was no longer considered suitable for aerobatics, and was not certified for them -- though pilots nevertheless were known to cavort with them as if they were.

The Cadet drew many admirers -- and imitators. Aeronca attempted to build a near-clone of it, named the Arrow, but their prototype was demolished when a propeller broke.

More successful was "Pop" Johnson, whose sheet-metal sport plane, the Globe Swift, was initially sparked by his experience with the Cadet (legend has it that he borrowed one from a dealer, flew it to another airport, got out a tape measure, and began measuring it meticulously, before returning it. Shortly thereafter, he began developing a very similar plane, which would eventually -- with the help of a former P-40 Warhawk designer -- evolve into a metal sports plane resembling a cross between the Culver Cadet and the P-40 Warhawk. Swifts remain prized (though controversial) aircraft, to this day.

Globe Swift GC-1B (FAA Alaska Div.)

Over 350 Culver Cadets sold. With growing demand, the factory was outgrown. Wichita aviation investor Charles "Pappy" Yankey (a Beechcraft financier) invited Culver and Mooney to move to Wichita, and set up shop in Mooney's old plant, with Yankey's backing. The resulting Culver Aircraft Co. would quickly gain a new customer for its lively little wooden wonder…

MILITARY CADETS

When World War II grew in scope and intensity, the military wanted some cheap light planes which could be fitted with remote controls for use as target drones, to train aerial and anti-aircraft gunners � but which could hold a pilot for ferrying and other flights. Twenty companies were asked to bid. The cheap, fast, wooden Cadet was perfect, and the government ordered some for tests. They were so pleased that they placed an order for a staggering 2,500!

Culver Cadet viewed from above, its distinctive elliptical wing and horizontal tail are apparent, as are the slots in the outboard wing sections. This one is Bill Poynter's, rounding a pylon in a 1968 Halsmer, Indiana race, where he took 2nd in the under-100hp class -- just behind a later Mooney design, the Mooney M-18 Mite. (courtesy of Bill Poynter)

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The Port Columbus facility wasn't big enough for such volume, and elderly Knight Culver apparently wasn't ready for the financial, legal and management pressures of such big business. When approached by Wichita's Walter Beech (yes, that Beech) and Charles G. Yankey (leading Wichita attorney and aviation investor), Knight sold out. Culver Aircraft Co. moved to Wichita back into the old (now abandoned) Bridgeport factory -- where Al had first set up shop under his own name, a few years earlier. With cheap, "after-hours" skilled labour -- provided by "moonlighting" workers from local plane manufacturers Beech, Cessna and Stearman -- the Culver Aircraft Co. was quickly back in business.

Things were a bit rocky for a moment, as Al Mooney suddenly found himself in unfamiliar hands, with Yankey as Culver president and Beech as V.P. But things soon smoothed out, and the money flowed, as Al shrunk the Cadet into a single-seat, compact flying target.

At the government's insistence, the plane was shortened, giving up some of its stability, but saving cost and materials. Since the drones were usually operated from smooth, paved military airfields, tricycle gear was fitted, to simplify landing. Radio-controlled from a nearby Beech or Cessna twin, the drones had exciting (often short) lives. (When Al followed one in a drone-control plane, during a ground-gunnery training exercise, he was nearly hit by the anti-aircraft blasts which rocked his big twin).

(Another near-casualty of the Culver experience was Al's marriage. His bachelor habits of heavy drinking and living at the factory, even sleeping with his work at the expense of his family finally exasperated his lonely wife. She suddenly divorced him, and promptly married another acquaintance. Through a series of melodramatic misadventures, Al eventually had the chance to win her and the kids back, and seized the opportunity, with determination and luck. Thereafter, Al claimed, he never missed a family dinner again, even if he had to return to work later which he resisted.

SEND IN THE DRONES

The military designated the first Culver drone design as the PQ-8. Pilots would fly it in front of student anti-aircraft gunners (on the ground or airplanes) during "dry-fire" excercises (shooting blanks), and some were flown -- by remote control -- into real bullets during "live fire" excercises. Made from wood, and using the some of the cheapest, smallest engines of the war, the Culver drones were "expendable" airplanes, and also a challenge to early radar operators. The addition of tricycle landing gear made them much easier to take off and land by remote control. A few survived the war to become prized war-surplus personal hot-rods for private pilots.

Culver PQ-14 B piloted drone -- the Culver Cadet, reduced neatly to a slender, single-seat fuselage, made a lively and challenging target. This model has the extended wings and larger engine that turned the PQ-8 into the speedy, fast-climbing PQ-14B. (US Air Force photo) mooneymite.com ).

Beech JRB-1 (Twin Beech) 'mother-ship' for Culver drones (1940). A modified Beech Model 18 (Twin Beech), with an extra observing cockpit for the person remotely controlling the drones.

Single-seat Culver Cadet drones aloft: A lot of flying for the military's money. (aerofiles.com)

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A later version, the PQ-14, with only a 125-hp Franklin, flew fast (up to 185 mph), and high (17,000 feet) a perfect target for fighter pilots and B-29 gunners. When kamikaze pilots threatened the U.S. Pacific fleet, several PQ-14s were rushed to Okinawa, where naval gunners practiced downing the swift little drones.

In all, over 3,000 units of the PQ-8 and successors were built by Culver the military's only drone-supplier. The Army and Navy were delighted with their versatility and efficiency, and with Culver (and Mooney's) flexibility in adapting the plane to any need. By war's end, the Bridgeport plant was employing over 600 employees, yet the War Department insisted that the entire operation be kept secret the only Wichita plane maker under such strict secrecy (not even Boeing's Wichita plant, which built most B-29's, was so hushed up). The military considered the drones a particularly unique asset.

"V" IS FOR "VICTORY" AND DEFEAT

At war's end, many Culver drones were bought as surplus by civilians, who stripped off the military hardware and insignias, and got them recertified as hot little personal planes. With the end of military contracts, though, "Pappy" Yankey and Walter Beech withdrew from the company, and let another investor, Mr. VanGrant, take the lead.

At VanGrant's insistence, Mooney designed a new commercial version of the Cadet: the 2-seat Culver "V" (for "Victory"). Intended as an improved Cadet, it was not as safe or satisfying. Like the Cadet and the drones, it was made entirely from wood; but it was painted in elegant, stylish paint schemes that often left one suspecting that plane was a work of modern sheetmetal.

With unusual slightly-upswept outer wing panels (adding diehedral for roll stability), and a hump-like cockpit, it managed 125mph on an 80-85hp Continental, hauling two folks up to 650 miles. In theory, it was a good, low-budget, wide-ranging personal shuttle for the postwar businessman. And in a time when most personal aircraft were rag-wing taildraggers, the sleek, modern-looking Culver V was elegant and

sophisticated by comparison.

The "V" had many features Mooney considered important for economical, safe, easy-to-fly personal planes: A Beech-Roby dual-pitch adjustable prop; electrically-retracted, tricycle landing gear, with rubber "doughnuts" for shock-absorption; and a one-piece slotted flap extending underneath the fuselage.

The Culver V displays its wide-span flap, stretching from wing to wing.

Culver V - Retractable gear wasn't enough to make this classy-looking, but overweight, 75-hp weakling outrun the fixed-gear Cessna 120. One wonders what 90 horses might have done.

Culver V , circa 1948, with retractable tricycle gear -- very new to general aviation

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For safety, Mooney linked the flaps to elevator-trim -- in a system Culver's ad-man dubbed "Simpli-Fly": when flaps were cranked by a wheel in the panel, a mechanical linkage prevented any pitch change with a corresponding elevator-trim change, keeping the plane flying even. This reduced the chance of getting into a stall. It created a strange sense for the pilot that he was mostly managing a trim wheel during climb and descent -- rather than a control stick and flap handle.

But the "V" was a more challenging plane to fly than Mooney had anticipated. During a demonstration flight, in front of Mooney (who was supposed to be riding, but had given his seat to his senior mechanic), the prototype crashed, killing the test pilot and the mechanic. On his deathbed, the dying mechanic assured Mooney that the confused pilot was to blame: he'd tried to show off and made a mistake. But the disaster didn't help sales of the plane, nor investors' confidence. And it didn't help Al's feelings about the project, nor about VanGrant, who had forced it. The "V" was Mooney's last Culver. He quit.

CESSNA CLOBBERS CULVERS

The hand-made, wooden "V" was expensive to build (and thus to buy), with a price of $3,950. It faced stiff competition from 30,000 new planes like the mass-produced Piper Cub Cruiser and Vagabond, heavy-hauling Stinson Voyager, and sleek Beech Bonanza along with hordes of other postwar light aircraft, and 30,000 war-surplus planes (including hundreds of Culver drones). But the "V"'s greatest challenge was the Cessna 120/140.

The Cessna 140, Cessna's $3,250, long-winged, fixed-gear, all-metal puddle-jumper, used a similar engine to the Culver V's, producing similar performance -- without the peculiar and suspect handling of the Culver, and without its complex systems. The Cessna 120 -- a stripped down 140 without its electric starter and mostly-useless flaps -- could be had for only $2,650.

Cessna's 120 and 140 had a lower landing speed (41mph vs. the Culver's 60mph), and conventional, taildragger fixed landing gear -- permitting easier landing on the short, rough fields still commonly used by lightplane pilots. The hot, tricycle-geared Culver used up runway quickly, and was vulnerable to whacking the props in bumpy fields. The gentler, more-conventional Cessna was also the preferred way to go for the hottest market: postwar trainers. It was roomier, too.

Another issue was weight. Like Culver, Cessna had built small wooden planes for the war, saving aluminum for combat aircraft. But unlike Culver, Cessna had also subcontracted with Boeing's Wichita Division to build the modern, aluminum tail assemblies for over 1,500 B-29 bombers, and with Douglas to build the complex, curved aluminum cowlings for over 3,000 A-26 bombers. Aluminum construction had come a long way, suddenly, during the war. Now wooden planes were decidedly heavier than aluminum planes of the same power, capacity and speed. Though the Cessna and Culver had about the same gross weight, the full-fuel payload of the "V" was only about 340 lbs., to the Cessna's 400 lbs.

Cessna 140 , the simpler, cheaper, alternative to the Culver V, with comparable performance. This efficient, practical, mass-produced, two-seater wiped out much of the struggling competition in the early postwar years. Though this one is painted, most were sold with shiny bare metal, advertising their modern construction.

An elegant Culver V, with owner Larry Dale at the controls, near Colorado Springs. The factory-issued Beech-Roby adjustable wooden prop has been traded for a fixed-pitch metal Sesnich prop. (The stretch-cord on the side is not a normal fixture.) All wood, and yet surely one of the most stylish planes of the early postwar years.

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The Culver offered 650-mile range, compared to the small-tanked Cessna's 450 miles, and 115mph against Cessna's 105mph. But it wasn't enough to offset the Cessna's virtues, including its shiny, modern, rot-resistant aluminum skin and frame. With Cessna's war-funded factory, equipped to efficiently turn out modern, aluminum aircraft by the thousands at low prices, smaller competition (including Culver) had little hope of competing. Only about 100 Culver "V"s sold before the company faded away along with most other lightplane manufacturers in the postwar boom-and-bust of 1946-1947.

MOONEY'S MITE-Y COMEBACK

This would not be the end of Al Mooney, though. He remained infatuated with the idea of a compact, personal retractable. And he had good reason. By the hundreds, men were buying up war-surplus single-seat Culver drones, and fixing them up into certified civilian personal planes. Al sat down to chat with his most recent favourite backer, old "Pappy" Yankey. Al believed he could make a compact single-seat, tricycle-geared retractable fly with just a cheap 25-hp Crosley Cobra, a tiny engine designed during the war to run generators. Shaped like a tiny imitation of the German Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter, Al's "M-18"would mate plywood wings and tail to a tiny aluminum-skinned, steel-framed forward fuselage, with the fuselage aft of the pilot made entirely of a lightweight monocoque plywood shell. If Al Mooney's calculations were right (as they usually were), this design could be priced lower than any other brand-new airplane, yet fly over 100mph, for only a penny a mile! And with his safety features changed to meet his own specifications, the plane would be far safer than the Culver V, or the converted drones. What more perfect personal transportation could there be? Pappy Yankey rounded up the money, and this time the Culver factory was reopened with an old name resurrected above the door: Mooney Aircraft Corporation. This time, the name would not fade from history...

In the months to come, Mooney's M-18 Mite, the tiny wonder with the "backwards tail" would undergo some painful design changes, but survive -- and evolve into an even more important plane -- the 4-seat M-20 whose speedy wake would rock the wings of general aviation's Big Three, and set a global standard for speed and efficiency.

TO CONTINUE THIS STORY, see:

SOURCES (Any errors are mine, not theirs. Thanks, folks!):

Dale, Lawrence "Larry" P., Colorado Springs, CO; Culver V, Mooney Mite and M20 owner/pilot; former President of the Mooney Mite Owners Association.

Bender, Jim, Wichita, KS, former neighbour to the Wichita Culver factory. Mitts, Dawson & Judy, formerly of Wichita, KS; Mooney M20 owner/pilot and spouse (thanks for letting

me fly your magnificent airplane, guys!) Schiff, Barry, one of the world's leading pilots, author of several aviation books and hundreds of

magazine articles, including pilot reports reflecting his experience with over 300 airplanes, like the Culver Cadet.

Aerofiles.com (the American aviation historian's technical reference).

Mooney M-18 (later named 'Mite '), with original 25-hp Crosley engine; note radiator under fuselage

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Bissionette: The Wichita 4: Cessna, Moellendick, Beech & Stearman, (from interviews with Matty Laird, Lloyd Stearman, Olive Ann Beech, Dwayne Wallace, Rawdon, Burnham, and other principals).

Flying Magazine, "50th Anniversary Issue", September 1977 (432-page comprehensive history of aviation, with particular detail on general aviation, written by major industry writers, leaders & historians)

Kansas State Historical Society, 2007, Albin K. Longren: A Kansas Portrait , online at: http://www.kshs.org/portraits/longren_albin.htm.

Phillips, Edward, H. Travel Air: Wings over the Prairie, revised ed., Flying Books International, 1982/1994, Eagan MN (coverage of Laird/Swallow, Travel Air and early careers of Cessna, Stearman & Beech)

Rowe, Frank J. & Miner, Craig. Borne on the South Wind: A Century of Kansas Aviation. Wichita Eagle & Beacon Publishing Co., Wichita. 1994 (comprehensive history of Kansas aircraft manufacturers and Kansas aviation)

Schamburger, Page and Joe Christy, Conquest of the Sky: A Pictorial History of Aviation, 1968, Castle Books/A.S. Barnes & Co., NY, (exceptionally thorough history of U.S. aviation from Civil War balloons to start of World War II, with vignettes written or dictated by pioneer aviators, and extraordinary collection of rare and historic photos; by two famed aviator/writers; exceptional coverage of general aviation history, and Wichita's companies in particular).

Szurovy, Geza, Wings of Yesteryear: The Golden Age of Private Aircraft, 1998, Motorbooks International (summary history of Golden Age private aviation and many of its leading aircraft and personalities; richly illustrated with modern photos of vintage aircraft)

Taylor, Richard, I Love Kansas: History Made, History Remembered, 2001, Leathers/Squire, Leawood, KS (Includes definitive study of planes -- and person -- of Kansas' first aircraft manufacturer, Albin K. Longren, later V.Pres. of Cessna, whose designs included the first Alexander Eaglerock and first composite/monocoque aircraft; Rev. Taylor is the acknowledged expert on Longren and his aircraft.)

also see specific companies below:

MOONEY, CULVER and ALEXANDER

American Aviation Historical Society, " Culver V ", AAHS Journal, Vol. 50 No.3 - Fall 2005 Ball, Larry, Those Remarkable Mooneys, Ball Publications, Indianapolis, Ind., 1998 Baxter, Gordon, with Al & Art Mooney, The Al Mooney Story: They All Fly Through the Same Air,

Fredericksburg, Texas: Shearer Publishing, 1985 (Al Mooney's memoirs, as dictated to Gordon Baxter of Flying Magazine).

Clifford, Frank J., from his "Giants of the Industry series, #4": "Al Mooney: The Man behind the Mighty Mite" FAA Aviation News , circa 1967, online at: http://www.mooneymite.com/articles-history/AMmanbehindthemite.htm

DC3Airways.com The MacRobertson Air Race, 1934: England to Australia , online at: http://www.dc3airways.com/1934-1.html

deVries, John A., Col., USAF (ret'd), Alexander Eaglerock: A History of the Alexander Aircraft Company, Century One Press, Colorado Springs, 1985 (Al Mooney's first designs were Alexander planes).

Downie, Don, "Pilot's Report: Mooney Mite," Skyways, August 1949 , online at: http://www.mooneymite.com/articles-flightreports/downie1949report.htm

Gorj�o, Carlos (Culver V owner, Brazil), Culver V - Mooney 17 online at: http://www.geocities.com/aeromodelismoemportugal/mooney17.html (commentary by Culver V owner, with data from aircraft manual).

MooneyMite.com website, Mooney Mite History , online at: http://www.mooneymite.com/articles-flightreports/downie1949report.htm (Adapted from an article by M.B. Groves in American Aircraft Modeler magazine.)

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Mooney Aircraft Corporation, Mooney Aircraft Corporation: Product Historical Roadmap , online at: http://www.mooneyevents.com/mooneychart.pdf (Mooney company official product history timeline chart, 1949-2002, with location and ownership notations).

National Museum of the United States Air Force, CULVER PQ-14B Fact Sheet , online at: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=291 (Official remarks and data from National Museum of the USAF).

Pikes Peak Library District, Alexander Industries Records, 1904-1976. MSS 0056 , Special Collections, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, CO, online at: http://library.ppld.org/SpecialCollections/manuscriptcollections/mss0056.asp (The library's official overview of the history of Alexander Industries and its history, and summary of the company archives retained in the library's Special Collections section.).

Sargent, Sparky Barnes, " Dashing and Darting Through the Sky," VintageAirplane , April 2007, v35, no4, PDF file online at: http://www.vintageaircraft.org/featured/2007%20-%20Vol.%2035,%20No.%2004%20-Dashing%20and%20Darting%20Through%20the%20Sky.pdf (owner's flight review of Culver Dart/Cadet Model LCA).

Stahlberg, Kathy, " An Interview with the Mooneys ," IMS LOG , March-April 1975, International Mooney Society, San Antonio, TX., online at: http://www.mooneymite.com/articles-history/stahlberg.interview.htm

Wilkinson, Stephan "BRIEFING: Bullet Redux," Aviation History, July 2002 (Summary history of Alexander Bullet, with technical notes, and news of replica being developed by Mary Senft Hanson, of Arizona, and her husband Bob)

CESSNA

Christy, Joe; revised by Brian J. Dooley, The Complete Guide to Single-Engine Cessnas, 4th.ed., 1993, TAB/McGraw-Hill, NY

Denau, Gerald, An Eye to the Sky, 1962, Cessna Aircraft Co., Wichita, KS (semi-official company history, with exceptional detail and unusual candor about some products)

Phillips, Edward, H. Wings of Cessna: Model 120 to the Citation III., Flying Books International, 1986, Eagan MN