Photograph:
Culver V N8442B at Omaka, New Zealand in April 2009 (David C Eyre)
Country of origin:
United States of America
Description:
Two-seat light cabin monoplane
Power Plant:
One 67 kw (90 hp) Continental C-90 four-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 8.83 m (29 ft)
- Length: 6.33 m (20 ft 8½ in)
- Height: 2.1 m (6 ft 9½ in)
- Wing area: 11.61 m² (125 sq ft)
- Max cruising speed: 201 km/h (125 mph)
- Initial rate of climb: 201 m/min (660 ft/min)
- Service ceiling: 3,993 m (13,100 ft)
- Range: 1,127 km (700 miles)
- Empty weight: 485 kg (1,070 lb)
- Loaded weight: 726 kg (1,600 lb)
History:
The Culver Cadet series of light aircraft was designed by Al Mooney and built by the Culver Aircraft Company of Wichita, Kansas as a small two-seat side-by-side all-wood construction light aircraft fitted with a 60 kw (80 hp) Franklin 4AC-176-D engine.
The Company was formed in 1939 to take over the Dart Manufacturing Corporation and continue production of the Dart Model D, which in itself had been previously designed by Monocoupe as the Monosport.
Two models were produced, the LCA with a 56 kw (75 hp) Continental engine, and the LFA with the Franklin 4AC-176-D unit. Production ceased in 1941 so the Company could concentrate on producing aircraft for the US military services, particularly the NR-D, also known as the PQ-14, radio-controlled target aircraft.
In 1946 the Company introduced the Model V, which was a two-seat light aircraft also of all-wood construction, but the Company ran into financial problems and only a few hundred were constructed.
In 1956 a company known as Superior Aircraft Company was formed to produce the Model V, it then becoming known as the Superior Satellite. It differed from the original Model V only in having a 67 kw (90 hp) Continental C-90 engine in place of the 63 kw (85 hp) Continental C-85. However, the new production line only produced some 40 aircraft before it too ceased production.
Construction of the monocoque fuselage was of resin-bonded spruce and plywood. The aircraft had a pushrod-operated retractable undercarriage driven by a geared electric motor and was fitted with a fuel-injected Continental C-85J-12 engine driving a Sensenich two-position pilot-adjustable propeller. Magnesium was used extensively throughout the aircraft fairing and the canopy structure to save weight.
In 2002 an example was imported to New Zealand. An American who lived in New Zealand, Patrick Donovan, had operated an example when he was young in Hawaii. He sourced an example in the United States and it underwent some restoration at Omaka aerodrome at Blenheim. In 2006 JEM Aviation was commissioned to complete the project. Restoration was completed, a suitable engine being sourced from Portugal. However, in 2010 it was exported to the United States where the engine was overhauled and it was fitted with an Aeromatic 200 propeller, becoming N8442B, test flying commencing in 2011.