Command Aire 3C3 right rear Aero Digest February 1928

The Command-Aire 3C3 and similar 4C3 and 5C3 are

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

three-seat open cockpit utility, training and touring

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 ...

s developed by Command-Aire in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Design and Development

The Command-Aire did not at first appear to offer much of an advancement over the vast multitude of three seat biplanes built around the ubiquitous

Curtiss OX-5 The Curtiss OX-5 was an early V-8 American liquid-cooled aircraft engine built by Curtiss. It was the first American-designed aircraft engine to enter mass production, although it was considered obsolete when it did so in 1917.Smith, 1981, pa ...

engine to similar designs, with similar dimensions and construction methods, many of which were already in production. Indeed, the OX-5 era was coming to an end. The vast quantities of war-surplus engines, which had swamped the market in the immediate post-war period, were running low. Only by the smaller details can it be distinguished from its brethren. The basic design was by Morton Cronk, and although it had excellent high altitude capabilities, it was slow. This setback nearly foundered the company before its first aircraft entered production. The design's proportions were good though, but his departure left the company without an engineer. It happened to be that Albert Vollmecke, a

Heinkel Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

engineer was in the US attempting to find a customer to build

Heinkel HD 40 The Heinkel HD 40 was a special-purpose cargo aircraft developed in Germany in the 1920s to distribute the Berlin newspaper '' B.Z.''. The success of Heinkel's previous design for the publisher, the HD 39, led to the order of a similar aircraft ...

mailplane A mail plane is an aircraft used for carrying mail. Aircraft that were purely mail planes existed almost exclusively prior to World War II. Because early aircraft were too underpowered to carry cargoes, and too costly to run any "economy class" ...

s under licence for the US market.Lock, January 2010, pp.18-21 & 32 Seeing that there was little prospect of any sales in the US, he decided to hire on with an American company, and Command-Aire lucked out. His first task was to rework the design to provide documentation for the new approval process. While there was only one major visible external difference, he undertook an extensive redesign based on his experience in the much more scientifically-grounded German aviation industry, and to bring the design into line with CAA (now FAA) certification requirements, which involved a lot of submissions, and alterations, and resubmissions before they signed off on it. Many parts had to be redesigned when it was easier to redo the design, than to use the existing design to calculate the necessary strength margins. The most obvious change was a switch from four small conventional ailerons at the tips to two slotted nearly full-span ailerons on the lower wing. This improved low speed control dramatically, allowing lateral control even after the aircraft had stalled - a novelty among American aircraft at the time, and a recurring advertising theme. The second change was the incorporation of a Phylax fire suppression system capable of putting almost any fire out in flight.Bowen Jr., 27 October 1928, p.1333 The third novelty was the use of a

rotisserie Rotisserie, also known as spit-roasting, is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit – a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This metho ...

type fuselage

jig The jig ( ga, port, gd, port-cruinn) is a form of lively folk dance in compound metre, as well as the accompanying dance tune. It is most associated with Irish music and dance. It first gained popularity in 16th-century Ireland and parts of ...

, that ensured accuracy and consistency between the airframes they built, reducing the chance of building an airplane that couldn't be rigged to fly right. Although Command-Aire's advertising claims that Vollmecke invented this, he claimed he merely brought the idea from Europe.

Airframe details

The fuselage was built in a rotating jig that ensured accuracy from

welded Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as braz ...

chromium-molybdenum alloy steel tubes, faired with wooden battens.Juptner, 1964, pp.52-53 The top of the fuselage was covered in large metal panels that could be readily opened to provide access, and a compartment for luggage was provided between the cockpits large enough for a suitcase. The slightly staggered wings were built around solid

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 ...

spars, with spruce and

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

warren truss type ribs. The wings were braced with cables. The ailerons and the entire

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

were also built from chromium-molybdenum alloy steel tubing, and all controls were actuated through pushrods and bellcranks, with no cables or pulleys used. The ailerons on the prototype were conventional, however on production variants, they extended across nearly the full span on the lower wings only, and had a slot that allowed air to flow over the aileron at low airspeeds and high

angles of attack In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is m ...

, which helped ensure lateral control even after the wings had stalled. These were not Frise-type ailerons though, but conventional ailerons with a slot at the hinge line. The undercarriage was a split axle type, braced to a steel tube four point pyramid that extended from the belly of the aircraft, with suspension provided with bungee cords which were protected by leather boots. Both cabane and

interplane 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 took the form of an N and were steel tubing as well. The 3C3 can be distinguished from later types by having an additional strut providing lateral bracing from the forward strut anchor point on the wing, to the lower longeron at the firewall, triangulating the structure. The 4C3 and later types dispensed with this extra strut, and coincided with an extensive redesign that otherwise had few external differences. While normally a three seat design, those aircraft with a T in the designation were built as two-seat trainers specifically for flight instruction, and a

crop dusting Aerial application, or what is informally referred to as crop dusting, involves spraying crops with crop protection products from an agricultural aircraft. Planting certain types of seed are also included in aerial application. The specific sp ...

version was also sold, with the space in the front cockpit being filled with a large hopper, and the fuel tank relocated to the wing center section. At least 17 of these were built, with others converted from other variants. The BS-14 and BS-16 (BS standing for Biplane sport) were the final developments, and again featured extensive redesign work, but once again with few visible external alterations. The rudder was redesigned, and a new and promising engine was added to the lineup - the

Lycoming R-680 The Lycoming R-680 is a nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, the first aero engine produced by Lycoming. The engine was produced in two types, the E and B series; both are essentially the same. The B4E was available in a trainer version wit ...

. On the BS-16, the undercarriage was changed to the outrigger type and a tailwheel was provided in lieu of the skid used previously, while the rear seat was raised to improve visibility.Lock, June 2010, pp.5-9

Engines

A variety of engines were installed during the life of the design, with the area ahead of the firewall being redesigned to accommodate lighter engines, with longer noses to maintain the correct balance. The problematic engine supply situation was well understood long before the last Curtiss OX-5 was installed in an airplane, and substantial efforts for alternatives were made. Simplicity and reliability were key, and the solutions invariably involved air-cooled

radial engines The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is cal ...

, however the designs were not sufficiently developed, and there were many failures, and for various reasons. As a German, it was natural for Vollmecke to look to Germany, where some of the best designs were available, however two major problems surfaced. The first was that the supply of these engines was endangered by economic instability in Germany. The second was that the Command-Aire people were never able to get their engines to run right on the fuel available. Vollmecke suspected that the octane rating was too low, which caused knocking - potentially damaging the engine.Lock, June 2010, pp.5-9 Only 7 aircraft were built with the German radials. The Czechoslovakian

Walter NZ-120 The Walter NZ 120 was a nine-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engine for aircraft use built in Czechoslovakia by Walter Aircraft Engines in the 1920s. Using common cylinders and parts from the NZ (Novák-Zeithammer) range of engines the NZ 120 produ ...

was even less successful, and only one was used. The most successful of the replacement engines with Command-Aire, was the

Curtiss Challenger The Curtiss R-600 Challenger was a six-cylinder, double-row, air-cooled, radial engine for aircraft use built in the United States in the late 1920s. It developed . Design and development Curtiss started work on a small six-cylinder engine in Ma ...

, despite its poor reputation elsewhere. Over 50 aircraft were fitted with this engine. Had the company continued in existence, then the Wright J6 and

that were only installed in a small number of airframes, would probably have eventually outsold the OX-5 as they did with other aircraft types.

Operational history

Command-Aire 5C3 msn W-76 NR920E crop duster with the Curtiss Flying Service Crop Dusting division

As a

publicity stunt In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilize ...

in 1928, the Command-Aire

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testing ...

, Wright "Ike" Vermilya II demonstrated the 3C3's stability and ability to fly "hands off", by leaving the cockpit while in flight and riding the fuselage of the aircraft like one would ride a horse, without a parachute.Juptner, 1962, pp.139-140 He turned the aircraft by leaning in the desired direction. In another publicity stunt, a flight of over from

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

was made without once using the

control stick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

as all control inputs were through the

rudder pedal A conventional fixed-wing aircraft flight control system consists of flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkages, and the necessary operating mechanisms to control an aircraft's direction in flight. Aircraft e ...

s.Juptner, 1964, pp.245-246 In 1929, the government decided to allow

aerobatics Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glid ...

(known as stunting at the time), during the Annual Arkansas Air Tour being held in 1929 and so a team of three Warner-powered Command-Aire 3C3-As were formed as "The Blue Devils", but painted incongruously in black and orange stripes. A Challenger powered-Command-Aire 5C3 was entered into the

Guggenheim Safe Aircraft Competition Daniel Guggenheim (July 9, 1856 – September 28, 1930) was an American mining magnate and philanthropist, and a son of Meyer and Barbara Guggenheim. By 1910 he directed the world's most important group of mining interests. He was forced out ...

in 1929. Although the freakish

Curtiss Tanager The Curtiss Model 54 Tanager was an aircraft constructed in 1929 as Curtiss' entry in the Guggenheim Safe Aircraft Competition. Design and development The Model 54 was a conventional biplane design with a highly streamlined fuselage similar in ...

and

Handley Page Gugnunc The Handley Page H.P.39 is a wooden biplane that was constructed in 1929. The aircraft was intended to compete in a competition proposed by the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics - the Guggenheim Safe Aircraft Competition ...

were the only ones to pass all the qualifying rounds, the 3C3 was the last aircraft not specially designed for the contest to be eliminated, and unlike those types would actually enter revenue service. It later succeeded on a repeat of the test that it was eliminated on. In 1929, Command-Aire contracted the

Curtiss Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decade ...

Flying Service to handle sales, through their large number of facilities, and

purchased a large number of aircraft for flight training for their own schools.Juptner, 1964, pp.146-147 Recognizing that the excessive number of aircraft companies in the aviation industry would force consolidation into a smaller number of larger companies, it had long been the intention to merge Command-Aire into a larger company even before the onset of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

forced matters. Negotiations had been underway for just such a merger - into

, at one time the largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States, however while negotiations were still underway, Curtiss's financial problems forced it to merge with

Wright Aeronautical Wright Aeronautical (1919–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Paterson, New Jersey. It was the successor corporation to Wright-Martin. It built aircraft and was a supplier of aircraft engines to other builders in the g ...

. Unfortunately, Wright had themselves recently absorbed

Travel Air The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was an aircraft manufacturer established in Wichita, Kansas, United States in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman. History The company initially built a series of sporting and tr ...

, whose offerings included the

Travel Air 2000 The Travel Air 2000/3000/4000 (originally, the Model A, Model B and Model BH were open-cockpit biplane aircraft produced in the United States in the late 1920s by the Travel Air Manufacturing Company. During the period from 1924–1929, Tra ...

which was similar to the Command-Aire biplanes. Negotiations collapsed, and along with them, went the contracts for supplying the flying schools - and access to the sales network. Command-Aire landed a by now much needed contract from the Chilean government to produce 36 3C3-BTs to be built at a specially-built facility in Chile, however no Command-Aires seem to have been either used in that country, either civil or military.Smith, 1992, pp.224-246 Only one example appears to have been exported, a 3C3 that went to Canada in 1931, where it went through a succession of private owners as CF-APQ, having previously been NC5590 in the US.Pentland, 2010, p.2

Variants

(data fro
Eckland, ''www.aerofiles.com''
;3C3 (ATC 53, 2-201):1928

, 116 built. ;3C3-A (ATC 118):1929

Warner Scarab The Warner Scarab is an American seven-cylinder radial aircraft engine, that was manufactured by the Warner Aircraft Corporation of Detroit, Michigan in 1928 through to the early 1940s. In military service the engine was designated R-420. Vari ...

, 20 built. 1 fitted with Edo floats. ;3C3-AT (ATC 151):1929 2 seat trainer developed from 3C3-A, about 6 built. ;3C3-B (ATC 120, 2-440):1929

Siemens-Halske Sh 12 The Siemens-Halske Sh 12 was a nine-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engine for aircraft built in Germany in the 1920s. First run in 1925, it was rated at 80 kW (110 hp). The Sh 12 was also produced in the United States by Ryan Aeronautic ...

, 5 built, 1st possibly modified from 3C3 with a new c/n. ;3C3-BT (ATC 209):1929

Siemens-Halske Sh 14 The Siemens-Halske Sh 14 was a seven-cylinder air-cooled radial engine for aircraft produced in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. First run in 1928, it was rated at 93 kW (125 hp). Applications * Albatros L 82 * Ambrosini SAI.3 * Amb ...

2 seat trainer developed from 3C3-B. 2 built plus 1 converted from 3C3-B. ;3C3-T (ATC 150):1929 Curtiss OX-5, 30 built. ;4C3 :1929

1 built

;5C3 (ATC 184):1929

, 35 built. ;5C3-A (ATC 185):1929 Hisso-Wright E, 3 built. ;5C3-B (ATC 214):1929

Axelson A Axelson is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Jan Axelson (born 1949), American author and conservationist *Joe Axelson (1927–2008), American sports executive *Matthew Axelson (1976–2005), American Navy SEAL See also *Axelso ...

, 4 built, One might be conversion of 3C3-A. ;5C3-C (ATC 233):1929

Wright J-6 The Wright Whirlwind was a family of air-cooled radial aircraft engines built by Wright Aeronautical (originally an independent company, later a division of Curtiss-Wright). The family began with nine-cylinder engines, and later expanded to inc ...

, 5 built, Some converted to

cropduster Aerial application, or what is informally referred to as crop dusting, involves spraying crops with crop protection products from an agricultural aircraft. Planting certain types of seed are also included in aerial application. The specific sp ...

s with front cockpit faired over ;Cotton Duster:1930 Curtiss Challenger-powered 5C3 cropduster, 17 built. ;BS-14 (ATC 2-204):1930

, 2 seat Biplane Sport aerobatic trainer, 1 built. ;BS-16:1930

, 2 seat aerobatic trainer, 1 built.

Surviving aircraft/Aircraft on display

Command-Aire 3C3-AT N970E, W-108 at the Wings and Wheels Museum

Ten examples have active registrations, but not all may be airworthy.

3C3

*3C3 N7885 msn 530

Plainville, Georgia Plainville is a city located in Gordon County, Georgia. The population of Plainville was 313 at the 2010 census, up from 257 at the 2000 census. History Plainville was incorporated in 1903. The name is a transfer from Plainville, Connecticut. ...

*3C3 N136E msn 532 is at the

Yanks Air Museum The Yanks Air Museum is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization and museum dedicated to exhibiting, preserving and restoring American aircraft and artifacts in order to show the evolution of American aviation, located at Chino Airport in Chino, Cal ...

Chino, California Chino ( ; Spanish for "Curly") is a city in the western end of San Bernardino County, California, United States, with Los Angeles County to its west and Orange County to its south in the Southern California region. Chino is adjacent to Chino ...

*3C3 N476E msn 586

Hialeah, Florida Hialeah ( ; ) is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. With a population of 223,109 as of the 2020 census, Hialeah is the sixth-largest city in Florida. It is the second largest city by population in the Miami metropolitan area ...

*3C3-T N583E msn 607 is at the

Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum The Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum (WAAAM) is located in Hood River, Oregon, United States, adjacent to the Ken Jernstedt Memorial Airport. WAAAM is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization committed to the preservation of, and educatio ...

Hood River, Oregon The city of Hood River is the seat of Hood River County, Oregon, United States. It is a port on the Columbia River, and is named for the nearby Hood River. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 8,313. It is the only city in Oregon whe ...

*3C3-B N610E msn W-69

Snellville, Georgia Snellville is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States, east of Atlanta. The population was 18,242 at the 2010 census, and in 2019 the estimated population was 20,077. It is a developed suburb of Atlanta and a part of the Atlanta metro ...

*3C3-AT N970E msn W-108, was on display at the Western North Carolina Air Museum and the Wings and Wheels Museum in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

, now under private ownership and restoration in Westfield, MA.

5C3

*5C3 N939E msn W-93

Rockton, Illinois Rockton is a village in Winnebago County, Illinois. It is located in the Rock River Valley and is part of the Rockford metropolitan area. The population was 7,685 at the time of the 2010 census, up from 5,296 at the time of the 2000 census. Geo ...

*5C3 N946E msn W-95

Sitka, Alaska russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...

*5C3 N996E msn W-135

Lakeland, Florida Lakeland is the most populous city in Polk County, Florida, part of the Tampa Bay Area, located along Interstate 4 east of Tampa. According to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,641. Lakeland is a principal c ...

*5C3 N997E msn W-136

Lancaster, Kansas Lancaster is a city in Atchison County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 246. History Lancaster was platted in 1857. It may have been named after Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Lancaster was an early conte ...

Specifications (Command-Aire C3C (OX-5))

Command Aire 3C3 3-view Aero Digest February 1928

External links

Video of OX-5-powered Command-Aire 3C3-T N583E
from the

in flight

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * {{Command-Aire aircraft Biplanes 1928 in aviation Aircraft first flown in 1928 Aircraft manufactured in the United States United States civil aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Civil utility aircraft 1920s United States civil aircraft