AG-2 Rare 1959 AGRICULTURAL AVIATION AND THE TRANSLAND Ag-2 AIRPLANE Aircraft pb for Sale

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AG-2 Rare 1959 AGRICULTURAL AVIATION AND THE TRANSLAND Ag-2 AIRPLANE Aircraft pb For Sale

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AG-2 Rare 1959 AGRICULTURAL AVIATION AND THE TRANSLAND Ag-2 AIRPLANE Aircraft pb:
$387.50

Rare 1959 book from the builders of a very rare aircraftTHE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL AVIATION AND THE TRANSLAND Ag-2 AIRPLANEAircraft bookCopyright 1959 by TRANSLAND AIRCRAFT, A DIVISION OF HI-SHEAR RIVET TOOL COMPANYCOMPILED AND WRITTEN BY JOHN HALES PUBLICATION NO. T2-21 issued July 1, 1959TRANSLAND 2600 WEST 247th Street, Torrance, California
96 pagesComb bound large format paperback. NOT an ex-library book. No interior marks. Some damage to the plastic page that protects the photo illustrated cover. Edge wear. Foxing on MOST pages. Some paper tab damage at the comb edge
PART I covers the Agricultural IndustryPART II covers Agricultural Aviation-its history, present status (as of 1959) and futurePART III covers the Ag-2: The Transland Agricultural and Forestry Airplanealso included: Weights and Measures; Bibliography; and Index
Very few of these aircraft were built.some info on the rare Ag-2:The idea of an agricultural aircraft followed a meeting between George Wing, Lloyd Stearman, Tom Watson (from Aerial Agriculture in Sydney, Australia) and George Roth (of Murryair of Hawaii and later owner/producer of Eniroth). George Roth had been instrumental in the building of the Ag-1, and he was an obvious influence in the Ag-2 design by George Wing’s team.
Construction of the first aircraft began in 1954 and the Transland Ag-2 made its first flight from Torrance as N8330H on 11 October 1956. At that stage, it was a single-seat aircraft powered by a 450-hp Pratt & Whitney R-985. Between the engine and the cockpit was housed an integral hopper of 53 cubic feet intended for solid materials and carrying a load of 3,000 lbs in the restricted category. The length of the cropduster was 28 ft, 5 inches and its height 9 ft. 8 inches.
The center wing was built in two sections fastened to the fuselage either side of the hopper. Each section incorporated two 62.5 US gallon tanks which were intended as spray tanks totaling 250 US gallons. The wing was extremely thick - some eighteen inches deep - which gave high lift but also high drag. The aerofoil, a modified NACA 64021 section, had an aspect ratio of around 21%. A single flap extended under the fuselage between both sections. The outer wing panels also incorporated a 62.5 US gallon tank intended for aircraft fuel. The ailerons ran the full length of these panels with a top side lifting flap, which presumably kept a clean airflow over the wing and ailerons. Aluminium wing tips gave a wing span of 42 ft and a wing area of 321.6 sq.ft.
While the test flying was done on the first aircraft, a second, N8331H, was built and fitted with a 600-hp P&W R-1340. The payload was increased from 2,000 lbs to 3,000 lbs, giving an all-up weight in the agricultural category of 7,700 lbs. The empty weight of the aircraft was 3468 lbs.
Transland-AG2-02
N8331H first flew from Torrance in June 1958. The first aircraft was also retrofitted with an R-1340 and the rear cockpit modified to carry a passenger. The then Civil Aeronautics Administration awarded Type Certificate #4A20 to Transland Aircraft for the Ag-2 on 24 June 1958.
In 1959, a third and final aircraft, N8232H, was built and operated in Panama.
The monocoque design of the Ag-2 didn’t fail, it was twenty years ahead of its time. In the 1950s and ‘60s, the Stearmans and the Naval Aircraft N3Ns were still the “big planes” of an operator’s fleet and were able to be obtained cheaply for US$5,000, as opposed to the Ag-2’s price tag of US$25,000.
With 577 hours on the clock, N8330H was sold to Charles Chalking in Uruguay in 1962. The aircraft was flown to the South American country, where it was registered CX-AYC in May 1962. Under the name of Azucarera del Litorial SA of Paysandu, it flew some 224 hours on sugar fertilizing until 31 December 1963, when it was placed in storage. The aircraft spent 28 years in storage before being sold to an operator at Triente y Tres. Flown again on 25 September 1991, the Ag-2 had clocked up another 290 hours by 23 February 1993 before it was parked up at the airfield at Triente y Tres for seven years. Around 2000 the wings were removed and stored in a shed, while the fuse-lage was pushed to the edge of the airfield where weeds began to incarcerate it. In April 2003 the aircraft arrived in New Zealand for restoration, with 1091.2 flying hours. At some early stage the inside of the hopper was lined with fibreglass.
Engine: Pratt & Whitney R-985, 450-hpSeats: 1Length: 28 ft 5 inHeight: 9 ft. 8 inHopper cap: 53 cubic feetLoad cap: 2,000 lbsSpary tank cap: 250 USGFuel cap: 62.5 USGWing span: 42 ftWing area: 321.6 sq.ft
Engine: Pratt & Whitney R-1340, 600-hpSeats: 2Payload: 3,000 lbMAUW: 7,700 lbEmpty wt: 3468 lb
Stalling speed flaps down: 90 km/h (56 mph)Service ceiling: 4,630 m (15,200 ft)Initial rate of climb: 274 m/min (900 ft/min)Range: 732 km (455 miles)Empty weight: 1,245 kg (2,745 lb)Loaded weight: 2,722 kg (6,000 lb)Max weight: 3,493 kg (7,700 lb)Normal payload: 912 kg (2,011 lb)Agricultural payload: 1,609 kg (3,547 lb)
another write-up on the Ag-2 HISTORY:For some years after World War II the Transland Aircraft Company of Torrance, California, a division of Hi Shear Rivet Tool Co, converted surplus World War II aircraft, particularly trainers, for the crop-dusting role. After World War II Frederick E Weick took up teaching at the Texas A & M University and designed a monoplane crop-duster as a class-room project. In 1950, in conjunction with the college, he designed the Ercoupe, and also designed and developed the AG-1, which was built in Texas as the Piper Pawnee. He later designed the Piper Cherokee for Piper Aircraft.
Subsequently in 1954 in California he developed the AG-1 to the AG-2, utilizing equipment of a specialised nature which included rotary hopper gates, agitators and pumps. Most of the equipment was designed by Transland. Two complete and separate dispersion systems were built into the airframe, a Liquid Spray System and a Swathmaster System, one to deal with fluids and the other with powders. Switching from one system to the other was simple. The powder was carried in a fuselage hopper able to carry 907 kg (2,000 lb) and the fluids in four tanks mounted in the inner wing panels. Total fluid capacity was 473 litres (104 Imp gals). A Transland Boom Master pump and liquid system with a swathe width of 24 to 30 metres (80 ft to 100 ft) was installed, together with a Transland developed dry materials dispensing system.
Construction was an all-metal semi-monocoque structure of riveted 24ST aluminium alloy, the internals of the fuselage being coated with zinc-chromate. The wing was a cantilever all-metal structure, it being a low-wing monoplane with an NACA64001 section.
The prototype (N8330H) was first flown at Torrance on 11 October 1956 with a 336 kw (450 hp) Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior radial engine and test flying was performed on this machine. The second aircraft (N8331H) was fitted with a 448 kw (600 hp) Pratt & Whitney R-1340 to increase payload to 1,588 kg (3,500 lb), the Type Certificate being awarded on 24 June 1958. The cockpit was situated over the wing trailing edge, and provision was made for a second seat for carriage of a machine operator. A third (N8232H) machine was built in 1959 in Panama. However, this aircraft crashed and was desroyed whilst spraying bananas in the Panama on 5 August 1963.
In 1965 plans were resurrected to place the type back into production but this does not seem to have occurred.