The first prototype flew on April 2. Model 5. 20 came out of the Bethany, Oklahoma factory in August of 1. Using using modern, slim, . With its high wings (4. Aero Commander 5. Powered by a pair of 2. In the early 1. 95. World- War- II vintage, war- surplus military transports and light bombers had flooded the civilian market, being converted to carry passengers or serve as executive transports. They were generally either fast or capable of great loads, or both. But most were tugged along by antiquated, massive, roaring, fuel- hungry, oil- burning radial engines (shown at right). In general, the war- surplus, twin- engine planes, themselves, were heavy, gas- guzzling, noisy, war- worn beasts, and not well- suited to efficient- and- comfortable flying for personal or business use. Both inelegant and impractical, they lacked the finesse of a truly personal plane. These features, added to its great bulk and crude aerodynamics, meant that the Twin Beech was not nearly as graceful. ![]() As a leading Nevada law firm, Hejmanowski & McCrea's decorated, dedicated attorneys don't just represent clients. They represent results. Military Aviation Movie List. Initially Compiled by Marshall Cram [email protected] HTML Conversion by Michael Brunk ([email protected]) Additional material and. Arline Wilkins, hans andre kone, d. Dale Evans ble hans barns 'mor' da Dustu bare var. United Artists (UA) is an American film and television entertainment studio founded in 1919 by D. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. Aero Commander Model 5. But the Aero Commander, with a slight edge in efficiency and capacity, and better flying characteristics, remained the better buy. Hundreds were sold over the next few years. To demonstrate its great resistance to engine- out handling problems (which plagued light twins of the day), a propellor was removed from the . This successful stunt would serve as a valuable lesson for a company that would eventually benefit considerably from . The company quickly became known as Aero Commander, a name commonly applied to its line of twin- engine light airplanes. By 1. 96. 5, it would become the Aero Commander Division of the much larger Rockwell- Standard Corp. Though, at first, Aero Commander produced light twin- engine airplanes exclusively, the original Aero Commander design spawned a generation of great airplanes (some of which Ted Smith helped design), and the. ![]() Working from a poorly printed photograph of the Mezherich ivory figurine, Michel-Gerald Boutet believes he has detected engraved straight lines which he’s.Above, right, he's shown surrounded by models of the various aircraft he helped create, and behind him is the prototype of his next accomplishment - - another great . The world's fastest piston- engined personal aircraft, the Aerostar (also shown at left) is capable of speeds of over 3. Though the Aerostar was bounced from company to company, (first being dropped by Aero Commander, and picked back up by Ted Smith, himself - - then bought up by Mooney and later by Piper), Ted Smith's Aerostar design would endure. For a quarter of a century - - living beyond Smith, himself (who died in 1. Aerostar has reigned as the ultimate piston- engined speed- machine for the fast- flying owner/pilot. All of them looked about the same - - and generally were, except for the engines. Several were bought by the U. S. Army for military liaison/utility use (designated L- 2. U- 4 and U- 9), particularly as a short- haul transport and reconnaisance plane operating from . One was even used as President Eisenhower's personal transport (Click here for more details, on another website.). Thrumming along at speeds up to 2. Aero Commander twins provided the owner with quick access to big airports and remote places alike. After flying an airshow routine in his World- War- II vintage North American P- 5. Mustang fighter, Hoover would get into his big, twin- engined Shrike Commander and perform the same stunts - - with both engines running, then again with one engine runing, and finally the whole routine with no engines running - - eventually gliding to a landing, and coasting smoothly to the same spot on the airport from which he'd departed. Though earning himself a reputation as . The Shrike's many virtues, and the spectacular Hoover exhibitions, soon made the Shrike Commander one of the most lusted- after planes in the world, and brought it the reputation as - - among business twins - - the ultimate . The big Commander twins were not nearly as efficient and speedy as these newer twins in the same class with it (with comparable price, horsepower and seating capacity). To get you anywhere. Aero Commanders simply guzzled more gas than other popular twins, and generally didn't get you there as fast. Add in the expensive maintenance on the big, geared engines, and it was hard for an Aero Commander to make sense to the person footing the bill. The Travel Air would, in turn, soon become the fast, popular 4- seat Beech Baron light twin (a 6- seat version is still in production today, shown at left). Entering the plane by its . After entering, passengers walked to their seats, through a generous aisle, almost standing upright. A partition separated the cockpit from the cabin. Carrying the airliner style a bit further, the Queen Air offered optional air- conditioning and even included a private lavatory for long trips. With these developments, Aero Commander lost its dominance in the . Homely, but cheap and durable, the Apache would become one of the biggest- selling twins of all time. By 1. 96. 0, it would be stretched into the stout, swift 6- seat Aztec. In 1. 96. 3, Piper would also introduce the sleek, efficient Twin Comanche (derived from Piper's popular 4- seat, single- engine Comanche speedster), shown at right. Each of these manufacturer's smaller twins would soon be stretched to accomodate 6 people, largely neutralizing the value of the Aero Commander's popular 7- seat capacity (which - - in reality - - was seldom fully useable, if full fuel tanks or husky passengers were to be carried). But making the Aero Commander twins lighter and slimmer wasn't really practical: Aero Commanders had been designed around the big- twin idea, and could only get bigger - - not smaller and more efficient. So The 5. 00 series was expanded to produce the 6. First came the Model 6. Super, which was actually just a strengthened Model 5. Various refined versions followed, including the 6. E, whose longer . Pressurizing the cabin overcame the problem of the too- thin- to- breathe air of high altitudes. But the idea was a bit ahead of its time, and only a few were sold. By 1. 96. 0, though continuing the idea with the lower- powered 6. FP, Aero Commander had dropped the Alti- Cruiser for a different approach to luxury. An aerodynamic analysis revealed that extra drag created by the extra surface area was offset by the more- aerodynamic hull shape created by stretching the airplane a bit. This class of plane came to be known as . The Aero Commander 6. FL was introduced the very next year. Cessna and Piper would soon follow with their. Cessna 4. 00 series and the Piper Navajo). In 1. 96. 5, the 6. FL was appropriately renamed the Grand Commander. The last production version would be the 6. Model 6. 90 Turbo Commander (see below), with piston engines in place of the usual engines, and with drag- reducing up- swept . By the end of 1. 97. Commanders ended, 6. Model 6. 85 had been built, along with dozens of the various 6. FL and 6. 80. FLP models. By the mid- 1. 96. Aero Commander twins - - colloquially known as . By taking ordinary airplane engines, then . The King Air quickly began siphoning sales away from all other top- of- the- line business twins, including Aero Commander's best. It was definitely catch- up time for Aero. Commander. The result was the Aero Commander 6. Turbo Commander, or - - briefly - - Hawk Commander). It soon evolved into the slightly more powerful, and more- refined 6. A final disadvantage was the placement of the Turbo Commander's engines and propellors. While Beech's engines and propellors were well forward of the passenger compartment, the high- wing design of the Turbo Commander necessitated putting engines and propellors - - along with all their noise - - right next to the passenger compartment. And no one could deny their speed. Until the Japanese Mitsubishi MU- 2 turboprop came on the scene, no prop- driven business twin afforded greater speed - - let alone more scenic views - - than the Turbo Commander. By the time the Aero Commander's Model 9. Garrett engine (particularly the TPE- 3. Many older models have since been modified - - re- engined - - with the . In 1. 96. 3, Aero Commander first flew the Model 1. Jet Commander, one of the earliest business jets - - or . Though it lacked the long range of some competing business jets, the Jet Commander was popular with pilots for its superior handling characterstics, and popular with passengers for its interior room and spectacular view (the entire cabin was forward of the. By 1. 96. 5, Aero Commander had delivered its first Jet Commander, for a price of about a half- million dollars. Over the next few years, up to 8 jets a month would come off the assembly lines. Though the Jet Commander design would eventually be sold off to a string of future owners, it would continue to be a popular aircraft, with over 5. The Cost of Business. At about the same time as the Jet Commander's debut, in 1. Aero Commander Co. Preparing for the production of aircraft - - particularly new business jets in a hotly- competitive market - - was an enormously expensive business. To finance the rapid development of aircraft, and the very costly business of tooling up and stocking up for aircraft production, the company needed access to large amounts of cash. Just buying engines for aircraft on the assembly line required millions of dollars. And instruments and radios cost money, too, as did all the raw materials, and even the factory facilities themselves. Finally, payroll for hundreds, even thousands, of workers had to be met, while the airplanes slowly took shape on the assembly line. The sales would come too late. The highly competitive, high- dollar business aircraft market waited for no one, and the first company to the market with a new product, or the first company to reduce costs (and prices) through mass production, quickly became a dominator in the market - - and would then begin to take away the sales of other aircraft makers. This was an industry with clear winners and losers. The brutal aviation- industry shakeouts of the early 1.
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