Aero Commander 500 family

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Commander_500_family

The Aero Commander 500 family is a series of light-twin piston-engined and
turboprop aircraft originally built by the Aero Design and Engineering Company
in the late 1940s, renamed the Aero Commander company in 1950, and a division of
Rockwell International from 1965. The initial production version was the
200-mph, seven-seat Aero Commander 520. An improved version, the 500S,
manufactured after 1967, is known as the Shrike Commander. Larger variants are
known by numerous model names and designations, ranging up to the 330-mph,
11-seat Model 695B/Jetprop 1000B turboprop.

The idea for the Commander light business twin was conceived by Ted Smith, a
project engineer at the Douglas Aircraft Company. Working part-time after hours
throughout 1944, a group of A-20 engineers formed the Aero Design and
Engineering Company to design and build the proposed aircraft with a layout
similar to their A-20 bomber. Originally, the new company was going to build
three pre-production aircraft, but as the first aircraft was being built, they
decided to build just one prototype. The final configuration was completed in
July 1946 and was designated the Model L3805.

Registered NX1946, the prototype first flew on 23 April 1948. The L3805
accommodated up to five people and was powered by two Lycoming O-435-A piston
engines., it was an all-metal high-wing monoplane with retractable undercarriage
using components from a Vultee BT-13 Valiant. The market segment planned for
this aircraft to be sold to small feeder airliner firms and was originally
designed to carry seven passengers, but instead found use in the private
business aircraft and military market. Walter Beech test flew the aircraft in
1949 and expressed interest in buying the project, but passed on it, to instead
develop the Beechcraft Twin Bonanza. Fairchild Aircraft also evaluated the
prototype at its Hagerstown, Maryland, headquarters.

The prototype flew successfully and the company leased, at no cost, a new 26,000
square-foot factory at Bethany near Oklahoma City to build a production version,
certified on 30 June 1950. Nearly 10,000 hours of redesign work went into the
model, including more powerful Lycoming GO-435-C2 engines, with a combined
rating of 520 horsepower. The production model was named the Commander 520. The
first Commander 520 was rolled out of the new factory in August 1951. Serial
number 1 was used as a demonstrator, then sold in October 1952 to the Asahi
Shimbun Press Company of Tokyo.


Role
Utility and business aircraft

Manufacturer
Aero Design and Engineering Company
Aero Commander
Rockwell-Standard Corporation
North American Rockwell
Rockwell International
Gulfstream Aerospace

First flight
23 April 1948 (Model L3085)

Introduction
October 1952

Produced
1951-1986

In military service, it was initially designated the L-26, though in 1962 this
was changed to U-4 for the United States Air Force and U-9 for the United States
Army.

One U-4B became a presidential transport aircraft for Dwight D. Eisenhower
between 1956 and 1960. This was the smallest "Air Force One," and the first to
wear the now-familiar blue-and-white livery.

As of 2004, Shrike Commanders remained in service with the United States Coast
Guard and United States Customs Service.

NTSB Single-engine safety study

In fact, in a 1979 government study of light-twin engine-failure accident rates,
reviewing accidents involving the 24 most popular model-groups of light twins
between 1972 and 1976, the National Transportation Safety Board found that the
piston-engined twin-Commanders had, by far, the worst number of engine-failure
accidents, per hundred-thousand hours flown, of any popular light-twin model --
except for Piper's notoriously underpowered small-engine versions of the
out-of-production Piper Apache (barely able to function on one engine).

The piston-powered Aero Commanders averaged slightly over 3.4 engine-failure
accidents per hundred-thousand hours (vs. 6.9 for the Apache, and 2.9 for the
next-worst, the Beechcraft Travel Air; the overall average for all models was
only 1.6).

Notable accidents

* On 19 June 1964, Senator Ted Kennedy was a passenger in an Aero Commander 680
airplane flying in bad weather from Washington, D.C., to Massachusetts. It
crashed into an apple orchard in the western Massachusetts town of Southampton
on the final approach to the Barnes Municipal Airport near Westfield. The pilot
and Edward Moss, one of Kennedy's aides, were killed. Kennedy suffered a severe
back injury, a punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding.


* World War II hero and actor Audie Murphy died in an Aero Commander 680 crash
while flying as a passenger on 28 May 1971. The aircraft entered a thunderstorm
over Roanoke, Virginia. Four others and the pilot were also killed.

* On August 11, 2002, photographer Galen Rowell, his wife Barbara Cushman
Rowell, pilot Tom Reid, and Reid's friend Carol McAffee were killed in an Aero
Commander 690 crash near Eastern Sierra Regional Airport in Bishop, California.

Specifications (Rockwell Aero Commander 500S)

General characteristics
Crew: Two
Capacity: four passengers
Length: 36 ft 9¾ in (11.22 m)
Wingspan: 49 ft 0½ in (14.95 m)
Height: 14 ft 6 in (4.42 m)
Wing area: 255 ft² (23.69 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 23012 modified
Aspect ratio: 9.45:1
Empty weight: 4,635 lb (2,102 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 6,750 lb (3,062 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Lycoming IO-540-E1B5 air-cooled flat-six piston engines, 290 hp
(216 kW) each

Performance
Maximum speed: 215 mph (187 knots, 346 km/h) at sea level (TAS)
Cruise speed: 203 mph (176 knots, 326 km/h) at 9,000 ft (2,750 m), 75% power,
TAS
Stall speed: 68 mph (59 knots, 109 km/h) flaps and landing gear down, CAS
Minimum controllable speed: 75 mph (65.5 knots, 121 km/h)
Range: 1,078 miles (936 nmi, 1,735 km)
Service ceiling: 19,400 ft (5,913 m)
Rate of climb: 1,340 ft/min (6.8 m/s)




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