Curtiss C-76 Caravan

[fishjay]

The Curtiss C-76 was designed and built of wood to conserve strategic metals (aluminum) during WWII. The shortage of these metals did not develop and the production of the plane was terminated. Besides the Budd Conestoga, were there any other planes designed to meet this conservation requirement?

fishjay

 

[Grey Havoc]

Just in the US there were at least two fighter and one trainer programs that I'm aware of. Or are you talking about both Allied and Axis programs?

 

[Grey Havoc]

Two of the fighter programs were the Bell XP-77 and the Fisher XP-75.
Some more details:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_XP-77
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XP-75

Also, don't forget to check out the RetroMechanix.com XP-75 article (link at SPF XP-75 topic above).


The trainer was a Beechcraft project IIRC, but can't think of the designation at the moment. I'll look around to see if I can find it on SPF or elsewhere.

For Allied 'Emergency Fighter' projects in general, have a look here.

I also seem to have a dim memory of a US bomber project related to strategic materials conservation, although my mind could be playing tricks on me there.

 

[Grey Havoc]

The Beechcraft trainer was the successful Model 26 (prototype was the Model 25), service designation AT-10 Wichita.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechcraft_AT-10_Wichita
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,12046.0.html

 

[Boxman]

The Curtiss C-76 was designed and built of wood to conserve strategic metals (aluminum) during WWII. The shortage of these metals did not develop and the production of the plane was terminated. Besides the Budd Conestoga, were there any other planes designed to meet this conservation requirement?

fishjay

I'd also add the Ryan PT-25 (YPT-25) to the list, built of bonded plywood. Only five were built.

Some great photos (again) at the San Diego Air & Space Museum's Flickr Commons archive:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/tags/ryanpt25/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/5684489903/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/5684488907/

 

[fishjay]

Thanks for the info guys. I didn't realize that there had been so many programs involved with the strategic resource conservation program.

Lester

 

[Grey Havoc]

The brief revival of the Consolidated XPB3Y-1 long range (Patrol/ Bomber) flying boat project, in 1942, may have been as part of the strategic resource conservation program. No confirmation of this though. A few more details, via the Axis History Forum:

The Edge on 23 Jan 2010, 17:06
<blockquote>Waleed Y. Majeed wrote:XPB3Y-1 (model 31) </blockquote>
Hmm…

(Conflicting data)
PB3Y (Model 30) 1942 - Four-engine flying boat design as XPB3Y-1 with R-2800-18s, 22,000# bomb load. 1938 project was shelved, then revived when ordered by USN in April 1942, but canceled in November. Designation unused.

As you can see from the Designations Systems link (revision on second page!), the correct Consolidated company model number was most likely Model 30 although confusingly it was also known as the Model 34 in it's 1937/38 incarnation. The Model 34 designation was recycled two times after the XPB3Y-1, once for a series of pre-war 1941 commercial flying boat studies, and then again in 1943 for the production version of the Model 33, the B-32 Dominator.

 

[Grey Havoc]

The Vega Model 42 target drone project could also be considered to be part of the strategic resource conservation program.

 

[Grey Havoc]

The Kaiser Tailless Airplane, also known as the Kaiser cargo wing, may also have had it's orgins in the program.

 

[hesham]

Hi,

please help,I found this artist drawing to a giant cargo aircraft,maybe a Project,they said it was going to
build in Curtiss-Wright company,I don't know if it was from its design,or its a real aircraft from anther
firm,built under licence or what ?.

Aviation Week | Aviation Week Search results for: america at war flying boat

Search the complete Aviation Week archive. Explore every issue we have ever published: find every article, photo, story, interview, pictorial, advertisement, and more.

archive.aviationweek.com

 

[brontolino]

Dear Heshan, very likely a sketch of the built C-76 Caravan

 

[edwest4]

I agree.

 

[hesham]

Oh,I forget it at all,thanks.

 

[riggerrob]

During WW2, numerous projets experimented with molded plywood: Duramold, Haskelite, Weldwood, etc. Some methods injected phenolic resin to toughen skins.

Federal Aircraft (Canada) built a thousand AvRO Anson Mark V trainers with molded plywood fuselages. They had smoother skins, increased cabin volume and vastly reduced parts count.

deHaviand of Canada built wooden Mosquito fighter-bombers.
Fairchild built AT-21, twin-engines bomber trainers.
Tim built a plywood basic trainer.
Beechcraft built molded wood light twin trainers.

Russian LaGG and Yak fighters were built of molded plywood.

As well, most assault gliders were a mixture of wood, fabric and steel tube construction.

 

[taildragger]

Projects to motorize the WACO CG-4 (known as the PG-2, I'm guessing PG stood for "powered glider") should also be on the list, Interestingly, and an initiative in the opposite direction, the XCG-17 - an unpowered version of the C-47 was also tested.

 

[HoHun]

Hi everyone,

Reel A2059 available here has hundreds of pages of information on the Curtiss C-76 Caravan:

Digital Reel Archive

Just browsing through it quickly, it seems to have been overweight, statically and dynamically unstable with an inacceptable centre-of-gravity-range, and structurally dangerously weak, in addition to suffering from control issues in elevator and aileron.

Interestingly, while the C-76 was expected to be a 28,000 lbs gross weight "low performance"cargo plane, Fairchild was asked to produce a wooden 50,000 lbs cargo plane, and came back with the request to be allowed to build a metal aircraft instead.

Maybe the Messerschmitt Me 323 is actually a more remarkable aircraft than I previously thought, seens it seem to have been entirely practical in the transport role. Considering that the wooden Junkers Ju 322 glider was a complete failure, and the composite Gotha Go 244 seems to have been a disappointment as well, it seems that design of a good "low technology" transport aircraft was a lot more difficult than one might think.

Oh, and then there was the similarly unsuccessful Hughes H-4 Spruce Goose ... it might not really have been "low technology", but it was really an attempt to take wooden construction to the extremes.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)