The Loening C-4C, later the Keystone-Loening K-85 Air Yacht following the merger of the

Loening Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation was founded 1917 by Grover Loening and produced early aircraft and amphibious aircraft. After it merged with Keystone Aircraft Corporation in 1928, some of its engineers left to form Grumman and Grover L ...

and Keystone companies, was an amphibious utility biplane built in the United States in the late 1920s. It was developed by

Grover Loening Grover Cleveland Loening (September 12, 1888 – February 29, 1976) was an American aircraft manufacturer. Biography Loening was born in Bremen (city), Bremen, in what was then Imperial Germany, on September 12, 1888, while his American-born fat ...

from the C-1 that he had created together with

Leroy Grumman Leroy Randle "Roy" Grumman (4 January 1895 – 4 October 1982) was an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and industrialist. In 1929, he co-founded Grumman Aircraft Engineering Co., later renamed Grumman Aerospace Corporation, and no ...

, incorporating a new fuselage design. This departed from the characteristic Loening design feature of having a slender, "shoehorn" float projecting from the underside of the fuselage with an engine mounted tractor-fashion above it. Instead, the C-4C had a conventional flying-boat hull, with an enclosed cabin for passengers. The engine was mounted in a separate nacelle on the leading edge of the upper wing. Two C-4Cs were built in 1928, shortly before the corporate merger. In 1931, Keystone-Loening built two examples of a revised version, but no further production ensued. Thompson Aeronautical Corporation (TAC), a U.S.-based air carrier, was operating scheduled passenger service between Detroit and Cleveland in 1930 with Keystone–Loening Air Yacht aircraft with six round trip flights a day between the two cities.http://www.timetableimages.com, 1930 Thompson Aeronautical Corp. timetable

Specifications (K-85 Air Yacht)

References

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aerofiles.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keystone-Loening Air Yacht 1920s United States civil utility aircraft Flying boats Air Yacht Air Yacht Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Amphibious aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1928