The Atlas H-10 was the prototype for a four-seat cabin

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

aircraft, registered ''N37463'', designed by Max Harlow, which was flown in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

shortly after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

History

The Atlas H-10 had been constructed from the unfinished Harlow PJC-4 sporting

which had been left uncompleted at the outbreak of the conflict. The water heater company

Rheem Manufacturing Company Rheem Manufacturing Company is an American privately held manufacturer that produces residential and commercial water heaters and boilers, as well as heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. The company also produces and sell ...

briefly invested in the project as the PCC-10 (Pasadena City College Model 10) but did not pursue the business. Pasadena students completed the aircraft, and its first flight was on 4 October 1945 with a 220 hp Lycoming. It was a low-wing

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

monoplane of aluminum semi-monocoque configuration with retractable

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 powered by a variety of

engines An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

throughout its life. Originally powered by a

Lycoming O-435 The Lycoming O-435 is an American six-cylinder, horizontally opposed fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter engine made by Lycoming Engines. The engine is a six-cylinder version of the four-cylinder Lycoming O-290. Design and development The powe ...

, it was re-engined with two

Continental O-300 The Continental O-300 and the C145 are a family of air-cooled flat-6 aircraft piston engines built by Teledyne Continental Motors.Christy, Joe: ''Engines for Homebuilt Aircraft & Ultralights'', pages 60-63. TAB Books, 1983. First produced in ...

s driving contra-rotating

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

s through a common gearbox and registered as the Mono-Twin. In turn, this arrangement was replaced with a Franklin 6AB and finally a

Lycoming IO-720 The Lycoming IO-720 engine is a large displacement, horizontally opposed, eight-cylinder aircraft engine featuring four cylinders per side, manufactured by Lycoming Engines. There is no carburated version of the engine, which would have been d ...

, each driving a single propeller. The cabin layout was also modified.

Operational history

Only the single H-10 was completed and flown. In the early 1970s it was based at

Long Beach Airport Long Beach Airport is a public airport three miles northeast of downtown Long Beach, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is also called Daugherty Field, named after local aviator Earl Daugherty. The airport was an operating base ...

in southern California. As of 2006, the aircraft was reportedly still in existence in a dismantled state in the hands of a

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

n collector.

Variants

;Harlow PJC-4 :Original design ;Atlas PCC-10 :Test aircraft ;Atlas H-10 :Redesignated production aircraft ;Atlas Mono-Twin :Re-engined prototype with twin radial

Specifications (with Continental engines)

References

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aerofiles.com
{{Harlow aircraft Harlow aircraft 1940s United States civil utility aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1945