General Skyfarer

The General Aircraft Corporation was established to build an aircraft designed by Doctor Otto C. Koppen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] The aircraft was the G1-80 Skyfarer, a two-seat cabin high-wing braced monoplane with a light alloy basic structure and a mixed steel tube and fabric covering. It had an unusual tail unit, a cantilever tailplane with the elevator mounted on the upper surface of the tail with aluminum endplate fins and no movable rudders. It was powered by a 75 hp (56 kW) Avco Lycoming GO-145-C2 geared air-cooled four-cylinder engine.[2]

The aircraft incorporated aerodynamic control principles covered by patents issued to Fred Weick, an early aeronautical engineer who went on to design and market the Ercoupe. Since it had no rudders (or rudder pedals), it was simpler to fly (it had a single control wheel, which controlled the ailerons and elevator), and was considered spin-proof. The aircraft was certified in 1941 with a placard that stated that the aircraft was characteristically incapable of spinning.[3] It was claimed that an average person could learn to fly the Skyfarer in about an hour.[4]

It was anticipated that many aircraft would be ordered and built, but the United States became involved in the Second World War and the Skyfarer program was abandoned after either 17 or 18 examples had been built.[5] The rights and tooling passed to Grand Rapids Industries, who built two aircraft before stopping production.[6] The company became a manufacturer of the Waco CG-4A troop glider.

The prototype was built in 1937 in a stable behind the General Aircraft Company president's house.[7]

In October 1944, a Skyfarer was used by Alverna Babbs, the first legless pilot to be granted a student pilot's permit, to complete her first solo flight at Lunken Airport.[8][9]

L.W. DuVon and Dr. David O. Kime of Western Union College convinced the type holder Grand Rapids Industries, to give the equipment, tools and one of the finished planes to the college. They then found local investors who formed Mars Corporation in 1945. The aircraft was later licensed as the Mars M1-80 Skycoupe with a 100 hp engine. One example was built and production plans were estimated to be as high as 75 planes in its first year. The glut of aircraft produced after the war left little market for the aircraft. The facility to manufacture the aircraft was sold by 1946.[10][11]

The aircraft NC29030 resides in the Plymouth County, Iowa Historical Museum.[12][13]

General characteristics

• Crew: one pilot
• Capacity: one passenger, seated side-by-side with pilot
• Length: 22 ft 0 in (6.71 m)
• Wingspan: 31 ft 5 in (9.58 m)
• Height: 8 ft 8 in (2.64 m)
• Wing area: 121.3 sq ft (11.27 m²)
• Empty weight: 890 lb (404 kg)
• Gross weight: 1,350 lb (612 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × Avco Lycoming GO-145-C2 flat-four piston engine , 75 hp (56 kW)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 144 mph (232 km/h, 125 kn)
• Cruise speed: 100 mph (161 km/h, 87 kn)
• Range: 350 mi (563 km, 300 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 10,000 ft (3,050 m)

• Chrislea Super Ace

• The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985), 1985, Orbis Publishing

Wikimedia Commons has media related to General Skyfarer.

• No Spin Plane Easy For Auto Drivers To Fly, October 1941 early article on Skyfarer
• "No. 3027. General Aircraft G1-80 Skyfarer (NC29030 c/n 17)" Dan Shumaker Collection