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The Gwinn Aircar was a single-engined biplane with a cabin for two, designed in the USA as a safe and simple private aircraft. Lacking a rudder, it had several unusual control features as well as an early tricycle undercarriage. Development was abandoned after a crash in 1938. ==Design== The Gwinn Aircar was the only product of the aircraft manufacturing company set up by Joseph M. Gwinn Jr, who also designed it. He had previously worked with Consolidated Aircraft. The Aircar was intended as a safe, easy to fly aircraft that would neither stall nor spin. It used a simplified control system without a rudder. A fuselage which deepened rapidly behind a small radial engine and ended with a fin integrated into it, together with a tricycle undercarriage with a tall and faired front leg, gave the Aircar an unusual appearance.〔Grey 1938, pp. 271c–272c.〕 The Aircar was a single bay biplane with parallel chord, unswept wings with strong stagger. The wings were built around two wooden spars, with metal ribs and edges but fabric covered; they were fixed to the upper and lower fuselage. The interplane struts were N-shaped, linking upper and lower spars, aided by one diagonal strut on each side running from the upper rear spar to the lower forward spar.〔 Full span ailerons were fitted to both upper and lower wings. The Aircar was initially fitted with a Pobjoy Niagara II engine, a small diameter radial. The driveshaft of the two-bladed propeller was offset above the engine center by spur reduction gearing. An exhaust pipe led back over the cabin and the upper wing. The cabin windscreen was ahead of the wing leading edge but the glazing extended aft to beyond the trailing edge, pilot and passenger sitting side-by-side under it. Entry was by a pair of forward hinged, car type doors, one on either side. The all-metal, stressed skinned fuselage bulged rapidly behind the engine and was roughly circular in cross section between the wings. Seen from the side, the fuselage depth decreased only gently, but in plan it narrowed rapidly, ending in a vertical knife edge. The tailplane, mounted on the centerline, had a curved leading edge and carried elevators. The deflection range of these was limited to an overall 8.5°. The original fin had near straight leading edges both above and below the fuselage, terminating in a vertical, rudderless trailing edge carrying only a trim tab below the centerline.〔〔("3-view of Aircar." ) ''Fiddlersgreen.com'' Retrieved: October 13, 2012.〕〔("Gwinn Aircar." ) ''Aerofiles.'' Retrieved: October 13, 2012.〕 The tricycle undercarriage, unusual at the time, had short main legs made possible by the combination of lower fuselage depth and hence lower wing position, together with the offset propeller. These legs were joined to the front wing spar close to the fuselage, cross braced and splayed outwards to increase the track. The front leg, mounted just behind the engine, was much longer; all three legs were faired and carried wheels enclosed in spats.〔〔 Control of the Aircar was also unusual. A column mounted wheel moved the ailerons and fore and aft motion of the column operated the elevators as normal. Turns were made by banking. The trim tab on the fin compensated for propeller torque and was directly linked to the throttle. Instead of a rudder bar, a pedal operated the flaps used for takeoff and landing. The wheel brakes were also foot operated and the nosewheel was steered with the control column wheel. At takeoff, the flaps were initially retracted and the aircraft accelerated; at the appropriate speed the flaps were lowered and the Aircar left the ground. With elevators up this "zoom" was rapid but ended in level flight, whilst with them down the zoom was gentler and turned into a steady climb. Landings were made from a low speed approach with flaps extended; throttled back, the Aircar adopted a horizontal attitude, the elevator only controlling the sink rate.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gwinn Aircar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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