The Hockaday Comet was a two-seat light civil aircraft, built 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 ...

before

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 ...

but not flown until near the war's end. It failed to attract buyers and only one was completed.

Design

The design of the Hockaday Comet, led by H.W. Yarick, began in October 1939 when the Hockaday Aircraft Corporation was founded. It followed the classic single engine, high braced

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 ...

layout pioneered for small cabin aircraft in the early 1930s by, for example, the

Taylor Cub The Taylor Cub was originally designed by C. Gilbert Taylor as a small, light and simple utility aircraft, evolved from the Arrowing Chummy. It is the forefather of the popular Piper J-3 Cub, and total production of the Cub series was 23,512 ...

. It was substantially complete by May 1939, powered by a Allied Monsoon engine. This was a licence-built

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

Régnier L.4 four-cylinder, air-cooled inverted inline unit. However, work on the Comet was halted in 1940 when the company were preoccupied with sub-contract work for others. In spring 1944 work resumed and it made its first flight in June. It had a one-piece wing of rectangular plan out to semi-elliptical tips and built around two

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 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 ...

rib In vertebrate anatomy, ribs ( la, costae) are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the chest, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ches ...

s. There was no dihedral. The

leading edge The leading edge of an airfoil surface such as a wing is its foremost edge and is therefore the part which first meets the oncoming air.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, ...

was ply covered, with

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

elsewhere. The centre-section was joined to the upper

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 ...

frame by internal, vertical struts and the wing braced on each side with a parallel pair of streamlined steel tubes between the wing spars and the lower fuselage frame. Its short, broad

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

s were metal framed, fabric covered apart from

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 ...

leading edges and externally mass-balanced. The Comet's fuselage had a welded steel tube structure, with a light wooden-framed upper section aft of the cabin. Apart from the engine housing, the fuselage was fabric covered. It was advertised with a choice of two flat-six engines, a

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

or a

Continental C125 The Continental C115, C125 and C140 aircraft engines were made by Continental Motors in the 1940s, all sharing the US military designation O-280. Of flat-6 configuration, the engines produced 115 hp (86 kW) 125 hp (93 kW) or ...

. Both drove a two-bladed

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 ...

. Electric generator and starter were provided. Fuel and oil tanks were in the enclosed cabin, which had two side-by-side seats, with a large transparency in the wing centre section above them and accessed via a door on each side. The cabin was equipped with dual controls, radio and blind-flying instrumentation. Behind the seats there was of luggage space in which loads of up to could be accommodated. The

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 ...

had a steel tube structure and was fabric covered, with wire bracing between the

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 ...

, the in-flight adjustable

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

and the lower fuselage. The fin and tailplane were broadly straight-edged, carrying curved

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

s and

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

. The latter extended to the keel and worked in a cut-out between the elevators. The Comet's

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

was of the fixed, tailwheel type, with

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 ...

oleo strut legs from the lower fuselage frame providing a track of . Legs and wheels were enclosed in generous fairings. Its tailwhel, mounted on a long, vertical, sprung leg, was steerable from the rudder bar via a link from an external extension of the rudder hinge. Despite intensive advertising, for example in

Flying magazine ''Flying'', sometimes styled ''FLYING'', is an aviation magazine published since 1927 and called Ziff Davis#Popular Aviation, ''Popular Aviation'' prior to 1942, as well as ''Aeronautics'' for a brief period. It is read by pilots, aircraft owners ...

, the Comet failed to attract buyers in the post-

market and only the prototype was built.

Specifications

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , title= Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1948, last= Bridgman , first= Leonard , year=1948, publisher=Sampson, Low, Marston and Co. Ltd, location= London, page=270c {{cite journal , last=Frachet , first=André , date=25 May 1939, title=L'avion de tourisme Hockaday "Comet", journal=Les Ailes, issue=936 , pages=9, url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65546960/f9 {{cite journal , date=December 1946, title= advert, journal=Flying , pages=80, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JFK-H9IULqMC&q=Hockaday+Comet&pg=PA80 1940s United States civil utility aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1944