Country of origin:

Australia

Description:

[Both PL-9 and PL-13] four-seat cabin monoplane

Power Plant:

[PL-9] one 112 kw (150 hp) Lycoming O-320 four-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine
[PL-13] one 212 kw (285 hp) Continental IO-520A six-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine

Specifications:

History:

In late 1957 the Royal Queensland Aero Club (RQAC) announced that at its instigation preliminary design work had begun
on a four-seat fully-aerobatic monoplane known as the PL-9, and that it was to be constructed at the Aero Clubs workshops at
Archerfield, Qld. Designer of the aircraft was prolific aircraft designers, Luigi Pellarini and it was aimed at filling the requirements
of the Aero Club and perhaps private operators. Stress details and drawings were underway and it was anticipated that sufficient
production drawings would be approved by the Department of Civil Aviation by January 1958 for work to commence on the
construction of a prototype.

The aircraft was to be of all-metal construction with a T-tail and a tricycle undercarriage. A survey was under way at to the
tooling that would be required and if it was not already available to the Club, it would be procured in order to build the aircraft
at Archerfield.

The Clubs announcement stated the reason for embarking on the project to design and build its own aircraft was ‘due to the rigidly
controlled DCA requirements in Australia which differ only to a minor extent from the Service training system, ie for a military
aircraft. It was said that if DCA maintained a system unique to Australia the Aero Club considered it unlikely that overseas
manufacturers would produce a civil training type that would fully satisfy the requirements of Australian Aero Clubs.

It was further stated the PL-9 was designed to meet the requirements of the Australian training system but, as the same time,
it was felt that the demand for a purely training aircraft would limit the numbers that could be produced and thus greatly affect the
cost of production. It was considered the design features incorporated could make the aircraft an attractive proposition for the
private or charter operator. However, like many promising Australian designs, a prototype was not completed and flown.

There ahs been some conjecture about an earlier design being known as the PL-9. When Mr Pellarini was designing he Airtruck
agricultural aircraft in New Zealand for Bennett Aviation the initial design was for the aircraft to be fitted with an Armstrong
Siddeley Cheetah engine providing 336 kw (450 hp). It has been thought this was to be the Bennett PL-9 Airtruck but on
becoming aware that numbers of ex-RNZAF Harvards were available at a good price, the design with the Cheetah engine was
dropped in favour of the PL-11 (dealt with separately) fitted with a Pratt & Whitney R-1340 radial engine. It is interested design
work on the agricultural PL-9 and PL-11 designs ceased in about 1957 and this is about the time when work on the PL-9 the
subject of this article was proceeding

In Janes All the Worlds Aircraft for the years 1965 and 1966 there is reference to a four-seat light aircraft derived from one
of Mr Pellarini’s earlier designs, the Victa R.2, of which a prototype was built by Victa Ltd and flight tested in 1961. Later
this development became known as the PL-13 but work on it was discontinued. Certainly the PL-13 has some resemblance
visually to the PL-9 design, and the R.2 before it, being single-engine low-wing monoplanes with a T-tail and a tricycle
undercarriage..

Mr Pellarini went on to design the Transavia PL-12 series which was quite successful in the agricultural role with production
taking place at the Transavia vacility at Seven Hills in western Sydney. Some reports refer to the PL-13 as the Transavia
PL-13 and it may well be the design was to proceed at one stage in the hands of Transavia.
affect the cost of production.