The Loening C-1 Air Yacht was an amphibious airliner produced in the United States at the end of the 1920s.
Design
The Loening C-1 was based on the
OL observation aircraft being developed from the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
(USN).
["The Loening Cabin Amphibian", 415] It was a two-bay
biplane of unconventional design, with a tall, narrow
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 aircraf ...
that nearly filled the interplane gap. The pilot (and sometimes one passenger) sat in an open cockpit at the top of the fuselage, with the engine mounted in front of them. Underneath the fuselage was a long "shoehorn"-style float, that extended forward underneath the engine and propeller. Four to six passengers could be accommodated in a fully enclosed cabin within the fuselage. The main units of the undercarriage retracted into wells in the sides of the fuselage. Stabilising floats were fitted against the undersides of the lower wing.
Eight C-1Ws were built, and the type was further developed into the C-2.
Specifications (C-1W)
References
{{Loening aircraft
1920s United States airliners
Floatplanes
C-1
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1928