Vought V-348 General Aviation Four Seat Aircraft

[Bill S]

The only drawing I have located thus far of the V-348 General Aviation aircraft from Vought.
The aircraft is a single engine, four seat aircraft with twin vertical tails. Attached is the
assembly breakdown drawing CVS-14220 from the VAHF microfilm.

 

[Maveric]

GREAT STUFF...Thanks Bill.
Do you have some data for this project?
Thanks again, Maveric

 

[hesham]

Amazing find my dear Bill.

 

[AeroFranz]

Nice. Looks like a four-seat Ercoupe

 

[Apophenia]

The powerplant is intriguing. Are we looking at a twinned horizontally-opposed 6-cylinder or some kind of air-cooled X-12?

 

[Steve Pace]

The powerplant is intriguing. Are we looking at a twinned horizontally-opposed 6-cylinder or some kind of air-cooled X-12?

Could be a six-cylinder vertically-opposed engine...

 

[Bill S]

Your questions about the engine sent me back into the raw scans from my visits to VAHF.
In doing so, I found a drawing of the engine that I am trying to clean up to share.

I can read that the power plant consists of 2 Continental Model C-140-IJ six cylinder
opposed, dry sump, fuel injected engines.

As soon as I can get the scan into decent shape I will post.

 

[Bill S]

As promised, here are the clips from drawing CVS-14209 Sheet 1 V-348 Power Plant Installation from VAHF microfilm.

 

[Steve Pace]

How cool is that? Thanks for sharing, Bill! -SP

 

[Apophenia]

Very cool indeed! Thanks Bill

 

[Stargazer]

A very interesting discovery!

After attempting a very crude reassembly of the parts, there are obvious inconsistencies in sizes and shapes, especially the nose (engine cowling and propeller) which absolutely can't fit the rest properly. It might have to be enlarged, but even then, it would become too wide for the fuselage, so without other depictions there's a whole lot left to speculation...

 

[riggerrob]

At the same time (late 1940s) Lockheed built and flew a similar-looking airplane: the single-propeller Starliner registered NX-21725.
Initially, Lockheed test-flew thier twin-Menasco power plant on the front of a low-wing Orion (?).

Lockheed's Starliner prototype was powered by a pair of Menasco engines mounted side-by-side in the nose, driving a single propeller through a combining gearbox. The pair of inverted, straight 6 Menascos produced a total of 520 horsepower. The first prototype Starliner had twin-tails, but was later modified to a single vertical fin.

Soloy tried to revive the concept during the 1990s by installing a pair of Allison/Rolls-Royce 250 turboprops in the nose of a Cessna Caravan, turning a single propeller through a shared gearbox. When the FAA refused to certify the STC, Soloy dropped the project to concentrate on converting light helicopters and Cessna 206s to turbine engines.

Odd that the FAA would not certify Soloy's twin-engined proposal when you consider how many thousands of multi-engined helicopters have two or three engines driving a single rotor through one shared gearbox?????


Most recently,, advocates of electric airplanes have proposed combining an electric motor and a piston motor to drive the same propeller through a shared gearbox.