Loening C-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loening_C-2

The Loening C-2 Air Yacht was an amphibious airliner produced in the United
States at the end of the 1920s, developed from the OL observation aircraft the
firm was producing for the US military. It was a two-bay biplane of
unconventional design, with a tall, narrow fuselage that nearly filled the
interplane gap. The pilot (and sometimes one passenger) sat in an open cockpit
at the top of the fuselage, with the engine mounted in front of them. Underneath
the fuselage was a long "shoehorn"-style float, that extended forward underneath
the engine and propeller. Four to six passengers could be accommodated in a
fully enclosed cabin within the fuselage. The main units of the undercarriage
retracted into wells in the sides of the fuselage. Stabilising floats were
fitted against the undersides of the lower wing.

The C-2 was produced in two versions, the C-2C with a Wright Cyclone engine and
the C-2H with a Pratt & Whitney Hornet. Two examples of this latter version were
evaluated by the USMC as air ambulances under the designation XHL-1.

One C-2C, modified from an OL, was flown from New York City to Bergen by Thor
Solberg in 1935, the first flight from the United States to Norway. Solberg
christened the aircraft Leiv Eiriksson and used it to roughly re-trace its
namesake's journey across the Atlantic (albeit from West-to-East, and by air)
via Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. This aircraft is now preserved in
the Norsk Teknisk Museum in Oslo.

Two C-2Hs were also used by the firm Air Ferries in the 1930s before the Oakland
Bay Bridge was completed to transport passengers between Oakland and San
Francisco, cutting a normal forty-minute ferry boat ride to just six minutes.

The first commercial flights in Aruba were made in 1934 using a C-2H which had
been purchased from Standard Oil in Venezuela.

Variants
C-2C - Wright Cyclone-powered version (23 built)
C-2H - (USN designation XHL) Pratt & Whitney Hornet-powered version (13 built,
plus one converted from C-2C.

Role
Amphibious airliner

National origin
United States

Manufacturer
Loening

Designer
Grover Loening

First flight
1928

Number built
36

Specifications (C-2H)

General characteristics
Crew: One pilot
Capacity: 7 passengers
Length: 34 ft 8 in (10.57 m)
Wingspan: 45 ft 0 in (13.72 m)
Wing area: 504 sq ft (46.8 m2)
Gross weight: 5,800 lb (2,640 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney Hornet , 525 hp (390 kW)

Performance
Maximum speed: 120 mph (190 km/h, 100 kn)
Service ceiling: 14,000 ft (4,300 m)




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