Pacer Monoplane
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| Pacer Monoplane | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Type | Four seat civil transport |
| National origin | US |
| Manufacturer | Pacer Aircraft Co. |
| Designer | Frank R. Seesock |
| History | |
| First flight | early 1928 |
The Pacer Monoplane was a parasol wing, four seat, light aircraft, flown and produced in the US in the late 1920s.
The Pacer Monoplane, designed by Frank R. Seesock, was a parasol wing, open cockpit four-seater, offered with a choice of engines. Its wings were rectangular in plan out to tips tapered on their leading edges and were built around twin, solid spars and plywood ribs, with fabric covering.[1] They were joined to the lower fuselage longerons by parallel pairs of struts[2] to the spars at about 2/3 span. These had a broad chord, airfoil section and, with a combined area of 35.5 sq ft (3.30 m2), made a useful contribution to the Pacer's lift. The wing centre-section was held over the fuselage with pairs of longitudinal, vertical, inverted-V cabane struts from the spars to the upper fuselage longerons on each side.[1]
The Pacer was designed to accept a variety of engines with outputs greater than about 100 hp (75 kW) but the first flights were made with a licence-built Hispano-Suiza 8, a water-cooled V-8 dating from 1914 developed to produce 180 hp (130 kW). It had a "tunnel type" radiator mounted under the engine and a 90 US gal (75 imp gal; 340 L) fuel tank in the wing centre-section. Behind the engine the fuselage had a flat-sided, welded steel tube structure with fabric covering. The upper fuselage had a curved decking. Each wide, open cockpit seated two side by side; the forward cockpit, under the wing, was accessed through a door and the rear, from which it was flown, was almost under a trailing edge gently cut away to improve the upward, forward field of view and offered dual controls with a Y-type, central column. Aft, a straight-tapered, round-tipped tailplane was mounted on top of the fuselage and braced from below with a pair of parallel struts to the lower longeron on each side. The elevators were similar in plan but with a large cut-out for rudder movement. The fin was trapezoidal in profile and its round-topped balanced rudder had a vertical trailing edge.[1]
Its split-axle main undercarriage had its steel tube axles, legs and drag struts mounted on the lower longerons. The wheels were large and the track wide. There was a short tailskid.[1]