The Andrew Smith AJ-2 - N9AJ

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UPDATE: Last week, I finally ventured out to the registered owner's address and met him. His residence is in a beautiful, secluded area with prominent "NO TRESPASSING" signs and absolutely no AT&T wireless service whatsoever.

As I proceeded up his long, winding, remote driveway, I thanked myself for having the presence of mind to provide my significant other with the owner's name and address should I later find myself chained in the basement dungeon of a madman, feebly professing my innocent love for his airplane while enduring unspeakable acts of torture.

Fortunately, this measure was completely unnecessary, as the owner proved to be a very kind and courteous individual. His name is Mike. He confirmed he owned the magnificent AJ-2, and he indulged me with an update on its current status.

He explained that he befriended Andrew Smith and got to know him well before he passed away. Although Andrew's military history of flying F4U Corsairs off of carriers in the Pacific theater was the part of his history that I found most noteworthy, Mike feels that Andrew's soaring accomplishments were even more impressive.

Apparently, Andrew won multiple Open Class National soaring competitions, and was the second American to win the World Gliding Championship in Leszno, Poland.

Andrew's experience with gliders clearly translated into the exquisitely efficient design of the AJ-2. Indeed, according to Mike, Andrew once claimed that the total drag of the airplane was approximately equivalent to a 12"x12" square piece of plywood being pushed through the air.

This paid off in cross-country competition. Andrew and the AJ-2 won a cross-country race that emphasized efficiency known as the Oshkosh 500. They won not just once, but each of the eight years they entered.

Finally, to put an end to the complete and total domination, race organizers changed the rules so the AJ-2 was no longer competitive.

Andrew apparently was interested in donating the AJ-2 to a museum, but ultimately ended up selling it to Mike before passing away in 2004. Mike now has it stored in his hangar at a nearby airport in rural Wisconsin.

He added that in addition to the aircraft itself, he obtained a vast quantity of plans, diagrams, and three-ring binders of handwritten calculations and data that AJ used to design it. He described many of these sheets as artwork, worthy of framing and hanging on the wall.

After purchasing the AJ-2 back in the early 2000s, Mike still has yet to fly it. But he thinks it will likely happen later this summer when he completes the removal of a wing modification. This project should return the AJ-2 to its standard/original configuration.

I provided Mike with a printed copy of this very blog entry and my contact information, and asked him to please contact me prior to his first flight for some more detailed historical discussion as well as an opportunity to photograph it both on the ground and in flight.

Frankly, I'm not holding my breath. While he was friendly and courteous, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he opts to keep his project the private endeavor that it's been thus far.

But I sure hope to hear from him. The story of the AJ-2 is interesting all by itself, and the story of its return to the air is one that I really hope to document.

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Spend enough time snooping around small rural airports, and before long, you'll unearth some interesting finds. On a sunny summer day in 2008, I unexpectedly happened upon one of only two or three airworthy Percival EP-9s in the world. I felt fortunate to document that aircraft for the world to see. This year, I was able to further document it with a full photo shoot. I even got to fly it for a bit. All as a result of sticking my nose in forgotten corners of sleepy little airports.

A similar discovery occurred back in 1999. I was flying out of Ann Arbor and decided to pop into Al Meyers airport down in Tecumseh, just for fun. Not a whole lot was going on that day, so I decided to have a look around. Peeking into the main hangar, I discovered one of the nicest-looking airplanes I'd ever seen - what I would later learn was the one and only Andrew Smith AJ-2, manufactured in 1981.

Fortunately, I had a camera. Unfortunately, it was a very cheap camera unaccompanied by any sort of knowledge or talent. These are the photos I was able to shoot in the hangar:

Lacking the foresight to examine the dataplate, I left the airport not knowing what aircraft type I had just photographed. I wouldn't learn much more about it for nearly ten years.

A few years ago, a friend found some great info about it in the October 1981 issue of Sport Aviation. Jack Cox interviewed A.J. himself and shot these photos of the beautiful airplane:

The interview revealed that the aircraft was designed as a cross-country touring aircraft. It had two seats. The passenger seat was intended to serve as a baggage area when only the pilot was aboard. The engine is a Lycoming IO-360. It makes about 215 hp and has a custom, "one-off" McCauley constant-speed prop. Long-range cruise (55% power) reportedly resulted in 200 mph and 40 mpg. Normal cruise (75% power) was said to be 250-255 mph and about 23-24 mpg.

At one point, A.J. raced it in an air race called the Oshkosh 500, a race that rewarded the most speed for the least fuel. He won the race with an average speed of just under 218mph while burning only 19.2 gallons to cover the 500 mile long course.

For the airframe, A.J. utilized techniques developed by the Germans in WWII. It consists of bulkheads spanned by balsa and foam. The wing is one piece, designed to be easily replaced with an updated version that contained retractable gear. The updated version was, to my knowledge, never manufactured or mounted. The wing pictured uses a NACA 64212 airfoil, 12% thick, with a constant section and a .5 taper ratio with no twist. The lack of twist produced undesirable stall characteristics, so A.J. added stall strips and rigged the ailerons up a quarter of an inch, providing an effective twist.

The airplane has a T-tail that also uses NACA sections - 9% for the horizontal, and 12% for the vertical. The tailwheel is a Henry Haigh locking version mounted on a Wittman-type tapered rod spring.

The AJ-2 is now registered to an individual in rural Wisconsin. An individual I hope to meet. With any luck, the AJ-2 will receive the full photo shoot it deserves.

In the meantime, I continue to scour the web for additional photos of the aircraft. Here are my latest finds:

Unearthed: Photos of the Cessna ATPTB, the Prototype Pusher Citation

For the longest time, drawings and artist's depictions were the only visual evidence remaining of a mysterious Cessna prototype known as the ATPTB (Advanced TurboProp TestBed). But now, some new photographs have been unearthed:

The aircraft was reportedly based on the Citation II (550) fuselage and wing, with a Citation 650 empennage and two PT6-66/3 pusher powerplants. The aircraft used custom propellers, geared in a counterrotating configuration.

A NASA report from 1994 states that the aircraft was flown to altitudes of 41,000 feet and .60 Mach. As one would expect from an aircraft with a high thrust line, the aircraft would pitch up when power was reduced, and would pitch down when power was increased.

The aircraft was used to gather data to be used in flight simulation. Various pilots with differing levels of experience flew both the real aircraft and a simulator replicating it. Their feedback was analyzed, presumably to further the development of flight simulation technology.

In keeping with Cessna's frustrating habit of destroying their experimental aircraft, there seems to be no remaining physical evidence of the ATPTB. One one think that a company that touts their long and extensive aviation heritage would be proud of their history, but their continued destruction of innovative prototypes and testbeds certainly indicates otherwise.

Indeed, when one considers how many creative and forward-thinking designs were produced from Cessna's design and engineering teams over the years (the 620, the XMC, the NGP, and the 327, to name just a few), one begins to understand the magnitude of Cessna's practices.

Had Cessna had the foresight to compile these designs into a museum collection, or at the very least render them unairworthy and donate them to a museum (receiving a sizable tax writeoff in exchange), we could all stroll through and enjoy the collection. Children, pilots, non-pilots, and aviation industry veterans alike could marvel at the creativity and innovation generated by the people of Cessna over the decades. Perhaps some would have become inspired to pursue careers in the aviation industry as a result.

But apparently, Cessna would rather their history be dumped into the scrap bin and forgotten about.

Super STOL Cessna 150

If social media is any indication, general aviation seems to be in the midst of a STOL and backcountry flying renaissance.

STOL events are taking place around the world, Draco is drawing more eyes than the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and light tailwheel aircraft with small, traditional tires look bizarre and out of place among a global fleet that is increasingly shod with gigantic bush tires. 

But like so many aspects of aviation, we needn’t look far into our history to see how future generations have already tread the paths we’re taking today.

Don Dresselhaus, for example, exhibited much of the ingenuity and enthusiasm as Mike Patey does today, only on a far more modest scale.

A retired Deputy Sheriff, Don saved his pennies for a Cessna 150, and then went on to modify the ever living hell out of it in an attempt to optimize it for extreme STOL performance. 

Starting with a Horten STOL kit, Don went on to add bizarre wingtips, four huge stall fences on top of the wing, and no fewer than 1168 individual vortex generators.

He came up with the wingtip design in an odd manner - after waking up out of a sound sleep, he claimed he instantly turned on the light, grabbed a pen, and hurriedly drew the double airfoil design.

Finally, Don added 5.5” (14cm) extensions to the 150’s flaps, because apparently, the 150’s 40-degree barn doors weren’t quite effective enough.

All of these modifications enabled Don to routinely and comfortably fly at 35 knots indicated airspeed on base and final.

He never seemed to list or tout any specific takeoff or landing distances. Instead, he prioritized and focused on achieving great control response and lateral stability at very low speeds. In fact, he even added VGs to the horizontal stab to increase elevator effectiveness:

Don isn’t around anymore, but his 150 appears to still be active and registered to a company in Wisconsin.

While one could reasonably assume the wild aerodynamic mods have been removed, I feel it is my duty as a Wisconsin-based AvGeek to investigate further, and will be sure report my findings to all of you.

UPDATE:

The 150 has indeed been returned to its stock configuration, and is presently available for rent at Stein's Aircraft Services in SE Wisconsin: