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The Pitcairn Mailwing family was a series of American mail carrier and three-seat sport utility
''Data from:'' Aerofiles : Pitcairn
* PA-5 - original production version of 1927 with
PA-8
The Pitcairn Mailwing family was a series of American mail carrier and three-seat sport utility 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 ...
aircraft produced from 1927 to 1931.
Design and development
The Pitcairn Mailwings were developed to carryair mail
Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be the ...
for the United States Post Office Department
The United States Post Office Department (USPOD; also known as the Post Office or U.S. Mail) was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, in the form of a Cabinet department, officially from 1872 to 1971. It was headed by the postmas ...
. Of simple and robust construction, they had relatively benign flying characteristics.
They were constructed using chrome-moly steel tube and square-section spruce spars with spruce and plywood built-up ribs. The fuselage was faired using wooden formers and covered with fabric. The tail sections were built up from steel tube and fabric
Tube-and-fabric construction is a method of building airframes, which include the fuselages and wings of airplanes. It consists of making a framework of metal tubes (generally welded together) and then covering the framework with an aircraft fabri ...
-covered. The Pitcairn Mailwing had a ground-adjustable fin and in-flight adjustable tailplane.
The undercarriage was of outrigger type with Oleo-Spring shock absorbers and disc brakes on the mainwheels. All versions looked very similar and changes were minor, with several fuselage extensions being the most obvious.
The mail was carried in a fireproof metal-lined compartment forward of the pilot's cockpit. The Mailwings were flown extensively by the U.S. Air Mail service from 1927 until the end of dedicated Air-Mail routes.
Pitcairn also built the same aircraft in sport versions for private use. These aircraft had the mail compartment removed, and a side-by-side two-seat cockpit was fitted.
Variants
''Data from:'' Aerofiles : Pitcairn
* PA-5 - original production version of 1927 with Wright J-5
The Wright R-790 Whirlwind was a series of nine-cylinder air-cooled radial aircraft engines built by Wright Aeronautical Corporation, with a total displacement of about and around . These engines were the earliest members of the Wright Whirlwin ...
-9 engine; ATC 18 (32 built)
** PA-5 Mailwing - mail carrier version
** PA-5 Sport Mailwing - sport version with seats for two passengers
* PA-6 - 1928 production version with Wright J-5-9 engine; ATC 2-22 (early), 92 (late) (53 built)
** PA-6 Super Mailwing - mail carrier version
*** PA-6B Super Mailwing - (1 converted from PA-6)
** PA-6 Sport Mailwing - sport version with seats for two passengers
* PA-7 - 1929 production version with 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 ...
engine; ATC 196
** PA-7A Sport Mailwing
** PA-7M Super Mailwing - mail carrier version (12 built)
** PA-7S Super Sport Mailwing (15 built)
* PA-8 - 1930 production version with Wright J-6 engine; ATC 364
** PA-8M Super Mailwing - mail carrier version (6 built)
Operators
; *United States Post Office Department
The United States Post Office Department (USPOD; also known as the Post Office or U.S. Mail) was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, in the form of a Cabinet department, officially from 1872 to 1971. It was headed by the postmas ...
* Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...
owned a PA-5 with a chrome plated engine.
* Felix du Pont owned a PA-5 with gold plated rocker covers.
* Steve McQueen
Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...
owned PA-8
Survivors and aircraft on display
*PA-5 c/n 1 NC2895 on display at the Air and Space Museum,Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
*PA-5 c/n 9 NC3835 currently on display at the Shannon Air Museum, Fredericksburg, VA
Fredericksburg is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,982. The Bureau of Economic Analysis of the United States Department of Commerce combines the city of Fredericksburg with ...
*PA-6 c/n 48 NC548K currently on display at the Eagles Mere Air Museum
Eagles Mere Air Museum is an aviation museum located on Merritt Field on the outskirts of Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania in North Central Pennsylvania. The museum has 35 vintage aircraft from 1913 to 1944, as well as hundreds of other aviation relate ...
, Laporte, PA
Laporte is a borough and the county seat of Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 320 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Sullivan County. Laporte is surrounded by Laporte Township. It was named for John Lapor ...
*PA-7S c/n 147 NC95W on display at the EAA Aviation Museum
The EAA Aviation Museum, formerly the EAA AirVenture Museum (or Air Adventure Museum), is a museum dedicated to the preservation and display of historic and experimental aircraft as well as antiques, classics, and warbirds. The museum is lo ...
, Oshkosh, WI
Oshkosh is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, of which it is the county seat. The city had a population of 66,816 in 2020, making it the ninth-largest city in Wisconsin. It is also adjacent to the Town of Oshkosh.
History
Oshkosh was ...
*PA-7S c/n 151 NC13158
*PA-6 c/n 159 NC15307 on display at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is a living museum in Rhinebeck, New York. It owns many examples of airworthy aircraft of the Pioneer Era, World War I and the Golden Age of Aviation between the World Wars, and multiple examples of roadworthy antiqu ...
, Poughkeepsie, NY
Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsi ...
*PA-8 c/n 164 NC10753
*PA-8 c/n 162 NC10751 on display at the Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum
The Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum in Horsham, Pennsylvania is a museum dedicated to preserving the aviation history of the Greater Delaware Valley including NAS Willow Grove and Harold F. Pitcairn. It is owned and operated by the Delaware Val ...
, Horsham, PA
Specifications (PA-7M Super Mailwing)
See also
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
(Partial listing, only covers most numerous types) *Alexander Eaglerock
The Alexander Eaglerock was a biplane produced in the United States in the 1920s by Alexander Aircraft Company of Colorado Springs, Colorado.Payne, Stephen, ed. ''Canadian Wings'' (Douglas & McIntyre, Ltd., 2006), p.162.
It was a fixed-gear th ...
*American Eagle A-101
The American A-1 and A-101 were American two and three-seat biplanes of the 1920s.
Design and development
The American Eagle A-1 was designed in late 1925 as a training aircraft to replace the World War I biplanes then in use by the Porterfield F ...
*Brunner-Winkle Bird
The Brunner-Winkle Bird was a three-seat taxi and joy-riding aircraft produced in the US from 1928 to 1931.
Design and operation
The Model A version was powered by the ubiquitous Curtiss OX-5, and featured a welded steel-tube truss fuselage with ...
*Buhl-Verville CA-3 Airster
The Buhl-Verville CA-3 Airster (also known as the J4 Airster, after its engine), was a utility aircraft built in the United States in 1926, notable as the first aircraft to receive a type certificate in the US, (i.e. A.T.C. No. 1) issued by the A ...
*Command-Aire 3C3
The Command-Aire 3C3 and similar 4C3 and 5C3 are American three-seat open cockpit utility, training and touring biplanes developed by Command-Aire in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Design and Development
The Command-Aire did not at first app ...
*Parks P-1
The Parks P-1 was an American three-seat sport biplane that was built in the late 1920s.
Design and development
Based in St.Louis, pilot, salesman and entrepreneur Oliver Parks founded an air school, airline and aircraft manufacturing business ...
*Spartan C3
The Spartan C3 is an American three-seat open-cockpit utility biplane from the late 1920s.
Design
The C3s fuselage and wing struts were built up from welded chromium-molybdenum alloy steel tubes, faired with wood battens. It had two open c ...
*Stearman C2
The Stearman C2 was the second aircraft type designed by the Stearman Aircraft company. The aircraft first flew in 1927.
Design and development
The airframe of the C2 was virtually identical to the model C1. Differences included an aileron con ...
and C3
*Swallow New Swallow
The Swallow Airplane Swallow is an American-built general purpose biplane of the mid- to late 1920s.
Development
The Swallow Airplane Manufacturing Co was formed in 1923 to take over the business of the E.M. Laird Aviation Co. of Wichita, Kansa ...
* Travel Air 2000 and 4000
*Waco 10
The Waco 10/GXE/Waco O series was a range of three-seat open-cockpit biplanes built by the Advance Aircraft Company, later the Waco Aircraft Company.
Design and development
The Waco 10 was a larger span development of the Waco 9, both single-engi ...
Related lists
*List of aircraft
The lists of aircraft are sorted in alphabetical order.
Further reading
The following reference sources, among many others, have been used to compile this list:
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* List of civil aircraft
List of civil aircraft is a list of articles on civilian aircraft with descriptions, which excludes aircraft operated by military organizations in civil markings, warbirds, warbirds used for racing, replica warbirds and research aircraft.
A ABC ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
* * {{Pitcairn aircraft 1920s United States mailplanesMailwing
The Pitcairn Mailwing family was a series of American mail carrier and three-seat sport utility biplane aircraft produced from 1927 to 1931.
Design and development
The Pitcairn Mailwings were developed to carry air mail for the United States P ...
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1927