The Laird LC-EW was a six seat cabin

sesquiplane 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 a ...

designed for the industrialist George Horton. It first flew in 1934.

Design and development

Many Laird aircraft were designated as LC (Laird Commercial). In most cases this was followed by an airframe code, here E and an engine code, here W for Wasp. The LC-EW was designed to an order from the industrialist George Horton, who had previously owned the sole

Laird LC-AA Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in a ...

, first flown in 1928. Laird_LC-EW_head

It was a true

, with a lower wingspan slightly less than half that of the upper. Both wings were essentially rectangular in plan out to rounded tips. The upper wing was built around

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 The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women's Reserve, also known as the SPARS (SPARS was the acronym for "Semper Paratus—Always Ready"), was the women's branch of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. It was established by the United States ...

with

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 ...

ribs and fabric covered. Upper and lower wings were braced together with parallel pairs of wide spread, transverse, streamlined V- struts on each side. Their apices on the lower wing were immediately above the landing legs. Between the fuselage and the legs the lower wing was constructed of Cr/Mo steel tubing and aluminium alloy-skinned; beyond, its structure was the same as that of the upper wing. Aluminium alloy

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 hinged only on the upper wings, filling about half the span. The inner lower wing carried flaps of similar construction. Both upper and lower wings contained fuel tanks. The LC-EW was powered by a , nine cylinder Pratt & Whitney Wasp C radial engine driving a two-bladed propeller and tightly enclosed under a long

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

, NACA cowling, though bumped out over the rocker boxes to reduce its diameter. Aft, the fuselage was an all-metal aluminium alloy structure with multiple frames, stiffeners and metal skin. The pilots, or pilot and fifth passenger, sat side by side at the front of the cabin and had dual controls, including a central Y-type control column. Radio was fitted, with an external aerial. The ventilated, heated cabin had three windows on each side and was entered by a starboard-side door; its four passenger seats had safety belts. There was a baggage compartment and toilet at the rear. At the rear the tail was conventional with its cantilever tailplane at mid-fuselage. The tail surfaces were all metal constructions, similar to the fuselage. The tailplane had a blunted triangular profile and carried blunted rectangular elevators. Fin and unbalanced rudder had similar profiles to the horizontal tail plans. Its fixed, conventional landing gear, with a track of , had short, vertical oleo legs encased in fairings at the ends of the inner section of the lower wings. Each had a

pneumatic Pneumatics (from Greek ‘wind, breath’) is a branch of engineering that makes use of gas or pressurized air. Pneumatic systems used in Industrial sector, industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A central ...

ally-tyred wheel, also under a fairing. The castoring tail wheel was also on an oleo strut.

Operational history

Little is known about its short history in Horton's ownership. He died in 1935 and the LC-EW was bequeathed to the aeronautical department of the Rensselaer Institute.

Specifications

References

{{Laird Aircraft Sesquiplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft 1930s United States civil utility aircraft Laird aircraft