Photograph:
The partially built Airjeep at Bankstown, NSW in July 1974 (David C Eyre)
Country of origin:
Australia
Description:
Light cabin monoplane
Power Plant:
One 90 kw (120 hp) Franklin four-cylinder in-line air-cooled engine
Specifications:
- [Estimated]
- Wingspan: 9.6 m (31 ft 6 in)
- Length: 6.93 m (22 ft 8 in)
- Height: 2.19 m (7 ft 2 in)
- Wing area: 18.85 m² (203 sq ft)
- Estimated performance
- Max speed at sea level: 209 km/h (130 mph)
- Cruising speed at 75% power: 193 km/h (120 mph)
- Stalling speed flaps down: 66 km/h (41 mph)
- Rate of climb at sea level: 292 m/min (960 ft/min)
- Practical ceiling: 4,572 m (15,000 ft)
- Take-off ground run: 174 m (570 ft)
- Landing ground run: 128 m (420 ft)
- Range with standard fuel: 1,046 km (650 miles)
- Wing loading: 10.9 lb/sq ft
- Power loading: 17.8 lb/hp
- Empty weight: 476 kg (1,050 lb)
- Useful load: 544 kg (1,200 lb)
- Loaded weight: 1021 kg (2,250 lb)
History:
The Airjeep (in some references referred to as the Air Sedan and PL-13) was designed by well-known Italian-born Australian aircraft designer, Luigi Pellarini, designer of the Fawcett 120, Transavia PL-12, Victa R-2, Kingsford Smith PL-7 Tanker, PL-11 Bennett Airtruck and a number of other projects, including what was to be the PL-9, a four-seat fully-aerobatic low-wing monoplane for the Royal Queensland Aero Club and, in the 1970s, a futuristic wedge-shaped twin pusher-engined passenger aircraft.
The PL-9 (dealt with elsewhere) was to be an all-metal low-wing monoplane which the RQAC planned to build at its Archerfield workshops from about 1957. It was to be powered by a 112 kw (150 hp) Lycoming O-320 engine and have a max speed of 233 km/h (145 mph), a cruising speed at 75 per cent power of 201 km/h (125 mph) and a stalling speed of 74 km/h (46 mph). It was to have a fixed tricycle undercarriage.
Luigi Pellarini, before moving to Australia in 1953, worked on a series of designs known as “The Air Cars” and a couple of the designs were built, one becoming the Autelo PL.5C. It was registered as I-AUTO but it seems the designs were not particularly successful and after moving to Australia he continued with his interest in an aeroplane that could be used on the country’s highways.
The Airjeep was a single pusher-engine four-seat passenger aircraft designed for touring, the propeller being behind the cockpit and the tail attached to twin booms similar to the Cessna 336/337 series but with separate and distinct booms, there being no vertical and horizontal tail surfaces as such, there being one surface at the end of each boom at an angle. The aircraft had a retractable tricycle undercarriage and a canard wing on the lower forward fuselage in the area of the nosewheel. V-struts were attached to short stub wings at the bottom of the fuselage at the rear of the cabin and up to the wing. There was a flap at the rear of the pod-type fuselage.
Work proceeded on construction of a prototype at Bankstown, NSW during the 1970s. However, work was slow and the aircraft was never completed. Finally, in about 1982, the hangar space became too valuable and the incomplete aircraft was conveyed to the Australian Army Museum of Aviation at Oakey, QLD. At the Museum it has been restored and painted to the stage it reached when work stopped. It is on display in its incomplete state. By 2020 the airframe had become part of the collection of aircraft at the Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra.