The Aerial Engineering Corporation Standard 6W-3 was a commercial transport modification of the US

Standard J-1 The Standard J is a two-seat basic trainer two-bay biplane produced in the United States from 1916 to 1918, powered by a four-cylinder inline Hall-Scott A-7a engine. It was constructed from wood with wire bracing and fabric covering. The J-1 ...

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

military trainer aircraft, with new wings, engine and accommodation for four passengers. First flown in 1925, it was built in small numbers.

Design and development

The Standard J-1 military trainer had been built in large numbers at the end of World War I. With many surplus after the war, it was a natural choice for adaptation by several manufacturers. Ariel Service, with the experienced designer Harvey Mummert who was an early collaborator with Glenn Curtiss, produced the Mercury Standard 6W-3 by combining a completely new wing with a Standard J fuselage and empennage, modified to accommodate four passengers rather than a student and with a new and more powerful engine. The Standard 6W-3 was a single bay biplane with constant

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

, straight-edged wings swept at 5° and with a more modern, thicker

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine. ...

than most of those used during WWI. Its upper wing was flat but the lower one had 1.5° of dihedral. There were balanced ailerons on the upper wing. Both wings were wooden structures based on twin

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

box spars with the lower wing attached to the lower fuselage

longeron In engineering, a longeron and stringer is the load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural ...

s and the upper wing braced to it. without stagger, by a pair of vertical interplane struts on each side between the spars. The narrow centre section, where the chord was reduced to improve the pilot's upward field of view, was supported over the fuselage with pairs of N-form

cabane strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in ...

s. Its modified Standard fuselage, with new

s and covering, now housed a six-cylinder, water-cooled inline

Curtiss C-6 The Curtiss C-6 is a six-cylinder, water-cooled, inline engine (aviation), inline aircraft engine. Design and development The C-6 features an overhead cam and aluminum cylinder jackets. Further development as a V-12 engine was carried out result ...

engine with a honeycomb

radiator Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

in front of it and a fuel tank in the upper wing. Immediately behind it a new, large, under-wing cockpit with seats for four passengers, two in aft-facing side-by-side seats and two more opposite them. The seats were easily replaceable, allowing the 6W-3 to act as a mailplane. The pilot was in a separate cockpit behind the passengers with a large fairing behind his head. The empennage was conventional, with a low aspect ratio tailplane and generous elevators mounted on top of the fuselage. The fin was triangular, with a rounded rudder. The 6W-3 had conventional, fixed, tailskid landing gear with wheels on a single axle held by twin V-struts to the lower fuselage longerons. Rubber cord shock absorbers were fitted. The first flight was in 1925. Fewer than ten were built.

Specifications

Mercury_Standard_6W-3_3-view_Les_Ailes_February_18,1926

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite journal , last=Serryer , first=J. , date=25 February 1926, title=L'avion "Mercury" Standard 6W-3, journal=Les Ailes, issue=245 , pages=2–3, url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9607225z/f2 {{cite web , url=http://www.aerofiles.com/_ma.html, title=Aircraft Ma to Mg, author=K.O. Eckland , date=2 May 2009 , publisher= , accessdate=22 May 2017 1920s United States civil utility aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1925