The Pasotti F.6 Airone was a low-wing, twin-engined, wooden, four seat civil aircraft built in Italy in the 1950s. Production was considered but only one was completed.
Design and development
The F in the designation of the Pasotti built F.6 Airone stood for its designer,
Stelio Frati, who was responsible for several fast light wooden aircraft powered by either piston or turbine engines.
The Airone (Heron in English) was a low-winged, twin piston engine driven, four seater. It was intended as a general light four seater for private or executive use, or as an
air ambulance
Air medical services is a comprehensive term covering the use of air transportation, aeroplane or helicopter, to move patients to and from healthcare facilities and accident scenes. Personnel provide comprehensive prehospital and emergency and cri ...
.
The Airone's wings were built around a one piece single wooden spar and clad with stress bearing
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 ...
. They carried
differential ailerons and
trailing edge flaps. The
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 ...
structure and that of the conventional tail unit was similar, though the rudder and elevators were fabric covered. The fuselage was built in two sections, bolted together behind the wing trailing edge. The rear section tapered towards the tail, where the tailplane was fitted on its top and the fin blended in with a curved leading edge. The front section included the enclosed cabin with two pairs of seats. Dual controls were fitted. There were wide doors on either side into the cabin; the baggage compartment behind it could be accessed from inside the cabin or by a separate external hatch. The only Airone completed carried its fuel in a tank ahead of the cabin, though production aircraft would have used wingtip tanks instead.
[
The Airone had a conventional retractable ]tricycle undercarriage
Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle ge ...
with its trailing idler (knee action) main gear legs mounted below the engines. The prototype was powered by two flat 4-cylinder Continental C90
The Continental C90 and O-200 are a family of air-cooled, horizontally opposed, four-cylinder, direct-drive aircraft engines of 201 in³ (3.29 L) displacement, producing between 90 and 100 horsepower (67 and 75 kW).''Federal Aviation Admini ...
engines of 90 hp (67 kW) each, driving fixed pitch propellers. Production aircraft would have been powered by two 105 hp (78 kW) Walter Minor IV inverted inline engines with variable pitch airscrews, though there were other possible engine choices in the range.
Specifications (production aircraft)
Notes
References
{{Frati aircraft
1950s Italian civil utility aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft