Photograph:
The surviving Church Midwing JC-1 [N9167] from the 1930s in the EAA museum at Oshkosh in Wisconsin, USA in July 2007 (David C Eyre)
Country of origin:
United States of America
Description:
Single-seat light sport aircraft
Power Plant:
One 19 kw (27 hp) Rotax 277 single-cylinder two-stroke air-cooled engine of 16.40 cub in weighing 29.5 kg (65 lb)
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 8.07 m (26 ft 6 in)
- Length: 4.87 m (16 ft)
- Height: 1.37 m (4 ft 6 in)
- Wing area: 10.86 m² (117 sq ft)
- Never exceed speed: 153 km/h (95 mph)
- Cruising speed: 105 km/h (65 mph)
- Stalling speed: 42 km/h (26 mph)
- Rate of climb: 183 m/min (600 ft/min)
- Range: 201 km (125 miles)
- Take-off roll: 38 m (125 ft)
- Landing roll: 46 m (150 ft)
- Service ceiling: 3,048 m(10,000ft)
- Fuel capacity: 19 litres (4.16 imp gals)
- Empty weight: 107 kg (235 lb)
- Loaded weight: 249 kg (550 lb)
History:
In the late 1920s James Church built a light aircraft known as the Church Midwing JC-1 for racing using the fuselage of a Heath Parasol, the aircraft being a wire-braced mid-wing aircraft. It was entered in the 1930 National Air Races in the pylon races and in the following year it was fitted with an in-line air-cooled Church engine which provided 28 kw (38 hp). An advertisement in the magazine Popular Mechanics referred to its performance and the fact that it finished first in its class.
The original aircraft survives, having been acquired by Gene Chase in the 1960s and, after five years restoration, it was presented at the EAA event at Oshkosh in 1970, making its first flight at the Ottumwa Fly-in in September of that year. At that stage it was fitted with a Heath Henderson engine. Registered N9167 it is on display at the EAA Museum at Oshkosh in Wisconsin, USA.
In more recent times the Rag Wing Aeroplane Company has offered a replica of the original aircraft and it has been available in plan form to be built from wood with fabric covering powered by a modern Rotax 277 engine. Designed by Roger Mann it made its first flight in 1994 and meets FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicle regulations. A number of examples have been built around the world with a range of engines, including the 22 kw (30 hp) Kawasaki 340, 26 kw (35 hp) two-cylinder four-stroke Volkswagen conversion, and the Kawasaki 430 unit driving a two-blade wooden propeller. An RW-4 Midwing was under construction in the Canterbury area of New Zealand in 2018.