Every pilot should try to fly as many different types of airplanes as possible. One of the most unique airplanes I ever had the chance to fly was the Culver Cadet. Hubert, a friend of mine at the airport, owned one for the longest time. One day, he asked me to go flying with him.
What a treat; the airplane is a two-seat low-wing monoplane and a Continental C-85 powered Hubert’s airplane. With retractable landing gear and a small elliptical wing, the airplane scooted along at near 135 mph. The elliptical wing only has a total of 120 square feet of area allowing for relatively high cruise speeds. This also is the reason for the higher than normal stall speed of the airplane.
Because the stall is higher, takeoff and landing performance is somewhat lacking, along with climb performance. Once in the air, however, the airplane cruises very well, the main task for which the designer, Al Mooney, designed the airplane.
Are you familiar with the name, Albert Mooney? Yes, it is the same Albert Mooney of Mooney aircraft fame. He is the designer whose specialty is squeezing out the last mph for every ounce of gasoline an aircraft engine burns.
Mooney and Knight K. Culver founded the Dart Manufacturing Corporation, which later became the Culver Aircraft Company in 1939. The company was active until 1946 and during that time, produced about 600 Cadet aircraft.
In addition to the Cadets, the company refined the airplane developing it into a drone that both the US Army Air Force and Navy used as gunnery target drones. Culver Aircraft delivered more than 3000 of the PQ-8/TDC and PQ-14/TD2C drones to the military.
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© 2010 J. Clark
I understand that some of the drones that survived after the war were sold and converted to private aircraft and some are still flying today. Do you know anything about that?
I have always wanted to fly a Cadet but never had the opportunity. Back in the 1970s a neighbor lady told me that during WWII she was a civilian flying instructor teaching British military men how to fly. She told me that her all time favorite airplane to fly was the Culver Cadet.
Hi, John,
Yes, there are still flying Culvers out there today, but few. Like most things, their working numbers are dwindling. At what field did your neighbor teach the British cadets? My original flight instructor was also a contract flight instructor teaching the British – down at Clewiston, FL. I wrote him in a couple of earlier posts, More Treasures of The Garage and Eric, Gone West.