The Loening C-2 Air Yacht was an amphibious airliner produced in the United States at the end of the 1920s, developed from the
OL observation aircraft the firm was producing for the US military.
["The Loening Cabin Amphibian", 415]
Design and development
The C-2 was a two-bay biplane of unconventional design, with a tall, narrow fuselage 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.
The C-2 was produced in two versions, the C-2C with a
Wright Cyclone engine and the C-2H with a
Pratt & Whitney Hornet.
[Aerofiles] Two examples of this latter version were evaluated by the
USMC as air ambulances under the designation XHL-1.
Operational history
One C-2C, modified from an OL, was flown from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to
Bergen
Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...
by
Thor Solberg in 1935, the first flight from the United States to Norway.
["Highlights from the exhibitions in The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology, Oslo"] Solberg christened the aircraft ''
Leiv Eiriksson'' and used it to roughly re-trace its namesake's journey across the Atlantic (albeit from West-to-East, and by air) via Greenland, Iceland, and the
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
. This aircraft is now preserved in the
Norsk Teknisk Museum
The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology ( no, Norsk Teknisk Museum) is located in Oslo, Norway. The museum is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
History
The museum as an institution was founded in 1914 as a ...
in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
.
Two C-2Hs were also used by the firm ''Air Ferries'' in the 1930s before the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 in California, Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland ...
was completed to transport passengers between Oakland and San Francisco, cutting a normal forty-minute ferry boat ride to just six minutes.
The
first commercial flights in
Aruba
Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of ...
were made in 1934 using a C-2H which had been purchased from
Standard Oil
Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...
in
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
.
Variants
* C-2C -
Wright Cyclone-powered version (23 built)
* C-2H - (USN designation XHL)
Pratt & Whitney Hornet-powered version (13 built, plus one converted from C-2C.
Operators
Civilian operators
*Kohler Aviation Corporation
*Air Ferries Ltd
Military operators
;
*
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
Specifications (C-2H)
References
External links
*
*
* (This article actually describes the C-2's immediate predecessor, the Wasp-engined
Loening C-1
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 (USN)."The Loening Cabin Am ...
.)
{{USN hospital aircraft
C-2
1920s United States airliners
Floatplanes
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1928