__NOTOC__ The Camair Twin Navion was a civil utility aircraft produced 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 ...

in the 1950s by converting single-engine

Ryan Navion The Ryan (originally North American) Navion is a single-engine, unpressurized, retractable gear, four-seat aircraft originally designed and built by North American Aviation in the 1940s. It was later built by Ryan Aeronautical Company and ...

s to twin-engine power. It had been one of two programs to improve the performance of the otherwise-pleasing Navion that was generally considered to be underpowered. The other program had resulted in the TEMCO-Riley D-16A Twin Navion. The Twin Navion design had been undertaken by the White brothers of White Engineering in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

. They replaced the Navion's

engine 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 gen ...

with a baggage compartment, mounted two engines within new

nacelle A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...

s attached to the wing leading edges, fitted the aircraft with a new tail

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

made of

fiberglass 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 ...

, and added tip tanks made from recycled

WWII 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 ...

napalm Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated al ...

canisters. Designated the WE-1, 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 ...

and the rights were sold to

Camair The Cameroon Airlines Corporation, trading as Camair-Co, is an airline from Cameroon, serving as flag carrier of the country, a role which was previously filled by the now-defunct Cameroon Airlines. Camair-Co has its headquarters in the Immeubl ...

soon after its first flight in 1953 and

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type certification A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). It confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production, is in compliance with applica ...

was achieved in May 1955 under the name Camair 480. Sales were slow and Camair built only 25 examples before selling off the rights in 1959. The ownership of these rights would change hands twice again over the following decade but only another eight aircraft would be built after the end of Camair's involvement

Specifications (480)

References

* * * {{cite book , title=Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1978-79 , publisher=Jane's Yearbooks , location=London , pages=263–64
twinnavion.com
1950s United States civil utility aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1953 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft

Specifications (480)

See also

References