__NOTOC__ The CNNA HL-8 was a civil transport/utility aircraft developed in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in 1943.

Development

The HL-8 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 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 ...

with enclosed flight deck and passenger/cargo cabin. It had three engines of 97 kW (130 hp) each, driving fixed-pitch two-blade

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. One engine was mounted on the leading edge of each wing and the third engine was mounted in the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

nose ahead of the

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

. The landing gear was fixed and was of tailwheel configuration. The engines were horizontally opposed four-cylinder air-cooled

piston engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...

s. The design was robust, designed to operate from unprepared surfaces. Its payload was over one ton.

History

Only one HL-8 was constructed. The

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

made its first flight in December 1943, and was flight-tested for a year. The decision was made to not put the design into production.

References

Sâo Paulo Technical Museum website (in Portuguese)
1940s Brazilian civil utility aircraft Abandoned civil aircraft projects HL-8 Trimotors Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1943 {{Brazil-transport-stub