The Aerostar AG-6 (also known as the IAR AG-6) was a prototype Romanian agricultural aircraft of the late 1980s, developed for IAv, of Bacău. The company was later known as

Aerostar Aerostar S.A. is an aeronautical manufacturing company based in Bacău, Romania. History Since its establishment in 1953, the company's name has changed numerous times in turn from ''U.R.A.'' to ''I.R.Av'', ''I.Av''. and finally ''Aerostar''. ...

. The AG-6 was a single-engine

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 ...

, of which a single example was built, with no production following.

Design and development

In 1986, a team led by the engineer Constantin Rosca began work at the Romanian Aviation Institute on the design of a single-engine agricultural aircraft, the AG-6. The AG-6 was a single-engine tractor

with a fixed

tailwheel undercarriage Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynami ...

, and had a similar layout to the American

Grumman Ag-Cat The Grumman G-164 Ag Cat is a single-engined biplane agricultural aircraft, developed by Grumman in the 1950s. Development In 1955, Grumman preliminary design engineers Joe Lippert and Arthur Koch proposed the design for a "purpose-built" cr ...

. The aircraft's fuselage was of welded steel tube construction, with the forward fuselage and wings covered in

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

and the rear fuselage fabric covered. The pilot sat in an enclosed cockpit aft of the wings, with a

glassfibre Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

hopper for liquid or powered agricultural chemicals fitted forward of the cockpit. The aircraft was powered by a Soviet Vedeneyev M14P radial engine, rated at which drove a two-bladed

variable-pitch propeller Variable-pitch propeller can refer to: *Variable-pitch propeller (marine) *Variable-pitch propeller (aeronautics) In aeronautics, a variable-pitch propeller is a type of propeller (airscrew) with blades that can be rotated around their long a ...

. A prototype was built at the Bacău factory of IAv (''Intreprinderea de Avione'') (now

), making its first flight on 12 January 1989. In 1991, the Romanian aircraft industry was privatised, but a shortage of finance resulted in several projects, including the AG-6, being abandoned. Only the single prototype was built.

Specifications

References

* *{{cite magazine, last=Vlad, first=Danut, title=Out of the Ashes: The Romanian Aircraft Industry Since 1945, magazine= Air Enthusiast, date=March–April 1997, issue=74, pages=9–19 1980s Romanian agricultural aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1989