The Wallace Touroplane was a late 1920s U.S. three seat, high wing cabin monoplane. About 20 were built.

Design and development

Wallace Touroplane Aero Digest June 1928

In 1928 Stanley Wallace set up a company to produce a three seat,

high wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

which he had designed and named the Touroplane. It was powered by an Anzani

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ca ...

and as many as six of these may have been built. In 1929 Wallace Aircraft Co. marketed a development designated Touroplane B which had a

Kinner K-5 The Kinner K-5 was a popular engine for light general and sport aircraft developed by Winfield B. 'Bert' Kinner. With the boom in civilian aviation after Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight the K-5 sold well. The K-5 was a rough running but ...

radial. During 1929 Wallace Aircraft became a division of American Eagle, who called the type B the 330 Touroplane. The wing of the Touroplane was of blunted rectangular plan, built on twin

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 and fabric-covered. Its ailerons, which reached over half the span from the wingtips, had tube metal structures. The wings were mounted on the upper fuselage structure over the cabin and braced to the lower fuselage

longeron In engineering, a longeron and stringer is the load-bearing component of a framework. The term is commonly used in connection with aircraft fuselages and automobile chassis. Longerons are used in conjunction with stringers to form structural ...

s by pairs of struts which converged slightly from the lower fuselage

s to the spars. The wings could be folded, a task that took only a few minutes and reduced the width to . The Touroplane's Kinner engine was mounted with cylinders exposed for cooling. The fuselage was a welded, flat-sided, steel tube structure and was fabric-covered. The cabin placed pilot and co-pilot (or student or passenger) side by side under the

leading edge The leading edge of an airfoil surface such as a wing is its foremost edge and is therefore the part which first meets the oncoming air.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, ...

of the wing, with a windscreen reaching forwards of it and with side windows. Dual controls were fitted. A third seat was placed centrally behind them, with its own windows. Access was via windowed doors under mid-

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 ( ...

, between the wing struts. The tube steel tail was conventional with a flight-adjustable

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

mounted on top of the fuselage carrying rounded

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

s. Its

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

was straight-edged, with a rounded tip and was braced to the tailplane. The unbalanced rudder was full and rounded. The Touroplane had a fixed, conventional

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

with a track of . Its mainwheels, fitted with brakes, were on split axles from the central fuselage underside. Oleo strut legs and drag struts were mounted on the lower longerons. It had a long, sprung, tailskid. The original Touroplane first flew in 1928 though the date is not known. The prototype type B gained its ATC in 1929, then still Anzani-powered. Later, it was fitted with a

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 ...

radial. After the prototype 13 were produced. Some were flown with other engines: two had Curtiss OX-5s and one a seven cylinder MacClatchie Panther radial. The latter was designated type C-31.

Variants

;Wallace Touroplane:1928 version with a Anzani radial engine. ;Wallace Touroplane B: 1929 development with a Kinner radial engine. ;Wallace Touroplane C-31: as Touroplane B but with a MacClatchie radial. ;American Eagle 330 Touroplane: as Touroplane B.

Specifications (Touroplane B)

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite magazine , editor=Horsefall, J.E., title=Wallace Touroplane , journal=Aero Digest, date= November 1929 , page=130 , url=https://archive.org/details/aerodigest1519unse/page/n785/mode/1up, volume=15, number=5, publisher=Aeronautical Digest Publishing Corp, location=New York City {{cite web , url= http://www.aerofiles.com/_wa.html, title=Aerofiles: Wallace, author= , date= , publisher= , accessdate=5 June 2020 {{cite web , url=http://www.aerofiles.com/motors.html, title=Aerofiles: MacClatcie, author= , date= , publisher= , accessdate=19 June 2020 Single-engined tractor aircraft High-wing aircraft 1920s United States sport aircraft